Present Day
Bianca drifted into the land of the waking... But this couldn't be the real world, because in the real world, her walls at the Redwood House were pale rose gold, not plain white. In the real world, her room didn't have a window.
No.
He wouldn't have done this to her. Grayson never would've brought her back here, not when she knew how much she loathed Lorenzo.
And yet, the scenery of her old bedroom surrounding her felt so real.
"I know you. You can take control, Grayson."
How wrong she had been.
For the first time since before the night of the Blood Moon, Bianca looked at herself in the mirror. She could hardly recognize herself. Her face was so marred that it was hard to tell whether she was even a person at all. Even now, she could sense how dangerously close her blood was to reaching a boiling temperature.
She should go back to bed. She should fall back asleep, so that she would be able to wake up back in the Redwood House, far away from the man who had turned his back on his own daughter.
But how was she supposed to do that, when there were nightmares prowling behind her every thoughts? Would she ever be able to find peace after having played the sole victim to an unhinged alpha's attack?
The creature that was neither man nor wolf stood on its hind legs. It foamed at the mouth, desperate for the taste of blood. Its eyes were glimmering rubies, like rings that decorated the fingers of the Devil himself.
Bianca didn't move. She couldn't have, even if she'd wanted to- She'd lost too much blood and energy to her silver wound.
She held her breath. He wasn't going to hurt her, she tried to tell herself. He would never hurt her. Not like all the others had. So many people in her life had caused her both physical and mental pain, had stuck literal and figurative knives in her back, but he was different. She'd known from the start there was a high chance of him being like the rest, but time after time, he'd proven her wrong. Grayson and Bianca were the only ones that fully understood each other. Their fates were intertwined. Beast or not, no version of Grayson would ever hurt-
A scream tore through the night air, and it took Bianca far too long to realize that scream belonged to her. Her left arm was barely managing to hang onto her shoulder. Another slash later, she could see the whites of her bone.
During the first few minutes of the feral attacks, Bianca could do nothing but scream. There was no way for her to form any words while in such pain.
"Grayson," she managed to sob, long after the attacks had begun. "Grayson, stop this. I know you don't want to do this."
He'd continued. Over and over again, slash after slash, bite after bite. She hadn't been able to even attempt to run. She could only lay there on the ground of the cave, desperately crying out and begging for the morning to come.
Hours in, and she'd forgotten what the word 'morning' meant. There was no way she'd be able to wait long enough for the sun to rise. Her limbs had been torn apart, she was drowning in a deep pool of her own blood...
She just wanted it to end, for everything to just end. Was that too much to ask?
Bianca must've fallen unconscious at least three times. During those blessed moments, she dreamed that it was over, that she was safe again. Safe in his arms.
Each time, she was woken by the sound of her own cries. It was torture unlike anything she'd ever experienced. She was sure this was what eternity must feel like.
The final time, she woke to the sound of ragged breathing.
"Bianca?" he whispered her name.
She would've flinched, but she couldn't move. She couldn't even do so much as let her pupils dart around. Bianca wasn't sure if that was due to the damage that had been done to her body, or... Or if it was because she was afraid to look and find those nightmarish ruby eyes staring back at her.
Bianca was conscious as he scrambled to her, conscious to see tears running down his face, conscious when he cried for her to please be alive.
Each sound that came from his mouth forced her deeper into the horrors of the night she'd just escaped. There had been fleeting moments when he hadn't been ripping her to pieces, when he'd circled the cave, dragging his claws across the walls. "Bianca," the creature had purred. "Bianca."
Grayson took her back to the Redwood House in his wolf form. All through the journey, Bianca prayed for the world to collapse on top of her, because she couldn't stand another second of being so close to him.
She remained unmoving as she was lifted off his back and into Reyes and Jackson's arms. She stayed that way, as solid as stone, when they gently placed her onto the desk in Grayson's office.
Grayson arrived minutes later, with Dumas and a girl following behind him. Bianca had watched as Grayson brought the girl's skull upon the desk Bianca was on. Blood stained his fingers, but he didn't care. He didn't care.
Bianca didn't want to be afraid of him. She wanted to go back to their old bantering ways, back to her mocking him and him snapping at her. She wanted it more than he did, if that was even possible.
