Rowan, Damien, Lucian and Kai’s POV“I’ll kill them!” Rowan exclaims,his fists clenched. “No need. We will get rid of them today. From the upper council to the lower council. We get rid of them today. We should have done this a long time ago. We knew when she was trying to infiltrate the council and we ignored it.” Damien says, still standing on the spot. “Shouldn’t we be concerned about Mira’s health and emotions? The maidens should also dress her as well. She is going to be meeting the council today. And she cannot meet them dressed in any of her outfits. One of us has to take her on her dressings and the rules as fast as we can. The meeting has already been scheduled.” Kai suddenly speaks up. “Mira.” Rowan turns to stare at her, a blunt look on his face. “This was not how we intended to introduce you to the pack but it has to happen this way. You have to keep up with the meeting,it’ll be best if Rowan helps you with the rules and the regulations and all while we prep for everyt
Mira’s POV“The Luna?” One of them with a ginger mustache immediately exclaims. I almost stop myself from moving forward when I remember Rowan’s words. Some of them would want to intimidate me. But in the end, I am the fated Luna. Plus, from their conversations, I could tell some of the members of the council had already pledged allegiance to Serena so of course getting a few opposition here and there was definitely not a bad thing. It would help me narrow out her supporters from mine. I put on a bright slight smile on my face and I continue walking slowly and steadily. I ignore the hushed whispers and the piercing gaze I feel on my back and I continue moving forward. “Alpha Lucian.” The man that ushered us in echoes his name. Lucian stands tall, he sweeps through the council with his eyes and sits down, his seat already drawn. I wonder the purpose for calling out all of their names when the Alphas are already familiar with the members of the council. I go over it in my head
Mira’s POV“Luna Mira.” They all stand and wait for me. I stand up from the seat as well. “He? He’s coming?” I quickly shut my mouth as I see the looks coming from Damian, Lucian, Rowan and Kai’s eye. “No, my Luna. I would be here waiting for the rest of the members of the council as I was just recently promoted.” He bows down. Now, I see the reason why they promoted him. His loyalty has been proven. “It’s fine.” I place my hands into Lucian’s hand and we walk back inside. “Ugh.” Lucian stumbles, nearly falling over. “Are you okay?” I ask him. I palm my head as I realize the nature of my question. “Does he look okay to you?” Damien scowls at me. “He’s not okay. We told him to rest here but he wouldn’t.” Rowan explains to me. “I wouldn’t or I can’t.” He places his hands on his knees. Beads of sweats drop furiously from his body. “We will explain the reason of your absence to the council.” Damien says again. “None of us can afford to be absent in the meeting with the council
Mira’s POV“Secondly, I’m sure you must have noticed. We have a new man in our midst. He was just recently promoted to the upper council. Any oppositions?” “None. It seems you were about to say something vital to the council, Alpha Rowan.” “Yes, very vital. Your queen Serene, a deserving punishment should be meted out to her. Being the Queen gives her no authority over the Luna. It does not make her supreme as well. Trying to take a person’s life due to jealousy, it is not an act we should merely overlook.” Lucian says. “What if we lock her up in the dungeon for three days?”“That is not suitable enough for someone that tried to take down a life here in the palace!” One of them says. Confused shouts echo all around the hall. “Silence.” Rowan says calmly. Despite how calm his call for silence is, they all respect his voice and command and keep shut. “She would appear before th council to commit to her crimes. To prevent such an uproar without further arguments, this is the punis
Mira’s POVSeveral gasps resonate around the hall. I ignore all of them and keep standing straight despite the pang of pain in my heart. “You can proceed.” He says all of this with a straight face and walks back. “Guards!” The man that welcomed us from earlier calls on them. They come out with a rope that has three tiny silver pieces. The other ones drag her and they tie her to a stand. Just as I was told, she keeps a straight face as royalty would. “Wim!” The rope lands her on her back successfully ripping a part of her dress. My heart drops to my stomach. I cannot imagine being in her shoes, I would be screaming for my life rather maintaining silence. She closes her eyes for a brief second and opens them again. Calmness back in her gaze. “Wim.” The second lash on her back. It splits her dress wider. Her pale milk skin is available for all of the members of the clan present here to see. Her eyes sparkle. I swallow hard still trying to keep a neutral face and act unbothered.
