by Reese Morgan
“A very impressive collection,” Celeste reiterated.
She suddenly gazed at Sophia, her false charm falling way to stern inspection. Abruptly, a pale hand shot towards her dark-haired beta. Palm up, awaiting.
“Your weapons, Sophia.”
For her part, Sophia instantaneously complied without even the slightest hesitation. She handed over her knife to Celeste as well as her sword. She stood at the ready, appearing eager and ready to please her Alpha.
In turn, Celeste merely appeared humored.
Hayden stiffened.
Did Celeste know of Sophia’s deception? But how? From Hayden’s perspective, Sophia had played her part well. There were no signs of trickery. There was absolutely no way Celeste could tell her beta was not loyal.
Unless she was brilliantly perceptive.
“I’d like to see you kill one of my new guests.” Celeste reached out and touched the keypad over Julian’s door. “Do you think you could do that for me, Sophia?”
“Absolutely.”
Hayden looked at Julian, knowing Celeste was going to make him kill her or vice versa. Either he wouldn’t defend himself against Sophia, in hopes Celeste wouldn’t allow her son to die, or he would have to strike down someone he loved.
It would be just like Celeste to play that sort of mind game. That sort of wicked manipulation that made her infamous.
Julian backed up, his fists curling at his sides in preparation.
Only, Celeste changed her mind at the last second and unlocked Hayden’s door.
Hayden’s throat closed.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Cole rear up swiftly and slam his fist against the wall that separated their holding cells. It shuddered under his powerful strike, but otherwise, it did not crack or shatter.
“Cruel bitch,” he snarled loudly.
Celeste only simpered.
“Mom, please!” Julian lunged at the edge of his holding cell, looking at her imploringly. “Please don’t do this!”
At her son’s attempt of stopping the proceedings, Celeste’s expression hardened. She looked at him unsympathetically, her stare poisonous. “You’ve lost the right to pull that card. You are no son of mine.”
Julian stumbled back a step as if physically struck. He turned and watched Sophia readily walk inside Hayden’s cell, flinching when the door slammed closed.
Despite the sudden and unexpected turnout, Hayden remained curled in the corner of her cell, trying to stay unfazed. Gazing stonily at the other female, Hayden knew, without a doubt, Sophia had no qualms about killing her.
Not only would it reconfirm her allegiance to Celeste, but for Sophia, this was also a personal vendetta. For whatever reason, she detested Hayden.
“It has always intrigued me,” Celeste started from outside the cell. “To see what the conclusion would be between the two of you. Such powerful girls. One trained by women, the other trained by men. Let’s see the victor.”
Hayden looked up at Sophia. “You don’t need to do this.”
“But I do,” the other female countered dispassionately.
“She will kill you doubtless of the outcome,” Hayden tried to reason.
“It’s best if you stand up for this.”
Sophia leaped across the cell at her, her foot aimed at Hayden’s face. Releasing a calming breath, Hayden reached out and clasped the foot just mere inches from her face. Issuing a grunt, Sophia twirled around and aimed her free foot at the side of Hayden’s head.
Before the foot made contact, Hayden tightened her hold on Sophia’s ankle and spun her around the opposite way. Celeste’s beta landed on her back but flipped backward to land in a crouch.
They eyed the other from opposite corners of the cell.
It wasn’t a large cell by any means.
There would be no exaggerated flips or elaborate moves to execute without the walls getting in the way. It would be a close fight, something Adolf had always warned her against when dealing with males.
However, her opponent wasn’t a male this time.
When she sparred with Nicolas, he’d taught her a few mechanics of close-range fighting. Though he always overpowered her, she’d learned a great deal from him.
“Distance yourself,” Nicolas advised from his cell.
He was not talking about putting space between her and Sophia, but rather a detachment from personal feelings. Now was not the time to consider Sophia a living, breathing individual, but rather an enemy that needed elimination.
Fingers sliding across the cold tile, Hayden straightened into a crouch.
