Chapter 111
Chapter 111
LUNA AQUAMARINE’S POV
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Fiona’s eyes flickered wide like she was surprised too, but then she obeyed, slipping into the seat with the grace of someone born for it.
And for a moment, the entire hall was silent, every Elder watching Alexander, waiting.
“From this day forward, Fiona will serve as an Elder in waiting. She will take the place of Marcus.”
The words struck harder than a slap.
The room erupted. Nods of approval. Murmurs of satisfaction. Even claps against the table in
agreement.
Elder… in waiting?
Replacing Marcus?
My heart pounded soo hard that blood rushed to my head.
I remembered her whisper. Two moves.
Is this the first? Her first way of destroying me?
I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t. My eyes were just fixed on Alexander.
My wolf stirred inside me, restless, angry, humiliated. I remember the first time I joined this meeting. I was treated like an unwanted guest, kike a criminal they were interrogating, and now Alexander had pulled her–her–into this very space in just weeks of coming her.
“Even in her sickbed, she has proven useful,” an Elder’s voice echoed. “She studied, offered knowledge, and gave counsel.”
I glanced at the source of the voice.
Another Elder leaned forward, his lips curling with disappointment. “Meanwhile, the Luna chose to rest. Locked away in her chambers while the pack labored. She treated Fiona poorly, all because she could not let go of a… childish misunderstanding from her past.”
A ripple of agreement moved around the table. Nods. Murmurs. Eyes cutting toward me and then away as if the sight of me was shameful.
Rest?
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Chapter III
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As if the pain, the fever, the torment I’d been through was laziness. Did they even know what I had found out in that Book of Ashes? How hard I’m trying to prove that Fiona, the person that they trust isn’t as innocent as she seemed?
“Perhaps,” Elder Lorenzo said smoothly, “if our Luna had given us even half of what Fiona has, we would be further along in strengthening this pack.”
Fiona shifted in her chair, but she didn’t speak. She didn’t need to. The praise washed over her like rain, soaking into her skin, making her glow while I sat there drowning.
I knew she was enjoying it.
And Alexander–he didn’t move. He didn’t speak. His silence screamed louder than all their words. He didn’t defend me. Didn’t correct them. Didn’t even look at me.
Something inside me broke and I suddenly felt light. I needed to leave right now. I clenched my fists tighter, trying to swallow the thick lump in my throat.
If I spoke, if I lashed out now, they would see nothing but weakness, desperation. They would take it as proof that I wasn’t fit to sit at that table.
But sitting here in silence felt like dying. Like I was slowly drinking poison.
I couldn’t even lift my chin. I didn’t bother, each word they spat made me wish I never came in here in the first place.
I should have just stayed with Clifford in the room.
The voices around the table didn’t stop. Praise for Fiona rolled on and on, like a storm battering me, dragging me under. I sat rigid, each word like claws against my skin.
Then Elder Lorenzo leaned forward, his eyes sharp and cruel, his tone laced with mockery.
“If our Luna prefers to stay hidden away in her chambers all day,” he said slowly, deliberately, “then let her stay there. It is not as though her presence here has changed anything since her arrival from Naturellia.”
A low chuckle spread across the hall. My throat tightened, bile rising as his words sank deeper.
“But perhaps,” he continued, voice thick with venom, “she should remember her true duty. To bring forth a child. If she is not barren, as some might wonder, she should have been with child by now. So what is the delay, Luna?”
The words slammed into me like a blow to the chest. Gasps rippled softly through the room, but no one corrected him. No one told him he had crossed a line. Instead, eyes turned toward me–calculating, questioning, full of doubt.
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Chapter 111
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I couldn’t breathe. My womb–the very core of me–laid bare in front of them like it was a weapon to use against me. My wolf snarled, but all I could feel was the crushing weight of
shame.
Alexander finally spoke then, his deep voice cutting through the tension. For a heartbeat, my chest lifted, hope flickering that he would silence them, that he would defend me.
But his words weren’t what I expected.
“Seems like she’s…” he paused, as if weighing the words, “…still has issues to take care of. Or perhaps, she has something that she’s hiding.”
Adjusting. That was all. Not denial. Not protection. Not the Alpha tearing the room apart for disrespecting his Luna.
Just… medical issues? Something I’m hiding?
It felt like the floor had caved beneath me.
Elder Lorenzo smiled, pleased with himself, and leaned back in his chair, his gaze never leaving mine. “Then perhaps, Alpha, she should focus on finding a solution to her womb instead of wasting her time trying to prove herself by leading a pack she clearly cannot control.”
A murmur of agreement rolled through the Elders, like a tide pulling everything with it.
“Better yet,” Lorenzo pressed on, “strip her of the Moonstone pack. Give it to me. Fiona and I have already been managing its affairs these past weeks, and we have made progress. Let us continue. We can do what she cannot.”
The Moonstone pack? That’s his main goal? He wasn’t bluffing that day. “No.”
What exactly is going ok in that pack that I didn’t know? Fiona mentioned it, Clifford mentioned it, the Elders mentioned it and now it seemed like a fight.
Or, is there another Moonstone pack I had no idea of?
I stared at him, my chest heaving, rage burning so fiercely in my veins I thought I might lose myself completely.
How does being pregnant have anything to do with leading a pack?
But the worst part wasn’t Lorenzo’s smugness, or the Elders‘ approving nods, or even Fiona’s feigned humility as she lowered her gaze to the floor. It was the Golden–Eyed Devil sitting beside me.
Oh Goddess, please wake me up from this terrible nightmare! At least, let me have something
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Chapter III
to hold on to.
Then Alexander’s voice cut through, “Oh yes. I am considering it,” he said.
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The Elders leaned forward, cager, victorious. Fiona’s lips parted in a perfect mask of surprise, but her eyes gleamed like fireflies in the dark.
“If Fiona succeeds,” Alexander went on, slow and deliberate, “then perhaps Lorenzo is right. Perhaps her place is not only in recovery, but in leadership.”
The sound in my cars roared like blood, like a scream I couldn’t release.
He turned his gaze to Fiona then, as if the entire room had shrunk to just her. “But,” his tone shifted, darker, firmer, “I have something better for her. A greater reward. A task that only she can fulfil since the Luna has refused to do it.”
AD
