Chapter 167
Chapter 167
+25 Bonus
श्र
Avery’s POV
And then he was gone. The one person I thought might be able to intervene, who might have been able to throw me a lifeline, instead turned and walked out my bedroom door.
He held all the cards, and instead of playing the hand that could have saved me, he had done the equivalent of politely folding. 1
As Dierdra and Gideon departed my room, the last vestiges of pride that had kept me standing exited as well. I barely missed hitting my head on the bedframe as I collapsed to the floor and sucked great lungfuls of air into my body. 1
My hands were shaking. 20 minutes of standing in a room with Gideon Nightwolf had drained me of every last bit of life.
He had pronounced his sentence. I was to be sent away.
I had seen the desperate, hunted look in his eyes while Dierdra had been speaking. It was not the despairing, besotted look of someone watching the love of his life collapse on the floor sobbing.
No, Dierdra’s act had been convincing, but I didn’t think Gideon was truly convinced.
His expression had, instead, been the pursed–lips grimace of a politician. Of a man who had uncomfortable truths he didn’t want to deal with.
I had never before seen Gideon look shifty, and yet, it was obvious in the coming days after his lieutenant came and moved my belongings to my new lodgings that Gideon was all too happy to find excuses to avoid having to deal with me further.
From my new apartment above the coffee shop, I had a clear view of the pack house. The next morning, Gideon and a pack of warriors departed in a great show of force, off for destinations unknown.
Despite passing within feet of my new front door, Gideon never even glanced in my direction as they progressed down the street and out of town.
Once again I was on my own. Left to my own devices.
Except now Dierdra had the title of Luna, and she fully intended to use it.
The day after Gideon left, she barged into my tiny loft apartment. I had just struggled out of the shower, and had barely finished dressing when she opened my front door and marched in as though she owned the place.
Which, I suppose, now she did.
She made a great show of looking all around, sniffing and poking at the simple furnishings.
“Still probably nicer than you’re used to,” she commented with a catty laugh, “I had them fumigate your
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Chapter 167
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room today, there was just such an awful smell… I’m afraid anything you had left there will need to be burned p>
She posed, tilting her head to see whether her words goaded any reaction out of me.
I tried to think if there was anything I still cared about in this village, much less in my rooms. I owned so very little, and none of it quality.
The dress I had made with my friends had already been ruined at the Alpha Ball. She had already cut down the tree I had loved the most, and taken the key to my sanctuary garden away from me. She had turned Gideon against me… 1
There was nothing more she could ruin that would get under my skin. Sure, she could salt the gardens, destroy my plantings, but she was the Luna now, and such actions would sabotage her own efforts as much as mine.
Seeing my blank face, Dierdra faltered, realizing that her barbs were not hitting their mark. Instead, she inspected my body, her gaze sweeping up and down, assessing me. My wounds were still heavily bandaged, and I had limited movement in my arm that had taken the greatest damage.
“The Full Moon is coming,” she said with the mock–sweet tone she always took when she was about to be cruel, “If your wolf is too weak to transform properly, you had better be careful. There has been talk of a culling p>
A culling.
I had heard the term before. It referred to when a wolf in the pack is scented as a liability by the majority of the powerful wolves in a hierarchy. The wolves had their own ways of keeping a pack strong, and when one member grew too weak, sometimes the others would turn on them.
The results were always bloody.
I had seen it happen only once in Silvermoon, when a young male had been badly wounded and refused to relinquish his spot in pack hierarchy but was still too weak to enforce his authority. Jealous packmates had turned on him at the next Full Moon.
I could still remember the horrible howls that had gone up when the culling had taken place. They had hunted the young wolf through the forest until his body had given out. When the other wolves had returned, their muzzles had been streaked with blood.
It was not common, but it could happen.
Dierdra watched horror sweep over my face and leaned in with a smirk, “ Oh yes, even Gideon will not be able to save you if the pack decides you need to go. Why would any of them bother to save you? I’m Luna now, and you are nothing p>
I hated that she was right, but this wasn’t my birth pack. I did not have the strong bonds here that would save me in the arena of public opinion. I had more enemies than friends, and they were powerfully placed.
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Chapter 167
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What hope did I have if someone like Jessica started openly speaking for my culling now? Dierdra would barely have to lift a finger to assist in turning the pack against me. As Luna, she only had to allow it to happen and Gideon would likely allow it. 1
My words to him in his office had not been exaggeration. Dierdra would have me killed, and his refusal to grant me a divorce would be my death warrant.
The only thing that would definitively prevent them from enacting a culling would be if my wolf proved strong enough to stop it. (1
My heart sank further. While I had started to sense my wolf before the Alpha Ball, she had encouraged me to grow stronger.
This injury set me back. I could barely stand for more than a few minutes at a time. How could I manifest a powerful transformation into my wolf?
“Better hope you heal up before the moon is full…” Dierdra sashayed towards the exit, knowing she had accomplished her mission. I would have trouble sleeping tonight.
The door slammed behind her and, I am loathe to admit, I took her advice.
I began to pray with all my might that I would be able to heal in time.
At one point I had wielded the power of the Moon Goddess. I had bent moonlight in my hands and used it to stitch together Gideon’s wounds, and to reveal Dierdra’s illusionary mark.
But now even that healing power felt far beyond me. There was no stirring of magic in my hands, no raw energy that came to my aid and knit my body back together.
Even my wolf was silent as I sat back down in my lonely apartment and waited for my death.
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