Celeste wanted them to dance for her amusement. Though Hayden wasn’t inclined to give her the satisfaction, she acknowledged the need to defend herself.
Sophia lunged again.
Hayden stood up, composed.
Time seemed to stand still as Sophia assaulted her with an array of strikes. She was dominant in both hands and it showed with the ferocity of her hits. Hayden tried dodging and blocking, but the other female proved efficient.
Too efficient.
Hayden fell back against the wall of her cell, her nose bleeding, her senses whirling. She would duck and Sophia would come at her with her opposite hand. The assaults were endless and Hayden struggled to get her senses together.
Vaguely, she heard Julian yell at his mother again to stop the assault.
Sophia reached for her shirt, grabbing hold and punching her in the face. With her attention forcibly averted to the side, Hayden glanced over to Nicolas. The Alpha male crouched in his cell, watching her steadily, his face impassive.
He inclined his head just marginally, his blue eyes vibrant.
There was a challenge in his stare.
“You’re better than this. Prove this to me.”
He always wanted to push her harder. Better. Faster. Hayden stared at him, tempted to let go and no longer fight fate. It got tiresome fighting against the inevitable. It constantly weighed her down and threw even harder challenges her way.
Yet, there he waited, incredulous that she’d accept her fate laying down.
His encouragement became her resolve.
Hayden threw out her foot, catching Sophia in the stomach and sending her across the cell. Wiping her shirt against her nose, she cleared away the blood, ready as the other female came charging at her again.
She ducked, landing a hard punch to Sophia’s stomach. She then sent an uppercut to the other female’s jaw.
Stumbling back, Sophia blinked, only to have Hayden backhand her across her face.
They traded hits, Hayden growing familiar with the other woman’s rhythm. She was fast, and she was good. But Hayden was better. She mimicked Nicolas’ fighting style, favoring feints and brutal surprise assaults. She’d watched the eldest Slayter long enough to replicate his form.
Hooking her leg around Sophia, she tripped the female and sent her sprawling to the ground. Hayden followed, quickly grabbing hold of the dark-haired beta in a headlock.
Her arm pressed against Sophia’s airway, cutting off the oxygen.
Pressing her knee into Sophia’s back, Hayden leaned into her, caging her against the floor and her oppressive hold.
The other female struggled and Hayden could feel her frantic pulse underneath her hold. For a moment, Julian’s yelling and pleading reached her ears. He was pleading with Hayden this time, asking her to stop.
Hayden only tightened her hold.
With a resigned sigh, Sophia lost consciousness, her pulse no longer beating.
Shuttered and feeling oddly numb, Hayden stood up and backed away, staring at the fallen female through weary eyes. Their superior werewolf healing would eventually revive Sophia. It would take a lot more than strangulation to kill her.
Which was why Celeste sent Nolan inside Hayden’s cell to retrieve Sophia’s body. The brute-like man dragged her from Hayden’s cell and deposited her in the corridor.
Distantly, Hayden heard Celeste order him to kill Sophia.
After all, she did not tolerate traitors within her pack.
The gunshot sounded across the prison cells, echoing forever in Hayden’s mind. She stared at the body outside her cell, knowing she caused it, knowing she’d ended another person’s life. Her hands felt wet and stained with blood, though they were as dry as a bone.
With the exception of her aunt, she’d never killed so intimately.
Skin on skin.
Sophia’s frantic pulse remained a ghostly memory across her arm. She remembered the precise moment it had ended.
“Impressive, though not entirely unexpected.”
Her attention finally focused on Celeste standing outside her cell. While Hayden had lost herself in her mind, it appeared as if Nolan and Tobias had disappeared at some point, leaving behind Sophia’s body. Dimly, she heard Julian mutter softly to himself in his cell.
She didn’t dare look his way.
Hayden’s feet slid across her cell, gradually meeting Celeste at the edge.
