-Ember-
"I can't believe you're here," I say for the third time, still gripping Stella like she might vanish into thin air if I let go. The dining hall has turned into our own personal entertainment venue, with pack members stealing glances and whispering excitedly about the redhead who just verbally annihilated Laura.
"Our cavalry has arrived in spectacular fashion," Ivy purrs with deep satisfaction. "Did you see Laura's face? I thought she was going to spontaneously combust."
"Best entrance ever," I agree, grinning despite everything. "Leave it to Stella to make an unforgettable first impression."
Adrian approaches us, and I can see the complex mix of emotions playing across his face—relief that I'm happy, apprehension about what chaos Stella might unleash, and something that looks suspiciously like guilt.
"Ember," he begins, his voice soft but weighted with sincerity, "I owe you a massive apology."
I blink in surprise, not expecting this. "For what?"
"For not dealing with Laura and her psychotic family months ago when I knew they were becoming a problem," he says, his jaw clenching with self-directed anger. "I let sentiment for my father's friendship with Ron cloud my judgment. You never should have had to deal with their harassment. Not yesterday with Jasmine's little bedroom surprise, not this morning with Laura's territorial bullshit, not ever."
The raw honesty in his voice makes my chest tighten. "Adrian, you couldn't have predicted—"
"Yes, I could have," he cuts me off gently but firmly. "Jasmine has been acting like she owned a permanent spot at my side for months. Her mother has been playing Luna without the title. I should have shut that shit down before you ever had to encounter their delusions."
Stella's eyes light up with predatory interest. "Speaking of the infamous Jasmine—where exactly is this bleach-blonde disaster who thought she could claim what belongs to my girl?"
"Of course I told her everything," I think, feeling heat creep up my neck. "She's my best friend. Sharing humiliating details is basically in the job description."
"Currently enjoying the luxury accommodations in our detention center," Adrian replies with grim satisfaction.
Stella's face transforms into something that would make angels weep and demons cheer. "The cells? Oh, this day just keeps getting better and better! You know what? I think I'd like to pay little Miss Homewrecker a personal visit. Call it a... wellness check."
A wild idea suddenly forms in my mind—one that terrifies and thrills me in equal measure. "Actually... I want to go too."
Adrian's reaction is swift and predictable. "Absolutely fucking not."
"Adrian—"
"No, Ember." His voice shifts into full protective Alpha mode, the kind that makes lesser wolves submit automatically. "You don't need to see that place, and you sure as hell don't need to be anywhere near her or the other psychopaths we've got locked up down there."
I square my shoulders, channeling every ounce of Stella's fierce confidence and my own newfound backbone. "I need to do this, Adrian. Not just to see Jasmine, but... Tanner's down there too, isn't he?"
The way his entire body goes rigid tells me everything I need to know.
"Then I definitely need to go," I continue, my voice gaining strength with each word. "I need to face him. To prove to myself—and to you—that he doesn't have power over me anymore. That all these insecurities I keep having about us are just that—insecurities born from his psychological torture, not reality."
Adrian's expression shifts, something raw and guilty flickering across his features. "Ember... your insecurities aren't just from Tanner." His voice drops, heavy with self-recrimination. "They're from me too. From how I handled the Jasmine situation."
I blink, not expecting this admission.
"I let her believe she had a chance," he continues, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "For months, I kept telling myself I was being diplomatic, avoiding pack drama. But the truth is, I was taking the easy way out. I should have been brutal from the start—should have made it crystal fucking clear that she meant nothing to me."
Stella raises an eyebrow but stays silent, clearly interested in where this is going.
"Instead, I let her hover around the edges of my life, let her mother play Luna, let them both live in their delusions because it was easier than dealing with the fallout." His jaw clenches. "And when you arrived, you walked into a situation where another woman was acting like she belonged at my side. No wonder you questioned everything between us."
"Well, damn. Look at our Alpha taking actual accountability," Ivy murmurs, impressed despite herself.
"You deserved better than that," Adrian says, his eyes intense on mine. "You deserved to come into a situation where there was no question about your place in my life. Where you never had to wonder if you were enough, because everyone already knew you were the only one who mattered."
The raw honesty in his words hits me harder than I expected. For weeks, I've been carrying this weight—wondering if I was overreacting, if my insecurities were all in my head, if I was being unfair to him. But hearing him acknowledge his part in it... it's like a knot I didn't even know was there finally loosens in my chest.
"Thank you," I whisper, my voice thick with emotion. "For saying that. For... understanding that it wasn't just about Tanner."
Adrian reaches up to cup my face, his thumb brushing away a tear I didn't realize had fallen. "I should have said it sooner. Should have handled all of this better from the start."
"But you're handling it right now," I point out, leaning into his touch. "That's what matters."
Stella nods approvingly, crossing her arms. "Closure is important, babe. Sometimes you need to look your demons dead in the eye and tell them exactly where they can shove their manipulative bullshit."
"We do need this," Ivy agrees with surprising solemnity. "We need to face our past so we can fully embrace our future with Adrian."
