Chapter 21: Reckoning

REED

The abandoned building on the edge of Stone Claw Academy was perfect for what I had planned.

Isolated, soundproof, and far enough from people that no one would hear the screaming.

I stood in the center of the empty space, rolling my shoulders as I waited. Callum was positioned by the door, his arms crossed and his expression grim. He knew what was coming. He’d helped me arrange it.

They arrived exactly on time, credit where it was due, at least they could follow simple instructions. Mason Hartley led the way, flanked by Brandon and the other three whose names I hadn’t bothered to learn. They filed in through the door, and I watched with cold satisfaction as they took in their surroundings.

The concrete floor, the chains hanging from exposed beams, and the metal table I’d brought in, complete with an assortment of tools that glinted in the harsh fluorescent lighting.

Their faces went pale.

“Reed,” Mason started, his voice shaking. “Listen, we-”

“On your knees.” I ordered, the command rolled out of me with full Alpha force, and all five of them dropped instantly, their wolves responding to the dominance even as their human sides wanted to run. Good, they should be afraid after what they did to Asher.

Asher was mine to do as for, he was mine to taunt, to haunt, to touch and to explore. No fucking one at Stone Claw Academy has the right to touch what was mine, and yet these five bastards has the guts to lay their filthy hands on what is mine.

Mason was the first to start babbling. “We’re sorry, okay? We’re so fucking sorry. We didn’t mean- we weren’t thinking-”

“You weren’t thinking,” I repeated, my voice dangerously soft as I began to circle them like a predator. “Is that your excuse? You lured him to an isolated location using my name, you beat him bloody, you tore his clothes, and you—” I stopped in front of Mason, looking down at him with all the contempt I felt, “—you pulled down your pants with the intention of raping him while he was unconscious and bleeding out, but you weren’t thinking?”

“Please,” Brandon whimpered. “Please, we’ll do anything. We’ll leave the school. We’ll transfer. Just please—”

“Please what?” I crouched down to his level, watching him flinch. “Please forgive you? Please let you go with a slap on the wrist?” I smiled, and it was the smile of a wolf baring its teeth. “You touched what was mine, you hurt him, you tried to violate him, and you think I’m going to show you mercy?”

“We didn’t know!” one of the others burst out desperately. “We didn’t know he was yours! If we’d known-”

“If you’d known, you wouldn’t have done it?” I stood, my hands clenching into fists. “So you only attack weak Alphas who don’t have anyone to protect them? That makes it better in your mind? We don’t attack weak Alphas except we want to teach them lessons, unless they falter and fail to understand what the school hierarchy is about. Thats when we teach them a lesson, but we never beat them to near death or rape them.”

Silence… they were all crying now, tears and snot running down their faces, and I felt nothing but disgust.

“I’m going to make you understand something,” I said, my voice carrying through the building. “I’m going to torture you. Slowly, and painfully. You’re going to wish you were dead, wish I would just end it but I won’t. You’ll beg for death, and I’ll keep you alive through every second of agony because that’s what you deserve for what you did to him.”

“No, please, god, please-” Mason was sobbing openly now, his hands clasped together in supplication. “We’re sorry, we’re so fucking sorry, we’ll never—”

“Your apologies mean nothing.” I grabbed a length of chain from the table, the metal cold and heavy in my hands. “Do you know what I saw when I walked into that infirmary when they were patching him up? Do you know what your handiwork looked like?”

I closed my eyes, and the image was there, seared into my brain. Asher, so small and broken in that bed. His face swollen almost beyond recognition, bandages wrapped around his ribs where they’d cracked from the beating, the blood IV drip because he’d lost so much blood, the ventilator because his lung had collapsed, and the way he’d whimpered in his unconscious state, still fighting battles in his sleep.

Three days he’d been like that. Three days I’d sat by his bedside, watching him struggle for each breath, watching the bruises darken and spread across his skin like spilled ink. Three days of my wolf howling for vengeance while I forced myself to wait, to let him stabilize before I dealt with the ones responsible.

“That’s what I’m going to do to each of you,” I said, opening my eyes to find them all staring at me with naked terror. “Every injury, every bruise, and every broken bone, you’re going to feel exactly what he felt.”

