Chapter 13
Selena’s POV
Ican taste the judgment in the air, thick, acrid, and unavoidable.
The Alpha and Luna did not speak. They could not. Bound by council law, they remained silent as their son’s actions unfolded before the entire chamber.
Every pair of eyes in the chamber bores into me, hundreds of wolves waiting to see if I’ll break under the weight of their stares. I won’t. Not today. Not ever again.
The pack chamber feels smaller than yesterday, crowded with ranked members, warriors, and elders who sit elevated on their ancient platform.
Their faces remain impassive, though I can sense their unease.
Ronan and Candice stand across from me, his stance defiant, her eyes red-rimmed but calculating.
I glance at Rylan beside me, drawing strength from his presence. Just hours ago, we were in his room, his expression grave as he showed me the recording device.
“You need to hear this before we go in,” he’d said, pressing play.
The voices had been unmistakable, Ronan and Candice, speaking casually about weakening my bond, about coordinating with rogues, about deaths that were never accidents.
“We’ll use her as the scapegoat,” Ronan had said on the recording. “Just like we used the rogues to take care of Elise when she got too close.”
“The Gamma couple was just a casualty,” Candice had asked. “Their deaths were effective. How else would we make Selena into the pack’s punching bag. The pack never questioned it.”
My parents. My vision blurs as the past crashes through me like a tidal wave, each memory sharper than a blade.
My stomach had turned to stone. All those years believing it was a rogue attack. All those years of guilt and grief.
I sink into Rylan’s embrace, his arms forming a fortress around my breaking world. “I will get justice for us all. Do you trust me?”
“Yes, I trust you Ry.”
LET ME KILL THEM.
No. We give justice a chance.My wolf’s voice is quiet. Not angry.Just… hollow.
Now, standing in the chamber, I keep my face neutral despite the rage building inside me.
Elder Miriam rises from her seat. “This truth rite will reconvene. The evidence presented yesterday requires further...“
“Before we continue,” Rylan interrupts, stepping forward, “I must inform the council that this trial extends beyond the manipulation of mate bonds.”
The chamber stills. “Explain yourself, Enforcer,” Elder Darius commands.
Rylan’s voice carries effortlessly through the space. “This is not just about the betrayal of Selena or deceiving this council. This is about treason against our pack and actions that directly led to deaths among our own.”
Murmurs erupt. Elder Miriam raises her hand for silence. “These are serious accusations. Do you have evidence to support them?”
“I do.”
Rylan removes a small device from his pocket, and my heart hammers against my ribs. This is it.
“What is this?” Ronan snarls. “More manipulations? Look this is all just a… misunderstanding. As long as I apologize to my mate and she accepts. This has nothing to do with you.”
ARROGANT FOOL. Calm yourself, we have to give justice a chance.
Rylan ignores him, placing the device on the ceremonial table. “The truth, in their own words.”
He presses play, and suddenly Ronan’s and Candice’s voices fill the chamber, cold, calculated, damning. Their plan unfolds in horrifying detail: weakening me, framing me, using me to distract from their own dealings with rogues.
When they mention Elise, Rylan’s mate, the Luna in training, killed in the rogue attack, and my parents, the Gamma pair lost in that same attack, the air itself seems to freeze.
“This is fabricated!” Ronan shouts, lunging forward, only to be restrained by two warriors. “He’s trying to steal my mate!”
“The bond was real. The herbs just made it easier for you to betray me with her… without being caught.”
Candice’s face contorts with rage. “You can’t believe this! It’s obviously doctored!”
Elder Darius’s expression darkens. “The truth rite will reveal what is real. Resume the ceremony.”
Four attendants move forward, reactivating the silver circle from yesterday. The dust ignites with that familiar cold blue light, rising to enclose us.
See? I push the thought toward my wolf. Justice will prevail.
“Candice,” Elder Miriam intones, “you will submit to the truth rite first.”
