Chapter 247

Evaline:
The mere thought of my family still being alive sent cold, bone-deep fear ripping through me.
It wasn’t relief. It wasn’t joy. It was sheer, suffocating dread.
I stared at River like I didn’t recognize him. My breath had turned shallow, my chest was rising and falling too fast. But he didn’t speak. He just watched me – silent, steady, as if my reaction was some kind of puzzle he was trying to solve.
It was Jasper who finally broke the heavy quiet.
“You should know,” he began carefully, “the rumors you have heard… about Alpha River killing every last person in Shadowfang Pack… they were just that. Rumors.”
My fingers curled into my palms. “Rumors?” I repeated, my voice cracking. “I saw what you did to Shadowfang Pack with my very own eyes.”
His gaze flicked briefly to River before settling back on me. “Alpha never planned to kill your entire family, let alone the entire Shadowfang Pack. That night… his plan was to kill Alpha Greystone and those directly responsible for what happened to his parents and his Pack decades ago.”
I flinched at the name, my stomach knotting.
“And that’s exactly what he did,” Jasper continued. “He killed Alpha Greystone. He killed every Shadowfang member who had a hand in your father’s crimes. He burned down the Pack lands… but no innocent life was slaughtered. Instead, we relocated them to other packs, scattered them so no one could rebuild what we destroyed. As for your family – your stepmother, your stepsister, and your stepbrother – they weren’t killed either. They were exiled to a small, weak pack in the western region.”
The words hit like stones.
My Stepmother. Liliana. And… Damian.
I heard the names without him saying them. My mind filled them in.
Jasper kept talking, explaining more details, but my thoughts had already spiraled into a black hole.
Anyone else might have been grateful – maybe thrilled even, if they had good relations with their step family – to hear that their family still lived. But I wasn’t anyone else.
If it had just been my stepmother and Liliana, maybe I could have ignored it, buried the knowledge. But Damian?
The name alone made my skin crawl.
Damian wasn’t just my stepbrother. He was my shadow, my constant tormentor. My biggest bully. He had broken things in me that would never fully heal. And worse – he had promised that he would always find me.
“No matter how much fate tries to separate us,” he had whispered once, after pinning me to the cold stone wall of Shadowfang’s old corridors, “I’ll always find you, sweet sister.”
I had believed him then. And I still believed him… even now.
He might be exiled. He might be suffering. He might even be rotting somewhere. But the fact remained… he was alive.
Alive meant dangerous.
Jasper’s voice started to fade in again, just as he was about to say something else. But I finally found my voice.
I looked straight at River. My tone was soft. Too soft.
“Why didn’t you kill them?”
Both men froze.
Jasper’s brows shot up, like I had just spoken in another language. River’s expression didn’t change, but something sharpened in his gaze.
When neither spoke, I repeated the question, each word clearer than the last. “Why. Didn’t. You. Kill. Them?”
“Miss Eva-” Jasper started.
River didn’t even look at him. Just lifted one hand, a silent command for him to leave.
Jasper hesitated, then slipped past me and out the door, shutting it behind him.
The moment we were alone, River stepped forward, closing the space between us. His presence filled the room, a quiet, heavy force that pressed against my skin.
“Say it again,” he said evenly.
I lifted my chin. “If you were going to kill, why not kill all of them?” My voice trembled, but not from fear of him… fear of what his answer might be. “Why did you have to leave them alive? Why did you have to ruin things for me every single time something good starts to happen in my life? Why can’t you just leave me alone?”
My voice had risen without me meaning it to, each sentence cutting sharper than the last.
His jaw tightened.
And then it cracked – his composure breaking just enough for him to bite out, “Because I can’t leave you alone.”
The words slammed into me, stealing my breath.
Before I could process them, my hand moved on instinct.
Smack.
The slap echoed in the dim room. His head turned slightly from the force, and a faint red mark immediately bloomed across his cheek.
“How,” I asked coldly, “could you let those monsters go free, but be hell-bent on ruining my life just because I carry the Greystone blood?”
For a second, he just stared at me, silent.
Then, in one smooth motion, his hand shot out and closed around my arm, pulling me in until there was barely a breath between us. His eyes were like shards of ice, unflinching, unyielding.
“If all this drama,” he said slowly, each word laced with danger, “is because I left your bullying stepfamily alive… I can fix that.”
The low, deadly certainty in his voice made the air feel heavier. It was the kind of tone that didn’t invite argument, but one that promised action.
I gave a humorless chuckle. “And you expect me to believe you? That you would kill anyone for me?”
His grip didn’t loosen. If anything, it tightened.
“I could kill anyone for you, Evaline, ” he said without hesitation. “Let alone the people you hate.”
I blinked at him, startled by the sheer bluntness of it. I would have loved to believe he was lying, but I knew he wasn’t.
“Why?” I demanded, my anger rising again because I felt tired of whatever game he was playing. “Why pretend to care?”
The faintest curve touched his lips… it wasn’t a smile, but something darker, more dangerous.
“Because,” he said, his voice dropping lower, “I have fallen for you, Evaline Greystone.”