Chapter Ten
“Are you back for good?“N
Vivienne’s voice cut through the tension like the first crack of lightning before a storm–sharp, deliberate, unflinching. Her tone was even, but her eyes burned with fire. She wasn’t looking at Damien. She was looking at me. As if to say: You owe him nothing. But you owe yourself everything.
I didn’t answer right away.
Ayla’s hand slipped into mine, her small fingers curling tightly around my palm like she was anchoring herself to something solid in a sea of uncertainty. Her wide eyes scanned the unfamiliar faces in the hall–wolves with curious gazes and hushed whispers on their tongues- before her gaze drifted upward to the raised dais.
Where he stood.N
Damien.
Even without seeing him, I felt him. That cursed bond still pulsed between us, like an old wound that hadn’t finished healing–frayed, tattered, but still lingering. When my gaze finally met his; I saw the same look that haunted my dreams–shock, disbelief… and guilt.”
Like he’d just seen a ghost.
Maybe he had.
Because a part of me had died when he watched my child stoned..
Because he had killed it.N
“Selene,” he breathed my name like a man trying to hold onto a memory he’d already lost. “Selene…”
I lifted my chin, the sharp tilt of my head a silent declaration of strength reclaimed. “Alpha Nightfang.“}]
He flinched at the title, like I’d slapped him with it. Good. Let him feel the weight of the throne he’d bled me for.
His eyes dropped–past me, past the steel in my gaze–to the little girl by my side.
That was when the second dagger found its mark.
He staggered, like the truth had punched the air from his lungs. “She’s…” His voice broke. “She’s still mine.”
“No,” I replied, voice smooth but unyielding. “She’s mine.”
It wasn’t just a correction. It was a battle line drawn. A truth forged in pain and protected by fire.
He took a stumbling step forward. “Selene, if I had known–if someone had told me-”
“Did it matter if was a Stormclaw?,” I cut him off, voice rising like a storm rolling in. “You knew I was your mate. You knew I carried your child. And still… you chose her.“}
Each word struck him like a lash. And still, I didn’t stop.§
“You let them stone your daughter,” I spat, the memories rising fast and brutal. “You stood by while your Beta dragged my child trying to stop us from treating her. You let Elara be in charge of the coins you sent. You watched–watched–everything”
His expression crumbled. Horror twisted his features. Regret bloomed too late.}
“You stood at the edge of Ravencall Gorge,” I said, breath shaking, “and you called us never yours. So don’t stand here now and pretend to forget.”
W t rex z s
The room was dead silent.”
Not a whisper. Not a footstep. Just the crushing weight of truths finally spoken.
Vivienne stepped forward, fury wrapped tight around her spine like a crown of thorns. “You chose a crown laced with venom over the mate destined to heal you. You fed power to a snake and buried a queen in the process.“}]
Damien’s shoulders slumped, his voice barely a whisper. “I was lied to…”
“You were weak,” Vivienne snapped. “And everyone beneath you bled for it.”
My daughter’s small voice rose, piercing the silence with devastating innocence.
“Mommy… is he my daddy?““}
My breath caught in my chest.
I knelt, pulling Ayla close, brushing a strand of her hair behind her ear. Her eyes–so much like his, and yet nothing like him–searched mine for a truth I couldn’t shield her from any longer.
“He’s the one fate chose,” I said quietly, “but not the one who chose us.”
Ayla blinked, her young mind trying to understand a world that had never been kind to her. She nodded once, then squeezed my fingers tighter
I stood slowly and turned to Damien, who had dropped to his knees–not from grief, but from the slow, soul–breaking realization that he had lost everything that ever truly mattered.
“I’m not here for forgiveness,” I said, each word carved from steel. “I didn’t come to reclaim a title. I came to show my daughter that surviving is enough. That we do not have to be claimed to belong. We belong to ourselves.”
Damien stared at Ayla, tears welling in his eyes. “Can I. can I speak to her?”
Vivienne stepped beside me, her hand resting gently on my arm–a silent offer to stand guard, to shield me from the wreckage of this
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moment.
But this was mine to face.
I crouched beside Ayla again. “You don’t have to, baby. But if you want to say hello… you can.”
She looked up at me, then at him. Then nodded.
He swallowed hard, his voice trembling. “Hi.“&
Ayla blinked up at him. “Hi.“&
That was all. Just a single word.&
But it was enough.
She turned and pressed her face into my side, clearly done with him. With the stranger fate had chosen but who had never chosen her.
I rose, Ayla’s hand clutched tight in mine, and we turned toward the gathered crowd. Heads bowed as we passed. Not out of pity–but respect.
Behind us, Damien remained on his knees. Not in mourning.
But in shame.
His Luna had returned.
But not for him.