Candice trembles as the magic envelops her. The silver light pulses, then expands, projecting shadowy images into the air above our heads, her memories, forced into visibility.
I watch, unblinking, as the visions take shape: Candice meeting with hooded figures at the territory borders, exchanging packets of herbs for money, whispering information about patrol schedules. The images shift to her slipping powder into my food, into my tea, laughing with Ronan afterward.
The chamber grows deathly quiet as the visions continue, plans discussed, payments made to rogues, celebrations when attacks were “successful.”
Then, most damning of all, a memory of her standing beside Ronan as they watch from a distance while rogues attack a car on a remote road. My parents’ car.
My knees nearly buckle. I force myself to remain standing, to show no weakness.
“It’s lies!” Candice screams suddenly, clawing at the silver light surrounding her. “The magic is wrong! It’s her, she’s doing this somehow!”
The elders exchange glances.
“The truth rite cannot be manipulated,” Elder Miriam states.
“She’s not normal!” Candice shrieks, pointing at me with a trembling finger. “She’s the curse! The monster! She’s why the rogues came in the first place! The pack is falling apart because of her!”
LET ME RIP OUT HER THROAT. My wolf growls.
Not yet.
Her words hang in the air. I sense the shift immediately, the hesitation among the wolves, old prejudices surfacing. I’m still the human-raised outsider to many of them. Still weak. Still not to be trusted.
Ronan seizes the moment. “You all know it’s true,” he calls out. “We’ve all felt it. She’s been nothing but trouble since her parents died.”
HE DID NOT JUST MENTION OUR PARENTS. My nostrils flare. I’m trying to keep my wolf at bay, but after that comment, I’m close to letting her out.
Murmurs ripple through the crowd. Doubt spreads like poison.
I look around at faces I’ve known for years, wolves who’ve never fully accepted me, never fully trusted me. Even now, with the truth laid bare before them, they hesitate.
Something inside me shifts. No one here knows what I truly am. Not the elders. Not the pack. Only Rylan.
“Enough.” The word doesn’t echo. Heavy. Final. Power ripples outward from me, invisible but undeniable, like the air itself bends under it.My eyes burn, silver rising to the surface as the wolf steps forward.
The effect is immediate. The air grows heavy, charged with ancient power. Wolves drop to their knees around the chamber. Some collapse entirely. Even the strongest warriors struggle to remain standing. The dominance rolls through the room in waves, absolute in its authority.
Complete silence falls.
Wolves remain on their knees, some unable to rise under the weight of it. The elders do not kneel, but I see it in their faces, in the tension in their bodies as they grip the arms of their seats.
They feel it. All of them. But they do not understand it.
The Lycan council rises as one. This time, there is no hesitation. The same male and female council members from before, the ones who watched me too closely, who exchanged that look the moment they scented me, step forward. Recognition sharpens their expressions.
“We sensed it,” the councilwoman says quietly, her gaze locked on mine. “But it was… buried. Dormant.”
“Hidden,” the councilman adds. “By blood… or by fate.”
A beat passes. Then...“Lycan blood… you’re one of us.” His gaze sweeps the chamber, “By order of the Lycan council, she stands under our protection.” A ripple of shock moves through the room.
“Any who raise a hand against her,” the councilwoman says, her voice calm and absolute, “will answer to us.”
Silence tightens. “And we do not grant mercy twice.” The word settles over the chamber like law. And everything changes.
“No,” Ronan breathes. The word is raw. Disbelieving. Like something inside him just shattered.
SERVES HIM RIGHT. HMPH. My Lycan hums.
I look back at Rylan with a smile. He’s the only mate I will ever want.
Beside me, I hear movement, too fast, too desperate. I begin to turn, catching sight of Rylan’s face transforming from shock to horror.
I pivot just in time to see Ronan lunging toward me, his face contorted with hatred, a silver blade aimed straight for my heart.
Too fast. Too close.