Chapter Twenty Two
The heavy doors slammed shut behind me with the kind of finality that didn’t just sound like exile–it was exile.
Two guards flanked me, each with a firm grip on my arms. I didn’t resist. What would have been the point? The battle was already lost. Not on the floor of the Council Chamber, but in Kade’s silence:
Het them lead me through comdors I once walked with my chin lifted and his scent on my skin. Back when love had weight. Back when his mark bumed proud and certain across my shoulder
Now, every step echoed differently. The walls colder. The air sharper, I wasn’t a Luna being escorted–I was a discarded mistake being removed.
I kept my eyes forward, but I felt them. The stares. The judgment The smug smiles that screamed, We knew it wouldn’t last. The pitying ones were worse. They made me want to scream.2.
I didn’t I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of seeing me crumble.
The guards brought me to a small room tucked in the eastern wing–too far from where the pack’s leadership slept too close to where the staff whispered. The door creaked as it opened. Inside, there was nothing but a single bed, bare stone walls, and silence.
“Walt here,” one muttered.
Then the door clicked shut. And just like that, I was alone. I didn’t sit. Didn’t pace. I just stood there, air scraping into my lungs like shards of ice. The moment stretched. My hands curled into fists, fingemas digging into my palms until it hurt enough to remind me I was still here.
Not Luna. Not consort.Not even his. They’d claimed the bond wasn’t real. Said I’d been marked under “influence“– convenient technicality. A lie. A law twisted until it bled
And Kade… Kade had said nothing He hadn’t looked at me when they read the verdict. He hadn’t raised his voice when they dragged me out. The man who once pressed promises to my skin had vanished behind the weight of his title
I pressed my palm to where his mark still throbbed faintly–like a ghost of what had been.”
“Damn you” I whispered. “Why didn’t you fight for me?“%
power–all of it shackled him
But I already knew.Callister had spoken, and the council had listened. Their traditions, their politics, their p tighter than any chain. He had chosen the throne. Chosen them.
Still he should have tried harder. And I wasn’t sure I’d ever forgive him for not
Time passed–minutes, hours, maybe a full day. I didn’t cry. My tears had pride, and pride refused to spill for people like them.
When the door finally opened, my breath caught for a second–part hope, part delusion.
But it wasn’t Kade. It was a girl, Barely more than sixteen, in healer robes, clutching a tray of food and clean clothes.
“The Alpha sent these, she said, voice trembling “Food. Fresh garments.”
I didn’t move. Didn’t reach for the tray. My stomach twisted, empty but unwilling
Then I asked, quietly, “Is he coming?”
The girl froze. “L I don’t know.”
She lingered at the door for a heartbeat longer than necessary, then added, I saw you once. In the corridor. The way you looked at him. The way he looked at you.” She swallowed. Tve never seen anyone look at anyone like that”
Before I could reply, she slipped away. I sat in the silence after she left, staring at the untouched tray. Her words rang in my head like a cruel lullaby
The way he looked at me. Once Maybe she saw love But now all I could see was obsence.
I changed out of the Council dress that clung to shame and memory. The one I’d worn when they reduced me to nothing more than a
mistake to be erased.
Night fell. I lay on the cold bed, sleep dragging its feet. And when it finally came, it brought no peace. Just echoes &
Not Luna Not Luna Not Luna. The title once wore like armor now haunted me like a curse.X
But lying there, I realized something they hadn’t just tried to strip me of Kade–they’d tried to strip me of myself
And they’d failed. Let them keep their thrones Let them choke on tradition
I didn’t need their approval to matter I didn’t need their crown to be powerful.
if they thought they’d silenced me, they hadn’t been listening E
11:02 AM c c
