Free Web NovelChapter 153: Better Dead II
[Third POV]
Her eyes widened in shock as the weight of Damon’s words settled over her like a suffocating shroud. A strangled gasp escaped her lips, the color draining from her face as if the blood itself recoiled from the dread that gripped her heart. Elise’s hands trembled, fingers clenching and unclenching in a futile attempt to conceal her fear, though she was failing terribly.
It felt as if the ground had been ripped out from beneath her feet, leaving her with nowhere else to go but to drown. She had been forsaken. Any second spent here in the hands of Damon Valentine was a second closer to her death.
Vernon could rescue her, right? But all hope was crushed when the sole of Damon’s shoe met the back of her hand, his body weight leaned against her. Elise couldn’t even properly cry out in pain, with her cheek injured like that.
"Or perhaps you would like to talk about something else?" Damon asked, humming in delight. He offered Kaine a glance from the corner of his eye, and the latter stepped forward.
He held out the whip for Damon to take, to which the alpha received happily. All Elise saw in her eyes was the transfer of her death from one hand to another. Kaine took a step back after, retreating to the spot Damon stood at previously, standing guard to make sure nothing was askew.
"You let slip an awfully interesting piece of information earlier on if you recall," Damon said. "What do you know exactly about Harper’s mother?"
Elise merely coldly laughed, her cheeks tilted up on the side that wasn’t injured.
"What do I know indeed," she said, her words slightly muffled due to her wounded cheek. "I don’t remember saying anything, Alpha."
Her cries of agony once again echoed down the corridors when Damon launched the tip of his shoes into her ribs, digging a spot where she was already injured from the previous fight they had.
"I am plenty happy to provide reminders," Damon taunted, a sinister grin hanging off his lips. "Her mother is family, didn’t you imply that? And that you and Harper could even be considered as cousins?"
He sneered, placing more force into his foot, eliciting yet another whimper of pain from Elise.
"I must admit, I don’t see the resemblance. My darling Harper is worlds above you."
"Fuck you," Elisa spat out a mouthful of blood, the splatter of crimson immediately staining Damon’s shoe. The latter’s expression darkened, though Elise was too far blinded by rage and pain to care. Adrenaline coursed through her veins and she could no longer see left from right.
"Harper is a disgrace, and so was her mother when she chose to leave the world of humans for a monster," Elise said. "A mate? Please. There’s no such thing as love destined in the stars. Veronica should’ve guessed as much when she chose to leave any and everything behind to run off into the woods with some self-proclaimed werewolf alpha. Much good that did her. Her husband eventually found another woman and left her and her daughter for the dead. So much for true love!" freёwebnovel.com
"’Veronica’, huh? You seem like you knew her personally," Damon commented with a raised eyebrow. freēwēbnovel.com
"Perhaps," Elise said with a crooked and bloodied smirk. "But the story has been spread far and wide among all the hunters, Damon Valentine. It’s a lesson that most children grow up with now― mates between werewolves mean nothing more than empty shams and broken promises. You wolves deem yourselves high and mighty when in reality, you’re no better than humans."
She continued, "If you can betray someone who is meant to be the half of your soul, who is to say that you will show mercy for everyone and anyone else? What is love in the face of power? And what are morals in the face of your own interests?"
"You say that as if hunters and humans are any better," Damon answered with a scoff.
"Oh, but we are better, Alpha Damon," Elise patronizingly replied. "We hunters look out for our own― humans. It doesn’t matter which country a human is from. If a werewolf becomes a threat, we will step in." Her eyes darkened, hatred brimming in every intonation of her words. "And werewolves are always a threat. You beasts should’ve stayed in the woods and continued to pretend you were nothing more than myths and legends."
"What else do you know about Veronica?" Damon asked. Then, he remembered something Harper had mentioned. "And what do you know about the house situated right outside Everhaven, in the woods?"
Elise’s eyes lit up with surprise at the mention of the house. A slow smile began to spread across her lips before eventually, she burst into a full-on cackle.
"How would you know about the house, dear alpha?" she asked, her laugh coy. "I don’t suppose you have visited it yourself?"
She carefully watched Damon’s expression― to be fair, he revealed nothing much. Damon Valentine had long mastered the perfectly stone-faced expression, revealing not a hint of his emotions. Alas, Elise had also been in the field of research and interrogation for far too long. She had seen her fair share of faces and heard more than enough stories to make calculated guesses.
"Or perhaps it was none other than Harper that entered the house?" Elise mused.
"Don’t be mistaken," Damon frostily replied, "you’re the one under interrogation. Either you answer the questions, or..."
He raised the whip and callously brought it down. It left a welt across Elise’s thigh, quickly erasing the grin from her face and the amusement in her eyes. She clutched her leg in agony, groaning and moaning as tears spilled down her cheeks.
"T-There is n-nothing else," Elise choked out. "If you don’t set me free, the hunters will come for you. They will kill every last one of you wolves and leave nothing more of Fangborne!"
"As if you mongrels haven’t been trying to already," Damon said.
This time, it was he who was amused. He turned to Kaine, gesturing to the injured Elise.
"Chop off her legs and bring her to the north of the Ever Woods," Damon instructed. "She is useless to me now, but perhaps the wendigos might still be interested in the scraps. Food is scarce, and I know they’re not picky."
