Chapter Seven:
Liora’s voice drifted out–sharp, commanding. “Take everything. I want no trace of her left.”
Servants moved like shadows around her, hands full of silks, vials, shoes worn thin at the heel. Selene’s world dismantled in a morning
“The scent still lingers.” Liora muttered, pinching her nose like a noblewoman affronted by ash.?
She’d always hated how Selene smelled–like night–blooming jasmine and silver rain. Too wild. Too real
I didn’t speak. Couldn’t. My mouth was dry, my body heavy as if the air itself was pressing down.ll
Then I saw it–the wall A child’s etching, half–hidden behind where her dresser used to siL!
For the ones I love it broke something in me.
Flashback Years Ago
The night Lyra left.
It had rained. Not the good kind. The kind that felt like the sky was sobbing on your behalf.:
I had searched the territory for her until dawn, drenched to the bone, fury and heartbreak tangled in my chest
She left a note. Not a goodbye. Not even an apology
Just: I was never meant for this.
She ran off with a northern wolf. A trader Said he made her feel free.
I felt like a fool. Alpha by title, abandoned by bond
And then there was Selene.She didn’t speak when she found me that night, kneeling at the riverbank with mud on my hands. She just took off her cloak, draped it over my shoulders, and sat beside me!
“I won’t leave,” she whispered.”
“You should. There’s nothing left worth staying for “”
Her laugh was soft. “You don’t get to decide that for me”
the Southern Alpha’s son. A political match forged in war and
Later that week, her father summoned her back. Offered her hand to the Southern Alpha’s
strategy.
She refused She faced her father’s wrath, her pack’s disappointment. She chose me
“I’m not marrying him,” she told me with fire in her eyes. “You said we’d have a bonding ceremony. I’m holding you to it.”
And I said yes I promised.But weeks turned into moons, and I kept saying, soon. Always soon.
There was always a reason to delay–wolves to manage, alliances to mend, scars I hadn’t let heal.
And Selene waited. Quietly. Patiently Like a wolf who believed love was worth waiting for?
–
Now, I stood in the ruins of what we
we never
built
Liora turned, surprised to find me there. “Ronan. You didn’t say anything.”
I couldn’t
“It’s better this way,” she continued, smoothing her dress. “She was… not suited for bus place. For you.”
My gaze slid past her. To the bare wall. The empty bedframe. The ghost of a girl who had given me everything–and walked away with nothing.
ver meant to be Luna” Liora added gently, placing a hand on my arm.
“She was never
And for the first time, I didn’t nod.I didn’t agree I didn’t speak.
Because in that stillness, something was cracking inside me.!!
Maybe she was meant to be Luna. Maybe I was the one who wasn’t meant to hold her?
That night, I wandered the t temple alone.X
Found myself back at the garden. The violets were crushed where she fell, petals bruised and curling into themselves like they missed her
100
hug in the bic
The scent of lavender still hur
I sat on the edge of the stone path, elbows on knees, and let silence press against me!
I saw her again–bloodied, fleeing, not fighting.
Why hadn’t she fought?Why didn’t she even try to defend herself?!
Because maybe she knew there was no point Maybe she knew we’d already decided she was guilty.
And maybe that’s what made us quilty instead
Footsteps behind me Rykert
He hesitated before sitting down beside me, all knees and elbows, still growing into himself X
He hesitated before sitting down beside me, all knees and elbows, still growing into himself
“Are you still thinking about her?” he asked quietly, not with scom, but the uncertain curiosity of a boy trying to understand the weight his father’s silence I
I didn’t answer
He picked at a blade of grass. “They say she’s a rogue now That she won’t last long out there.”
My threat tightened “Maybe we should’ve listened to her Let her explain
Ryker looked up at me, frowning “Didn’t she already try
I stared ahead. “Did she, though? Or did we just decide she was wrong before she opened her mouth?”
There was a long pause–one that told me he was thinking harder than most boys his age should have to:8
Then Ryker stood, brushing dirt from his pants. “You don’t look like the strongest wolf in the room when you miss someone, Dad. But i think you look the most human
He walked away And I remained–haunted by the girl who once knelt beside a broken Alpha and said, I won’t leave
But we left her And now
Maybe she’d never forgive us