Obsessively, she examined the other woman, memorizing every curve, every flaw. In Celeste, she saw Red Donovan, Addie, Asher, Elizabeth, and so many others. Hayden had shouldered the blame for most their deaths and accepted the soul-consuming guilt as her own.
Only, Celeste was responsible.
All this time.
“I will destroy you,” Hayden stated a matter-of-factly.
Celeste appeared startled with her admission. Her eyes then turned hooded as she deliberated. “What…” trailing off, she caught and held Hayden’s amber gaze. “Will it take to break you?”
Celeste looked at Cole. “I’ve already tried killing him. You prevailed.” She then looked over her shoulder at Nicolas. “Shall we try killing your mate next?” her query sounded irritatingly innocent.
Hayden’s pulse skipped a beat.
“The Slayters are a very notorious line of purebreds. It would be a shame to exterminate their bloodline. Then again, I only need one Slayter to carry on the line.” She motioned to Cole. “I think Cole is the more stable one, don’t you?”
Hayden remained silent and refused to show even the slightest bit of emotion.
“No, we will come back to that.” Celeste turned back around, eyeing Hayden sharply. “What else will it take, Hayden?” She breathed calmly. “Perhaps you are more like your father than I give you credit for. Tell me, have you ever heard of the Crow Syndrome?”
Nicolas suddenly animated from his cell.
“You will stop,” he snarled viciously.
Celeste looked positively gleeful. After all, one rarely received such a heated reaction from the normally reserved Nicolas Slayter. “Nicolas has heard of it. Not many of the younger werewolves hear of such a tale until they grow older. Much older.”
Hayden glanced away from her and towards Nicolas. The man paced in his cell, his eyes livid as they watched Celeste’s turned back.
“Considering the name, it should be no surprise that the Crow Syndrome originates from your ancestors.” Celeste closed her eyes for a moment, smiling. “Though we all get a little stir-crazy the longer we live, there isn’t a Crow that hasn’t gone insane once they live over a century.”
Hayden shook her head, not understanding.
“For some reason, immortality does not sit well with werewolves. Crows are especially susceptible to this dilemma. As a result, they tend to get a bit… eccentric.” Celeste opened her eyes. “They do crazy things and they drag the rest of us down with them.”
Her brows furrowed. “My father—”
“Is a prime example of this,” Celeste interrupted. “Your father and I have lived a long time, Hayden. When everything stands still around us, it is prevalent we make everything move to our advantage and to our liking. When we grow bored, we make it fun.”
Fun.
A deep, resonating emptiness settled with Hayden as she slowly comprehended Celeste’s insinuating. Her father was Celeste’s accomplice in everything.
No words, no sound could escape her shell-shocked form.
“It started off as a game between just the two of us. Now it is a game between the werewolf community and us. There are no true consequences in this game when everyone around us are mere, moving pieces.”
Hayden wasn’t sure when Celeste left the holding cells.
She continued to stare at the spot the woman had once occupied.
“You can’t believe her, Hayden,” Julian whispered. “You can’t.”
What was it like to live forever? She vaguely remembered her father telling her how lonely it was, how impeccably painful it was to constantly lose those closest to him. Hayden could only imagine living forever with life persistently wearing her down.
Undoubtedly, someone would grow a bit unstable.
Hayden could understand as much.
However, she struggled with comprehending her father’s role. Celeste labeled it a game. A game between two immortals who had lived several lifetimes. A game between Logan, Celeste, and the rest of the world.
Around them, the deaths and the suffering were of no consequence to them.
The lives they influenced were for the sole purpose of entertainment.
She slid down the wall of her cell and stared at the opposite end. Struggling, she imagined life from an ancient’s prospective. They would take life for granted. They would establish little bonds. They would invest little energy in getting to know those beneath them.
Logan and Celeste only saw each other, Hayden realized.
“Hayden.”
Nicolas called to her, though she did not turn.
All she could do was stare listlessly into nothingness.
18. Chapter Eighteen
There was something strangely soothing about letting go.
