Third Person's POV
Belinda had been tormented for several days and was on the verge of a mental breakdown. The mere sight of the pitch-black room made her recoil in fear, shrinking back instinctively.
It seemed as if the oppressive aura of the Alpha from the previous interrogations still lingered in the air, making her instinctively arch her back like a frightened young beast.
"No, I don't want to! I don't want to!" Belinda kept retreating, the skin on her shoulder blades burning faintly, as if wolf fur would burst out at any moment.
But she was still thrown in forcefully. In the dust stirred up as she hit the ground, there seemed to be a faint trace of Cliff's cold pine scent.
It was a scent she had once caught from afar at a banquet, but now it felt like a death sentence.
"Ah!"
Melinda was startled, feeling Belinda crawling toward her. With a look of terror, she shouted, "What are you doing? I'm carrying Cliff's child! You can't treat me like this!"
Before she finished speaking, she instinctively protected her lower abdomen, as if a life that might inherit the Alpha's powerful genes was growing there—her only bargaining chip.
Just as she finished speaking, Cliff walked in.
The moment the door hinges turned, a wave of overwhelming pressure surged in like a tide, and the temperature in the basement seemed to drop by more than ten degrees.
Melinda and Belinda both shivered, and Belinda even curled up into a ball, whimpering in her throat.
It was the instinctive reaction of the weak in the presence of an absolute powerhouse.
Seeing him, Melinda seemed to have found her support and immediately rushed over: "Cliff... you finally came to see me! Let me explain..."
"No need to explain."
Cliff's voice was cold and unfamiliar, a tone she had never heard before.
As his words fell, the scent around him suddenly intensified, carrying the chill of pine and a faint trace of blood, like a blizzard sweeping through winter.
Melinda looked up and saw him half-squatting, his dark pupils tinged with a faint amber in the dim light—a sign of his wolf nature awakening.
His gaze was full of coldness, as if it could pierce through flesh and reach the bone.
He reached out and gripped her jaw, and beneath the skin of his fingertips, something seemed to be surging; his nails faintly glinted with half an inch of silvery sharpness.
It was a sign that his hands were about to shift.
He gently turned her face and said, "Melinda, you impersonated someone and caused your friend's death. I've found out everything."
At his words, the air seemed to freeze.
The pressure emanating from Cliff was like tangible shackles, pinning Melinda's limbs in place.
She opened her mouth, but couldn't utter a single word.
He knew. Cliff actually knew everything...
Fear made her tremble all over, even her breath quivering with mist.
"I—I didn't say anything, it wasn't me! It wasn't me!" Belinda shook her head desperately from the side.
She had been locked in the dark room for days, nearly driven mad by the torment, but had gritted her teeth and not revealed a single word.
Cliff had found all this out on his own.
Her nails dug deep into her palms, trying to use the pain to dispel the Alpha's oppressive force that was nearly crushing her.
Melinda felt as if all her strength had been drained, unable to even move.
The scent emanating from Cliff was like poisoned ice picks, stabbing her glands with sharp pain, and a dull ache spread from her lower abdomen.
"Cl-Cliff..." she managed to squeeze out a few words, her voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz.
"You dared to kill—what else wouldn't you dare to do?" Cliff's gaze was as sharp as a knife, the amber in his pupils growing deeper, as if he would devour her alive.
He said coldly, "If Vanya hadn't been rescued by Theodore after falling into the sea, were you planning to hide this from me forever and use the child in your belly to get into the Todd family?"
The moment his words fell, the aura around him turned violent, and even the basement lightbulb buzzed in response.
"I... I..." Melinda was so frightened by his terrifying gaze that she couldn't speak, her neck glands throbbing wildly.
That was the most vulnerable spot for any Omega, now exposed before an enraged Alpha.
"Melinda, you really are a schemer." Cliff stood up, his tall figure casting a wolf-shaped shadow on the wall.
His knuckles turned pale from the force, and his nails had silently extended half an inch.
He said to the Beta, Elliot, "Take them to the police station and let the police handle it."
The Beta kept his head down in front of him, not daring to look directly at the murderous aura that was almost overflowing.
"Yes, Alpha Cliff." Elliot's voice carried a barely noticeable tremor.
Even as a fellow werewolf, he instinctively felt fear in the face of a furious top Alpha.
"Cliff! Cliff! You can't send me to the police! I'm carrying your child! Are you really going to let the mother of your child go to prison?"
Melinda screamed desperately, trying to use the child in her belly to awaken a shred of his mercy.
But all that greeted her was an even colder scent, like ice water poured over her head.
Cliff showed no mercy: "Gag her."
There was no emotion in his voice, but the aura swirling around him was like a volcano on the verge of eruption.
"Yes, Alpha Cliff!"
The subordinates grabbed Melinda and Belinda, dragging them out of the basement.
Their struggles seemed especially feeble under the Alpha's pressure; Belinda even began convulsing from sheer terror.