One Night

Chapter 200

Audrey

Edwin whirled around, his eyes widening as he saw Peter and me standing in the doorway. Without hesitation, I ran to him, throwing my arms around his waist. He held me tight, confusion radiating through our bond.

“Audrey? What are you doing here?”

I looked up at him, my eyes shimmering with tears. Through our mate bond, I showed him what had happened leading up to my coming here: my conversation with Peter, my impassioned plea, our final decision to come to his aid.

“We can’t let Edwin always take the fall,” I had said to Peter. “In fact, as Crescent’s future Luna, I command you to take me to him. Now.”

Peter had jumped into action at those words, sketching a mock bow. “As you wish, my Luna.”

I had hit him on the shoulder, hard, and he’d laughed. And for the first time in days, F’d cracked a smile, too.

Understanding dawned in Edwin’s eyes as I showed him all of this, and he looked over at Peter, who nodded solemnly.

“What is the meaning of this?” Erik scoffed. “Peter, you can’t seriously be-”

“No, Dad. You can’t be serious,” Peter interrupted his father. Erik’s eyebrows shot up.

“I’m tired of sitting idly by and watching my big brother be treated like**t,” Peter continued. “All his life, Edwin has taken the fall for me, for all of us-even when it resulted in being beaten and assumed to be a horrible child. Edwin protected his siblings, and you were a fool for not seeing that.”

Erik’s face slowly began to contort with rage, but Peter continued before he could speak. “If you give the pack to Axel and imprison Audrey, there will be war. She is Silverbite’s heir and she is the Silver Star, but she is so much more than that.”

Peter turned to me then, placing one hand over his heart. “And I will stand behind her. So will Edwin. And many, many others who love her.”

“This is ridiculous,” Erik spat, his eyes darting between the three of us. “This girl is a child who can’t even shift. Come now, Peter. Control your lust and pull your head out of your a**. No one cares about her, and neither should you.”

Mon,

Chapter 200

Edwin’s arms tightened around me, turning us as if to shield me from his father’s

words.

But I had had enough. I broke free from Edwin and stepped forward, my hands clenching into tight fists at my sides.

“Perhaps I cannot shift yet,” I

1 id, “but it does not make me weak. If anything, the things that I am, the things I have been through, just make me stronger-stronger than you will ever be.”

Erik scoffed. “Oh, please. You are a child. I can guarantee that whatever you’ve lived, I’ve lived it tenfold.”

“Were you dumped at an orphanage that treats humans like garbage?” I took another step forward. “Did you watch your only salvation die before your eyes?” Another. “Were

whisked away to a home where you were nothing more than a tax write-off, where you had to fend for yourself from childhood?” Another. “Were you attacked? Bullied? Assaulted, simply for being different?”

you

With one last step, I was close enough to touch him now. Erik towered over me, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t afraid of him. I lifted my chin to glare at him, and I swore I saw

something like fear flicker through his eyes.

“Did you die?” I whispered.

Erik’s mouth opened, but no words came out.

A sneer crossed my face as I added, “And I have seen what comes after death, Erik: nothing. Nothing but you, your thoughts, and an endless void. And you…” I shook my head, exposing the silver streak in my hair. “You will spend all eternity regretting what you did to the people you were meant to protect.”

A cold smirk stretched across his face.

But I knew it was an act; I could see the uncase in his eyes. The fear.

“You’re a little liar,” he hissed. “Just like your mate.”

“If you don’t believe me,

then let me show you.”

Without warning, I reached out and grabbed his wrist as tightly as I could. “What are you-don’t touch me, little freak!” he spat out. But I didn’t let go.

I had never done this before, aside from sharing faint images with Edwin through our mate bond, but somehow I knew I could do it I channeled my mind into his, not to read his memories, but to show him my own.

2/4

1241 Man Sep

Chapter 200

1 showed him everything.

Meredith’s body withering in a hospital bed.

The holes in the walls of my childhood bedroom.

Linda and her cronies holding me down and assaulting me with scissors.

1 began to feel Erik’s mind thrashing at my presence, trying to shove me out, but I held fast. I kept showing him more and more images, faster and faster, shoving them into his mind like water rushing into a sinking boat.

Fiona’s outstretched hands.

The fall

The world going dark.

And finally, I showed him what comes after death; the dark void that I floated in before Edwin’s kiss brought me back to life. The emptiness, the isolation, the utter nothingness. that awaited.

“Get out!” I heard his mind scream. “Get out of my head! Let me go!”

But I held fast. “No. Watch, Erik. Look.” I held onto his mind, and I forced him to look. To sec. To know. And no matter how hard his mind thrashed, I held on tight. No matter how it made my own mind ache, I gripped him and dragged him into death with me.

I held him there until the fight went out of him. Until he, too, fell silent in an awful terror of this dark void.

Only then did I release his mind.

I found myself in the present again, a cr**ng fire burning in the fireplace. The moment I released my grip on his wrist, Erik stumbled back and fell to the floor in a fetal position, sweat pouring down his temples. I stumbled back, too-straight into Edwin’s arms. Peter, smirking, handed me his handkerchief. I used it to wipe the blood from my nose.

“You have seen it now, too,” I growled, throwing the b**dy handkerchief at Erik’s feet. “That is what waits for you after death, Erik. And I hope that every second, every moment of it, is utter hell for you.”

Erik was silent, clutching his knees to his chest as he laid fetal on the floor. His face had gone ashen, his body trembling, cold sweat now soaking into the collar of his shirt. His mouth moved, opened and closed, but no words came out-like a fish out of water.

111

12 41 Mon, Sep 23 CC.

Chapter 200

“Is he “Peter whispered.

I shook my head. Erik would be just fine, physically, but I had made sure that he would never forget what he had seen. I had made sure that it would haunt him.

In that moment, I felt Edwin’s arm wrap around my waist, pride radiating through our bond. He stood tall beside me, with Peter on my other side. Peter squeezed my hand, and I squeezed his back.

“I will not stand down as Crescent’s Alpha,” Edwin said. “If Axel wants the pack so badly, then he can come and try to take it. See how people react to having an Alpha who lies about his achievements and bullies people to get what he wants. But I’m tired of being cowed by an old man. By you.”

He paused, lifting his chin at his father.

“I am the Alpha of Crescent, not you,” Edwin growled. “And I make the decisions now.”

Erik remained on the floor, seemingly unable to form words. His eyes darted between the three of us, his gaze warring between terror and disbelief and anger.

Edwin took my hand, interlacing our fingers. “Let’s go,” he said softly.

As we turned to leave, I caught one last glimpse of Erik. The once-powerful Alpha now looked small and broken, a shadow of his former self. Part of me felt a twinge of pity, but I pushed it aside. He had made his choices, and now he would have to live with the

consequences.

We walked out of the study, our chins held high, leaving Erik alone with the knowledge of what awaited him in the afterlife.