Cassian wondered exactly how she could have been afraid of this pathetic thing for even a single second.

  Dariston stood motionless, plunged into deep disbelief at having been stopped dead by a simple maid outfit.

  A maid outfit.

  Me.

  Stopped by a maid outfit.

  Cassian crossed her arms under her ample chest, slowly shaking her head.

  "You're not even disappointing in the proper sense—no, no, you're far beyond that."

  She paused deliberately to let her words sink in.

  "You're simply pitiful in a way that defies human comprehension."

  Her teeth visibly clenched.

  "I genuinely thought this cursed outfit wouldn't stand a chance against you."

  She clenched her fists so hard her knuckles turned white.

  "What a grotesque mistake on my part."

  Her gaze grew colder than the deadliest blizzard, her blue eyes shining with absolute contempt as she stared at Dariston the way one might stare at dog shit smeared on a sidewalk.

  "So this is it, then—the nauseating stench of pure mediocrity."

  She sniffed theatrically.

  "It literally reeks of rancid despair and the profound regret of existing."

  She took a step toward him.

  "You should seriously consider euthanasia for the good of everyone."

  A cruel smile stretched her lips.

  "Even better—save other people's money and kill yourself out of sheer pity for humanity, which has to endure your lamentable existence."

  She laughed without joy.

  "Even the most disgusting public toilets have infinitely more dignity than you because at least they serve a purpose."

  She pointed an accusing finger at him.

  "You? You can't even get rid of a ridiculous piece of fabric for me."

  Her voice dropped dangerously low.

  "Die suffocated by your own crushing nullity."

  The werewolf finally spoke in a broken voice that violently contrasted with the menacing growl he had used just minutes earlier.

  "I really thought I was strong."

  I was supposed to be strong.

  Dariston swayed slightly on his massive paws.

  He eventually sat heavily on the edge of an overturned table that groaned under his considerable weight, his enormous shoulders slumped, his red gaze lost in the void.

  Cassian approached slowly with predatory movements.

  She sat right next to him as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

  She leaned in to whisper directly into his furry ear with a voice sweet as poison.

  "You're just shit."

  Dariston was now visibly trembling.

  "Maybe it's true."

  Cassian smiled as she felt his psychological resistance crumble.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  "There is no 'maybe' in this simple equation."

  She let her body gently press against the werewolf's flank.

  With a slow, deliberate hand, she began to stroke Dariston's muscular back with a false gentleness that barely hid her obvious sadism.

  Her slender fingers traced slow circles, gradually descending along his spine as if tenderly consoling a broken child after a terrible nightmare.

  Her voice became low and almost hypnotic.

  "Shhh... breathe."

  Her fingers continued their soothing circles.

  "Breathe deeply."

  A warm whisper blew directly against Dariston's sensitive ear.

  "Repeat after me now."

  She paused.

  "Slowly and clearly."

  "Because you already know it deep down."

  "You've probably known it forever."

  "Word after word."

  "I."

  "Am."

  "Weak."

  Dariston squeezed his eyes shut as if trying to block out the reality crushing him.

  His breathing became ragged and irregular.

  He was now trembling under the hand that caressed him with that poisoned false kindness.

  His voice was barely audible when he repeated slowly like an automaton.

  "I... am... weak."

  Cassian smiled broadly with satisfaction.

  Her hand pressed more firmly on the broken creature's back.

  "Repeat it louder now."

  She waited.

  "Look me straight in the eyes when you say it."

  Dariston painfully turned his massive head.

  His red eyes were now wet and dazed, every trace of predator completely gone.

  He met Cassian's icy, merciless gaze.

  "I am weak."

  His voice completely broke on the last word.

  Cassian almost purred with pleasure at hearing this total surrender.

  "Say it one more time."

  Her fingers continued their slow circles.

  "One more time so you truly confess it to yourself."

  Tears now flowed freely down Dariston's muzzle despite the terrifying smile that remained frozen on his face like a grotesque mask.

  "I am weak."

  Cassian tightened her hand slightly on his back, as if to encourage him to continue... or to physically prevent him from escaping this brutal moment of truth.

  Her tone remained soft and almost compassionate.

  "Go further now."

  She murmured.

  "Say it for real."

  "Say what you've been hiding from the very beginning."

  Dariston took a trembling breath.

  "I've always been weak deep down."

  His voice was broken, almost an animal sob.

  "Since the day I was born."

  Cassian stroked him even more slowly.

  Her caresses became almost genuinely soothing in their regular rhythm.

  "Keep going."

  She encouraged gently.

  "Let it all out."

  "That's why I did everything to obtain the power I constantly dreamed of."

  He panted.

  "Because I was weak."

  "Because I couldn't stand being weak anymore."

  Cassian's voice softened even further, taking on an almost compassionate shade that violently contrasted with the venom she had spat moments earlier.

  "And now?"

  Dariston squeezed his eyes shut hard.

  Another tear slowly slid down his furry cheek.

