Chapter 26
The room erupted. Gasps rippled through the crowd, but Beka’s cry cut through it all.
Across from me, Shane didn’t flinch. He didn’t look like a prisoner, but a man who had already read the final page.
Obsidian traveled over the bruises on my neck, and for a second, the mocking smirk faltered, a delirious look widening his eyes.
Then they went soft, morphing into a look of yearning so raw it felt sacrilegious, making my skin crawl. It twisted something inside me.
“I keep my promises,” he mouthed. His eyes searched mine, desperate for something I couldn’t name.
The scream from Emilia cut through the moment. Shane didn’t blink, the manic look returning.
“You look beautiful in my marks, Princess,” he mouthed, the words silent but unmistakable.
“Wait!” Alpha Hannes’s voice thundered, his fist slamming against onyx like a gavel, the sound echoing.
He stood, his violet eyes flashing to gold.
“Alpha Ethan, you cannot bypass the High Law. This is a table of Twelve. An Heir cannot be put to the sword without the Right of Tongue. We will hear from the Half Moon Heir, or this is no trial—it is an execution.”
Ethan’s knuckles popped, but he inclined his head. “Observed.”
Every eye locked in on Shane.
He didn’t stand. He leaned back in his chair, the silver chains at his wrists rattling. He didn’t look at Hannes or his father. His stare never faltered from me.
“The King has forgotten the weight of the crown he stole,” Shane said. His voice wasn’t the arrogant sneer I knew, but something quieter. “Shadows always return to the hand that cast them.”
“Enough of your games, boy! Speak plainly! Beg for leniency,” Jaxon hissed, his face a mask of agony.
Shane’s lips curled into a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. He leaned forward. “The moth doesn’t remember the flame from the summer before,” Shane whispered, his words running over me like a reverent caress. “But the flame remembers the moth.”
He looked at Ethan, the smirk returning.
“Strike me. Bleed every last drop,” he said, his voice rising to fill the Hall. “You’ll never be rid of me. Time and time again, Princess, I’ll never stop coming for you.”
He sat back, closing his eyes, already somewhere else. “Let the King have his blood.”
A guttural scream sliced disrupted the hall as Luna Emilia caved in on herself. She bolted from her seat, her silk gown tearing as she fumbled toward me. She threw herself at my side, clawing at my shoes with trembling fingers.
“Adea, please!” she sobbed, her silver eyes filled with grief. Her forehead hitting the top of my shoes, her black hair cascading around her. “He is my only son. We took you in, please. Mercy! Have mercy!”
I reeled back. This was the most emotion Emilia had shown in the years I’d known her.
Pain and sadness morphed my features as my heart bled for the mother she was, even as my skin burned with the memory of the bruises she’d chosen not to see.
I didn’t have forgiveness for her. But I recognized the woman who had traded my safety for her own peace of mind, and I looked away.
I looked to Shane, who was finally looking at her. He smiled. Of course he enjoyed her degradation. Even his mother wasn’t exempt from his depravity.
I looked to Ethan. He was a statue of malevolent vengeance, the green glow coming through the slits flared with promise. I reached for him, my fingers finding his muscular forearm.
“Ethan,” I said, my voice loud enough to cut through Emilia’s wailing.
He didn’t move, but the tension in his arm shifted. He was listening.
“Don’t give him the dignity of a quick end. Give him a life he has to live with—one where he remembers what he lost every time he draws breath.”
Ethan’s head turned. The silence stretched between us until finally, he looked to Jaxon.
“One hundred lashes,” Ethan declared. “If he lives, you will exile him. His title stripped, and he’s never to set foot on Half Moon soil again. If he is ever found within the Desert’s reach, he will be hunted like the rogue he is.”
My mate leaned forward, the iron spikes of his mask inches from Jaxon’s pale face.
“If you choose to break any of these commands, I will kill him myself. I will wage war against your kingdom and I will win. Not a soul will be left living on your territory. I’ll wipe Half Moon from the map.
I offer this deal solely on behalf of my mate.
Because she is kinder than your blood deserves. ”
Jaxon looked at his sobbing wife still at my feet, then his son, and finally at me. He bowed his head, his shoulders sagging.
“We accept,” Jaxon whispered. “The debt is recognized. After tonight, he will no longer be of my line.”
“The Table accepts the residing Alpha’s mercy,” Hannes’ voice echoed.
Ethan’s gaze cut to where the Enforcers had cuffed Gabe.
