Chapter 116 116

Chapter 116 116
I dashed out of my room, the quiet of the house spurring me into a hurried pace. My bare feet made no sound against the floor as I moved through the hallway. I glanced at Silvia’s door, but it remained firmly closed, and I didn't stop to knock. My focus was entirely on the silence coming from the ground floor. I needed to know what had happened to the celebration, to the life that had been buzzing through the house only hours earlier.

I reached the top of the staircase and was about to head straight downstairs when Alexa’s voice cut through my panic like a physical barrier.
Wait, she commanded.

I halted, my hand gripping the banister so hard the wood bit into my palm. I stood perfectly still, letting her lend me her heightened hearing, letting the world beyond my own heartbeat come into focus. At first, there was only the sound of breathing—many people, gathered in one place, holding their collective breath. And then, I heard it.

A single voice was speaking from downstairs, rising from the main hall.
"I have been drowning in regret ever since," the voice said. It was low, raspy, and carried a vibration that seemed to pull at the very center of my chest. "I'm tired. Moon Goddess knows I am broken."
I recognized that voice instantly.

It was a sound that had been etched into my soul, a sound I had heard in my nightmares and my most cherished memories alike. But even as my heart recognized him, my mind refused to believe it. Why was he still here? Why was he speaking to the pack?
I moved toward the stairs again, but this time my movements were slow and deliberate. I descended one step at a time, my breath hitching as I made my way down the stairs and through the hallway that led to the main hall. The closer I got, the more the tension in the air seemed to thicken.

I reached the entrance of the hall and stopped, staying in the shadows of the doorway. The room was full. Some people were seated, while others stood in lines along the walls, filling the entire space. It looked as though the celebration had transformed into something else entirely—a tribunal, or perhaps a confession.

Everyone was listening with an intensity that made the room feel small. I scanned their faces, seeing a tapestry of different emotions. Some of the women had tears in their eyes, their expressions soft with sympathy. Others looked on in awe, while some held an expression I couldn't quite put a name to—a mixture of suspicion and grudging respect.
My gaze finally moved away from the crowd and landed on the one man who had drawn every eye in the room.

Adrian stood in the center of the hall. He looked just as he had earlier—broad-shouldered, powerful, and every bit the Alpha of a formidable pack. But at the same time, he looked destroyed. The way he held his head, the slight slump of his shoulders, and the raw look in his eyes told a story of a man who had reached the end of his rope. He was broken in every way that mattered.
This is what you asked for, Alexa pushed in my head, her voice devoid of its earlier doubt. He’s done it, Ash. He’s showing everyone. He’s showing you.

I took a step forward, emerging from the shadows. The movement caught his eye, and the moment he saw me, the air seemed to leave his lungs. He didn't say a word at first. He just looked at me, taking in my bare face and my new dress, as if he were memorizing a ghost.
Then, he did something that sent a shockwave through the room, hitting the guests and me with equal force.
He went down on his knees.

An Alpha, especially one as proud as Adrian Rodriguez, did not kneel. Not in front of a rival pack, and certainly not in front of a crowd of strangers. But there he was, his knees hitting the floor with a dull thud that echoed in the silence.
"The Moon Goddess never makes mistakes," he said, his voice echoing through the hall. He wasn't looking at the crowd anymore; he was looking only at me. "And I never tried to choose anyone over you, Ashley. I never did."
I felt the tears I’d tried to dry earlier beginning to sting my eyes again. I stayed where I was, my hands trembling at my sides.

"All I did was try to protect us," he continued, his voice breaking as he spoke. "But I did it the wrong way. I was a fool, and I did it in a way that caused nothing but destruction. I pushed you away thinking I was keeping you safe, and now... now I know that it's almost impossible to get you back. I know the damage I've done."

He lowered his head for a moment, his broad chest heaving with the effort of getting the words out. The silence in the room was absolute. Even the elders, who usually had something to say about everything, were muted by the sight of him.
"I'm truly sorry, Ashley," he whispered, the words carrying a weight that felt heavy enough to sink through the floorboards. "I am so truly sorry."

I stood there, my heart a tangled mess of the anger I had nurtured for so long and the undeniable truth of the man kneeling before me. He wasn't the arrogant Alpha who had rejected me in his pack. He wasn't the enemy I had faced in the war. He was just Adrian, and he was asking for the one thing I wasn't sure I could give.

Alexa was quiet now, leaving the choice to me. The hall remained still, dozens of eyes moving between the kneeling Alpha and the girl standing in the doorway, waiting to see what would happen when the past and the present finally collided.