I raised the chain, and they all screamed, cowering, begging, and then suddenly, my phone buzzed in my pocket.

I paused, chain still raised, and felt a flash of irritation. I’d told everyone I wasn’t to be disturbed. This had better be—

The screen lit up with a message notification. Ms. Chen, the infirmary nurse.

Ms. Chen: Your friend is awake. Asking to leave. Thought you’d want to know.

My heart stopped, then started again at double speed.

Awake.

Asher was awake.

I read the message three more times to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. Three days of waiting, three days of watching him lie there barely breathing, and now… he was awake.

“Callum,” I said, my voice rough. “Change of plans.”

My Beta looked at me with confusion. “What?”

I dropped the chain and pulled out my phone, typing rapidly. “He’s awake. Asher’s awake.”

Understanding dawned on Callum’s face, followed by relief. “Thank fuck. So what do you want to do with these pieces of shit?”

I looked down at the five Alphas still kneeling on the concrete floor, their faces wet with tears and snot, their bodies shaking with terror. Part of me, the dark, vengeful part still wanted to make them suffer. I wanted to hear them scream until their voices gave out, I wanted to break them the way they’d broken Asher, but Asher was awake, and he was asking to leave, which meant he was strong enough to be conscious and talking and being his stubborn, infuriating self.

I needed to see him, I needed to confirm with my own eyes that he was okay.

“You have thirty seconds to get out of my sight,” I said flatly. “And if I ever, ever see any of you near him again, if you so much as look in his direction, I will finish what I started here today. Understood?”

They nodded frantically, scrambling to their feet.

“And for the record,” I added, my voice dropping to something deadly quiet, “you’re all expelled. Your families will be hearing from my father’s lawyers about the consequences of assault on school territory. Your Alpha futures? Over. Consider yourselves rogues.”

Mason opened his mouth like he wanted to protest, but I bared my teeth and he shut up fast.

“Get. Out.” I barked an order, and they ran, tripping over each other in their haste to escape. Callum watched them go with a disgusted expression.

“You went easy on them,” he observed.

“I know.” I was already moving toward the door, every instinct screaming at me to get to Asher. “But he’s awake, and that’s more important.”

“You’ve got it bad, man.” He said, with a smirk plastered on his lips.

“Shut up.”

Callum laughed but fell into step beside me. “What are you going to say to him?” He asked.

Good question. What was I going to say? Sorry I let those bastards hurt you? I nearly killed five Alphas with my bare hands because the thought of someone touching you makes me homicidal? I sat by your bed for three days like a lovesick idiot, and I don’t even know why because you’re infuriating and secretive and you drive me completely insane?

That would be completely insane to tell him, and besides I still don’t know what these feelings I was feeling were all about.

Possession, attraction, or infatuated about finding his secrets, or was it more.

“I’ll figure it out,” I muttered.

The drive back to campus felt like it took hours even though it was only fifteen minutes. Every thing was like a torture that made my hands tighten on the steering wheel until my knuckles went white.

He was awake. Asher was awake, and asking to leave, which meant he was trying to run again and keep hiding in the shadows like he has been doinh. Trying to disappear before I could-

Before I could do what? Claim him? Demand answers? Kiss him until he stopped lying?

I parked illegally right outside the infirmary building and took the stairs three at a time. Ms. Chen looked up from her desk when I burst through the door, and something in her expression, knowing, and almost amused made me want to growl.

“He’s in the same bed,” she said before I could ask. “Still weak, but stable, and stubborn as hell, in case you were wondering.”

“That sounds like him,” I muttered, already moving toward the private recovery section.

My heart was hammering against my ribs in a way that had nothing to do with the stairs. What would I say? What would he say? Would he even want to see me, or would he blame me for what happened?

I pushed open the door to his room and there he was.

Sitting up in bed, dressed in borrowed Academy sweats that hung loose on his too-thin frame, looking pale and bruised but alive. His face was still swollen, one eye ringed with purple that had faded to yellow at the edges. There were butterfly bandages across his cheekbone and temple, but his eyes, those defiant blue eyes.tracked to me the moment I entered, and I watched his entire body tense.

For a moment, we just stared at each other, and I thought: Mine. He’s mine, and he’s alive, and I’m never letting anyone hurt him again.

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