Chapter 23 Twenty Three

Chapter 23 Twenty Three


Chapter Twenty-Three

Tiara’s POV

The world tilted around me in a slow spinning blur as Maxie lowered me gently to the moonstone floor. My legs would not hold my weight. I felt my breath coming in ragged pulls, each one too shallow to calm the cold rush sweeping through my chest. Lysandra. My mother. The word felt wrong in my mind, slipping like water between shaking fingers.

I pressed my palm to the smooth stone, trying to ground myself, trying to feel anything but the rising tide of confusion inside me. For the first time since the visions began, the memories did not come as fragments. They came as a pull, a soft whisper like a voice just behind my ear.

I felt Maxie kneel beside me. His hand touched my back, warm and steady, anchoring me before I drifted too far into the shock.

“Look at me,” he said softly.

I lifted my head slowly. His face was tight with worry, his jaw clenched, his eyes bright with the kind of anger that came from fear. Not fear of Rowan. Not fear of the King behind us. Fear for me.

He brushed a strand of hair from my cheek. “Breathe.”

“I am,” I whispered, though the words sounded hollow. “I just do not understand.”

Rowan stood a few steps away, watching quietly. There was no satisfaction in his expression, no triumph. Only an aching sadness.

“You knew?” I asked him.

He nodded once. “I knew for a long time.”

“Since when?”

“Since the night you were born.”

My breath trembled. “You were there?”

Rowan’s gaze lowered. “I was Lysandra’s guard before I became yours. I was present when she delivered you.”

Maxie’s voice cut in, low and dangerous. “You are telling us she hid her own child from the entire kingdom.”

Rowan nodded. “Yes.”

“Why?” Maxie demanded.

Rowan took a slow step toward us. “Because Tiara was born marked. The symbol was bright enough to glow even as an infant. Lysandra knew what it meant. She knew what fate awaited a child chosen by the Moon.”

I pressed a hand to my chest, feeling the faint throb of the mark beneath my skin. “What fate?”

Rowan hesitated. “Envy. Fear. Power struggles. The King’s court would have torn itself apart to claim her. The elders would have argued whether she belonged to the throne or the Moon. Packs would have tried to take her.”

Maxie moved closer to me protectively. “She should have come to me. I would have protected her.”

Rowan shook his head. “You were too young. You were not Alpha yet. You had no authority to stop the elders from separating mother and daughter.”

I swallowed hard. “So she hid me.”

“Yes,” Rowan said. “She hid the truth to protect you. She let the pack believe she lost a child during childbirth. A false mourning. A staged burial.”

I felt sick. “She lied.”

“She had to,” Rowan said softly. “The alternative was war.”

Maxie rose to his feet, moving in front of me as if blocking the memories from reaching me. “Then what happened? How did she lose Tiara? How did Tiara end up in my pack?”

Rowan looked Maxie in the eye. “Lysandra made a choice. She gave the baby to the only person she trusted with her life.”

Maxie’s eyes narrowed. “Who?”

Rowan exhaled slowly. “My sister.”

A sound escaped me, almost a gasp. “Your sister?”

“She raised you,” Rowan said. “Hidden in the lower village, under a false identity. No one knew she was sheltering the Luna’s child. Not even the council. Only Lysandra and I knew.”

Maxie stepped back slowly, shock widening his eyes. “Tiara’s adoptive mother… that was your sister?”

“Yes,” Rowan said. “She loved Tiara as her own.”

“And when she died?” I whispered, my voice small. “When the fever took her… why did Lysandra not take me back?”

Rowan lowered his gaze. “She tried. She searched for you for months. But Marcus found you first.”

I felt the world drop from beneath my feet. “Marcus.”

“He took you from the lower village,” Rowan said. “He wanted leverage over Lysandra. He believed she would do anything to get her daughter back.”

Maxie’s voice darkened. “She did not.”

Rowan shook his head. “No. She did everything she could. But the council intervened. They forbade her from exposing the truth. They claimed the kingdom would collapse if they learned the Luna had hidden a marked heir.”

I pressed a trembling hand to my mouth. “So they kept me away.”

“Yes,” Rowan said. “Until your wolf awakened at thirteen. The elders sensed the shift. They forced Lysandra to send you to the Red Wolf Pack under the guise of an exchange program. A political move. But Lysandra only agreed because she knew Maxie would protect you.”

My breath caught. “She sent me to Maxie?”

Rowan nodded. “Lysandra trusted him more than the King. More than the council.”

