CHAPTER 158: CHAPTER 158: NO KING OF MINE

Kieran’s POV

The sound of chains rattling against the metal bedframe echoed louder than any war cry I’ve ever heard.

It cut through the sterile air like a scream through silence.

But the real scream came after, raw, guttural, soaked in agony.

Lorraine’s scream.

And goddess... I thought I was ready for it. I thought I was prepared for whatever came out of her when she woke up.

But I wasn’t.

I stood there, rooted at the foot of the bed, watching as she jolted awake like something had snatched her out of a nightmare and thrown her into a worse reality.

Her chest heaved. Her eyes were wide, wild. Confusion flickered first... then horror. And then, the moment she tried to sit up and felt the weight of her chains, the panic arrived. I tried to explain to her, why this was necessary but she didn’t even listen

"No! No!" she thrashed, yanking at the restraints, one arm, two ankles, and the stump of her missing limb wrapped in layers of clean gauze. Her voice tore at the air. "Let me go!"

The bed creaked violently under her desperation. The heart monitor beeped erratically in the background, a rapid percussion to her hysteria. I took one step forward, but she flinched like I’d struck her.

"Don’t come near me!" she screamed, eyes blazing with fury and pain. "Don’t you dare come near me!"

I froze mid-step. My hands curled into fists at my sides. I wanted to touch her, hold her, calm her, but I couldn’t. Not now. Maybe not ever again.

Her gaze flicked down to her left side, her missing arm, and I saw it happen. That moment.

The moment her world collapsed again.

She blinked.

Then blinked again.

Her eyes locked on the bandaged stump where her arm used to be.

"No..." she whispered, the word barely a sound. "No, no, no..."

I saw it, the exact second the despair cracked her open from the inside.

Her whole body trembled. "Why... why is it still gone?" she choked, her voice small. "Why didn’t it grow back? My wolf should’ve healed me. It’s supposed to grow back."

"The arm is gone Lorraine, you’ll have to find a way to come to peace with that" I finally stated, my voice cracked

Gone.

That single word shattered her.

"No..." Lorraine’s voice cracked. Her whole body slumped, then she stiffened. "You should’ve let me die," she said suddenly, quietly.

My heart stopped.

"Lorraine...." I tried to speak again

"Shut up!" she cut me off, her eyes burning like wildfire. "This is your fault! All of this! Elise is dead! I’m like this! Because of you!"

Her words punched through every layer of armor I had. I took it. All of it. I didn’t fight back. What right did I have?

She yanked at the chains again until her skin reddened beneath the cuffs. "I’m a cripple now! How am I supposed to fight like this? How am I supposed to take revenge for Elise like this?! How do I fight with one arm?!" Her voice cracked. "What good am I now?!"

I couldn’t take it anymore.

"You’re alive," I said, my voice low. "You’re still here."

"I didn’t want to be," she hissed. "I don’t want to be. Not like this."

My jaw tightened. I stepped closer, and this time she didn’t flinch, she glared, teeth bared like a wounded wolf cornered by a hunter.

"I’m sorry," I said, uselessly. Again. "This is a precaution. To stop you from hurting yourself again."

She stared at me for a long, tense second. Then her voice dropped into a chilling whisper.

"I hate you."

I closed my eyes, the words slicing through me like broken glass. But when I opened them, I schooled my face into stone.

"I don’t care."

"I hate you, Kieran," she repeated louder, the pain in her eyes shifting into something fiercer. "You think you can just take everything from me, my dignity, my choices, and then chain me here like I’m your prisoner?! You’re not a king. You’re a monster in royal clothing."

I could feel my throat closing. My fingers curled so tightly, my claws were threatening to burst through skin.

"You have no right to keep me here," she spat. "You have no right to make decisions about my life. My life is not yours to save"

"I am your King." I said, my voice low and steeled. "And I have every right to do whatever I must to protect my people. Even if that includes protecting you from yourself."

She stared at me like I’d just burned down her last thread of hope.

"You’re not my king," she whispered. "You never were. And I despise you, Kieran."

I said nothing. What could I say?

She had every right to hate me.

I looked at her for a moment longer. Her face was red, her throat wrapped in blood-stained gauze, and her single hand was clenched so tightly in the restraints I feared she’d draw blood.

And still, she was the most beautiful, most tragic thing I’d ever seen.

I took a step back. My hands dropped to my sides

She told me she hated me.

She told me she despised me.

And I believed every damn word

But what she didn’t know, what she would never know, is that no one in this gods forsaken world could hate me more than I hate myself for what I let happen to her.

And if I had to become a monster in her eyes to make her want to live again.... then so be it.

I looked at her, shaking, pale, eyes bloodshot from too many tears, chained to the bed like a caged wolf who had lost everything.

"You are," I said slowly, my voice dead cold, "the weakest, most pathetic little thing I’ve ever seen."

Her head jerked toward me.

Her lips parted, the fury in her eyes flickering in disbelief.

"You lost an arm, and you think the world ended?" I went on, voice sharp, cruel. "You think that makes you worthless? You think pain makes you special? No. Pain makes you ordinary. Because everyone bleeds, Lorraine. Everyone suffers."

I stepped closer, each word deliberate. "You still have one good arm, don’t you? One arm that still works? Then use it. Train it. Sharpen it. Master it. If you were truly strong, you’d already be up trying to wield a blade with it."

Her mouth trembled, but she said nothing.

"That’s what separates the strong from the weak," I hissed. "Not power. Not talent. But the will to fight with whatever scraps life throws your way. But you...." I let out a cruel laugh, shaking my head "You’re not strong. You’re not even trying. You’re feeble. Fragile. Miserable. Pathetic."

Her eyes widened.

"I regret saving you," I said flatly. "Every drop of blood I gave. Every ounce of effort. A complete waste."

Tears slid silently down her cheeks.

"You want to die?" I said, my voice rising, my face hardening. "Fine. Suit yourself. I won’t stop you this time."

I reached forward and ripped the chain restraints off her wrist and ankles, metal clanging to the floor like the fall of judgment. She flinched but didn’t move.

"There," I growled. "Go ahead. Kill yourself again. I won’t stop you."

She didn’t speak. Just stared. Shaking. Stunned.

"You think you’re doing this because you’re broken? Because of what happened? No. You’re doing this because you’re weak. Because you want the easy way out. That’s all this is."

I moved back a step and glared at her.

"If Callum or Elise or any of the other ferals who died protecting you could see you now, they’d shake their heads in shame. They died for you, Lorraine. They believed in you. And what are you doing? Spitting in their sacrifice. Throwing it all away."

Her jaw clenched, and her breath caught, but still she didn’t speak

"I’ve always believed that anyone who died to protect you wasted their lives. And you’re proving me right. A feral like you, so fragile, was never worth protecting."

I turned my back to her.

"Go on then," I said over my shoulder. "Go meet them in the afterlife. Make sure yoh tell them how you quit. Tell them they died for a coward who couldn’t even try to live with one goddamned arm."

I reached the door.

My hand trembled against the cold steel, but I swallowed it down and made my voice flat again, emotionless.

"Goodbye Lorraine, killing yourself would be a good riddance for me"

And with that, I walked out.

But my heart stayed in that room.

With her.

Shattered and burning in the silence.