But every time she let herself imagine a world where she and Grayson were friends again, a haunting voice spoke to her, telling her this must all part of the illusion: The night of the Blood Moon hadn't ended yet, this was a dream sent by her mind to save her from the unimaginable pain that must be striking at her right now...
That was the most terrifying part of it. She didn't know if what she was experiencing was real or not.
At long last, when she'd finally learned to discern reality from dreams, she'd tried to make herself be brave, brave enough to exchange a simple hello to Grayson.
But in the end, Reyes and Jackson had had to hold her down. Her screams were due to the trauma, but the tears that ran down her face were tears that mourned for Grayson. The look in his eyes as he watched her be afraid... It was a whole new kind of pain altogether.
"Bianca."
She froze. Her blood started boiling again, only this time, it was due to the purest level of hatred any living thing could possibly experience.
"You w-were supposed to come f-for me."
She wanted to take Lorenzo's claws and stick them into his chest. How dare he watch her as he did now, as though it wasn't he who had brought upon her the scars he was observing with such intensity?
Lorenzo opened his mouth, undoubtedly to say something along the lines of, You're alive, aren't you? He then paused, and shook his head. Maybe, just maybe, the sight of so many wounds that would never heal was enough to make him have a little humanity, for once.
"I didn't think he'd go so far," Lorenzo sighed.
Didn't think he'd... What?
The gears in her mind finally clicked into place. Lorenzo thought Grayson had done this to her on purpose, to punish her for her father's silence. Hell... That was what everyone was thinking, wasn't it?
"You didn't think he'd go so far?" Bianca repeated. She wasn't stuttering anymore. Somehow, using her bed frame for support, she rose to her feet. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"
Lorenzo sighed again. "Look, Bianca-"
"It's fine for me to get hurt as long as it all stays hushed up, but as soon as destruction of this scale breaks out- Once he reaches the level where the whole world is talking about how Lorenzo Blackburn's daughter has been reduced to nothing- That's when you start caring?"
Bianca wanted him to feel the pain she'd felt when she'd learned of his betrayal. She wanted him to know that it had destroyed her, knowing she would never be able to fully trust another person again. And if there was a possibility, no matter how slim, that she'd be able tp make a dent in Lorenzo's guilt-free heart...
She would gladly bury that dent in deeper with a shovel of lies.
"Do you have any idea what I've had to go through in the past three months?" Bianca screamed. "Do you know what they did to me? How it got worse when they realized you really wouldn't be coming for me? Did it mean nothing to you, that they were spilling and soaking the carpets in that house with Grace Quinn's blood?"
It was her mother's name that finally got a reaction out of him.
"I'll slaughter every one of them," he growled.
"What, because that's how you're going to avenge your daughter?" Bianca laughed. "Do you honestly think there's anybody out there who's going to believe that? You only care about yourself and your reputation!"
"So what if I do?" Lorenzo exploded. "You should be grateful-"
"Grateful?"
"-For the crown that was on your head since birth. For how I made sure you would have nothing to fear for seventeen years of your life, for the endless amount of assets I poured into your future, for-"
"And the second the opportunity came along for you to be rid of me, you took it," she seethed. Suddenly, she recalled the conversation she'd shared with Grayson so long ago.
"I've changed my mind," she gasped. Hot tears of rage flooded her eyes. "I hope Grayson Briare fucking kills you. You'd be more helpful to me dead than alive, anyway."
And with that, Bianca stormed out of her room, the house, and ran. She transitioned into her wolf form, and though her joints ached from the scars and from not having moved like this in so long, she bounded off into the woods. She came to a stop at the cliffs, the cliffs where Sierra had died... The cliffs where Grayson had first found her.
How could Grayson have done this to her? How could he have possibly thought having her brought back here would be good for her? Lorenzo Blackburn was a soulless monster. Not to mention, everywhere she looked, there was a painful memory lurking in the corner.
Then again, maybe Grayson had had the right idea. Now that there was a significant distance between the two of them, she felt less frightened about thinking about him.
This left her feeling something incredibly dangerous: Hope. Hope for a better life, for a better future... One where she could be at close proximity to him again without flinching, where the two of them could rule side by side as King and Queen of the largest pack in North Carolina.
All she needed was some time.