Maxie stared at Rowan with disbelief. “She trusted me. But she never told me anything.”

“She could not,” Rowan said. “The council forbade her from revealing Tiara’s identity, even to you.”

“But you knew,” Maxie said coldly.

“Yes,” Rowan said. “But I was bound by my oath.”

Anger surged through me. “If she trusted Maxie, why did she not tell him I was her daughter? Why hide it?”

“Because she feared losing you,” Rowan said. “She feared if you bonded with Maxie early, the elders would intervene again. They would accuse him of manipulating the heir. They would take you from him. She wanted you to have one thing she never had.”

“What?” I whispered.

“A choice.”

The chamber fell silent.

Maxie sank to one knee beside me again and took my hand. His fingers were warm, steady, but trembling. His voice dropped low.

“You had every right to know this years ago.”

“I never would have believed it,” I said weakly. “I never imagined I could be…”

“Royal,” Rowan finished softly.

I closed my eyes.

Then another thought burst into me so quickly I gasped.

“Cyrus,” I whispered. “Did he know?”

Rowan shook his head. “No. Cyrus never knew. He only knew you were special. That was enough to turn his jealousy into obsession.”

Maxie tensed beside me. “And Marcus?”

Rowan hesitated. “Marcus knew part of the truth. Lysandra made the mistake of telling him the child she lost was actually alive.”

My heart dropped. “She trusted him?”

“Once,” Rowan said. “A mistake that cost her everything.”

Tears welled in my eyes.

“And Cameron?” Maxie pressed.

Rowan’s voice lowered. “Cameron learned the truth two years ago.”

“How?” I demanded.

“Lysandra told him,” Rowan said.

The room spun.

“No,” I whispered. “She would never give me to him.”

Rowan’s voice softened. “She did not give you. She begged him to protect you. She begged him to spare you. She believed he would help hide you.”

Maxie swore under his breath.

Rowan continued. “But Cameron saw only power. He believed if he claimed you, the Moon Mark would obey the crown. He believed he could rule not as a King, but as a god.”

My breath hitched. “So he hunted me.”

“Yes,” Rowan said. “And when Lysandra realized what she had done, she disappeared.”

“Did Cameron kill her?” Maxie asked.

Rowan shook his head. “No. She vanished on her own. She is still alive.”

My heart froze.

“She is alive?” I whispered.

“Yes,” Rowan said. “And she is the one who commanded Marcus. She is the one who ordered me to pull you from the cottage that night. She believed Marcus would only scare you, not kill you.”

Maxie’s voice rose. “You expect us to believe that?”

Rowan’s voice cracked. “I did not expect Marcus to turn on her. He wanted the power for himself. He wanted a marked mate. He wanted a marked child. When he realized Lysandra would never give him that, he decided to take it.”

A sickening pressure squeezed my chest.

“So he killed me.”

“Yes,” Rowan whispered.

I felt Maxie’s arms wrap around me as my breath broke. I pressed my face into his shoulder, trying to breathe through the weight of everything hitting me at once.

My mother alive.

My past stolen.

My identity hidden.

My death predicted by the woman who gave me life.

My bond endangered by secrets older than I was.

When I finally lifted my head, Rowan was staring at me with something close to regret.

“Why tell me now?” I asked, voice raw.

“Because Cameron is about to take you,” Rowan said. “And he believes you belong to him.”

Maxie growled. “She belongs to no one.”

“No,” Rowan said simply. “She belongs to the Moon.”

The chamber shook violently. Dust rained from the ceiling. Cameron’s roar echoed down the tunnel louder than ever.

“He has found the entrance,” Rowan said.

Maxie stood and pulled me up with him.

Rowan stepped back. “You must go. You must leave this place.”

I hesitated. “What about you?”

Rowan exhaled slowly. “My choices were made long ago. I stand where I stand.”

Maxie stared at him. “If you stay, he will kill you.”

Rowan nodded. “I know.”

Another roar, closer now.

“He is almost here,” Rowan said. “Go.”

Maxie grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the side tunnel. I followed, my legs still shaking, my heart still torn between truth and fear.

Before we reached the exit, I looked back.

Rowan stood alone in the center of the chamber, facing the direction the King was coming from.

He raised his chin.

“For what it is worth,” he said, “I never wanted to hurt you.”

I swallowed hard.

“Then why did you?” I whispered.

He closed his eyes. “Because I was weak.”

Maxie pulled me through the archway before I could reply.

Behind us, Cameron’s roar crashed through the chamber.

And Rowan stepped forward to meet him.