Her voice was calm but cold. “Are you done?”
Her father’s breath caught. Riley’s tone had the razor edge of someone who had long since stopped begging to be loved.
“Then step aside. I’m leaving.”
Alaric refused to move.
When Riley attempted to edge past them, a cold, brutal grip clamped down on her forearm. Without warning, she was shoved backward.
She crashed to the floor with a muffled cry, her injured leg twisting beneath her.
The pain was immediate and blinding.
“Alaric!” Zara shrieked. “You’ve lost your mind!”
“She’s not going anywhere until I get some answers.”
Riley pushed herself upright with shaking hands, biting back the pain. She lifted her head, forcing herself to meet Alaric’s gaze.
“Why don’t you call Kael if you’re so desperate for answers?” she said through gritted teeth. “Maybe he can explain why I’m here. Because I sure as hell can’t.”
Zara fumbled for her phone, quickly dialing. The ringing began-nearby.
From the study next door.
The two of them turned in unison and burst into the adjacent room.
The lights were off. The scent of alcohol hung heavy in the air.
Zara turned on the lights.
Kael was slumped against the wall, legs sprawled, surrounded by empty whiskey bottles. His eyes fluttered open at the intrusion, and he squinted against the sudden brightness.
Alaric was livid. “Look at yourself. Look at what you’ve done.”
Kael didn’t answer. He only lifted a bottle, realized it was empty, and let it drop with a hollow clink.
“Why did you dissolve the alliance with Blackmaw?” Alaric roared. “Do you know what this means for Ebonclaw? For Scarlett?”
Kael’s eyes gleamed with something like contempt. “Did Ronan consider all that when he turned the prison into hell for Riley?”
Everyone fell silent.
Kael rose, swaying slightly but focused now. “He ordered his people to beat her. They snapped her bones. Forced her to drink from toilets. Zapped her with silver needles. You want to know why she limps? Her leg was shattered with wooden clubs. That’s why.”
Zara staggered back, hand clapped over her mouth.
Alaric blinked, stunned.
“You’re lying,” he said weakly.
Kael pulled out his phone, tapped the screen a few times, then held it out.
Their own phones buzzed simultaneously.
Alaric’s eyes scanned the screen. Cold, clinical notes. Hospital logs. Surveillance stills. Photographs of injuries that should never have been inflicted in a licensed detainment facility.
Zara sobbed openly.
Alaric stared at the images, color draining from his face. “You… were too rash. You should’ve consulted us. Ending the alliance like that will cost us-“
“It already cost us,” Kael said quietly. “It cost her five years of her life.”
Alaric’s phone rang again. He stepped aside to answer it.
His expression collapsed into horror. “What?”
Zara moved toward him. “What’s wrong?”
“We’ve lost ten billion,” he muttered. “Overnight.”
Zara’s knees gave out. She caught herself on the desk. “What are we going to do?”
“There’s only one option,” Alaric said after a pause. “We need to restore the alliance. Grovel if we must.”
“And the price?”
Alaric hesitated.
Kael’s eyes narrowed.
Alaric exhaled. “Ronan says… Riley has to kneel before his sister’s hospital bed and beg for forgiveness.”
A chilling silence fell.
Then Scarlett’s voice rang sweetly from behind them. “Sister, it’s so late-why are you loitering by Kael’s study door?”
Riley turned slowly, her eyes meeting the girl who had taken her place.
Scarlett’s smile didn’t reach her eyes.
Riley’s POV
I looked at Scarlett calmly.
She hadn’t even touched me, but she shrank back like she’d seen a ghost, trembling as she whispered, “Sister, please don’t look at me like that. You’re scaring me.”
Kael’s hand suddenly shoved me hard.
“What are you trying to do to Scarlett?” he barked.
I staggered back from the force, my injured leg wobbling under me until I slammed into the second-floor railing. I could’ve fallen if I’d lost my balance just a little more. But no one cared. No one even flinched.
Alpha Alaric and Luna Zara both immediately moved to shield Scarlett, staring at me like I was some feral wolf about to pounce.
Kael opened his mouth to scold me, then hesitated. Maybe he remembered the bruises, the wounds, the prison scars that hadn’t yet faded.
A Broken Alpha Heiress’s Revenge
I smiled faintly. Not out of amusement, but out of a bitter realization.
This was my family.
The second Scarlett showed a trace of weakness, I became the villain. The enemy.
Once, I used to crave their approval. One word, one look could send my emotions spiraling. But now? Their judgment didn’t even graze the surface.
I said nothing. Let them guess. Let them paint their own versions of the story.
“Did you hurt yourself?” Kael asked, the concern in his voice almost jarring.
I raised my head and looked at him, confused. Since when did he speak to me like that?
“I’m fine,” I replied. A little bump like that was nothing. It couldn’t compare to having your bones shattered and reset wrong.
“You heard everything just now, didn’t you?”
I gave a small nod.
He said nothing more.
That was it?
He’d dismantled a multi-million-dollar alliance with the Blackmaw Pack because of me. The fallout would ripple across both packs for months. And all he wanted was a nod?
I saw it in his eyes. The glimmer of hope. The way he waited for even the smallest trace of gratitude.
But I had none to give.
“If there’s nothing else, I’m heading back.”
I turned and limped down the stairs. Slow but steady. I wouldn’t fall.
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