“The witness Gabriel Moon of Half Moon withheld knowledge of ongoing crimes against my mate. Ten lashes, administered before the heir’s punishment is carried out.
He has acknowledged his debt. It will be paid in full.
Punishment will be administered in the arena behind the Great Hall,” Ethan said.
“The trials are adjourned,” Alpha Hannes croaked.
The scraping of chairs filled the hall as the Alphas rose in their grim procession, their mates following behind as they filed out toward the arena.
Ethan stood and turned to me. He ignored Emilia at my feet as he offered me his hand.
I took it as the Enforcers stepped forward, and the room began to clear. Enforcers handcuffed Gabe. I moved toward him, but his blue eyes cut to me with a warning as they began to haul him toward the arena doors.
I bit my lip, tasting the metallic twang of blood.
Could I really sit here while my best friend was taken away?
They led him through the doors, and I forced myself to stay seated. Jaxon rushed to his mate and picked her up, her shoulders hunching as she leaned into him. Her sobs turning into a low keen. Jaxon looked at Ethan, then at me, and he bowed—a real, deep bow that held for a long, quiet second.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice barely audible. “For what was done to you.”
I nodded. I didn’t have forgiveness for him yet. Ethan led me away, and they headed for the doors. The air grew heavier as we stepped out.
The courtyard was a hollow stone square, the air already thick with the scent of anticipation as heat burrowed down on us all. Gabe was on his knees. Enforcers stood like statues along the perimeter, silent witnesses to the King’s justice.
Ethan released me and walked toward the closest thing I’d had to family. Gabe bowed his head so low his dirty blond hair fell over his eyes as Ethan stopped before him.
The Mad King towered over Gabe, his shadow swallowing him whole.
Enforcers stepped forward and Gabe lifted his arms as they pulled the shirt from his body.
Odis appeared by Ethan’s side, holding a heavy, multi-tailed whip made of dark leather, tipped with iron shards that caught under the dying sunlight.
My stomach churned at the sight of what would be used.
Ethan took the handle, his muscles tensing, thick and corded. My mate looked like an executioner, and I wasn’t sure if I could watch.
“Had you stayed by my mate, she wouldn’t have been hurt. If you’d taken care of her and reported the injustice she went through, the rot would have never taken hold,” Ethan growled. “But I don’t live in ‘what ifs’—I live in the present. Ten lashes for your silence.”
“Yes, Alpha.”
My heart hammered against my ribs. I didn’t speak. I didn’t stop it. Across from me, Olivia looked on, her face a mask of restrained agony. Gabe’s shoulders relaxed, as if the impending lash was a relief compared to the guilt he’d been carrying.
Ethan stepped back, and the air in the courtyard went thin. The muscles pulled his shirt taut as he pivoted. This was the brute strength that had leveled kingdoms—raw, unbridled, and fueled by a protective rage that made my skin hum.
The first lash cracked like a bone breaking.
A silent cry fell from my lips as my best friend hunched forward, but Ethan didn’t hold back. Each strike was delivered with soul-crushing force. Ethan was a god of violence as he used Gabe as a living example: those who didn’t directly hurt me would still pay.
I leaned forward, my fist hitting my chest as Gabe cried out under the weight of another lash.
His back arched, the iron shards catching the dying light—now tinted a deep, wet red as they tore through his skin.
He clawed at the stone floor, his body shuddering, and for a heartbeat, I wanted to scream for it to stop.
But I didn’t. This was the price of our world.
I hit my chest as each one landed. The lashes didn’t slow. When Gabe slumped onto his face, I swayed on my feet. Enforcers ran forward and pulled him up. They held him so Ethan could continue. One after the other until my head was swimming.
When the tenth lash landed, Ethan stopped.
He wasn’t winded, but the heat radiated off him, a shimmer in the dry air that made him look twice his actual size. He handed the bloody leather back to Odis and turned. The intensity of his stare found me with a promise that made my stomach flip. It was done and Gabe had made things right.
Ethan walked back toward me, his heavy boots moving across the stone with finality.
When he reached me, he didn’t apologize for the blood or the brutality.
He stepped into my space, the scent of salt, iron, and Alpha invaded my senses.
He took my jaw in a hand that was still vibrating from adrenaline, his thumb brushing my lip, leaving the faint, metallic scent blood and leather behind.
“One more and this will be over,” Ethan rasped. His voice was low, a bloodthirsty hunger for his real target.