"Little wolf, you don't understand what's down there," Adrian tries again, desperation bleeding into his authoritative tone. "It's not just Tanner and Jasmine. There are rogues, murderers, wolves who've completely lost their humanity. It's dark and it reeks of fear and violence and despair—"
"I'll be with you," I interrupt, reaching up to frame his face with my hands. "And with Stella. I'm not going down there alone. But I need this, Adrian. I need to close this chapter of my life so I can fully open the next one with you."
I watch the internal war play out across his gorgeous features—his desperate need to protect me battling against his understanding of what I need to heal and move forward.
Finally, he releases a long, defeated sigh. "Fine. But you stay glued to my side the entire time. You don't speak to anyone except Tanner and Jasmine. And the second—the fucking second—I say we're leaving, we leave. No arguments, no negotiations, no 'just five more minutes.' Understood?"
Relief floods through me like warm honey. "Deal."
Stella bounces on her toes with barely contained excitement. "Road trip to the dungeon of despair! This is officially the best day ever."
"We're definitely the most chaotic friend group in supernatural history," Ivy observes with dark amusement.
The descent into the detention center feels like entering the seventh circle of hell. The temperature drops dramatically with each step down the stone staircase, and the air grows thick with scents that assault my sensitive nose—unwashed bodies, fear so potent it's practically tangible, desperation, and something much darker lurking underneath it all.
"This place reeks of pure misery," Ivy whispers, her usual sass replaced by genuine unease. "No wonder Adrian didn't want us down here. It's like hopelessness has a smell."
Adrian's hand is warm and reassuring in mine, his grip tightening protectively as we reach the bottom level. Stella walks on my other side, her typical chatter replaced by focused alertness as she takes in our grim surroundings with the eye of someone cataloging potential threats.
"Well, this is absolutely delightful," she mutters under her breath, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Real torture chamber chic. Very atmospheric."
The cells line both sides of a long, dimly lit corridor, most occupied by various degrees of dangerous-looking wolves. Some watch our little procession pass with dead, soulless eyes that make my skin crawl. Others track us with calculating interest that suggests they're mentally undressing me or planning creative ways to hurt me. A few call out crude, disgusting comments that Adrian's warning growl quickly silences.
"Just keep walking and don't make eye contact," he murmurs against my ear, his breath warm against my skin. "They're trying to get a reaction, to make you afraid. Don't give them the satisfaction."
"Noted. Pretend the scary murder wolves don't exist. Got it," Ivy says with forced lightness.
We stop in front of a cell about halfway down the corridor, and I have to bite back a gasp at what I see.
Jasmine is completely unrecognizable. Gone is the pristine, calculated beauty I remember from our first encounter. Her once-perfect designer clothes are torn and filthy, hanging off her frame like rags. Her carefully styled hair hangs in greasy, matted clumps around her shoulders, and her makeup has long since streaked down her face in black rivulets.
But it's the state of the cell itself that makes my stomach turn. The walls are covered in scratches—some clearly made by fingernails, others that look suspiciously like claw marks. There are patches where the stone has been worn smooth, as if she's been pacing the same path over and over, wearing grooves into the floor.
When she sees us approaching, something absolutely feral takes over her expression.
"ADRIAN!" she screams, launching herself at the bars with such force that the entire cell door rattles. Her hands wrap around the metal bars, knuckles white with the strength of her grip, and I can see that her fingernails are torn and bloody from clawing at the walls. "Thank the Moon Goddess you're here! This has all been a TERRIBLE misunderstanding!"
She presses her face between the bars, tears streaming down her cheeks, leaving clean tracks through the grime. "Please, baby, please! I can explain everything! I've been waiting for you! I knew you'd come for me!"
"Save your breath, Barbie," Stella interrupts with a shark-like grin that promises violence. "You must be the famous Jasmine. I'm Stella, and I've been absolutely dying to meet you."
Jasmine's wild eyes focus on my best friend with undisguised hostility. "Who the hell are you supposed to be? Another one of his whores?"
"I'm the friend who makes sure delusional bitches like you understand exactly what happens when you threaten my family," Stella replies with poisonous sweetness.
"I love her so fucking much," Ivy sighs happily. "She's like our personal avenging angel with better hair."
"Adrian, please," Jasmine tries again, her voice taking on that wheedling, desperate tone that makes my skin crawl. She reaches through the bars, trying to touch him, but he steps back, disgust clear on his face. "You know what we had was real! I GAVE UP EVERYTHING FOR YOU!"
Her voice cracks on the last words, raw desperation bleeding through. "Do you know what I did for you? DO YOU?" She's sobbing now, ugly, desperate sobs that echo off the stone walls. "I rejected my FATED MATE! My fated mate came to me when I turned eighteen, and I REJECTED him because I thought... I thought you would choose me!"
The admission hangs in the air like a toxic cloud. Even Stella looks shocked.
"I told him I didn't want him because I was waiting for you!" Jasmine continues, her voice rising to a hysteria that makes other prisoners start rattling their own bars in response. "I've been saving myself for you since I was FOURTEEN! Every day, every night, dreaming of the moment you'd finally see me, finally choose me!"
