Chapter 108
Chapter 108
Damon
1 stood at the head of the Council Chambers, crown in place, flanked by warriors and ceremony—and beside me, Lila. Silent. Composed. But I could feel her tension vibrating through the air like a
ing pulled too tight.
She wore a muted blue today. Modest nechu
Court devour her with their eyes.
hair twisted away from her face. Regal, but not too much. She’d chosen carefully. And still, I watched the
Elders. Nobles. Ambitious fools and cowards disguised as advisors.
They didn’t see her strength. They saw her as an inconvenience that refused to bow.
Elder Halric rose..
The moment his hand braced the table and he straightened that stiff, sanctimonious spine, I knew what was coming. The bastard had been waiting for the perfect stage.
“Your Majesty,” he began, tone dipped in deference so polished it dripped oil, “there is a matter the Council must raise–concerning Luna suitability.”
I kept myself composed, my irritation in check.
He continued. “For centuries, tradition has served us. Our Luna is not merely a symbol. She is legacy. She is bloodline. She is the continuation of a sacred
role.”
I felt Lila still beside me.
“There is another,” Halric said. “Lady Isabella. Noble–born. Loyal. Endowed with the spiritual gifts of her bloodline. Her bond to the previous Luna lends her additional legitimacy. She is a female with pedigree.”
I clenched my jaw hard enough to crack the enamel.
“She’s not a candidate,” I said. My voice echoed sharp across the stone walls. “She was dismissed. Privately, but purposefully.”
A few Elders glanced at each other. Halric’s expression didn’t falter.
“Dismissed without charge. Without Council input,” he replied. “It leaves room for consideration.”
“Then allow me to close that door now,” I said coldly. “No.”
A ripple moved through the court. Whispered voices, quick and hushed, like serpents hissing just out of sight.
Then another Elder stood. “Your Majesty, with respect, we must consider what’s best for the Packs, the Kingdom at large. The selection has been undermined by deception. Perhaps the court should vote. Or return to the tradition of choosing by bloodline.”
Lila shifted beside me-
e–but held her tongue.
I wanted to end it. Declare the entire Council dissolved if I had to. Burn this charade to the ground.
But then, she stood. And every breath in the chamber held still.
Lila walked forward–measured, quiet. She didn’t look to me for permission. Her chin was high, her expression unreadable.
“If this kingdom doesn’t want me,” she said, her voice steady, “it doesn’t have to have me.”
The silence that followed was deeper than any declaration I could’ve made.
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Chapter 108
“I didn’t come here to deceive anyone. I didn’t beg for a crown. I endured. I adapted. I survived while you tried to tear me apart at every tum”
Her eyes were fire. And still, she spoke without anger. Just truth. Hard and cold and unflinching.
“I never asked to be marked. But I carry it now. And I won’t apologize for surviving long enough to become inconvenient to you.”
Someone in the gallery hissed, “Impostor.”
I nearly moved. But Lila turned toward the voice first, gaze like frostbite. “Say it again.”
But no one dared.
She returned to her place beside me, every step deliberate. I was at a loss for words.
I reached out–subtle, hidden by the folds of my cloak–and brushed the small of her back with my hand. A silent acknowledgment.
Allegiance between mates.
She didn’t lean into it. But she didn’t pull away either. And that, somehow, felt like more than any vow we’d ever spoken aloud.
The chamber was still chaos beneath the surface. I could feet it thrumming underfoot. But for the first time in days, I felt a crack in their certainty.
She didn’t need the crown to prove her strength. She stood beside me, and they all saw her. Now they would have to reckon with her.
The Elders had pushed for bloodline, for legacy, for anyone but the woman I chose and she answered them with grace and indifference.
No one dared press further, not after that.
With nothing left to argue, the council chamber emptied slowly, like a wound refusing to clot. Nobles trickled out in groups of twos and threes; their
voices hushed but urgent.
I caught pieces of them-“unprecedented,” “reckless,” “marked without merit“—but none of it mattered. Not compared to the echo of her voice in that
hall.
Lila had stood in the center of centuries–old tradition and dared it to call her unworthy. And gods help me, she had done it beautifully.
She walked beside me now, in companionable silence as the weight of judgment trailed behind us like a second cloak.
When we reached the corridor leading toward my wing, she hesitated.
“I think I need some air,” she said quietly.
I looked at her–truly looked at her. Her face was composed, but tension lived just beneath the surface. The set of her shoulders, the tremor in her breath, the way her fingers curled and uncurled at her sides.
She was coming undone in silence.
I nodded once. “I’ll have guards posted discreetly near the garden.”
She didn’t thank me. She just slipped away with a nod.
I kept walking, but my own composure cracked with every step. The moment the door shut behind me, I stripped off the crown and i raked a hand through my hair and exhaled sharply.
It wasn’t just the Elders. It wasn’t just Isabella, or the newspapers, or the Packs still waiting for my next misstep.
all to the floor.!
It was the cold knot forming deep in my chest–the sick feeling that I had asked too much of her. That I had failed her the moment I claimed her without shielding her from what came next.
Mon, 9 Jun
Chapter 108
She had spoken today with all the force of a Queen. But I had seen the cost of it in her eyes.
I poured myself a drink, but the taste turned to ash on my tongue. I set the glass down and turned toward the window.
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Outside, the garden glowed in the early dusk. Somewhere down there, she stood alone, letting the night air swallow her fears because it was the only thing that would take them.
Ronan entered without knocking.
“She’s shaken,” he said simply.
“I know.”
“You expected them to fall in line.”
“I expected them to show some sense and respect,” I snapped.
Ronan folded his arms. “This isn’t just about politics anymore. It’s emotion. Image. Myth. They’re scared of her.”
“They should be,” I muttered.
Ronan leaned against the mantle. “They want you to bend. To compromise. That Elder today? He wasn’t just making a suggestion. He was setting the
trap.”
I turned to face him fully. “If I entertain the idea of elevating Isabella, I lose Lila. That is unacceptable.”
Ronan didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.
“She spoke before I could,” I said after a long pause. “She stood in front of them all and declared her worth. Not as a marked female. Not as my mate. Just as herself.”
“And now they’re terrified she’ll keep doing it.”
I nodded once.
Ronan pushed off the mantle and approached the desk, his tone softer. “You asked her to walk into fire. She did. She’s burning. You need to decide if you’re going to douse the flames–or hold her hand while she turns that fire on the Council.”
“I won’t let her burn,” I said, voice low.
“Then start acting like it.”
He left me with that. No bow. No ceremony. Just the truth, dropped like a stone into a pool I was already drowning in.
And outside, the light faded on a kingdom still deciding whether to crown its future–or destroy it.
AD
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