Need and hate swirled within me. “I need a minute,” I whispered. The open arena shrank, the sky too low. I needed to breathe air that didn’t taste like Gabe’s blood or Ethan’s rage.
His hand lingered on the nape of my neck a second longer before it dropped. He gave me a single nod and I retreated back into the Grand Hall. The air was cooler against my skin and my shoulders slumped. I didn’t get far when Mavy appeared, her gray eyes red-rimmed.
“Adea.” Her voice rasped as she moved toward me.
“Don’t,” I said, my voice the coldest it had ever been toward her.
“You have to understand… I did it for you.” Her eyes widened.
“You believe that, don’t you?” I asked in disbelief. She continued toward me, stopping out of reach.
“It’s the truth. I thought if I helped him get close, you’d see his value! I was trying to keep you safe. Shane’s protection would’ve saved you. You were wolfless and alone!”
My weakness last night, my uselessness in stopping what just happened to Gabe, and the betrayal from the trials bubbled and overflowed, and it was all directed at her. I stepped into her space. “You lied and discredited what I said for me?” I whispered, the rage catching fire.
She wrapped her arms protectively around herself, the eternal victim. “You watched him touch me, and then fixed my hair and handed me to him,” I whispered. “You asked if I was okay when you could smell him on me. Protection? Mavy, you watched me drown and congratulated me for not splashing.”
Mavy’s eyes filled, a single tear escaping, but I didn’t reach for her. I felt the loss of a sister, someone I thought was my friend like a severed limb, and let it be.
“You are a witness to the crimes against me. You were family, but you never felt the same way about me. It’s only my newfound rank and the mate you never saw coming that saved me from your family’s will. I don’t forgive you. I never will.”
I walked past her without looking back.
As I stepped back out into the arena, the sun was a sliver of blinding gold on the horizon.
Ethan turned his gaze toward the center, where the Enforcers were leading a chained Shane toward the post. Olivia had already swooped in, a frantic shadow as she took Gabe from the square, supporting his weight before I’d retreated to the Hall.
I took my place beside Ethan and we watched as Odis uncoiled a whip. Unlike with Gabe, the Enforcers came forward and tore Shane’s shirt, the tatters falling to the ground.
The first lash cracked. Shane’s body jolted, but he didn’t scream. He didn’t reach for the wooden post. He held his head up, his gaze on me. Every time the whip landed, he leaned into it. He took the lashes like a gift I’d given him.
By the thirtieth strike, Shane’s legs buckled, his knees hitting the stone with a dull thud.
He tried to drag himself back up, but the next lash caught him mid-straighten, slamming him back down.
He crawled toward the post, his fingers digging into the wood as his back became a marred mess of shredded skin.
Sweat beaded and rolled down his temple, but as the lashes began again, he never cried out.
The crowd had thinned as the light died; those who stayed looked anywhere but at the post. There was a short, suffocating silence when he fainted, his body slumping into the growing pool of red. The Enforcers splashed ice-cold water over his face, the shock dragging him back to the living.
A broken wail pierced the arena—Emilia. She tried to lunge forward, but Jaxon’s arms were a vice around her. She couldn’t stomach it. She was a shaking mess as her mate finally carried her out.
As he gasped, they hauled him upward, ratcheting the silver chains tight around the post until his chest was pulled against it.
Odis continued until the air was thick with the scent of copper and iron.
I finally had to look away, my forehead resting against Ethan’s shoulder, unable to bear the sound of the iron shards tearing through what was left of his back.
When it stopped, I turned, my gaze finding Shane, his cheek flat against the top of the post. His pants were drenched in blood, the ground beneath him too.
As the Enforcers hauled him up, his head rolled back. His one good eye found me, and he smiled.
“I’ll come for you,” he repeated, his voice hoarse.
I shivered, stepping closer to Ethan’s heat. My mate’s hand was steady on my neck, but for the first time, he felt like a stranger, and the monster in the dirt felt like a memory I’d forgotten.
“He survived,” I whispered, my voice carried away by the wind as they dragged his ruined body away.
I didn’t move, watching the space where Shane had been. Something had shifted inside me. Ethan hadn’t flinched. He hadn’t looked away. The man who whipped my best friend’s back was the same man I had rested my forehead against when I couldn’t bear to watch. I didn’t know what to do with that.
Ethan’s thumb hooked under my jaw, tilting my head until I had no choice but to see him. The lower spikes of his mask grazed my temple. “He lives… for now.”