The hallway stretches empty in both directions when Sarah finds me.

Her hand closes around my throat before I register the attack coming toward me at full speed. My skull cracks against stone, pain exploding white-hot through my vision as she slams my body into the wall.

“I know something’s happening between you and Paul,” she hisses, her forearm pressing harder against my windpipe.

The pressure steals my breath immediately and completely.

“I can smell him on you no matter how much you shower.” Her face twists into an ugly snarl barely inches from mine.

“Sarah, please—” The words come out strangled and barely audible.

“Did I say you could speak to me?” She increases the pressure until spots dance across my narrowing vision.

My fingers claw uselessly at her arm, nails scraping silk without finding purchase or relief anywhere.

“If I find proof of what you’ve been doing,” she continues, voice dropping to a deadly whisper, “I won’t just kill you.”

She means every single word of this threat.

“I’ll make it last for days, Morgan.” Her smile stretches wide with genuine anticipation.

Air refuses to enter my burning lungs no matter how desperately I try to inhale.

“I’ll carve you apart piece by piece, starting with that pretty face he seems to like so much.”

This is how I die, pinned to a wall by my cousin while darkness eats the edges of my sight.

“And if you ever get pregnant?” Sarah laughs, the sound bright and cruel in the empty corridor.

Her arm digs deeper, cutting off the last trickle of oxygen reaching my screaming brain.

“I’ll cut that abomination out of your belly myself.” Her eyes gleam with sick promise. “No bastard of yours will ever threaten my position as Luna of this pack, understand me?”

She releases me suddenly, stepping back with obvious expectation written across her beautiful features.

She’s waiting for me to crumple to the cold floor like I always do when she’s finished with me. But my legs refuse to buckle this time around.

Something shifts inside my chest, a wall crumbling that I didn’t know I’d built in the first place.

If I don’t defend myself right now, this violence will continue until she actually kills me.

The truth crystallizes with terrifying clarity while I force myself to stand on trembling legs.

“Touch me again,” I gasp, my voice ragged but refusing to break completely, “and Paul learns about Thomas.”

Sarah goes rigid in front of me, her entire body locking into predatory stillness.

The color drains from her perfect face so quickly I almost wonder if she might actually faint. Her confident sneer freezes mid-expression, transforming into something that looks remarkably like genuine fear.

“What did you just say to me?” she whispers, the question barely audible.

“You heard me perfectly well, cousin.” I straighten my spine despite the screaming protest from every muscle.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about right now.” Her voice wavers on the denial.

“I have a photo of you and your Silver Moon lover.” I meet her wild eyes without flinching. “You and Thomas at a kissing booth, looking very cozy with each other at some carnival.”

“Dated two weeks after your wedding to Paul.” I press harder, drawing on every ounce of courage I possess. “Clear enough that even Paul couldn’t deny exactly what he’s seeing between you.”

She’s finally seeing me clearly, perhaps for the first time since we were children together.

“This isn’t over,” Sarah whispers, venom dripping from every syllable she produces.

“No, it isn’t,” I agree, refusing to look away from her furious gaze. “But now we both have something to lose.”

She turns without another word, her heels clicking sharply against the stone floor as she retreats. The sound echoes through the empty hallway, growing fainter with each step she takes away from me.

I watch until she disappears around the corner, until even her footsteps fade to nothing. Then my knees finally give out completely.

I slide down the wall, stone scraping my back through thin fabric as gravity claims me at last. One hand presses against my stomach while the other clutches the cold floor for support.

I just threatened Sarah with mutually assured destruction, and she believed me completely.

My entire body shakes with adrenaline and something that might actually be triumph. The sensation feels foreign after so many years of accepting defeat as my only possible outcome.

You backed a predator into a corner today, and cornered predators are the most dangerous kind.

The warning surfaces through my racing thoughts, cold and clear and absolutely correct.

Sarah won’t forget this humiliation, won’t forgive being threatened by someone she considers beneath her. She’ll be watching now, waiting for any mistake, any opportunity to strike back harder than before.

But for the first time in eleven years, she’ll also be afraid of what I might do in response.

I press my palm harder against my churning stomach, feeling my heart pound beneath my ribs. My breathing slowly steadies as the shaking in my limbs begins to subside gradually.

I don’t know what happens next between us, what moves she’ll make or how I’ll counter them. But I do know one thing with absolute certainty now that I’ve finally found my voice.

I will never be her victim again without consequences following every single blow she lands.