Chapter 74
Chapter 74
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I’m still holding her arms when the first scream finishes echoing down the corridor.
Rain slaps my face sideways, cold and sharp, like it’s personally offended by my existence. Wind shoves at my back, trying to push me into the open space behind Ariel, and for half a second I have the very clear, very calm thought that if I let go right now, gravity will solve a lot of problems for everyone.
Not hers. Mine.
Doors slam open. Shoes skid on marble. Someone yells my name, stretched thin with panic like they already decided how this ends.
From the outside, I know exactly what it looks like. My hands locked on Ariel’s arms. My stance wide, braced. Her body arched back against the open window, rain soaking her white dress until it clings to her belly and hips. She’s framed by darkness and lightning like a fucking painting someone would hang in the temple and cry over.
Saintess nearly pushed to her death by the fallen Luna.
Classic.
Ariel goes soft in my grip, not fully limp–just enough. Calculated. Her knees tremble. Her fingers curl weakly around my wrists like she’s trying to steady herself instead of pry me off.
“I’m s–sorry,” she whispers, voice shaking just loud enough to carry. Not to me. Never to me. To the people pouring in behind us. “I n–never meant to take anything from you.” she’s shivering too.
Oh, you manipulative bitch.
“I should have known my place,” she continues, breath hitching, eyes glossy and huge. “I didn’t want this. I didn’t ask for it. I only wanted to help the Alpha Wade. I only wanted peace p>
Her gaze flicks to my face for half a second, and the fear there is real now. Not the polished kind. The raw, animal kind. She knows she pushed too far. She knows I see her.
Good.
The crowd fills the corridor fast. Nobles in silks and pressed suits. Elders with their carved canes. Servants frozen in the wrong places, hands still holding trays they forgot to drop. Guards hesitate at the edges, caught between protocol and optics.
Nobody asks what happened.
They don’t need to. The story is already writing itself.
“She snapped,” someone mutters.
“Grief does things to women like her,” another says, louder.
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Chapter 74
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“I’ve always been relieved she died in that fire, but unfortunately,” an elder adds, shaking his head like this confirms something he’s been waiting to be right about p>
I feel it then. Not rage. Not panic.
Something empties out in my chest.
Ariel sniffles, presses her forehead lightly to my shoulder like she’s seeking comfort from the person allegedly trying to kill her. Her voice drops, intimate, trembling. “Please… I forgive you. You don’t have to do this p>
Forgive me.
I let out a laugh before I can stop it. It’s short and sharp and ugly, and it cuts straight through the murmuring like glass breaking.
Ariel flinches.
“So this is the version we’re going with,” I say, loud enough now that people lean in. My hands are still on her arms, not squeezing, not pushing. Just holding. Keeping her from falling. Keeping myself from doing something stupider. “You forgive me for something I didn’t do. How generous p>
Her lips part. Tears spill over as everyone watches us two like a movie. The only difference is, only one of us is acting. “Sorin, please p>
Footsteps slam closer. A familiar scent hits me before the voice does. Cedar. Smoke. Something that used to mean home.
“What the hell is going on p>
Wade forces his way through the crowd from the balcony we just talked from. Like he still gets to ask questions. His eyes lock onto Ariel first, then her belly, then the open window, then finally–finally–me.
His face hardens in real time.
“Sorin,” he says, sharp and disbelieving, like my presence alone is an offense. Didn’t he say he just wanted me back earlier? “Please, I know what you want. Let go of her. Now p>
I look at him. Really look.
Same jaw. Same hair. Same man who stood beside me while they carved truth out of my skin and called it justice. Same man who didn’t look back when they dragged me out.
And earlier, the same man who asked for me to come back.
I laugh again, quieter this time. It scrapes on the way out.
“You didn’t even ask,” I say.
He blinks. “Ask what p>
“What happened,” I reply. “You didn’t ask what she did. What she said. You didn’t ask why we’re here or why
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Chapter 74
the window’s open or why I’m holding her instead of shoving her p>
Ariel gasps softly, fingers tightening on my wrists. “Wade, I didn’t mean for this. I tried to apologize. I told her I was sorry for everything. She just … she got so angry and I understand. I really do, Sorin.” She whimpers and I could hear everyone’s pity ripping through.
Fuck this.
His
gaze flicks to her face, softening instantly. “You don’t have to explain. I see what’s happening p>
Something cracks then. Not loud. Not dramatic.
Final.
