Chapter 37 Selena's POV
The cell was cold.
It was not just physically cold, though the stone walls and concrete floor did nothing to retain warmth. It was the kind of cold that seeped into your bones, that made you feel hollow and empty inside.
I sat on the thin mattress they had given me, my back against the wall, my knees pulled to my chest. My nails were chipped and dirty. My hair, usually so perfectly styled, hung limp and tangled around my face.
This wasn't supposed to happen.
Luna was supposed to stand beside Kaden at the coronation and take my place as the most powerful female in the pack. Everything had been planned, everything had been perfect.
Until Elara ruined it.
I pressed my fingernails into my palms, feeling the sharp sting of pain. It was the only thing that kept me grounded in this horrible cell.
The poison was supposed to work. I had planned carefully to choose the right substance, something slow-acting, something that wouldn't show up in a basic check. Something that would make it look like a natural illness.
But it didn't work. Somehow, impossibly, Elara had survived and Kaden had found the poison in my room.
I hit the wall beside me with my fist. The impact sent a jolt of pain up my arm but I barely felt it.
"Damn you, Elara.” I hissed through gritted teeth.
The worst part wasn't the cell wasn't the loss of freedom or the disgrace. The worst part was the memory of Kaden's face when he had looked at me after finding the poison. The way he had looked at me like I was nothing less than nothing.
Like he was disgusted by me.
And then there was what he had said at the pack meeting. The words that had been replaying in my mind ever since, over and over, like a poison of their own.
"Selena will not be my Luna."
Not just that she wouldn't be crowned that she never would be ever.
Because of Elara.
I felt the rage building again, hot and suffocating. I stood up and slammed my fist against the stone wall once, twice , and three times.
The skin on my knuckles split open blood ran down my hand.
I didn't care.
Then another memory surfaced something Kaden had said during the interrogation before they threw me in this cell. Something that had made my blood freeze.
"She is pregnant."
Two words spoken with such raw emotion that I had almost believed he was breaking down right in front of me.
Elara was pregnant.
With Kaden's child.
The realization had hit me like a physical blow at the time had nearly knocked me off my feet.
All this time, while I was scheming and planning and positioning myself as the perfect Luna, Kaden had already chosen someone else and had already created a family with that worthless omega.
I sank back down onto the mattress, cradling my bleeding hand against my chest.
Everything I had worked for every move I had made. Every obstacle I had carefully removed over the years meant nothing because of her.
Hours passed, maybe days I had lost track of time in this windowless cell. The guards came twice a day to slide food through the slot in the door. I barely touched it.
Then one evening or what I assumed was evening I heard footsteps approaching not the usual measured steps of a guard.
These were different expensive shoes clicking against the stone floor.
The door opened.
Two figures entered a woman I recognized as one of my personal associates tall, dark-haired, dressed in expensive clothes that looked entirely out of place in this setting. And behind her, a man.
My father.
Victor was an imposing figure tall, broad-shouldered, with steel-gray hair swept back from a face that had grown harder with every passing year. His eyes were cold, calculating eyes that I had inherited—scanned the cell with obvious disgust.
"Selena," he said.
"Father." My voice cracked. I hadn't spoken to anyone in days.
He didn't move to embrace me and didn't rush to comfort me the way a normal father might. He simply stood there, studying me with those sharp eyes, assessing the situation.
"You look terrible," he said.
"I'm in a cell, Father."
"Yes, because you were stupid enough to get caught."
The words stung but I didn't flinch. I knew better than to show weakness in front of him. He despised weakness.
"Tell me everything," He ordered.
So I told him about Elara and the poison. About Kaden finding it about the pack meeting and the cancellation of the coronation.
My father listened without interrupting, his expression unchanging.
When I finished, he was quiet for a long moment.
"This omega," He said slowly. "She is carrying Kaden's child?"
"Yes."
"And the coronation has been permanently canceled?"
"He said I would never be Luna."
Another long pause. My father moved to the wall and leaned against it, crossing his arms over his chest.
"This is a mess, Selena, a significant mess that you created."
"I know."
"Do you? Because from where I'm standing, you made a series of catastrophic decisions and got caught as a result. I raised you to be smarter than this."
Tears burned in my eyes. I hated crying and hated showing any emotion in front of him. But I couldn't help it.
"I can fix this," I said, my voice trembling. "If you get me out of here, I can fix everything."
"How?"
"I don't know yet but I will. Father, please." I stood, reaching for his hand. He let me take it but didn't squeeze back.
"I was supposed to be Luna, everything I have worked for my entire life was all leading to that moment and she took it from me."
"She didn't take anything you threw away by being reckless."
"Then help me get it back! Help me become what I was meant to be!"
I was crying now, tears streaming down my face. I didn't care that my associate was standing right there, watching.
"I will be Luna of the Blue Moon Pack," I said, gripping his hand tighter.
"At any cost I don't care what it takes, I don't care who I have to destroy."
My father studied my face for a long moment. Something shifted in his expression. Not warmth exactly. More like recognition like he was seeing something in me that he approved of.
"And if it requires war?" He asked.
"Then we go to war."
"And the child? Kaden's heir?"
"The child doesn't matter, none of it matters." I looked my father directly in the eyes, letting him see the full extent of my determination.
"I would rather die than not be with Kaden. He is mine, he was always supposed to be mine."
I squeezed his hand one final time.
"The only obstacle standing between me and everything I want is Elara. And I will not stop until she is gone permanently."
My father looked at me for a long moment.
Then, for the first time in years, he smiled.