Chapter 11 The Lie Revealed
LIRA POV
Garrick studied my face in the dim light, his expression calculating. "You want the truth? The truth will destroy what little innocence you have left."
"I stopped being innocent the moment you put me in chains as a child," I replied, my voice steady despite the tremor in my hands.
Heavy footsteps echoed down the stairs as Kael appeared, his expression thunderous. "What are you doing down here?"
"Getting answers you're too afraid to give me." I didn't look away from Garrick, refusing to be intimidated. "Tell me about the conspiracy. Tell me who else was involved."
"Lira, this isn't" Kael started, his voice tight with warning.
"Tell her!" Garrick's laugh was bitter as winter wind. "Tell her how her precious father was marked for death the moment he refused to bend the knee to Magnus Thorn."
Kael went very still, his body radiating dangerous tension. "What are you talking about?"
"Oh, didn't you know?" Garrick's smile was cruel, spreading across his weathered face. "Your father and mine weren't the only ones involved. It went much deeper than that."
I felt ice form in my veins, spreading outward from my heart. "How deep?"
"All the way to the Luna Council. All the way to the neighboring alphas who saw Silvermoon's power as a threat to their own territories," Garrick said, his chains rattling with each word.
The words hit me like physical blows, and I staggered back against the stone wall.
"That's impossible," Kael said, but his voice lacked conviction.
"Is it?" Garrick rattled his chains with deliberate malice. "Dmitri Ashbourne was building alliances. Creating a confederation of smaller packs that could challenge the big territorial alphas. Your father, my alpha, saw the writing on the wall."
"So they killed him," I whispered, the truth settling in my bones like lead.
"They engineered a war. Sent Dmitri false intelligence about Darkfang movements, convinced him to lead a strike force into enemy territory." Garrick's eyes glowed with remembered malice. "Then they leaked his route to Magnus's war parties."
"And my mother?" My voice barely carried in the damp air, fragile as spider silk.
"Left defenseless while her mate was away. The attack on Silvermoon packlands was coordinated. Three different pack armies hit them simultaneously while their best warriors were chasing ghosts in Darkfang territory."
Kael moved closer to the chained elder, his own eyes beginning to glow with suppressed rage. "You're lying."
"Am I?" Garrick gloated, his voice dripping with satisfaction. "Ask yourself why Magnus never tried to rescue any Silvermoon survivors. Why did he let their territories go feral instead of claiming them."
"Because they were cursed," Kael said automatically, the response practiced.
"Because witnesses were inconvenient," Garrick said, his gaze locking on me with unflinching weight. "Especially one particular witness who carried the most powerful bloodline in werewolf history."
"So you stole me," I said, my voice tight as my fingers curled against my knees.
"We saved you." Garrick's tone carried no apology, his expression cold as winter stone. "Magnus wanted you dead, but some of us saw potential in keeping the Moonblood line alive—even though controlled."
"Controlled in chains. Tortured for twenty years." My voice shook with fury, though I forced myself not to look away from his weathered face.
"Better than murdered in your cradle," Garrick countered flatly, his expression unchanged. "Which is what would have happened if certain parties had their way."
Kael's hand shot forward, his fingers closing around the elder's throat like a vise. "What parties?" His voice was a growl, barely restrained violence.
"The new alpha of Silvermoon, for one," Garrick wheezed, clawing at Kael's grip with desperate fingers. "Young Elias Thornfield. Twenty-eight years old and hungry for power."
My blood turned to ice, freezing in my veins. "Thornfield?" I whispered, my eyes widening. "As in related to—"
"My father's sister's son," Kael said grimly, his jaw tightening with recognition. "I thought he died in the Silvermoon massacre."
"He survived because he wasn't there when it happened." Garrick's smile spread like poison across his face. "Convenient, don't you think? He's been ruling what's left of Silvermoon territory ever since. Building his own power base as he waited."
"Waiting for what?" Kael demanded, his hand still clamped like iron on Garrick's throat.
"For the Moonblood heir to surface," Garrick croaked, his voice strained. "For you to claim your birthright so he can kill you properly and absorb your pack's remaining territories."
The dungeon fell silent except for the drip of water in the dark. I felt the weight of twenty years of lies pressing down on my chest until I could hardly breathe.
"There's more, isn't there?" I asked quietly, my eyes narrowing with growing dread.
Garrick nodded once, chains rattling as he shifted. "Elias has been in contact with the creatures hunting you. The revenants, the rogue alphas, all of it. He's been feeding them information, helping coordinate the attacks."
"Why?" Kael's voice was deadly quiet, but I could feel the vibration of barely contained rage.
"Because if supernatural bounty hunters kill the Moonblood heir, he can't be blamed for her death." Garrick's tone grew almost conversational despite Kael's hand still at his throat. "His hands stay clean while he inherits everything that was stolen from her bloodline."
My legs gave way, and I sank onto a stone bench, my palms braced against my knees. "My parents died for nothing," I whispered, my voice breaking like glass.
"Your parents died because they threatened the established order," Garrick said, his voice turning oddly gentle. "They dreamed of a world where pack politics didn't revolve around fear and domination. Where smaller communities could thrive without being absorbed by territorial giants."
"And you helped murder them for it," I said, my eyes flashing with silver anger.
"I helped prevent a war that would have consumed every pack in the region." Garrick shifted, the chains clinking with metallic finality. "Though I begin to wonder if we simply delayed the inevitable."
Kael released Garrick with a violent shove and turned to me. "Now you know the truth," he said, his expression hard as granite. "Will you still insist on going to Silvermoon territory?"
I lifted my head, the glow of power flickering in my eyes. "More than ever."
"It's suicide," Kael snapped, frustration roughening his voice like sandpaper. "Elias will kill you the moment you cross the border."
"Maybe," I said, my chin lifting defiantly. "Or maybe it's time the rightful heir reclaimed what was stolen from her family."
"You're not thinking clearly," Kael argued, his hands flexing at his sides with restrained violence. "The trauma"
"The trauma is exactly what's making me think clearly for the first time in my life," I cut in, my body trembling with barely contained energy. "I've spent twenty years as a victim. I won't spend the next twenty as a coward."
"Going to Silvermoon isn't brave, it's foolish," Kael said, his wolf bleeding into his voice.
"Then come with me." The words burst from me, surprising even myself with their intensity. "Help me reclaim my birthright."
Kael stared at me as though I'd just asked him to abandon the laws of nature. "You're asking me to abandon Darkfang territory," he said slowly, each word deliberate. "Leave my pack vulnerable to attack."
"I'm asking you to help your mate right a twenty-year-old wrong," I countered, my fists clenching with desperate hope.
"My pack comes first. Always." His tone left no room for doubt, final as a grave.