Chapter 239

Natalie~

The dungeon held its breath.

Thick with silence, the kind that presses in from all sides. The kind that dares you to speak, only so it can swallow the sound whole.

And I just stood there, eyes locked on him. Watching.

Darius was free now—no chains, no guards, exactly how he’d demanded it. But he didn’t move. Not even a flicker. That smug, ever-present smirk of his had drained off his face like blood from a corpse. What replaced it was… confusion. Or maybe fear. Like his mind hadn’t caught up to the fact that the game had changed—and he was no longer the one holding the pieces.

I tilted my head, voice soft but cutting. “This is what you wanted, remember? No restraints. No backup. Just you and me. So go ahead, Alpha. Show me what all that posturing was really worth p>

Inside my head, Jasmine purred, her voice laced with delicious menace. “Say the word. Let him lay a single finger on you. Give me an excuse, Mara. Just one p>

My lips curled into a smile—slow, deliberate, and all teeth. I never broke eye contact. I wanted him to feel the challenge burn.

Darius’s fists clenched at his sides, jaw grinding tight enough to crack bone. “You think you’re powerful now, don’t you?” he sneered.

I gave a light shrug, my voice honeyed and cruel. “No. I don’t think it,” I said, stepping forward, “I know it p>

He flinched. Just barely. But I saw it.

“And you I whispered, eyes flicking to the tremor in his fingers, you’re shaking. That’s not like you, is it? I thought you were the fearsome Alpha—brutal, unstoppable. You certainly had no problem proving it when I was in chains, broken, stamped with your mark like property. So tell me… where’s that monster now p>

Something in him cracked. I saw it happen.

His pride reared up like a wounded animal, blind and furious. He lifted his hand—too fast, too sloppy—pure instinct, pure rage.

And that was all I needed.

The moment his arm moved, my magic exploded from beneath my skin. Swift. Silent. Radiant. It snapped through the air like lightning caught in glass. And just like that, he froze—arm suspended mid-strike, muscles trembling, locked in place by a force he couldn’t even name.

His face twisted with effort, tendons straining as he tried to break the invisible bind. Useless.

“What the hell did you do to me?!” he spat, eyes wide and wild.

Behind me, beyond the cell bars, Zane’s snarl shattered the stillness like a clap of thunder. Deep, primal, echoing through the dungeon. His eyes glowed red-hot, molten and murderous. He was seconds from shifting.

Griffin was already moving—closer, claws out, voice dark with fury. “I’ll tear his throat out p>

I didn’t even look back. My voice was quiet. Steady. “Stand down p>

Zane’s growl faltered.

Griffin blinked, like I’d lost my damn mind.

“I said I’ve got this,” I repeated, locking eyes with Zane through the bars. “He’s mine p>

Darius was still straining, his hand frozen in midair like a puppet abandoned mid-scene. He looked ridiculous. Small. The great Alpha, undone not by chains—but by the one woman he thought would never rise.

Powerless.

And oh, wasn’t that beautiful?

“Release me,” Darius snarled, every word shaking with fury. “Right. Now p>

I laughed. Not the polite kind. The kind that comes from somewhere deep—something wild and unbothered.

“Oh, Darius,” I said, tilting my head. “You really have no idea who you’re talking to anymore, do you p>

In the back of my mind, Jasmine coiled with glee, her voice like silk wrapped around a blade. “Let’s break him next. I want to see tears. Big, fat, ugly ones p>

I took him in slowly. Studied him the way he used to study me. But this time, there was no curiosity. No interest. No hunger.

This wasn’t observation.

This was judgment.

“You’re not even worth laying hands on,” I murmured.

And then I reached further. Deeper. Let my magic slide past the physical and into the festering mire of his mind.

It was like plunging into a pit of rot.

Instantly, I staggered under the weight of it—his thoughts, his secrets, his sickness. A sewer of memory.

And the images—gods, the images—they hit me like fists.

Girls. So many of them. Young. Helpless. Some barely old enough to stand on their own. And him—towering, grinning, looming. His mate in the background, hollow-eyed and broken, handing them over night after night like sacrificial lambs.

Something inside me snapped. My fists clenched so hard I felt blood rise between my fingers.

“Monster,” I breathed, voice razor-thin.

“What?” Darius blinked, confused. But his voice trembled.

I raised my eyes to him, and this time I didn’t hide the disgust. I let it bleed into every word. “You thought this was some redemption arc? That you’d stroll out of here clean and healed? You’re rotting, Darius. Inside and out. I can smell the decay in your memories p>

“My memories? Wow, Natalie you must be going crazy!” he barked a laugh, panic rising like smoke beneath the surface. “You see nothing Natalie. You’re twisting it. Making things up p>

I stepped closer, slow and deliberate. My smile was venom. “I’m not twisting anything. I saw it. Your mind’s wide open to me now. Like a child’s picture book. Every page dirtier than the last p>

His face twitched. His mouth moved, but no words came out.

“You did it,” I continued, my voice steady as ice. “I saw every little trick you played. Every girl you hurt. How you made your mate hand them over night after night. You violated them. You enjoyed it p>

His foot slid backward. The fear was crawling over his skin now, clinging like cold sweat. “No one—no one knows that p>

“But I do,” I whispered, my voice calm but cutting through the silence like a blade. My eyes locked on his, glowing with something he couldn’t deny anymore — the truth. “And now… you can’t run from it p>

He looked at me like he’d seen a ghost — pale, stunned, like the past had just come back to haunt him in flesh and blood.

If only that’s what I was.

A phantom. A shadow.

Something untouchable.

But no. I was very real. And I wasn’t finished.

I went deeper — past the filth he’d buried under years of denial, past the screams he’d tried to forget, past the rot of everything he thought he’d hidden.

And then… something shifted.

A crack. A flicker. A breath he didn’t mean to take.

And that’s when I found it.