Chapter 126 Luna of Moonclaw Ridge
Chapter 126 Luna of Moonclaw Ridge
POV Una:
“You can’t trade one soul for another, Una. That doesn’t exist. It was something Seline invented when she decided to start stealing from me.” Morana looks sharply at the Moon Goddess before turning back to me, compassion flickering in her silver eyes. “I know it’s hard to accept the idea of an end, but for some people, death is not a burden. It’s a blessing. You’ll have to explain that to Begay and help him overcome the problems he created for himself.”
I feel sad that I can’t give my mate what he wanted, but I can’t deny that I understand the Goddess of the Dead.
It’s the cycle of life. It shouldn’t be changed.
“And what about me?” I ask, remembering what she said about me being born in a corpse’s womb and not supposed to exist. “Will you take me away too?”
“No. Those who returned will remain among the living, for they bear no fault for the mistakes of the gods.” Morana begins to fade as quickly as she appeared, dissolving into mist. The last thing I hear her say is: “One day, we’ll meet again.”
“I’m not sure I’m excited about that…” I murmur, turning to the remaining Goddess—the one who created all this chaos. “What happens now?”
I look around the room filled with frozen, furious Alphas who want the heads of those I love.
Declan’s body lies on the ground, completely disfigured, inside the broken salt circle.
Did I ruin everything?
“No, sweet child. This isn’t your fault. It’s mine.” Seline steps forward. She looks tired. A little sad. “I’ll fix this. You’ve all suffered enough. I’ve made you suffer too much…”
Before I can respond, a strange numbness spreads through my limbs, making me want nothing more than to sleep and forget all this chaos. To go back to Begay’s cabin and enjoy my mates’ bodies.
To enjoy the heat that ended too soon and would have given me many babies.
My vision blurs, and I can no longer fight the exhaustion, so I close my eyes. The last thing I hear before sleep claims me is:
“You know, death is Morana’s specialty. But life is entirely mine… Consider this my apology for all the suffering I allowed you to endure, Luna of Moonclaw Ridge. I hope it will be enough for your males to forgive me as well.”
(...)
POV Begay:
Pure panic rushes through my veins when Una faints while we are surrounded by people who want to kill us.
Why is everything going so wrong? my kaylak asks, just as lost as I am in the face of this desperate, hopeless situation.
I stare at Aldrick, the Alpha who sentenced us to death as if he had that right. I have no way to prove it, but I believe, with every fiber of my soul, that he was the one responsible for breaking the circle and giving Declan the knife, because I saw the looks they exchanged before the trial began. It was obvious the two of them were plotting something. I just never imagined they would go so far as to kill everyone.
“You’re giving orders as if you were the head of the High Council of the Lykae, Alpha Aldrick, when in truth, that position belongs to Dirki.” Therak’s voice, full of power, silences the shifters who had advanced to attack us. “Therefore, your sentence is invalid.”
I’m amazed by the calm the bear displays, even covered in the blood of the father he killed and crushed.
Maybe that’s why he is so calm.
“Besides being illegal,” Kalil, Therak’s friend, says, cutting through the crowd of burgundy robes to stand near us. “You don’t get to decide who lives and who dies. There are specific meetings to discuss these matters. Serious trials. Things don’t happen the way they did ten years ago anymore. We’re civilized now.”
Some of the Alphas seem to recover their sense at Kalil’s words and step back, undoing the circle that had formed around us. Others, like Alpha Aldrick, don’t yield, still radiating a rage impossible to understand.
Why do they hate us so much?
“Sentences against traitors can and must be given immediately.” The one speaking is another of the conservative Alphas, one who felt threatened by Therak during the initial trial. “The female broke the rule. She interfered in a Blood Challenge; therefore, she deserves death. As does Therak, who won unfairly.”
“And would the victory have been fair if Declan had won using a knife no one knows where it came from?” Hyder asks, stopping beside his brother. “What I want to know—and what all of you should want to know—is who was responsible for breaking the circle, since Una couldn’t have entered it by jumping, which is what happened, if the barrier had been active.”
“That doesn’t matter!” Aldrick huffs, rolling his eyes as if Hyder were an idiot. I see beneath his act, though.
He’s afraid.
“It does matter.” High Councilor Dirki’s voice, the one responsible for the trial, rises for the first time since all the confusion began. He walks slowly toward us, opening a path through the sea of red robes with his ivory staff, which looks like a giant elephant tusk. When he stops, it is between Therak and Aldrick. “This hearing was manipulated, and I want to know which Council member was responsible for the grotesque error of allowing an innocent omega to throw herself between two Alphas fighting to the death.”
The silence that follows Dirki’s words is so absolute I can hear my own racing heart.
No one speaks. No one moves.
The entire room seems to hold its breath, waiting for the person responsible for the circle to come forward.
In the end, Aldrick breaks, unable to bear the weight of the stares from those who also suspected him.
“You seem to have forgotten why you’re here. The female doesn’t matter. Therak is the one on trial!” he shouts, pointing at my partner. “He invoked laws that shouldn’t even apply to him, because he is nothing but an aberration born in animal form. And, as if that weren’t enough, he also violated the Blood Challenge, claiming an invalid victory. The Goddess would be ashamed of all of you if she saw the circus this has become.”
“I am watching… from the moment you planned the cheating with Declan, Aldrick.”
The female voice, soft as the wind and powerful as a tornado, echoes through the room, making everyone shudder. The judging Alpha’s eyes widen in terror.
“I saw your plans for conquest. I saw your arrogance. Not only yours, but that of many other Alphas present in this room, who choose to sacrifice innocents to maintain control and power. You use my name to justify acts of cruelty, selfishness, and domination, but you forget that just as I bless you with the gift of transformation, I can also punish you by taking it away.”
Aldrick falls to his knees, as do many other Alphas, clutching their chests beneath the crimson fabric as if something inside them is being ripped out.