Chapter 17
Though Viola had begged and prayed for death, she didn’t look forward to dying from the killing wolfsbane, the kind that would melt every single bone inside her body before finally killing her. It would be treacherous and devastatingly agonizing.
She was already in unbearable pain p>
The Gammas came around her and roughly yanked her from the ground, the movement sending sharp pain shooting through every part of her body and causing her to groan.
“Oh, she’s still alive. And here I thought she was dead. I wonder how one could survive with a body this thin,” said the Gamma carrying her over his shoulder, and the other following him through the back door laughed as if he had told the greatest joke of the century.
“She’s stubborn. Never seen a wolfless this hard‑headed and refusing to die. I fucking stomped on her ribs when I was beating her earlier and they cracked, but she didn’t even cry out p>
“How about we torture her more and see just how much she can survive? I’m curious to know just how much she’d take before she stops breathing,” said the one carrying her. Viola felt him roughly adjust her on his shoulder, jabbing her broken ribs, and she bit back the cry that rose in her throat.
Monsters. All of them. They were monsters p>
“Good idea. I have an idea, Harry. She might be skinny and meatless, but she still has a hole between her legs. How about we fuck her in turn and see just how much of it she can take? If beating didn’t kill her, I bet that would p>
“I like that,” replied the one carrying her as he suddenly threw her onto the ground with a force that sent agonizing pain through her entire body, making her groan.
She tried to see through her swollen eyes, but one eye was completely white, while the other was barely functional, even more unfocused now. All she could see were their vague figures and the looming trees behind them in the torchlight they held.
From the dried leaves and twigs pressing against her back and palms, Viola knew they had brought her into the forest, where they would carry out their despicable plans and kill her.
“There’s nothing left of the clothes. Strip her. We should tie her hands to that tree and open her legs, we only need her hole. Ha ha ha!” commanded one of them, who Viola believed was the leader of the two Gammas.
No p>
She turned onto her stomach and began trying to crawl away from them, but she soon felt rough hands grab her ankles and drag her back.
“No she rasped, fisting her hands into the dirt and flinging it into the air.
“Fuck, my eyes!” one of them cried, and she realized she had hit her target because he released her ankle quickly to rub off the sand from his eyes. She began to crawl away again, but this time her tangled hair was gripped and she was struck across the face. Her neck muscles cracked in pain.
“You bitch! She’s a feisty one, and I will fucking enjoy this p>
She was hit again, but this time she barely felt it, her body had gone numb from the intensity of the pain.
Viola felt her torn shirt being ripped from her body, and she tried to fight it, but her resistance was feeble and weak.
I don’t want to die like this. I won’t die like this. This shouldn’t be where I end, a death without dignity. I haven’t made it up to Ivy, nor have I found my wolf. I haven’t taken my revenge on them all. I haven’t made them see that I don’t need anybody to love me, that I can stand on my own without begging for scraps of affection.
You can’t die, Viola. At least fight to the end.
She heard a voice say inside her head, and Viola stopped struggling long enough to regain her rationality and a shred of strength. These werewolves were Gammas. She had trained with Gammas before and knew where they kept their weapons on their bodies.
They harshly dragged her to tie her to the tree, and Viola, despite her blurred vision, twisted her arm out of one of their grips. They weren’t holding her with full strength, believing she had given up. When one hand came free from the Gamma’s grip, she reached to the side of the Gamma before he could react and pulled out the dagger they always carried, coated with deadly wolfsbane.
In one swift motion, she thrust the dagger into his chest and pulled it out, turning to do the same to the other, but he dodged it, releasing her.
Viola fell to the ground as her legs could no longer hold her weight. If she would die, she would die with dignity, and take them with her. She clutched the dagger as the other Gamma tried to kick it from her hand.
“Bitch! You want to play it the hard way. You’re just a damn weakling, and I’ll enjoy chewing you alive!” the second Gamma snarled as he began to shift into his wolf form, and Viola sensed it immediately, the pressure and violent energy rolling off him as his bones started to break and realign.
