Calhoun’s POV~
Weeks had chewed Carla down to bones and shadows. When I pushed open the basent door, the stench of damp concrete and her rotting perfu clung to the air. She was curled in the corner like a broken thing, trembling, eyes wide in the sudden light.
The mont she saw , she scrambled forward on hands and knees, filthy nails clawing the floor, reaching for like I was her salvation.
“Calhoun please... I’m sorry,” her voice cracked, ragged from thirst and sleepless nights. “I swear I’ll disappear. I’ll leave the Pack, you’ll never hear my na again. Just... just don’t leave here. I can’t take it anymore!”
Her face was a ruin. Mascara sared in black rivers down her cheeks, lips split and trembling, designer silk now nothing but rags.
Once, I had thought she was beautiful. Once, I had been fool enough to believe in that beauty. Now, kneeling there, she looked exactly like what she’d always been a parasite.
My jaw locked. I wanted to feel pity, but all I felt was fire gnawing my chest. This was the woman I had let close enough to nearly destroy Elodie. The woman I had trusted when I should have crushed her throat the mont I saw through her act.
My voice ca out cold, and flat. “Pathetic.”
Her tears fell faster, body shaking with frantic sobs, but I didn’t move. I let her drown in her own desperation. Then I dropped the folder at her knees. It hit the concrete with a hollow slap.
She froze. Her trembling hands opened it, and as her eyes ran over the photographs, the color drained from her face.
Her past, the Pack in Europe she’d burned to ash behind her. The lovers she’d betrayed, the lies she’d spun, the Alpha she had sold her body out to. Every secret, every sha of hers, catalogued in full color.
“That’s... no—” her voice pitched high, wild. “That’s not . These are fake. Soone’s trying to ruin !”
She tore at the pages, clutching them to her chest like she could hide from the truth staring her down.
“It was Elodie, wasn’t it?” Her hysteria sharpened into venom. “That bitch couldn’t stand that you forgave , so she made this up. She wants to turn you against —”
“Elodie doesn’t have to turn against you.” My words cut like glass. “You did that all on your own.”
Her sobs cracked into screaming, incoherent, as though shrieking could erase the evidence. “I was different in Europe! I was loved, I was wanted, this life wasn’t supposed to be mine!”
I stared at her, and for the first ti, I understood the weight of my rage. It wasn’t just her betrayal. It was mine too, my blindness, my weakness. I had let her in. And because of that, Elodie had bled.
My hands curled into fists, claws itching beneath my skin. Every instinct in scread to finish her, to end this crawling, wretched creature begging at my feet. But a darker part of whispered to let her rot. Let her taste the misery she fed others.
I leaned down, my shadow swallowing her whole. “You wanted power, Carla. You wanted to play in the dark. Now you’ll choke on it. Alone. Forgotten. Nothing more than a ghost chained to her own sins.”
Her sobs filled the silence, into broken, ugly, and desperate sounds.
Her European escape had been her dream, once. She’d fed off n who mistook her beauty for worth, let them drape her in jewels and hide her sins with their money. But n tire of leeches. They always do. One by one, they vanished. The schools threw her out. The fake diploma she bought couldn’t fool anyone. No Pack wanted her. No Alpha would touch her na.
So she sold herself. Body for protection. Flesh for rent. Her reputation spread faster than wildfire through every Pack she slithered through, until there was nowhere left to run but back here. Back to .
And I had been waiting.
She was on her knees now, her forehead pressed to the concrete, lips moving in a frenzy of apologies. “I’m sorry, Calhoun. I swear, I’ll vanish. You’ll never hear from again. Just don’t... don’t leave here. Please...”
Her voice was hoarse, broken. She trembled so violently I thought her bones might splinter beneath her skin.
I stood there, staring down at her. Once, I had bled for this woman. Once, I had thought she was my salvation. Now she was a pitiful carcass of greed and desperation.
And for a mont, watching her beg, I felt nothing. No pity. No love. Not even anger anymore. Just an ache in my chest where I used to keep my heart.
When her sobbing slowed, I finally spoke. My voice was ice.
“Get out.”
Her head snapped up, eyes wide, wet lashes sticking together. “W-what? What did you say?”
“You heard .” I didn’t blink. “Get out, Carla. We’re finished. Whatever this was, it died long ago. My heart belongs to soone else now. And it’s not you.”
Her mouth opened and closed, her face twisting in disbelief. She looked around the basent as if searching for guards, waiting for chains, for punishnt. None ca. The door was open. For the first ti in weeks, freedom was hers.
And yet I saw the truth settle in her eyes, the outside world terrified her more than the dark she’d been rotting in. Out there, no one would care. Out there, she was nothing.
I turned without another word. My footsteps echoed off the walls, and with every step I took, the distance between us grew heavier. She whispered my na once, broken, like it could tether back. I didn’t look over my shoulder.
The door slamd shut behind .
Carla disappeared from my Pack that night. Where she went, no one knew. And for once, no one cared.
I thought I would feel lighter. I thought letting her crawl out of my life would heal sothing. But as I stood in the silence of my office hours later, watching the city lights burn through the glass, I only felt emptier.
After two weeks of recovery, I took back hold of the company, trying so hard my company returned back to balance and I visibly saw the relief sketched on Mila’s face the mont I returned back to the company. Of course she had to be relieved. My own sister had her dreams and ambitions to chase. As well as .
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