Lucian's POV
I knew my father was cruel. I had always known.
But somehow, he always found new ways to prove it.
When I had been summoned home, I thought it was just another one of his lectures—cold, cutting, and meant to grind my spine down to dust. Or merely another attempt to show me "how an Alpha was meant to behave."
But I was wrong. The second I crossed the threshold, the belt was in his hand.
The worst part was it was laced with wolfsbane. Very lethal and dangerous to us lycans.
But of course he didn't care.
Leather cracked through the air like lightning before it landed across my back. Once. Twice. Until I lost count.
The skin tore, burned, then numbed, only for him to wait. Sadistically wait until it healed just enough, and then do it again.
I knew better than to plead for him to stop, so I had bit my lip hard, forcing any pleas to stop dead in my tongue.
