<h4>Chapter 358: de of Guilt</h4>


    <strong>River:</strong>


    The coppery stench of blood lingered in the dungeon like a curse. Ethan’s shallow breaths rasped against the stone floor. His face was mangled, his body a patchwork of bruises and torn flesh.


    Every part of me screamed to end it. To finish him. To drive my ws through his chest so he could never again draw breath, never again taint this world with his existence.


    He had already destroyed too much - my mate’s innocence, her trust, her sense of worth. For that alone, he deserved to die.


    My ws flexed at my sides. My wolf ready toe out and handle the matter. It would be so easy. One strike. One heartbeat, and this would be over.


    But not yet.


    I forced myself to step back, my chest heaving with the effort of restraint. "No." My voice echoed in the stone chamber, rough and unyielding.


    Oscar’s head snapped toward me, his eyes burning with disbelief. "No? River, he deserves to die. You heard him. He admitted it. He admitted everything." His fists clenched, blood still dripping down his knuckles.


    Draven bared his teeth, a snarl lodged deep in his throat. "You are stopping us for what? He humiliated our mate. He made her cry. He caused her suffering and pain. You want him to breathe another day?"


    I turned to them both, meeting their fury head on. They were younger, their tempers quicker, their rage harder to contain. But I was not just their brother, but also their Alpha. And more than that... I was also Evaline’s mate. I could not afford to be reckless. Not now.


    "We can’t kill him yet," I said firmly. "Not until we know everything. We need him alive long enough to tear out every truth he and Damian are hiding."


    Oscar growled low, but I saw the conflict in his eyes. He wanted blood - Ethan’s blood. Yet he also knew I was right.


    Draven shoved a hand through his dark hair, pacing the length of the dungeon. "Damn it." His voice cracked with raw frustration. "I hate that you are right."


    "Good," I muttered. "Then trust me. He will die... but only when we have wrung him dry of what he knows."


    The words didn’t taste satisfying, but they were necessary. Ethan ckwood would get his death, but on our terms.


    I stepped back, breathing hard, and nced once more at his limp, broken form. "Keep him unconscious," I ordered. "No food, no water until I say. He can heal in the dark while he waits for what’sing."


    The decision weighed heavy, but it steadied me. There was more to uncover, and that meant one target still remained.


    "Jasper." My voice rose in the silence.


    My beta stepped forward from the shadows, his expression grim, awaiting my nextmand.


    "Bring me Damian Greystone," I ordered. "Alive. From the bordering pack where I exiled him." My voice dropped lower, harsher. "I don’t care what it takes. Break him, chain him, drag him by his throat if you have to. But bring him here."


    Jasper bowed his head once,. "Consider it done." Without another word, he vanished into the shadows, his steps fading quickly.


    I exhaled slowly, running a hand over my face.


    The dungeon felt tighter, suffocating, as though every brick absorbed Ethan’s sins. I turned away, my brothers following in silence.


    We left Ethan broken on the floor. For now.


    - - -


    It was nearly dawn when we climbed the stairs out of the dungeon. Six in the morning. Two hours had slipped by in that pit of blood and confessions. Two hours since Jasper had first called to say Ethan ckwood had been captured and locked away in our estate.


    I hadn’t wasted a second rushing down here with Oscar and Draven. And we hadn’t stopped until the truth had been beaten out of him.


    But now the sun was beginning to creep across the horizon. Kieran was still with Evaline, guarding her and the pup at the new house. He had no idea what we had done while he held their world together.


    I clenched my jaw. Thest thing I wanted was for Evaline to even sense the darkness we had carried tonight.


    Oscar and Draven fell into step beside me. Both were bloodied, their knuckles raw, their clothes stained. We couldn’t return to her like this. Not when our pup was waiting for us too.


    "We clean up first," I said as we crossed the hall. "Showers. New clothes. Not a trace of this touches her and the child."


    Neither of my brothers argued. We might not agree on when Ethan should die, but we all agreed on one thing - our mate and the pup would never be stained with the filth of this vengeance.


    - - -


    <fn4ecd> Content originallyes from f?i?n?d?n?o?v?e?l?</fn4ecd>


    By the time we stepped out of the showers, steam rolling away in thick clouds, the stench of blood had been reced with soap and fresh linen. New clothes hung crisp against our shoulders. We looked presentable again - calm, collected. No one would know where we had been.


    But inside, rage was still burning.


    The car ride back to the new house was quiet at first, the hum of the engine a dull background to the storm in my head. Then Oscar broke the silence.


    "How the hell did Damian even get his hands on a spell like that?" His voice was sharp,ced with disbelief. "Spells don’t just fall into yourp. They have been gone for centuries."


    Draven frowned, his gaze fixed on the passing forest outside the window. "He had to have had a contact. Someone hiding, someone with ess to the old bloodlines. But who?"


    I gripped the steering wheel tighter. They were right - magic had no ce in our world anymore. The witches were gone, their kind wiped out long before any of us were born. The rare descendants that remained had buried themselves deep in exile, hiding on distant inds or cloakednds. The chances of one crossing Damian’s path were nearly nonexistent.


    And yet... here we were.


    "It wasn’t chance," I said finally, my voice low. "I have this feeling that there’s more to this than we know."


    Silence stretched again, heavier this time.


    Then Draven’s words cut through it, sharp with disbelief. "I still can’t wrap my head around it. Damian wanted to drug her. He wanted to-" He stopped himself, rage ring hot in his eyes. "What kind of monster thinks that way about his own sister?"


    The question twisted inside me like a de.


    Because it wasn’t just rage I felt now. It was guilt.