The guards give me a grateful look. Serena’s eyes are still closed. I force myself to keep my eyes on only her face and not trail them down to her back.“Alphas?” The rope is shaking in his hands. I understand he doesn’t want to be punished by any of the Alpha brothers.“The Luna has the same authority as us. If she says stop,it means we already consented it.” Lucian says.They loose the ropes and untie her. The first thing she does after her hands are free is to wipe her tears. She goes back to her passive face burying all of her emotions at once.“Her other punishments will still be executed and is not to be evacuated by anyone. Take her back to where she’s coming from, straight to the dungeon.” Rowan tells the guards assisting her.My jaw hardens. I know fully well that the last statement was made particularly for me. Even a completely stupid person would see it. I click my tongue and I decide to address it later.“The Luna I’m correspondence with the Alphas have called off the cer
I ignore him and I continue with my letter.“Father, this is Mira. I know you may probably not be happy to see a letter from me. But I desperately need to let it out. The Alpha Brothers are typically monsters. They are as wicked as you described them and even worse. They are used to gruesome sight amd are even encouraging me to do so. I wish I can come back home but I know that I am doing this for the family. I have sworn not to let any feelings harbor between me and this wicked brothers. Do well to send your regards.” I hold my tears tight careful not to stain the paper and start writing everything all afresh.I turn over to the next page and I sign my signature. I place the stamp on the signature and I let the letter to dry.“Mira? No matter what it is, you can always turn it around. And the best option is obviously not silence.” Lucian keeps knocking on the door.“If you do not open the door Mira, Lucian would keep knocking here. You know the both of you badly need to rest and he p
“We will talk about it later okay? Are you fine now?” Lucian asks me. I know he’s asking me to sincerely ascertain if everything is fine but I am still irritated. Serene is still at the back of my head.“I remember I told all of you that I was opening the door so you could grant me something.” I say it again. I have no idea how I’m going to address this with the kind of fierce personality they have,but I’m not one to die in silence.“Is going to see your father not enough? Now what? You’re going to ask us to go with Lucian? Is that it little one?” Damien is asking.To be sincere, I would have been super excited if whatever it is that is draining Lucian would have taken Damien instead.“Damien.” Rowan calls his name but they are all staring at him sharply.“I was basically stating a mere suspicion. Isn’t it my right to say what I want to and where?” He refuses to drop the conversation and is actively steering towards an argument.“That’s enough. What’s the second one Mira? You want to
Mira POV When I arrived at the shrine, I immediately knew something was different.The courtyard was crowded, more than I’d ever seen it. People were pouring in through the arched gates, their footsteps fast yet quiet, their heads bowed as though afraid to lift their eyes. Some clutched prayer beads, others held burning candles. A few sobbed quietly as they moved toward the inner sanctum.I stepped aside as a woman passed me, dragging two small children behind her. One of them looked up at me, his eyes swollen from crying. My heart twisted painfully.I made my way inside and found the head priestess, her wrinkled face lined even deeper than usual.“What’s going on?” I asked softly, trying not to let the heavy tension around us suffocate my voice.She turned to me with a tired expression. “The people are afraid,” she said, clasping her hands together. “Since the massacre… the castle guards, the bloodshed… word has spread.”I frowned. “Word?”The priestess nodded. “About the wit
Mira POV Two days later…I woke up before the sun had risen, the castle still blanketed in silence. For once, I didn’t wait for Adela or any of the handmaids to come in. I slipped out of bed, walked barefoot to the bath chamber, and poured myself a cold shower. The icy water hit my skin like a slap, but I welcomed it. I needed the numbness. My mind had been anything but still for the past two days.I couldn’t stop thinking about the massacre—the way the blood had soaked into the stone floors, the way the guards’ lifeless bodies had been carried away one by one. And the families… Gods, the families. They had gathered outside the castle gates yesterday, their wails cutting through the air like blades. Some had thrown stones, others had just fallen to their knees, begging for answers. Begging for justice.I stayed in the shower longer than necessary, hoping the water would wash away the unease churning inside me. It didn’t. When I stepped out, I dried myself quickly and dressed
