Drake's POV:
I took a deep breath, steadying myself as I looked into her eyes. "Okay, alright," I said, the words coming out more resolutely than I intended. "I will eliminate the whole Blood Moon Pack for you, but I need to make something clear." I paused, watching her carefully, her face unreadable, yet the tension between us was undeniable.
"I'm not going to mark you," I continued, my voice softening as I stepped closer to her. "I won't become the monster your mind tells you I am. I'm doing this because I love you, Leila. I want to protect you, not because you're offering yourself to me like some bargaining chip."
I moved toward her, gently cupping her face in my hands. Her skin was soft beneath my fingertips, and for a moment, the world seemed to still as I looked into her eyes, pleading with her to understand.
"I need you to trust and believe me," I whispered, my thumb brushing against her cheek. "I need you to know that right now, you're the most important person in my life. And if it comes down to it, I will let the whole world burn for you."
I leaned in and kissed her, softly at first, letting the kiss speak all the words my mouth had failed to convey. I poured everything into it—the frustration, the longing, the fierce need to protect her. She melted into me, and for a brief moment, we were one. No walls, no deals, just us.
But then, reality seeped back in. I pulled back, breathing heavily as I searched her eyes. "Are you willing to kill the innocent children in the pack too?" I asked the question that had haunted me since she first asked me to destroy the Blood Moon Pack.
She froze, staring at me as if seeing me for the first time. Her lips parted, and for a moment, I thought she would pull away again, but instead, she nodded, her gaze hardening. "Fine," she whispered, her voice barely audible. "I'll give you a glimpse of my past life. Then you can decide for yourself."
Her breathing grew ragged, her chest rising and falling as if it pained her to relive the memories. I held her steady, my hands still cradling her face, waiting for her to speak.
Leila's POV
The air between us was heavy with unspoken pain. The memories I had buried deep inside clawed their way to the surface, and I felt myself tremble in Drake's grip. It wasn't easy to talk about it, to let someone else see the horrors I'd been through. But I had to. He needed to understand why the Blood Moon Pack needed to be erased from existence. Why I couldn't rest until they were nothing but ash.
"I was more of a slave than a prisoner," I began, my voice distant as if I were narrating someone else's life. But this was mine—every nightmare, every scar, every humiliation.
"Under Alpha Vanvil's rule, I wasn't even treated as a person. I was nothing more than a slave. They forced me to clean the entire packhouse, cook for the pack members—yet I was never allowed to taste the food I made. Most days, I survived on scraps, or worse… nothing at all. They starved me, and when that didn't break me, they humiliated me."
I swallowed hard, feeling the bile rise in my throat as I remembered the squalor of that place. "I bathed once a week, if I was lucky. I wore the same filthy, tattered clothes for weeks on end. And I lived in the basement, among the rats." I forced myself to meet Drake's eyes. "The pack treated me like a toy—something to be used and discarded when they got bored. The children… gods, the children were little sadists who loved watching me heal after they wounded me. To them, I was nothing more than a pet to be tormented."
I closed my eyes, remembering the sting of their whips, their kicks, their laughter as they inflicted pain on me. "But the teenagers… they were worse. They spit on me, mocked me, fabricated stories of rebellion just to see me punished."
My voice shook as I forced myself to continue. "And Vanvil… Alpha Vanvil… he made me into a monster. He forced me into the dungeons. He made me torture prisoners while he watched, looming over me, reminding me that it was either their lives or mine. The first time… I wept as I spilled their blood." I paused, a bitter smile tugging at my lips. "By the second time, I couldn't even cry anymore. By the third, I had shut off my humanity entirely."
I looked at Drake then, my eyes burning with unshed tears. "I became a hollow shell of the girl I once was. I did whatever was asked of me, and every night, I cried myself to sleep in that cold, dark basement. My bed was nothing more than a pile of old cardboard. I lost everything. My dignity, my hope… my soul."
The room fell into a thick, suffocating silence. Drake stood frozen, his eyes wide with shock and anger, his hands still resting on my face as if he were afraid to let go, afraid that I might shatter into pieces.
"That's what the Blood Moon Pack did to me," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "That's why they all have to die."
I expected him to flinch, to look at me with disgust. I expected him to pull away, horrified by what I had become. But instead, his grip tightened. His eyes softened, filled with something I hadn't seen in so long—compassion.
Drake leaned in again, kissing me softly, reverently. And when he pulled back, his voice was low, but full of conviction. "Leila, I'm going to destroy them. For you. But not because of some deal, and not because you're offering yourself to me. I'll do it because I love you, because no one—no one—should have to suffer the way you have."
Tears slipped down my cheeks as I closed my eyes, resting my forehead against his. Maybe… just maybe… I could finally start to let go of the past.
But the vengeance still burned deep inside me, and I knew that while Drake might want to save me, I wasn't sure I could ever be saved. Not until the Blood Moon Pack was nothing but a memory.
Drake's POV:
I felt like the ground had been ripped from beneath me as Leila's words cut through the air. Each word, each revelation, felt like a dagger twisting deep into my chest. Anguish surged through me, mixing with a blinding rage I had never known before. The things she had endured—the torment, the cruelty, the inhumanity—it was too much to bear. My mate, my Leila, had been treated worse than a prisoner. She had been reduced to nothing more than a toy, a plaything for monsters who deserved nothing but to be eradicated.
The pain of it clawed at me, but even worse was the guilt. The guilt of not having found her sooner. Of not being there when she needed me most. Of not protecting her from the horrors that had plagued her every single day. I was supposed to be her protector, her Alpha, her mate. Yet, where was I when she was starving, cold, and being tortured? Where was I when she needed someone to save her from that living nightmare?
My fists clenched at my sides, trembling with the intensity of the emotions ripping through me. My wolf was furious—howling for blood, howling for vengeance. But underneath that rage was a pit of despair. I should have been there for her. I should have saved her from that hell, and instead, she had been forced to endure it all on her own. The thought of her—my strong, beautiful mate—reduced to living in filth, to being nothing more than a shell of the person she once was, tore me apart.
Every instinct in me screamed to fix it. To go back in time and rip those monsters apart with my bare hands. But I couldn't. I couldn't undo what had been done. All I could do now was make them pay for every single moment of agony they had put her through.
I couldn't stand still. The helplessness was eating me alive. My body thrummed with barely contained energy, my wolf ready to tear apart anything in its path to soothe the pain in Leila's eyes. The anguish there... it broke me. She had been strong enough to survive, strong enough to stand before me now, but I could see the toll it had taken on her. And I hated myself for not being able to take it all away.
I reached for her, my hand cupping her face gently, as if she might shatter from the weight of what she had been through. I wanted her to feel my presence, to know that she wasn't alone anymore. That I would never let her go through anything like that again. But deep inside, I knew that no matter how much I tried to comfort her, it would never erase the scars. It would never undo the torment she had endured. And that knowledge tormented me.
"I'm so sorry, Leila," I whispered, my voice thick with the weight of the emotions I couldn't put into words. "I should have found you sooner. I should have been there. I will spend everyday making this right. I promise you."
The weight of my failure crushed me, but I couldn't let it break me. She needed me to be strong now. She needed me to fight for her, to be her shield, her protector. I would do whatever it took to give her the justice she deserved. My rage burned hotter than ever, and my wolf roared within me, begging to be unleashed on the monsters who had hurt her.
I wasn't just angry—I was destroyed by what she had gone through. And nothing in this world would stop me from making them pay for every tear she shed, every moment of pain she suffered. They would know true fear before I was done with them.