Hades' Cursed Luna novel Chapter 70

Eve~

"Does it hurt, mutt?" Felicia snarled, grabbing my face roughly. Her claws bit into my skin, making me dig my nails into my palms to keep from crying out.

Pain flared where her claws pierced, and tubes were extracting blood from me intravenously. My head felt light, darkness creeping into my vision. The sanguineous scent wasn’t strong enough to send me into a complete spiral, but only if I kept it far from my mind.

"Please..." I mumbled almost incoherently. "Stop."

Her eyes narrowed, amusement twisting her lips. "Oh, trust me. This is nothing," she purred, tightening her grip until I felt the sting of blood trickling down my cheek. She poked at my swollen right eye, making me wince.

"Rhea," I called, even though I knew I’d get no response. I felt so utterly vulnerable, so powerless that even if the pain had been absent, that alone would have brought me to tears. When would this end? "Please, Rhea."

Nothing.

"Aww, don’t look so hopeless, dear. I might actually start feeling bad for you," she taunted, looking me over, her eyes filled with sick amusement. "It’s just a beating. It’s nothing compared to what a Valmont whore deserves," she ground out. "You should have your guts pulled out."

My stomach sank, and I tried harder to push away the darkness. "Please..."

"Danielle must have begged too!" she snapped. "She must have asked the beast to spare her baby."

"Baby?" I asked tentatively. "She had a child?"

"She was pregnant," Felicia’s voice shook slightly. "Nine months."

The haze of pain cleared just enough for ice to fill my veins. "My father did…?"

"It’s not a question!" she growled. "He sent it to us that night. Sent it to tear us up like animals. My husband, my in-laws, my sister..."

"Sent…what?" I asked quietly.

Her eyes met mine fully, her expression contorted with hate but her gaze filled with horror. "The Beast of the Night."

My eyes widened, alarm bells ringing. I’d heard of it before, but where?

Felicia’s eyes narrowed at my expression. "You knew exactly what happened that night, didn’t you?" she asked, approaching slowly. "Hell, you must have helped your father deploy it."

I shook my head. I was rotting in a cell five years ago when the Lycan royal family was killed. I didn’t even know of the plan; how could I have? I only heard guards discussing it, also revealing that the Hand of Death, the Obsidian Beta, would become the new Alpha. "I knew nothing," I replied truthfully.

But from her deepening scowl, I knew she wasn’t pleased with my answer.

She slapped me again, so hard that when I opened my eyes, I saw stars. "Don’t lie to me, mutt," she snapped. "There’s no way you weren’t involved. You’re a Valmont. You’re all monsters." Her voice was thick with rage, but there was a glint of something else in her eyes—pain, raw and festering, a wound that had never healed.

"I swear…" I whispered, fighting the fog that threatened to pull me under. "I never knew. I would never…"

"Lies!" She struck me again, her claws slicing across my cheek. Blood smeared on her fingers as she leaned close, her breath hot against my ear. "Your whole family is cursed. You think I don’t know what kind of darkness lives in your blood? The same darkness that slaughtered my family."

A sob escaped my lips before I could bite it back. "I’m not him. I didn’t—"

"Oh, but you’re just like him," she whispered, her voice venomous. "You’ll say anything to survive, but the truth is, you’re all the same. And you’ll pay for what your family did." Her grip on my face tightened, nails digging so deep I felt the sting radiate through my skull.

I struggled, blinking through the darkness clouding my vision, desperate for an anchor, for any ounce of strength. "Rhea..." I called, my voice barely a whisper, but there was only silence.

Felicia laughed, a cold, hollow sound. "Praying to your inner wolf? Pathetic. There’s no one left to save you. You’re all alone." Her fingers released my face, shoving me back against the cold, metal chair. My wrists tugged against the restraints, cold steel biting into raw skin.

She stepped back, eyes flicking over me with morbid curiosity. "It seems you won’t confess to planting the bombs and erasing the footage, but you do want to leave here, don’t you?"

"I am not confessing…to something that I did…not do."

She shrugged, flipping her hair away from her face. "Fine. Tell me something else. This one should be easier. What was that thing?"

Confusion swirled within me. "What?"