A moment ago, Callum had offered her the bargain—her life for his bed. Mara had answered with a slap hard enough to split his lip.
Callum grabbed Mara's shirt and slammed her against the table.
"You stupid bitch."
Mara drove her elbow into his ribs. He grunted and loosened his grip. She twisted free and tore the blood bag from the pump.
Crimson liquid spilled across the floor.
A white label swung from the ruined bag.
CHLOE GRANT.
Callum stared at it in disbelief.
"Do you have any idea what you just did?"
"Did I ruin your little blood farm?"
Mara shoved the steel table between them, but her strength was already draining away. Wolfsbane crawled through her veins, numbing her limbs and dragging her wolf down beneath the poison. Before she could steady herself, Callum reached across the table and closed his hand around her throat.
"You should've kept your mouth shut," he growled. "Chloe needs that blood."
"Then give her yours."
His fingers tightened. Mara clawed at his wrist, fighting for air while her wolf strained against the drug flooding her body.
Before Callum could crush her throat, the basement door opened above them.
Alpha Richard Grant stood at the top of the stairs in a perfectly pressed charcoal suit. Luna Victoria followed close behind, carefully avoiding the blood on the steps.
Alpha Richard's gaze moved from Mara's bleeding arm to the ruined blood bag on the floor.
"Callum. Let her go."
Callum released her at once.
Mara dropped to one knee, coughing. Alpha Richard descended the stairs without hurrying, while Victoria stared at the blood with open disgust, as though the mess offended her more than the woman bleeding on the concrete.
"What happened, sweetheart?" Alpha Richard asked, his voice mild and almost affectionate. "Who gave you permission to fight back?"
Mara pressed a hand to her throat and forced her head up.
"You lied to me."
Alpha Richard raised a brow.
"You told me Alpha Adrian's people dragged me away. You told me he never wanted me." Her voice shook.
For a moment, she held their eyes, searching their unfamiliar faces for even a flicker of guilt. Grief closed around her lungs until she could barely breathe. She bit down on it and forced herself to stay silent.
Victoria folded her arms.
"Don't play the victim. You were a lost child when we took you in." Her voice was cold and even. "You should be grateful this pack found any use for you at all."
Something inside Mara snapped.
"If it weren't for Alpha Adrian, this pack would have been swallowed years ago," she spat. "You're the ones with no value. Not me."
The words had barely left her mouth when Alpha Richard's Alpha power crashed down on her.
Mara's knees buckled. She hit the concrete hard, and fresh blood slid down her wrist.
"You should've watched your mouth," Alpha Richard said. "Throne Pack is about to become the strongest pack in this territory."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
The truth struck harder than Callum's hand around her throat.
"Silvercrest Pack is already within our reach," Alpha Richard said. "And you? You've got nothing left to offer my pack."
Mara froze.
For eighteen years, she had believed the Grants had taken her in because they pitied a frightened, abandoned child. She had endured their cruelty and surrendered her blood, telling herself that if she gave enough, obedience might one day turn this house into a home.
She remembered Victoria tucking a blanket beneath her chin when she was six. She remembered Alpha Richard guiding her small hand as she learned to hold a pen.
She had carried those memories like proof that she belonged.
Now she finally understood.
None of it had been real.
It had all been deliberate.
"You've served your purpose," Alpha Richard continued. "After tonight, you're nothing but a liability."
Then he turned and climbed the stairs. Victoria followed without a backward glance.
The basement door clicked shut behind them.
Mara stayed on the cold concrete, one hand pressed to her bleeding arm. The words settled beneath her ribs, sharper than any silver bullet.
You're nothing but a liability.
Callum crouched in front of her. His doctor's coat was stained with her blood.
"Come on, Mara." His voice softened into the same gentle tone he had once used to comfort her at two in the morning. "Give me what I need, and I'll convince Alpha Richard to keep you alive a little longer."
Mara stared at him.
"So that's your deal?" she rasped. "You drain me for Chloe, help the Grants destroy my life, and now you think you can crawl back into my bed?"
His expression flickered.
"You're a coward and a cheat," she continued. "And I was stupid enough to believe you ever cared about me."
Callum's jaw tightened.
"You didn't just cheat on me. You helped them ship me off to Silvercrest. Because of you, I betrayed the one person who actually tried to save me—my own mate, Adrian—"
His face went cold.
"He's dead," Callum said flatly. "Alpha Adrian Ross is gone."
Mara stared at him, her heart seizing.
"Before he died, he left a statement," Callum went on. "He took the blame for the fact that you never carried an heir. Said the fault was his, not yours. And then he handed you control of the entire pack." His mouth curled. "No one expected him to give Silvercrest to a fake Luna like you."
Mara's breath caught.
"But you “drank” yourself unconscious," Callum said, leaning closer. "And a pack can't be left without a leader. So Alpha Richard took control of Silvercrest. Every asset was folded into the estate." His voice dropped, cruel and quiet. "He has the authorization papers, Mara. Signed in your own hand."
Mara's throat tightened.
She remembered nothing of signing anything. But she remembered the wine. The endless nights. The way the Grants had pressed glass after glass into her hands and called it comfort.
They had planned even that.
"You're lying," she whispered.
"Believe whatever helps you sleep." Callum's voice hardened. "Chloe's next donor is already on the way. Cooperate, and I'll hide you from Alpha Richard. Keep fighting, and you'll bleed out right here on this floor."
Mara looked at the steel table. The cuffs. The blood bag marked with Chloe's name.
All her life, they had demanded that she be obedient, grateful, quiet, and useful. They had made certain she had no money, no allies, and no life beyond the walls of the Grant estate.
Callum mistook her silence for surrender.
"You want me to be a good girl?" she asked softly.
"That's more like it."
"I've been good my whole life."
Mara planted her bleeding hand against the floor and forced herself upright.
"All it ever got me was a leash and a basement."
Her wolf surged.
Wolfsbane burned through her veins as bones shifted beneath her skin. Agony tore through her body, but this time she didn't fight it. She drove her wolf straight into the poison, forcing it through every numb limb and locked muscle until the drug's hold finally cracked.
The remaining cuff split.
Callum stumbled backward.
"No. Mara, wait—"
She lunged.
Her jaws locked around his throat. His scream ended in a wet choke, and a moment later, his body crumpled beside the steel table.
Silence filled the basement.
Mara stood over him, blood coating her mouth. No one gripped her wrist. No needle pierced her vein. No voice ordered her to hold still.
For the first time in eighteen years, nothing held her down.
She turned toward the stairs.
Freedom was only a few steps away.
Then the basement door burst open.
Boots thundered down the stairs.
"Callum's down!"
"She killed him! Take the shot!"
A rifle clicked.
Mara turned too late.
The first silver bullet tore through her shoulder. The second struck her ribs, driving wolfsbane deep into her bloodstream.
Her strength vanished. She collapsed beside Callum's body.
One of the men crouched down and pressed two fingers to her throat.
"No heartbeat," he said. "She's dead."
The room blurred at the edges.
Her wolf weakened beneath her skin, but one thought stayed sharp and clear.
[If the Moon Goddess gives me another chance,] she swore, [I'll reclaim my name, my life, and everything Adrian left behind. I'll make the Grants pay for every drop they ever took.]
Darkness swallowed her whole.
Much later, Mara opened her eyes.
