—for every bone Hayes broke, and every time he made Nix scream.
Nix drives the heel of his palm into Hayes’s breastbone, feeling the bone collapse beneath the force.
He slams his hand into a cheekbone, digs his claws into Hayes’s side, and then spins him so he can dig them in again.
Lungs.Spleen. Kidney.
—for the hours of surgery and suffering his pack endured, waiting to see if he would live or die.
Nix takes his clawed hand and grabs his rapist between the legs, vulnerable testicles in his palm. While this isn’t the same kind of violation, it’s close enough.
He twists—hard and fast.
Hayes can’t even scream because he has no breath. He vomits into the grass and then collapses onto his side, knees to his chest—the same position Nix would curl into after hours of torture.
—for every time Hayes took what didn’t belong to him.
—for every thought that has made Nix believe he is dirty—used up, and not enough.
Nix rolls Hayes onto his back with his foot.
Over the rush in his ears, his wolf howls.
—for the use ofmagicthat kept Nix away from his family, alone andlonely.
For all of that, his wolf wants their torturer’s heart in his hand.
Hayes’s death is all his wolf has dreamed of since he came into this new world—afraid and angry.
But for Nix-the-person, death would be too easy.
It’s Nix-the-person who remembers the past five years—every minute he’d hidden in fear, every tear he hadn’t shed.
And for those things, Hayes hasn’t paid nearly enough.
The wind dies down.
The bystanders hold their breath.
Nix presses the tips of his claws into Hayes’s chest—just to show that he can.
Hayes coughs, and blood spills from his ashen lips. Maybe it’s the ruptured spleen. Maybe the perforated bowel.
Nix knows the sound of rattling breaths from a collapsed lung. Knows the agony of a gaping eye socket.
Knows that this pain is like no other.
“Aust’n,” Hayes gasps. “Do it.”
“Do what, Dawson? You’re in no position to ask me for anything.”
“Kill…me.”
“You’re asking me for mercy?You?”
Nix would throw his head back and laugh—if he weren’t genuinely curious why his tormentor thinks he deserves it.
Hayes coughs again, and his one remaining eye somehow finds him.