Her eyes remained unfocused, unseeing to the world around her as she deliberated the sensation of complete surrender. Her mind had strained so hard to keep holding onto something unexpectedly untamable that it had taken a damaging toll on her body.
A very unforgiving toll on her body.
Letting go—surrendering— lifted the deep crevices of tension from her very soul. She felt weightless and submerged in a sea of peaceful nothingness.
It was akin to taking her first, full breath of air after near suffocation.
She thought of nothing. She observed nothing. She feared nothing.
She was just there.
Hours could have passed, or maybe only minutes. If Hayden had known surrendering could feel this good, she would have done it long ago. Instead, she’d gotten back to her feet and played right into the hands of both Celeste and Logan.
Everyone in this war were mere marionettes.
Every move. Predetermined and anticipated.
In the back of her mind, she was aware of Nolan dragging Julian out of his cell. His curses and fierce protests echoed oddly in her mind. Even long after he left, she could hear her brother viciously objecting to the situation.
Hayden placed her hand on the ground, mildly curious when her fingers encountered a warm, thick substance.
Looking down, she stared at the dark blood.
Sophia’s corpse remained collapsed outside Hayden’s cell. The blood from her head wound snuck underneath the door and crept steadily towards Hayden, reaching for her with accusation.
Lethargically, Hayden kept her hand in place and continued staring.
“It’s your turn, sweetheart.”
Her door clicked open and Tobias hovered in front of her, leering. He bent low and grabbed her ankle, pulling her cleanly across the cell and out into the open corridor. Hayden did not flinch as she bumped into Sophia’s stiffening corpse.
“I always enjoyed your fire. There is nothing more delicious than dominating a hellcat,” Tobias murmured, stopping his ministrations in order to rake his gaze down her prone body. “But I must say there is something oddly appealing about your submission.”
His hand ran up the inside of her thigh and he intentionally looked up at Nicolas. Taunting. Preenin
g. He finally had something that belonged to Nicolas.
And Nicolas was powerless to do anything about it.
“I will kill you,” Nicolas assured. His voice was calm and entirely frozen with sinister promise. “Slowly. You will plead for death before I’m through with you.”
This amused Tobias greatly.
The man barked out in laughter, hardly taking Nicolas’ threat seriously. Hayden watched the man through narrowed eyes, slowly coming back to her senses. As much as she wanted to give up and surrender, and embrace that feeling of intoxicating emptiness, she knew it was imperative she remain fighting.
Even when things were dour and impossible, she recognized the situation was not over. As long as there was a sliver of hope remaining, she had to stay on her feet.
She owed it to her pack, she owed it to Nicolas and Cole, and she owed it to herself.
Tobias bent down, his hands reaching for her torso. Hayden threw out her boot and slammed it in his face. She then kicked him in his groin.
“That’s for Blake, asshole.”
The man backpedaled, his eyes comically wide with pain. Cupping his groin, he hissed between his teeth, his gaze gradually narrowing. “You bitch!” With a renowned sense of strength, he threw down his hands and lunged at her.
“Tobias.”
The sharp, commanding voice instantly stilled the Carrier.
Hayden rolled over and crouched low, staring at the man at the other end of the corridor. She hardly recognized him, though he was entirely familiar to her.
The bright lights of the prison exaggerated his pale and pointed features. He appeared as healthy as ever, with his slicked back hair and his animated, hazel eyes. He had a casual hand in his trouser pocket as he assessed the scene. His gaze was indolent.
Logan Crow had never appeared so confident.
Hayden stood steadily from her position, gazing at her father with quiet disbelief. A part of her had hoped Celeste was lying about Logan. Yet, here he stood, his vigorous and superior aura chilling her to the bone.
His attention landed on her and a slow grin curved his lips.
“Hayden.” He turned his shoulder on her. “Follow me.”
Tobias pressed close behind her, his anger hitting the back of her neck like a scalding iron. Knowing she had little options, Hayden followed Logan at a distance, contemplating his turned back.