Free Web NovelChapter 29: Dug Her Own Grave
REBECCA’S POV
I was fast asleep, drifting in a rare moment of peace away from the pain in my shoulder, when a sharp, burning pain exploded across my cheek.
My eyes snapped open, and my hand flew to my face. Standing over my bed, her face twisted in pure disgust, was Tanya.
"Get up, you pathetic murderer," she hissed, her eyes glaring at me with deep hatred.
The hot slap made my skin sting, and the sudden movement sent a white-hot bolt of pain straight through my broken left shoulder. Squeezing my eyes shut, I forced myself to sit up on the mattress. My body was still in deep pain from everything Kaden and the construction site had put me through, but as I looked up at Tanya—Kaden’s betrothed—something inside me snapped. I was absolutely done. I might be forced to take brutality and punishment from the Alpha King himself, but I would not take this degeneracy from her.
"How dare you slap me?" I said, my voice shaking with a mixture of pain and pure anger.
"I can do whatever I want to you, slave," Tanya sneered, lifting her hand to strike my face a second time. "You are nothing but a worthless piece of trash in this mansion."
But this time, I didn’t just sit there and take it. Before her hand could connect with my skin again, I reached out with my good right arm, caught her wrist tightly mid-air, and pushed her back.
"Enough!" I barked, staring right into her eyes. "If you are so angry about my presence in his bed, go take your anger out on the Alpha King. Leave me out of your jealousy."
Tanya gasped in total shock, her face turning bright red because a slave had dared to touch her. She yanked her wrist out of my grip and stepped closer, her chest heaving.
"I will kill you, you slut!" she threatened, her voice dripping with threat. "You think you are safe because Kaden ordered the kitchen to feed you? You better leave this territory right now, or I will personally make sure you end up dead in a ditch. I will tear you apart myself!"
Hearing her death threat, a wave of sheer desperation washed over me. I had no wolf strength to fight her off if she actually attacked me. I needed to protect myself. I needed to make her fear me so she would leave me alone for good.
Looking straight into her eyes, I forced a cold, fake smirk onto my face and lied right to her face.
"Yes, I killed Queen Helen, and I can do the same to you!" I barked, my voice ringing out with a strange, fierce strength. "Don’t let my weak frame deceive you... don’t let my fake victim attitude deceive you... I am a monster. A dangerous heartless one. If you touch me again, you will be next."
Tanya froze, her eyes widening in sudden fear as she stepped back.
But before she could speak, the heavy wooden door suddenly burst open with a loud slam.
My heart dropped into my stomach and my eyes widened in absolute terror. Alpha Kaden stepped into the room, his face dark with a terrifying, deadly rage.
"Kaden!" Tanya gasped, her voice instantly changing from a vicious sneer to a high-pitched, panicked whine. She scrambled away from my bed, pointing a shaking finger directly at my face. "Did you hear it? Did you hear what she just said? She just admitted it! She proudly told me that she killed Queen Helen, and she just threatened to murder me next!"
A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the room. I sat frozen on the mattress, my good right hand clutching the blanket.
Shit. I was in deep, irreversible trouble. I had just dug my own grave, and Kaden had heard every word."
I looked up at Kaden, and my breath caught in my throat.
He stood in the doorway like a towering god of death. His massive chest was heaving, his jaw was clenched so tight the muscles in his face were twitching, and his eyes—usually a piercing, cold blue—had bled into a dangerous, pitch-black color. His Alpha aura flooded the room, heavy and suffocating, making it hard for me to even breathe. He had heard everything. Every single word of my desperate lie.
Tanya rushed over to his side, trying to grab his arm. "Kaden, you have to execute her right now! You heard her! She called herself a monster, she said her weak frame is just a fake act—"
"Get out," Kaden growled. His voice was low, deep, and vibrating with a deadly power that made the very windows in the room rattle.
Tanya blinked, completely caught off guard. "What? But Kaden, she just threatened your betrothed! She—"
"I said, get out!" Kaden roared, snapping his dark eyes directly toward her.
The force of his Alpha command made Tanya flinch violently. She choked on her next words, her face turning pale as she realized she had pushed him too far. Not daring to say another word, she gave me one last look full of pure hatred, turned on her heel, and quickly scurried out of the bedroom, slamming the door shut behind her. freewebnøvel.com
The loud bang of the door echoed through the quiet space, leaving me completely alone with the beast.
Slowly, Kaden turned his eyes back to the bed, locking his dark, angry gaze onto mine. He began to walk toward me, and each heavy step sounded like a death sentence.
The anger coming from his body made it hard to breathe. I wanted to move backward, to hide against the headboard, but there was nowhere left to go. The air grew colder with every step he took. But instead of shouting in rage like he usually did, Kaden suddenly became terrifyingly quiet. The loud, booming voice of the angry Alpha was completely gone. It was replaced by a low, icy calm that was a thousand times scarier.
He stopped right at the edge of the mattress, standing over me like a dark shadow. He did not reach out to grab me. He just looked down at me, his eyes dead and empty.
"So, it was all a fake act," he said, the fury in his voice making my skin crawl. "The tears. The shaking. The sad crying on the floor last night. You played the part of the helpless, starving victim perfectly, Rebecca."
"Alpha Kaden, I—"
"Silence," he cut me off. He did not even raise his voice, but the coldness in his tone stopped me, locking the words in my chest.
He tilted his head, a bitter smile touching his lips. "I actually sat in my room last night feeling a bit of guilt. I looked at the picture of my dead mate and wondered if I was being too cruel to you. I ordered three meals for you. I told the staff you only answer to me. I even made sure the pack doctor would come to check on your shoulder this morning."
He took a slow, deep breath, and the emptiness in his eyes turned into pure hatred.
"What a fool I was," he muttered softly. "You aren’t broken at all. You are so proud of being the monster who killed Helen that you use her name to scare my betrothed. You brag about it the second my back is turned."
My heart beat violently against my ribs. The lie I had told to scare Tanya away had just turned into a deadly trap. I wanted to scream the truth at him. I wanted to tell him that I only said it because Tanya had slapped me, because she was threatening to kill me, and because I had no other way to protect myself. But looking at the tight, angry look on his face, I knew he would not believe a single word. To him, I had just shown who I really was.
"If you are a heartless monster who is proud of killing, then I no longer have to feel bad about how I treat you," Kaden said, his voice flat and cold. "You want to brag about your power? Let’s see how much power you have left."
He turned his head slightly toward the door, his jaw tight.
"The doctor will not be coming," he stated coldly. "Your shoulder can heal on its own, however long it takes. And those three meals I ordered? Forget them. You will eat the leftover food the servants leave behind, and only when I say so."
A tear fell down my cheek as the cold truth of my situation crashed down on me. By trying to act strong to survive Tanya, I had just ruined the tiny bit of kindness Kaden had shown me.
"You are a breeder, Rebecca," Kaden whispered, leaning down just enough so his cold breath hit my ear. "A slave. From this moment on, I will make your life in this house an absolute living hell. I will break you until you wish for death."
He stood up straight, not waiting for me to answer, and walked out of the room without looking back. The heavy door shut behind him, leaving me alone in the dark room, trapped by my own desperate lie.
