Because the only thing I felt was the empty space where Jessica should be.
Suzette’s POV
Reporters swarmed like flies, hungry for blood and scandal. Some of them were human. Some of them were wolves pretending to be human. All of them were beneath me.
Today, they would finally learn to treat me like the Luna I was meant to be.
I stood in front of them.
“Listen closely,” I said in a sharp voice. “From now on, erase the name Jessica Brookes from your mouths. Her name is a disgrace to Vale Pack and to LunaPharma Corp. She is no longer part of our narrative.”
A few reporters swallowed hard. One tried to raise a shaky hand, probably thinking he had the right to question me. “And since your Alpha is not in good shape, you will listen to me instead. I will be taking command temporarily.”
They nodded so fast it was almost pathetic. They should remember who stands on top. My glare alone made one of the human cameramen step back until he bumped into crates. My wolf liked that. She purred inside me.
With the media retreating like cowards, I turned my attention to Johan.
He was on the dirt floor, knees bent, back hunched, the strongest Alpha in this damn region trembling like a broken thing. Tears streamed down his face, mixing with soot. He was sobbing. Loudly. Embarrassingly. Like a child who lost his favorite toy.
All this for Jessica.
Jessica, the bitch who practically ruined my life. Jessica, who took what should have been mine. Jessica, who made me hide my marriage. Jessica, who made me share my mate’s attention every damn day, even when she was alive.
And now that she was dead, that bitch still had the audacity to compete with me from the grave.
I should have been celebrating openly. Dancing. Pouring wine. Throwing confetti. I waited for this moment my entire life. She was gone. Finally gone. But instead of holding me and thanking the Moon Goddess he still had a living wife, Johan was falling apart over her burnt corpse.
I grit my teeth so hard my jaw ached.
This should have been my shining moment. My victory lap. Instead, I was standing there watching my mate cling to a pile of bones.
I approached him slowly. I wiped the fury off my face and put on the loving Luna expression I practiced so many times in the mirror.
“Love,” I said softly, stepping close enough to smell the blood dripping from the corner of his lips. “Come on. You need to go back to the hospital. Your condition is slowing down your healing. Please.”
I made my voice sweet. Devoted. Concerned. A perfect mate.
Inside, I was seething.
Johan only sobbed harder. The remains he clutched rattled with every cry. He looked like a beast on the verge of snapping. His eyes were bloodshot, wild, glowing faintly with his wolf’s rage. His nails had turned into claws. His breathing was uneven. His body was shaking uncontrollably.
I placed a hand on his shoulder.
He jerked away violently.
“Get lost!” he barked. His voice cracked with grief and fury. “You don’t know what I’m feeling right now. Just go the fuck away!”
Heat slapped my face. For a second, I almost shifted. My wolf snarled at the insult, at being pushed aside like garbage. I stepped back because if I stayed close, I might actually rip his throat out.
He wanted her even dead.
I inhaled sharply and forced myself to stay calm. He would regret shouting at me once he healed. Dr. Oaken stood beside me, trembling like a leaf. I leaned in close, voice low. “Knock your Alpha out. He can’t be seen in public like this. He looks like a lunatic.”
Dr. Oaken hesitated. “But we have already-“
“Do it,” I whispered, voice venomous.
My wolf flashed in my eyes.
He swallowed, nodded, pulled out another sedative syringe, and inched behind Johan. Johan was too far gone in grief to notice. The doctor jabbed the needle into his neck.
Johan stiffened instantly. His body convulsed, eyes rolling, limbs twitching. Then he collapsed forward like someone cut his strings.
The remains he held slipped from his arms and crashed to the floor, bones cracking and scattering across the ground.
The coroner groaned. “We haven’t done a DNA test yet. How am I supposed to file my report if you already moved the body?”
I exhaled loudly. “You are paid to do this work anyway. Oh wait. No one is paying you for that trash. So if I were you, I would experiment on corpses that matter.”
He stared at me like I slapped him.
“Ma’am, this is not something you can just declare.”
I stepped closer, letting him see the glow in my eyes. “Try to escalate this further and you will find yourself jobless within the hour. Do not test me.”
He snapped his mouth shut.
Good.
I motioned at the warriors. “Pick him up. Carefully.”
Two warriors lifted Johan’s unconscious body and carried him toward the car. I followed.
This was power. This was what I deserved.
With my father gone, with the Halloway name resting on my shoulders, and with Johan as my legal husband, the Vale Pack belonged to me too. The humans respected our families like royalty. Even the supernatural world bowed to our hierarchy.
Now that Jessica was dead, nothing could stop me.
I watched as the coroner reluctantly gathered the last of the remains, muttering under his breath.
“Cremate her,” I ordered coldly. “And bury her somewhere nearby. She does not belong in the Halloway ancestral tomb. I do not care if she was technically a Halloway. Blood is not enough to earn a place among us.”
I turned and left the warehouse without looking back. If it were up to me, I would have left the corpse out in the open, let wild dogs rip her apart, leave nothing but scraps. But even I knew Johan would never forgive that.
As we drove back to Vale territory, Johan unconscious in the backseat, I finally allowed myself to smile.
She was dead.
Jessica was finally gone.
And I was still here.
I won.
No corpse could take that from me.
William’s POV
“Clear the hallway,” I barked. “Prep the OR. Get my kit. Move!”
Wolves scattered fast.
They could sense my alpha wolf right under my skin, furious and ready to tear anyone apart who slowed me down.
I was ten steps from the OR doors when somebody roared.
“William!”
I stopped only because my body respected the one yelling.
Elder Bohan. My father.
He stormed toward me with Aunt Rose right behind him, both of them tense, breathing hard, panic in their eyes.
Dad grabbed my forearm, the same way he did when I was a kid trying to run straight into danger.
“Son, stop,” he said, voice tight. “You cannot operate right now. Look at you. You are bleeding through bandages. Your ribs are cracked. You need treatment.”
“I am the only one who can stabilize her.”
“You are half dead,” he snapped. “And you want to perform surgery in that state? Are you out of your mind?”
Aunt Rose moved in front of me, her hand pressed gently over my wrist.
“Will, you are shaking. Your wolf is rattling inside you. Let someone else handle this.”
“No,” I said. “They will not touch her. Not before me.”
Dad stepped closer. “Son, listen to me. I did not pull you out of a pile of corpses just to watch you die in an operating room. Do not walk into that OR. I am begging you.”
I met his eyes, steady.
“I will not die,” I said. “She might. I will not let that happen.”
He clenched his jaw so hard his teeth clicked. His eyes got glassy in a way I had only seen once in my life. The day my mother died.
Aunt Rose swallowed hard and tried again.
“Will, you always guarded your life. You always fought to survive. It is who you are. But right now, you are throwing yourself into danger for a woman. That tells me everything I need to know.”
She looked right into me, searching for the boy she helped raise.
“This is the first time you are saving someone without expecting anything back,” she whispered. “The first time you are choosing someone else’s life over your own. It scares the hell out of us.”
Dad’s shoulders dropped. “What happens if you go in there, and you do not come back out?”
I shifted Jessica carefully in my arms, lowering my forehead briefly to hers. Her breathing hitched, barely there.
That was my answer.
“Dad,” I said quietly, “This is one fight I am not backing down from. Now if you may…”
He closed his eyes for a second, then he stepped aside.
Not because he agreed. But because he knew nothing in the world could stop me once I made up my mind.
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