She's clawing at her own face now, leaving red scratches down her cheeks. "I planned our whole life together! Our mating ceremony, our children, how I'd be the perfect Luna for you! I studied for YEARS, Adrian! I learned everything about pack management, about traditions, about being what you needed!"
"Jasmine," Adrian's voice cuts through her desperate babbling like a blade through silk. "You threatened to kill my mate. There is no coming back from that. Ever."
"But I'm PREGNANT!" she wails, the words exploding from her like a bomb. "I'm carrying your baby! Our baby! The heir you need!"
She presses her hands to her stomach, her voice becoming pleading, manipulative. "Feel the bond, Adrian! You must feel something for our child! For the family we could have!"
"That baby isn't mine," Adrian says coldly. "We both know it."
Jasmine's face contorts with rage and desperation. "YES IT IS! It has to be! I haven't been with anyone else! I swear on the Moon Goddess, I swear on my life!"
"Then you've been lying about being pregnant," he replies, his voice devoid of emotion.
Something snaps in Jasmine completely. She throws herself against the bars again, the sound of metal on bone making me wince. "FINE! FINE! There's no baby! But there could be! We could make one right now! I'll do ANYTHING, Adrian! ANYTHING!"
Her voice drops to a whisper that somehow carries more desperation than her screaming. "I'll be whatever you want me to be. I'll change everything about myself. Just... please don't abandon me for her. Please don't throw away everything we could have for some broken little reject who can't even keep her own mate."
The casual cruelty in her voice when she refers to me makes something cold settle in my stomach, but before I can respond, she's talking again.
"She'll never love you like I do," Jasmine continues, pressing her face against the bars, staring directly at me now. "She doesn't know you like I do. She wasn't there when your parents died. She wasn't there when you came back broken and traumatized. I WAS! I've been waiting for you, loving you, supporting you from the shadows while she was off spreading her legs for anyone who'd have her!"
"That's enough," Adrian growls, but Jasmine isn't done.
"Please," she whispers, and the raw desperation in her voice is almost painful to hear. "I'm begging you, Ember. Please just leave him. You don't understand what you're taking from me. This is my LIFE. My EVERYTHING. Without Adrian, I'm nothing. NOTHING!"
She drops to her knees in the cell, hands still gripping the bars. "I'll give you anything you want. Money, position in another pack, I'll make sure you're taken care of. Just... please don't destroy everything I've built my entire existence around."
The raw desperation in her voice almost makes me feel sorry for her. Almost.
"Everything you've done has been for yourself," I speak up for the first time, my voice steadier than I expected. "Real love doesn't threaten, Jasmine. Real love doesn't manipulate or scheme or try to destroy what makes the other person happy."
Her tear-filled eyes focus on me with pure, undiluted venom. "You don't know what love is, you pathetic little bitch. You're nothing special. Just another desperate she-wolf who got lucky."
Stella takes an aggressive step forward, but I hold up a hand to stop her. "You're absolutely right," I say with calm honesty that clearly catches Jasmine off guard. "I'm not special. I'm not a Beta female or a master manipulator or someone who's spent years planning the perfect life. I'm just a woman who loves her mate enough to want him to be happy, even when that means sharing his attention with pack duties and responsibilities."
"You're weak," Jasmine spits with vicious satisfaction.
"Maybe," I shrug, surprising myself with how unbothered I feel. "But I'm happy. Can you say the same?"
Her face crumples like a house of cards in a hurricane, and we leave her sobbing in her cell as we continue down the corridor.
"That was absolutely masterful," Stella murmurs with genuine admiration. "You completely destroyed her with kindness and honesty. Brutal in the best possible way."
"Look at us, being all mature and emotionally intelligent," Ivy says with pride. "We've come so far from the broken girl who left Silver Moon."
As we leave Jasmine's broken sobs echoing behind us, I feel something settle inside me. Her desperation showed me the difference between real love and destructive obsession. I'm not the problem here—she is.
"One more stop," I say quietly, my voice steadier than I expected. "I need to see Tanner."
Adrian's grip on my hand tightens, but he doesn't argue. We walk further down the corridor, past more cells filled with dangerous-looking wolves, until we reach the end.
There, lounging on his cot like he's relaxing at a five-star resort instead of rotting in a dungeon, is Tanner. He looks up as we approach, and that familiar cruel smile spreads across his face—the one that used to make me flinch and cower.
Now it just makes me feel tired.
"Well, well, well," he drawls, standing and sauntering to the bars with that old arrogant swagger. "If it isn't my sweet little mate, come to visit me in my time of need."
The casual way he calls me his mate doesn't send the usual spike of revulsion through me. Instead, I feel... nothing. Like he's talking about someone else entirely.
"I'm not your mate," I say with quiet firmness. "I never was."
Tanner's laugh is sharp and mocking, echoing off the stone walls. His eyes glitter with malicious amusement as he leans closer to the bars.
"Oh, sweetheart," he says, his voice dropping to a whisper that somehow carries more malice than any shout, "you don't know the half of it."