  His voice was now nothing more than an utterly exhausted, drained whisper.

  "In the end... I realize today... that my power wasn't as impressive as I thought."

  He opened his eyes slightly.

  "That it was worth nothing against something as simple as a piece of fabric."

  Cassian let a heavy, oppressive silence hang.

  Her hand continued mechanically stroking his back in infinitely slow, methodical circles.

  Then she leaned even closer, her lips practically glued to the werewolf's ear.

  "That's exactly the raw, naked truth you've refused to see."

  She whispered with venomous sweetness.

  "You were never truly strong at any point in your life."

  "You just pathetically chased after a lie you told yourself to avoid facing the gaping void inside you."

  Her fingers traced a slower circle.

  "And now that the lie is dead and buried... all that's left is you."

  "The real you."

  "Weak."

  "Useless."

  "And so, so tired of pretending for so long."

  Dariston's triangular ears suddenly swiveled.

  A sound.

  Something approaching.

  Glancing quickly toward the gaping hole in the wall he had created when entering the apartment, he saw a massive silhouette watching them from behind the debris.

  A beast.

  The moment the creature realized it had been spotted, it leaped savagely at Dariston with a deafening roar.

  The two monsters collided brutally.

  They immediately began fighting ferociously.

  All claws extended and fangs snapping dangerously.

  Cassian was caught off guard by the sudden attack.

  She hurriedly took refuge in the nearest bedroom, strategically leaving the door just open enough to observe the scene without putting herself in danger.

  What the hell is happening now?!

  The beast ferociously attacking the werewolf was a gigantic feline that seemed to have stepped straight out of a nightmare.

  Its body was incredibly long and powerfully muscled, with dense, compact musculature visible beneath supple skin that rippled with every fluid movement.

  It easily measured nearly five meters long without even counting its massive tail.

  The tail itself was roughly half the length of its total body.

  Its fur was a perfectly uniform gray, like raw stone.

  No patterns.

  No stripes.

  Just monotonous gray.

  Dariston was only slightly shorter than the feline but compensated with superior muscle mass.

  Cassian watched helplessly as they systematically ravaged the apartment that was already in catastrophic condition.

  They're taking up so much space.

  They're destroying everything.

  The two creatures let out terrifying, guttural cries that echoed through the entire apartment.

  I'm lost.

  I stopped trying to understand anything the precise moment the homeless man I was gently teasing in the alley transformed into a monster.

  Nothing makes sense anymore.

  Constantine suddenly burst in through the massive opening in the wall.

  He was covered in blood from head to toe.

  Not his own blood, apparently.

  That of the many enemies he had massacred in the streets.

  His golden blond hair was now dark and heavy, soaked to the roots with the viscous liquid.

  Some strands clung unpleasantly to his pale skin; others fell in thick, dripping points.

  In places, dried blood gave his normally luminous hair a strange reddish tint.

  Yet he was still incredibly beautiful like this.

  An almost unreal, supernatural beauty.

  The kind that the most talented artists desperately try to capture without ever truly succeeding.

  While passing near the guild a few minutes earlier, Constantine had noticed an abnormal hole in the normally inviolable building.

  Clear sign of an ongoing attack.

  So he had naturally come to check the situation.

  Constantine carefully observed the two massive creatures still savagely fighting and destroying what remained of the furniture.

  He immediately recognized the giant feline.

  "Axis."

  His voice carried clearly despite the chaos.

  The feline beast made a spectacular backward leap to create distance.

  It gracefully turned to look directly at Constantine.

  Then its gaze visibly turned dark and hostile.

  It turned its massive head in a clear sign of disapproval.

  Constantine frowned slightly, trying to understand this unusual reaction.

  "You're not happy because of Charlotte's current state?"

  The beast named Axis violently slapped Constantine with its massive tail that whistled through the air.

  WHAP.

  His blond hair followed the motion with an almost elegant delay, a few strands then gently falling back onto his forehead as if even physics itself categorically refused to let him look disheveled in an undignified way.

  He still miraculously looked like a meticulously painted portrait by an obsessively talented artist.

  Even his head slightly turned to the side from the blow gave him a dramatic, theatrical air.

  The kind of pose immortal statues take in prestigious museums.

  Axis immediately returned to fighting Dariston without granting Constantine another glance.

  Constantine held his slightly reddening cheek.

  "I apologize for putting Charlotte in this deplorable state."

  He lowered his head slightly in contrition.

  "I know you care deeply about your mistress, but what happened to her was a regrettable accident I hadn't foreseen."

  Cassian, still cautiously watching from the bedroom, tilted her head in incomprehension.

  Accident?

  Cassian narrowed her eyes slightly.

  A detail had suddenly connected in her mind.

  Charlotte.

  Constantine covered in blood.

  And the incredibly relaxed way he was speaking.

  A very disturbing thought suddenly crossed Cassian's mind.

  What exactly had he done to Charlotte?