I tilt my head back and stare at the ceiling, blinking hard because my eyes burn like a bitch and I refuse to cry for these people again. When I look back at him, my voice is steady. Calm. Dead center.
“No,” I say. “You see what you want to see. And that’s always been the problem p>
His brow furrows. “Sorin, we already talked about this p>
“You never asked,” I repeat, stepping slightly to the side so the crowd can see my face clearly. Wet hair stuck to my cheeks. Dress plastered to my skin. Scars visible where silk can’t hide them. “Not once. Not then. Not now p>
His mouth opens, then closes. Doubt flickers. Too late.
As he always is. Late.
“I stood there,” I continue, my voice carrying whether I want it to or not, “Have you even asked how I survived that fire?” His eyes widened as though he just realized. He asked of me everything. To come back, to take care of Ariel’s child, to be Luna again by his side.
But not once did he ask how I survived the tragedy this same woman he’s siding with has put me through.
Ariel shakes her head weakly. “I never wanted to come between you p>
“Shut up,” I snap, finally looking at her again. The word cracks. Not loud, but sharp enough that she freezes.
Silence ripples outward.
I turn back to Wade. “This is why there was never a way back now. Not because you cheated or had a child with someone else. Not because you believed her. But because you never once believed me p>
His face drains of color.
For a split second, I think he might actually say it. Sorry. I was wrong. Something that could have mattered
once.
Instead, his hand lifts toward Ariel’s belly, protective and frantic. “She could’ve fallen. She’s carrying my child, the heir of the Woodridge Pack p>
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Chapter 74
There it is.
That one hurts. Still.
F:
1 loosen my grip and step back, palms lifting in plain sight. Guards rush forward immediately, two of them. grabbing the window frame and hauling it shut with a grunt. The storm is cut off mid–roar. Rain still drips from my hair to the marble floor, loud in the sudden quiet.
Ariel slumps forward into Wade’s arms as if she’s been waiting for the cue. He catches her, murmuring her name, pressing his forehead to hers.
I watch it for half a second too long.
Then I turn away.
578
The crowd parts without a word. Not respectfully. Instinctively. It’s as though I’m something sharp they don’t want to brush against.
My hands are shaking now. I shove them into fists, nails biting into my palms to keep it together. I wipe my face with the heel of my hand, smearing rain and whatever the hell else is there.
Halfway down the corridor, someone steps into my path.
Cassian.
He doesn’t touch me nor does he block me outright. He simply angles his body slightly, enough to signal
pause.
“I knew I shouldn’t have left you earlier,” he murmurs, low and practical. “You’re very good at having people leave you alone p>
Well damn.
I huff a breath that might be a laugh if it wasn’t so fucking tired. “I’m not throwing myself back into a window, if that’s what you’re worried about p>
His mouth twitches. “Wasn’t p>
We stand there for a beat. The murmurs behind us swell, then falter.
Then the temperature in the room shifts.
It’s subtle at first. As if pressure dropping before a storm, Conversations die mid–sentence. Spines straighten. Guards snap to attention without being told.
I feel him before I see him.
The air tightens. My wolf stirs, uneasy and alert, like it recognizes a bigger predator stepping into its territory.
Alaric enters the corridor as if he owns it, because he does.
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Chapter 74
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He doesn’t rush. Doesn’t raise his voice. His presence alone pulls focus like gravity. Black hair damp from the rain outside, silver at his temples catching the light. Broad shoulders filling the space like the walls were built for him specifically. His amber eyes sweep the scene once–Ariel in Wade’s arms, the shut window, the guards, the crowd–and then lock onto me.
Something in his gaze softens. Just for me.
Then it hardens into something lethal.
“What,” he says calmly, “is going on p>
No one answers right away.
Good.
I square my shoulders, step around Cassian, and keep walking. Toward him. Past him. Away from all of it.
Behind me, I hear Wade start to speak. Ariel sobbing softly. Someone whispering the word saintess like it’s a shield.
I don’t stop.
Because if I do, I might finally scream–and I refuse to give them that.
I pass Alaric close enough that his arm brushes mine. Heat. Solid. Real.
His voice drops, meant only for me. “I’ve got you p>
For the first time tonight, my chest tightens for a different reason.
I don’t answer. I just keep moving.
Behind me, the crowd is still forming its story.
They can choke on it.
I’m done explaining.
Just then, he slips past me and the next thing I knew is Ariel’s another scream.
This time it’s real.
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