It took about ten seconds for the shift to complete, and in those ten seconds she forced herself upright, using every last ounce of strength in her body. She lunged just as he finished shifting and pounced.
Viola had spent her entire life around wolves, she ducked beneath him, and as he came down on her, she drove the dagger straight into his furred chest.
Viola cried out in pain along with the wolf, who let out a wounded, dog‑like scream and dug his claws deep into the side of her stomach. He shifted back into his human form and collapsed, dead, beside her and she weakly pushed half his body off her and spat out blood.
Viola’s remaining energy drained away, and the pain that had been numb earlier returned tenfold. Her breathing grew shallow and uneven.
Before she slipped into what she believed could only be the final pain of death, she felt another presence.
There had only been two Gammas.
Who was this other presence? she wondered. She was already dying already, there would be nothing left for them to humiliate, but Viola still managed to turn her head toward the source before the darkness claimed her completely.
A familiar scent that had made her feel safe for a moment days ago hit her nose, and bitter resentment consumed her.
I wish you weren’t the one I sensed last before I die… but either way, I want you to know that—
A final tear rolled down her eye.
Seb couldn’t believe what he had just witnessed, but either way, he stood there frozen, staring at the two dead bodies and the girl’s small, blood-covered body lying on the ground of the forest clearing.
One of the large flashlights had fallen nearby, its harsh white beam spilling across the clearing and illuminating the unpleasant sight before him, washing over her broken form while particles of dust drifted and floated slowly through the bright light.
She looked no different from a skeleton, naked, covered in blood, with black‑and‑blue bruises littering her entire body. His heart stopped clean at the extent of her injuries, and for a long moment there was an overwhelming silence inside his mind and head, as if every thought had been wiped away.
He had run here with the expectation that she was being raped and ganged up on for being foolish enough to come out here knowing she didn’t have a wolf, but he had never expected to arrive and witness her killing a warrior wolf in that helpless state, or to find her this broken, discarded on the ground. She looked even worse than the last time he had seen her.
Mine.
They dared touch my mate.
He felt his wolf clawing inside him, howling to rip apart the people who had done this with his bare hands, even though they were already dead.
’No one has the right to touch our fated mate, even though we didn’t choose her!’ his wolf raged. ’How could they dare p>
Seb began to feel anger rise violently inside him, but then he forced himself to remember that she wasn’t someone he had claimed, and this, this cruelty, was her fate. There was no place for weak wolves in this world, especially not beside him.
She was staring at him with eyes he doubted were even functioning anymore, blood gathered thickly inside them, and something twisted painfully in his chest. Rage coiled tight inside him, paired with an unbearable urge to hurt someone, paired with an instinctive pull to step forward and shield her from everything.
She continued to stare at him, and then he saw her lips curl into a bitter line as she whispered,
“I hate you p>
Then she took her last breath and stopped breathing.
Seb didn’t move toward her. He didn’t go forward because deep down, in the ugliest part of himself, he had hoped for her death, to free himself from this bond. But the pain inside his chest was so intense that he grabbed at it, his jaw clenching hard as he struggled to breathe.
’You fool, where are you going?’ his wolf demanded as Seb coldly turned away from her, intent on leaving her behind and escaping the storm raging inside him.
“Far away from her dead body,” he replied emotionlessly.
’But she’s not dead. She’s unconscious and might truly die if you leave her. Are you ready to go through the pain you went through four years ago? I might not like her so much, but we can’t leave her there like that p>
“I haven’t marked her. The pain won’t last like four years ago,” Seb gritted out as he began to walk away in long, angry strides.
’Duh. Might I remind you that you’re in someone else’s territory? The pain will hit you so hard you won’t be able to hide it from them, and once they know your weakness, they can use your next fated mate to get to you in the future. Be wise and go back to her p>
Seb’s footsteps halted instantly.
Cursing under his breath, he spun around and walked back to her, dropping to his knees beside her battered body. He didn’t even know where to touch her, she looked far too fragile, too small, so broken that he feared he might truly kill her if he held her the wrong way.
“I hate you too, idiot,” he cursed under his breath as he carefully gathered her into his arms, holding her as gently as he could.