The Return of the Fallen Luna: Rise of the Heiress-Chapter 23 Killing Her Mother

"Let go?!" Maddison snarled, her voice laced with raw hatred as her eyes flashed gold, her wolf pressing close beneath the surface. "Do you fucking know how much I hate this woman?"

Maddison’s grip tightened, yanking the woman’s hair harder. Pain ripped through her scalp, dragging her out of unconsciousness. Through swollen, barely opened eyes, she saw Ashley, who was forced to her knees, held down without mercy. Her lips trembled, a broken sound escaping, but no words came; she had no strength left to speak.

"If not for this whore..." Maddison’s voice rose, sharp and unhinged, "I would’ve lived the life that was meant to be mine. I wouldn’t have grown up envying anyone!"

Her gaze snapped back to Ashley, blazing with a madness that felt ready to consume everything in its path.

Ashley trembled as Maddison’s nails elongated, inching toward her mother’s throat. The warriors restraining her let out strained grunts under the crushing weight of Maddison’s Alpha aura, but Ashley barely felt it, because her world had narrowed to a single point: her mother.

Then the sharp edge of those nails broke skin. A thin line of blood traced down her mother’s neck.

Ashley’s heart fractured.

Because instead of pleading, instead of begging to be spared, her mother... smiled.

It was faint, fragile, and her battered face could barely form it, her swollen features refusing to move as they once had. And yet, it was there. In her eyes, in that quiet, inexplicable softness that Ashley couldn’t fully understand. But she felt it. That look—gentle, final, almost comforting—like a farewell she wasn’t ready to receive.

Panic surged through her.

"No... no, please..."

The realization hit too hard, too fast. That smile... it felt like a last glance, a silent goodbye. And in that moment, whatever strength Ashley had left was shattered, breaking into helpless, choking sobs as the weight of it crushed her from within.

"Maddison... please..." Ashley sobbed, her voice breaking as her gaze darted between Maddison and her mother, desperation unraveling her completely.

But the sight of her anguish only seemed to delight Maddison. A cruel light flickered in her eyes as she pressed her sharpened nails closer—deeper—until they pierced a centimeter into the fragile skin. Blood welled at once, then spilled in a slow, steady line down her mother’s neck, each drop tightening the vice around Ashley’s chest.

"Ugh..." her mother whimpered, the sound thin and fleeting. The pain flared, then vanished into the greater pain consuming her body, until she could no longer tell where it began or ended.

She felt like a livestock that was about to be slaughtered, her fate no longer hers to claim. And yet, she turned her gaze to Ashley and tried to smile. To tell her to live well. But her lips would not obey, her voice lost before it could form.

There was so much she wanted to say, so many words left unspoken between them. In the end, all she could do was hope, hope that Maddison’s hatred would remain fixed on her alone, that the cruelty would end with her, and never reach Ashley... who had done nothing wrong.

"Stop... stop!" Ashley cried out, her voice cracking as she begged. Maddison’s smile only deepened before it slowly faded into something colder and more deliberate.

She withdrew her hand from the woman’s neck, and for a fleeting moment, Ashley’s body slackened with relief. A fragile hope rose within her that perhaps, despite everything, Maddison would not go that far. After all, this was still the woman who had raised her for eighteen years. Surely... she wasn’t that heartless.

But the moment shattered before it could take hold.

Without warning, Maddison turned, and in a single, merciless motion, her sharpened nails slit across the woman’s throat. The strike was swift, leaving no time to react. Ashley and her mother were both caught off guard as blood burst forth in a sudden, unstoppable stream, staining the floor.

"No! No!" Ashley screamed, her vision blurring with tears as the scene unraveled before her. The warriors released her mother without care, letting her collapse face-first onto the floor. Blood spread rapidly beneath her, pooling dark and merciless as her body trembled. Her hands clawed weakly at her own throat, trying—futilely—to stem the flow.

But there was nothing left to save her. The days of torture had already drained her wolf to its limits, and what little strength remained could no longer heal, no longer protect. And somewhere beneath the fading pulse of her body, that broken wolf could only whine in helpless grief, forced to watch as its human counterpart slowly bled away, slipping beyond its reach.

At Maddison’s subtle signal, the warriors released Ashley. There was no need to restrain her anymore because Maddison knew she could do nothing now.

The outcome had already been decided. For an entire month, she had drained every ounce of suffering she could from the woman, turning her days into a living torment, and now... her focus shifted.

To Ashley.

Because what could cut deeper than this? What pain could be more absolute than watching one’s own mother die so helplessly, so cruelly, right before her eyes?

Maddison wanted to break Ashley, but not all at once; she wanted to do it slowly, piece by piece. And she knew Ashley was not weak. Because she was raised as an Alpha’s daughter, her will was tempered, her mind resilient.

So this... this was necessary.

If she could no longer torment the mother, then the daughter would bear it instead—twice over, until the weight of it crushed her. In Maddison’s mind, this was justice... or perhaps, the only way to quiet the storm of hatred and madness raging within her.

Maddison watched with quiet satisfaction as Ashley crumpled the moment she was released, collapsing to the floor before scrambling forward on her hands and knees, stripped of all dignity in her desperation.

Like a helpless mutt, Ashley dragged herself to her mother’s side, trembling as she turned her over and pressed her hands against the torn throat, trying frantically but uselessly to stop the bleeding.

Only then did she notice the dirt smeared across her palms, the grime mixing with blood, but it no longer mattered. Nothing did. Not her appearance, not the eyes watching her.

Around her, faint smiles curled, sharp and cruel, but Maddison’s was the deepest of them all, drinking in the scene with open delight. But Ashley didn’t see it. Couldn’t. Her world had narrowed to the fading warmth beneath her hands, slipping away no matter how tightly she tried to hold on.

"Please... don’t die on me. Just hold on a little longer..." Ashley whispered, her voice trembling as she pressed her hands harder against the wound, though she knew, deep down, that she had no way to save her mother.

Maddison would never allow her to call for a healer and would never let them leave. Logic told her the truth with brutal clarity that her mother would die here, in her arms.

And yet... hope refused to die with it.

With reddened eyes, Ashley looked up at Maddison and the warriors surrounding them, desperation laid bare. "Please... help my mother... please..." she begged, her voice breaking as she lowered herself further, offering nothing but her pride, her dignity, and everything she had left.