Reclaimed By My Alpha (Natalia and Andrei) novel Chapter 377

Chapter 377

Celeste’s POV

My head snapped to the side from the force of Mother’s fist hitting my cheek.

I had stopped feeling the pain a long time ago. It felt distant to me now, like I was being hit from underwater.

Somewhere, my mind and heart were far away from Bloodmoon. With Karl.

But another punch brought me back to the cold reality I was in. Laying on the floor of Mother’s chambers, a crumpled heap of broken bones and swollen bruises. I could only see her looming over me through my one working eye. The other had long since swelled shut.

“I am disappointed, Celeste.” Mother folded her arms and looked down at me with utter hatred in her gaze. Not the look of a mother whose child was suffering, but that of a drill sergeant. “All these years, I have done nothing but try to teach you. I tried to make you strong, powerful. I gave you everything. And this is how you repay me.”

David would have died had I not helped him. Natalia and the children might have died. Who knew what other innocents might die? I already had enough blood on my hands; how could I stain them even more?

“Oh, don’t look at me like that.” Another swift kick to the ribs that made me sputter in pain. “You knew exactly what we came here for from the moment we set foot in this godforsaken forest. Don’t act like you’ve suddenly developed a conscience after all this time.”

No. It wasn’t sudden. It had always been there–just clouded.

Mother sighed, dissatisfied that her beatings had taken away my ability to speak long ago. Half of my teeth were laying in bloody puddles on the floor. My tongue was swollen and raw. My throat was aching.

“Well, it’s no matter,” she said, stooping to stroke a piece of sweat–and–blood–caked hair out of my face. I flinched, because it wasn’t a tender gesture. Her fingers curled into my scalp, ripping at my hair until my eyes watered and my entire world narrowed to that single point of pain.

“Look.” Mother hauled me to my knees and dragged me over to the window, forcing me to look outside. The sounds of battle rang across the courtyard. Blood. So much blood. The bodies were piling up, both Bloodmoon and outsiders.

I only caught a glimpse before Mother released me and I sagged back to the floor, but it was enough.

Mother had taken over Bloodmoon. She had used a combination of her rubies, her birth abilities, and her tactical prowess to bend the warriors to her will.

I wasn’t sure what happened to Alexander. Maybe he was dead by now. Maybe, just as she had done with me, Mother told everyone he was infirmed while she was really pulling the strings.

With Mother, it could be anything. That was what was so terrifying about her; she was resourceful, and not just with my beatings. She knew exactly how to manipulate the situation to her advantage, how to twist and bend people’s wills to hers.

It was her specialty.

“I gave the warriors rubies,” she said cooly, as if reading my mind. She strode slowly over to the large, walk–in closet at the other end of her room and reached into her pocket. “They’ll slaughter each and every one of his forces soon enough.”

My throat bobbed. Andrei’s forces. He had come with warriors. It was a fool’s mission. I knew that, now, from the

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sounds of screaming outside.

“I told the non–believers that he’s coming to take our home. You know how intensely loyal to this filthy little patch of land is to these people. They’re so simple–minded, too. It was almost too easy; I wish I had done this sooner instead of dilly–dallying around with you all these years.”

I could only watch as she pulled a key out of her pocket and slipped it into the hole in the closet door. Strange. Since when did Mother keep her closet locked?

I quickly realized why.

Mother opened the door, revealing what was within.

A man. Elderly. Hunched over in a wheelchair.

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