Chapter 139: Chapter 139 Last Hope Dies
Seraphina’s POV
I barely moved from where I had collapsed hours earlier. The tears had finally dried on my cheeks, leaving behind salt tracks and hollow exhaustion. I had wept for everything that was broken. For Julian, whose eyes now held nothing but contempt when he looked at me. For my children, who must be wondering where their mother had disappeared to. For Quincy, whose life I had accidentally stolen. For the wreckage that my existence had become.
When the sobbing finally ceased, I found myself curled against the frigid stone floor, my body trembling uncontrollably as I desperately tried to hold onto any memory of warmth. The sound of the dungeon door creaking open jolted me awake.
I forced my weighted head up, and when I finally managed to focus, I saw the last person I had the strength to face. Vivian stood in the doorway.
This was not the commanding, fierce woman I knew. Her features were swollen and mottled, her eyes bloodshot and hollow. Her entire frame radiated devastation, the kind of bone-deep destruction that only losing one’s mate could inflict.
The grief was visible in every inch of her being.
She appeared completely empty, a shell of her former self, and seeing her like this crushed something inside me.
I drew my knees closer to my body. I could not meet her gaze. The shame burned more intensely than the dungeon’s chill.
"Look at me, Seraphina," she demanded, her voice scraped raw.
I kept staring at my trembling hands. "I am so deeply sorry, Vivian. I never intended to..."
She cut me off mid-sentence. She closed the space between us in quick strides and seized my face, jerking my eyes upward.
"Look at me," she hissed, her words dripping with venom. "Look at the destruction you caused."
I witnessed the loathing, the anguish, and the complete void in her stare. I had earned that expression. I understood that completely.
Then everything erupted into searing agony.
The slap cracked across my face.
The impact whipped my head sideways, my ears immediately ringing. My cheek blazed like fire.
"Bring him back to me," she wailed, releasing my face and stepping back, her hands shaking violently. "Return my mate, you killer."
"I am sorry," I breathed, fresh tears spilling over. "I am so deeply sorry."
"Sorry?" Her voice climbed toward hysteria. "Your apologies will not resurrect him!"
Before I could respond, she lifted her leg and drove her foot into my ribs.
I gasped sharply and contracted into a defensive position.
Another kick struck my side.
Then my thigh.
She began striking me repeatedly, her attacks wild and desperate, driven by raw, consuming grief. I cried out as the pain blinded me, but somehow I tried to endure it.
This feels justified. I have earned this punishment.
"You should suffer!" Vivian screamed, her foot connecting with my stomach. "You should decay in here!"
More kicks landed.
My wolf, who had remained subdued under the silver’s influence, suddenly stirred with rage. She was not angry about the physical pain, but about where the blows were landing.
Stop this, Seraphina! Allow me to intervene! The silver affects me differently than others. I can force her back!
No, I deserve this treatment, I responded weakly.
Another kick.
This strike landed dangerously close to my lower belly. The immediate spike of terror finally cut through my guilt.
Consider the baby! my wolf screamed in my mind.
The word "baby" shot through me like electricity. My hands immediately flew to cover my stomach, instinctively shielding the life developing within me. I attempted to crawl further from Vivian’s assault, dragging my battered, broken body across the stone.
But Vivian continued her attack. She was consumed by rage and heartbreak.
Another kick.
"Stop!" I screamed, a desperate, primal sound that emerged from my wolf’s core.
I did not transform. The silver prevented it. But my overwhelming terror for my child and the instinct to protect it made me reach for my abilities.
A sudden, unseen energy crashed into Vivian. She gasped and stumbled backward several steps, colliding with the figure who had just entered the cell.
Vivian fell directly into Julian’s embrace.
My gaze followed her movement, and I saw him.
My mate.
He was supporting his mother, his expression a mixture of disappointment and cold shock. He looked from his mother, trembling and weeping, to me huddled and bloodied on the ground.
"Julian!" Vivian seized the opportunity perfectly. She grasped him tightly. "She attempted to murder me! She hurled me into the wall. Exactly like she murdered your father."
Julian’s eyes found mine, and the brief moment of surprise disappeared, replaced by an emotionless, terrifying coldness.
I attempted to reach out mentally, to grasp our mate bond, to reveal the truth, to plead with him to listen. But when I searched for him, there was emptiness. A solid, unbreachable barrier had been erected in his mind. I could not sense his emotions, his concerns, or even the familiar warmth of our connection. He had already decided to believe her. The way he stared at me, the absence in our bond, he already accepted that I was capable of such evil.
Vivian straightened, leaning on Julian for support, giving me one final look of pure hatred. "She is a monster," she whispered theatrically, before Julian gently guided her away from the cell.
At last, we were alone.
I hoped desperately that now, without his mother present, I could explain everything. I could tell him about my fear, how Dorian had been my target, and how the grief was destroying me as well.
I slowly forced myself into a sitting position, every muscle protesting in agony.
"Julian," I croaked, my throat raw from screaming.
He remained motionless, arms folded across his chest, his eyes like frozen steel.
I asked the question that mattered most. "How are our children? Are they safe? Do they ask for me?"
"You will never mention my children again," he stated, his voice completely emotionless. "You are dangerous, Seraphina. A killer has no place in their world."
His words did not merely break my heart, they destroyed every fragment of hope I had remaining. The idea that I, their mother, posed a threat to them was unbearable.
"Enough!" I shouted, the pain and betrayal finally overwhelming my fear. "Stop using our children as weapons against me! Just tell me they are well? I only want to know they are protected!"
"I told you to stop speaking of them," he repeated, stepping closer to the bars but remaining out of my reach. "A murderer does not deserve such concerns."
I stared at him, feeling the burning rage of injustice. "A murderer? You label me a killer? How involved was your father in their lives?"
Julian flinched slightly.
"Your father murdered my biological father, Julian!" I yelled, refusing to retreat now. "I was aware of this and never mentioned it! I remained silent! I did not use it to exclude him from your children’s lives simply because he killed mine!"
He stayed silent, the mental barrier between us thick and impenetrable.
"I understand what I did was terrible," I choked out, tears of fury and despair flowing down my face. "It was accidental, but I accept responsibility. I want to face the consequences! But you have no right to separate my children from me!"
"You should have considered the children before you chose your actions," he said, shaking his head with sad certainty.
"What actions?" I begged, dragging myself toward the bars. "What exactly did I do? I tried to kill Dorian! I sought justice for myself, my children, my family, and my pack! I never meant for this!"
Julian moved closer to the bars, his eyes hard and resolved.
"I do not believe you," he declared simply. "I cannot understand why you abandoned the ceremony to find Dorian. When I arrived, I discovered my father’s corpse, Dorian was gone. The only person present, wounded and bleeding, was you."
His expression twisted with profound distrust. "You have confessed to killing him. I refuse to hear more."
He spun around and walked away. He never looked back.
I remained kneeling on the icy stone, staring at the empty doorway.
He had departed. And he had taken every remaining piece of my hope with him.
