Chapter 171

Chapter 171
{Ronan’s POV}

Teeth meet flesh and bone all around us, roars split the air, and the stench of sweat and blood thickened the grand chamber. I had no interest in the faceless men that threw themselves in my way. Each strike, each blow, each step I took was for one purpose alone. Damon.

Lucien’s laughter gnawed at me like fire under my skin. The way he raised his hand and drew the crowd’s attention, pompous as a monarch already seated on a throne, made my wolf claw at the walls of my control.

I shoved my clawed hand through the chest of the guard in front of me, tearing him down, then whipped my body into a brutal spin that cut down another. Blood sprayed warm across my arms as I pushed forward.

I was close, so close, when two of Lucien’s men struck from both sides. One caught my right arm in a brutal lock, the other rammed his shoulder into my gut and forced me back. My clawed feet screeched against the stone floor as they pinned me, but my eyes never left Damon.

“Did he threaten you?” I barked, my voice breaking with rage and disbelief. “Or is this your idea of a joke? Some clever plan to fool him? Cancel it, Damon! It isn’t funny.”

Damon’s silence only made things worse. He just stood there. What hurt me most was the fact his face wasn't unreadable… it looked guilty. ‘No… it can't be.’

With a flourish, Lucien called to the crowd. “Witness, my friends! The Alpha’s duel has begun!”

He lunged, his fist colliding against my jaw. The crowd roared in confusion, some shouting unfair. But the Elder seated high on the dais raised a hand, his voice echoing across the chamber.

“There are no rules to the Alpha’s fight. If Ronan cannot stand against treachery here, how can he ever claim to withstand it as Alpha King? Even a pack has traitors in its fold.”

The Council did nothing. They were meant to be unbiased. Their only job was to make sure the conditions were met and the votes were fair.

Regardless… their words hardly reached me. My focus was locked on Damon. His silence was crushing. Pulling at every reserve of understanding I had.

“Are you going to stand there and let everything we built burn?” I growled through bloodied teeth.

Damon looked at me, his lips pressed tight, his body locked in place… but unlike me. He was pinned by something else. He had to be.

Lucien’s next blow landed heavy on my ribs, forcing a grunt out of me. I let him. The physical pain was nothing compared to the one searing through my chest.

“Tell me he’s lying,” I shouted at Damon again. “Tell me you weren’t the mole. Tell me I wasn’t living beside my enemy this whole time.”

But the silence stretched. It grew thick, suffocating, undeniable. Damon did not deny it. He only stood there, a wall between me and truth.

And in that silence, the last piece fell into place. Lucien’s brother. Damon. The man I had trusted, fought beside, protected.

I lowered my head, the weight of betrayal pressing against me like an almost physical weight... Sapping me of all will to continue.

“I have lived with the enemy the entire time.”

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{Damon’s POV}

“I'm sorry Ronan…”

This wasn’t how it was supposed to unfold.

I stood frozen as Ronan bled before me, as Lucien’s laughter carved through the chaos. This had not been the plan. I had not wanted anyone to get hurt.

The truth of it was, I had left because I could not keep standing there, watching Ronan tear himself apart trying to find the mole, when I already knew the answer. Me. I was the crack in his foundation. The betrayal that kept him sleepless.

So I left. Cowardly, maybe, but I had told myself it was mercy. I would rather vanish than let him find out the truth.

What could I say to make him know just how conflicted I have been all this while? Stuck between two brothers. Two bonds that defined who I was today… there was no right way to say I betrayed him. So I never did.

And yet here we were.

Lucien’s hand was heavy on my shoulder, his pride venomous. He was my brother, by blood and bond, yet Ronan had been family too. Ronan had never treated me as lesser. He had trusted me with his home, his pack, his life.

I had repaid that trust with betrayal. With lies. With actions so heinous I couldn’t even look myself in the mirror most nights because of it.

Guilt had been my companion in the days I was gone. I told myself it was too late to make things right, too late to step back into the fire and undo the damage.

It was easier to stay away, to let both sides destroy themselves while I disappeared into the smoke.

But the truth was I was a coward. Too scared to pick a side. And that Damon… was gone.

It became clear to me that Lucien, the Lucien now, basking in false triumph, was no longer the brother I knew. He had let power, envy and pride get to him. He had lost his way.

And that realization was why I was here. It had never been too late to make things right. That was just another lie I told myself, another excuse to keep from choosing.

Ronan deserved more than betrayal. He deserved more than silence.

My hand moved slowly to my pocket. The weight of the flash drive pressed against my palm, heavier than it actually was. On it, the records. Every plan Lucien had concocted, every transaction, every dirty deal. Both the ones I was aware of… and the ones I had no idea about.

‘I'm sorry… Lucien.’

My resolve hardened.

It may already be too late to mend what I broke. Too late to pull Ronan out of the pit I dug under him. But that did not mean I should stand here and let Lucien reign unchecked. If I truly loved him as a brother, I needed to be the one to call him to order.

Just because it was late did not mean it was over.

I curled my fingers around the drive, feeling the cold metal into my skin, and for the first time in a long while, my decision was clear.

Lucien thought me his pawn. Ronan thought me his betrayer. Perhaps both were true. But in this moment, standing between them, I would be something else.

I would be the reckoning neither expected.

But then…