Chapter 238: Brothers Divided

Lily's POV

I looked up through blurred vision, my mind struggling to process what had just happened.

Two figures stood in the moonlight, and my heart nearly stopped when I recognized them. Felix had Silas pinned face-down in the dirt, one knee pressed firmly between his shoulder blades while silver restraints clicked into place around his wrists. Nova stood over Vince's motionless form, her boot planted squarely on his back to keep him down.

Felix and Nova. From Throne Pack.

The same pack that wanted me dead.

"What—" I tried to speak, but my voice came out as barely a whisper.

"It's okay, Luna," Nova said softly, her voice gentler than I'd ever heard it. "You're safe now."

Felix glanced up from securing Silas, his face grim in the moonlight. "We owe Gabriel a life," he said simply, as if that explained everything.

Gabriel. The name hit me like a physical blow, and fresh grief crashed over me in waves. My mate was dead. The mate bond was nothing but an aching void where warmth and love used to be. I wrapped my arms tighter around my belly, the only part of him I had left.

Nova moved toward me with careful, non-threatening steps. "May I check your injuries?" she asked, crouching down to my level. "You're bleeding from your neck."

I nodded numbly, still too shocked to fully process what was happening. Her hands were surprisingly gentle as she examined the shallow cut Silas had made with his silver blade.

"Not deep," she murmured, pulling a small first aid kit from her jacket. "But we should clean it. Silver wounds can be tricky."

While she worked, I pressed my palm against my stomach, feeling for any sign that the baby was okay. After a moment, I felt a small flutter of movement, and relief flooded through me. The baby was safe. That was something, at least.

But what did safety even mean anymore? Gabriel was gone. The bond that had been my anchor, my strength, my everything—severed forever.

My wolf was completely silent, retreating so far into herself that I could barely sense her presence. She was mourning too. I reached up to touch the soul flower behind my ear—Gabriel's blood had dried on its petals, and the flower itself seemed dimmed, its usual glow reduced to the faintest shimmer.

Felix kept his position over Silas while scanning the treeline, alert for any other threats. "Ethan and Lucas should be here soon," he said quietly. "I can hear their vehicles approaching."

That's when Vince started to stir.

"Fucking hell," he groaned, trying to push himself up despite Nova's boot on his back. When he saw Felix standing over Silas, his face contorted with rage and disbelief. "You backstabbing piece of shit! You betrayed your own family!"

Felix's expression didn't change. "I never betrayed anyone, Vince. I chose the right side."

"The right side?" Vince's voice cracked with emotion. "We're brothers! Throne Pack raised us, fed us, gave us everything! And you throw it all away for what—some Moonfall bitch?"

The slur made my blood boil even through my grief, but Felix's reaction was much more controlled. He stepped closer to his brother, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.

"When you used Nova to force me to challenge Gabriel, when you made me watch them hurt the woman I love just to serve Orion's ambitions—that's when you should have thought about family loyalty."

Nova's jaw tightened at the mention of her ordeal, but she kept her focus on me. "Hold still," she said softly, applying antiseptic to my neck wound. "This might sting a bit."

It did sting, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the emptiness inside me.

Vince struggled harder against Nova's restraint, desperation creeping into his voice. "Felix, please. Remember when we were kids? Remember how we used to sneak into the kitchens to steal honey cakes? Remember when you broke your arm falling out of that oak tree, and I carried you all the way home?"

For just a moment, Felix's composure cracked. Pain flickered across his features—the same pain I saw in my own reflection every time I thought about Gabriel.

"I remember," Felix said quietly. "I remember all of it. But I also remember watching Orion beat servants half to death for spilling wine. I remember watching him execute that teenage messenger just for bringing bad news. I remember realizing that everything we were taught about honor and loyalty was just a mask for brutality."

"You're a fool," Vince spat. "Throne Pack will hunt you to the ends of the earth for this betrayal. You and your precious little mate. There won't be anywhere you can hide."

Felix's eyes hardened again. "Let them try."

That's when Silas made his move.

Despite the silver restraints, he managed to trigger a partial shift—not enough to break free, but enough to change his body structure just slightly. It gave him the leverage he needed to roll sideways and kick Felix's legs out from under him.

Felix went down hard, and Silas was moving before anyone could react.

His target wasn't Felix or Nova—it was me. Still in partial wolf form, he lunged straight for where I knelt on the ground, clearly intending to grab me as a human shield.

But Nova was faster. She moved with Gamma speed and precision, intercepting Silas mid-lunge and slamming him back into the dirt with bone-jarring force.

"Stay down!" she snarled, her own eyes flashing with wolf-light.

Silas writhed beneath her, trying to bite, trying to claw, but Nova's training was too good. She had him pinned in a way that left him completely immobilized while Felix scrambled back to his feet.

"Persistent bastard," Felix muttered, producing more silver restraints. Working together, they secured Silas so thoroughly that even a full shift wouldn't help him escape.

That's when I heard the vehicles.

Headlights blazed through the trees as multiple SUVs crashed through the underbrush. Doors slammed, and suddenly the small clearing was full of Moonfall warriors led by Ethan and Lucas.

"Luna!" Lucas was at my side in seconds, his hands gentle but urgent as he checked me over. "Are you hurt? Is the baby—?"

"We're okay," I managed to whisper. The words felt strange in my mouth, because how could anything be okay when Gabriel was dead? But physically, somehow, we had survived.

Ethan was barking orders to his team. "Get those two secured with silver chains. I want them ready for transport in five minutes." His gaze swept over Felix and Nova with obvious confusion. "Nova... and Felix? Why're you here?"

Nova straightened up, wiping blood from a small cut on her cheek. "It's complicated, Ethan. But we couldn't stand by and let innocent people be hurt."

"But last time we spoke, you said you were planning to leave Throne Pack," Ethan pressed. "How did you even know to be here?"