Mira POVI sat quietly in the carriage beside Damien, the steady rhythm of the wheels rolling over the rugged trail doing little to ease the storm brewing inside me. The sun was still rising in the sky, casting golden beams through the trees, but my heart felt too heavy to appreciate any of it. We were heading to the place where Benard Sawyer was meant to be executed years ago. Damien sat across from me, flipping through an old parchment from the archives, but I knew we were both thinking about more than just the past.The silence stretched between us until I finally broke it.“How’s Lucian doing?” I asked, not looking at him. I didn’t know why I needed to know so badly. Maybe because the thought of losing him clawed painfully at the inside of my chest.Damien looked up at me, his expression shifting to something solemn. “He’s hanging on,” he said softly.“But not for long. The disciple told me the only thing that could really save him is complete faith—from the three of us.”I
Kai POVThe air was tense as we stormed toward Councilman Baylor’s chambers. I walked beside Rowan with six guards behind us, all alert and on edge. Damien and Mira had taken off earlier to the execution site where Benard Sawyer was once meant to die. I hoped they’d find something useful. But right now, our focus was Councilman Baylor.Rowan kept glancing at me as we moved through the corridor. “What if he’s already done it?” he asked, low but urgent. “What if he’s already summoned them?”I didn’t need to ask who he meant. “Then we’ll be too late,” I said. “But we can’t think like that. We have to act before they arrive.”Rowan didn’t speak again, but his jaw tightened. He knew as well as I did that there was no defense against witches—not unless we were prepared. And we weren’t. Not yet.When we arrived at Baylor’s chambers, they were eerily quiet. The guards took position at the doors while Rowan and I pushed inside. The room was dim, the curtains drawn, the fire out. It felt li
Mira POV I shifted another stack of scrolls and sighed. Damien’s secret archive was packed from floor to ceiling with books, dusty records, and ancient parchments. I could barely breathe from all the dust in the air, but I wasn’t going to stop. Kai and I had been digging through everything for nearly an hour now, trying to find anything about Councilman Benard Sawyer’s execution—the date, the place, even a small mention of it would be something. The deeper we dug, the more suspicious everything became.I glanced at Kai as he skimmed through a thick record book. “You really don’t know the date?” I teased, a half-smirk curling my lips. “Didn’t you grow up as your father’s little pet? Always at his feet, watching him rule?”Kai looked up sharply. “I wasn’t his pet,” he said, a bit defensive. “I did more than attend his meetings and parties. I trained with Rowan, built things with Damien… I even tried my hand at hunting once.”“Except Lucian,” I said quietly, flipping through a b
Damien POV I stood in my workshop, watching Adela as she sat nervously on the chair placed directly in front of the table. She looked lost, confused, and so much younger than her years. Rowan leaned against the wall by the door, arms crossed, watching with scepticism written all over his face.“I still think this is a waste of time,” Rowan muttered for the tenth time.“And I think you’re not helping,” I shot back without looking at him. I couldn’t afford distractions. Adela needed to remember, and fast.We had no idea what Councilman Baylor had done to her — only that her memories of the amulet, of everything she had learned, were gone. But I had a theory. If magic could block her mind, then science could trigger it back.“Alright, Adela,” I said softly, pulling a few paintings from the nearby cabinet. “Let’s start simple. Do you recognize these?”I spread portraits of the councilmen across the table. Some old, some new. Among them was Baylor’s.Adela leaned forward, squinting at
Mira POV I wiped my face quickly, my fingers trembling. I had cried enough. I knew now—there was no running from what the moon goddess had given me. My destiny wasn’t about revenge. It wasn’t about the hatred I carried or the love I feared. It was bigger than me. And no amount of heartbreak could be allowed to break me.I took a deep breath and stood up. My legs felt weak, but I forced them to move. No more hiding. No more letting my pain trap me. If I was truly meant to bridge the worlds—to heal what had been broken—I had to be stronger than this.When I stepped out of my chamber, the sunlight almost blinded me. It felt foreign against my skin, like I had been locked away in the darkness for too long. I shielded my eyes and headed straight to the courtyard, the place where everyone seemed to gather when something important happened.As I approached, I noticed Kai. He was standing there, as if waiting for me, his arms folded stiffly across his chest. His eyes softened when he
Mira’s POVI couldn’t believe what I’d just seen.Lucian. My mate. Lying unconscious on a bed hidden in the shrine. All this time, they’d kept it from me—every single one of them. Even Damien, who I’d come to trust more than I thought I would. The sight of Lucian’s motionless body sent something cold and aching straight through my chest. And then to hear them… Damien and the disciple, talking like I was never supposed to know. Like I wasn’t even part of this.The betrayal tasted like ash in my mouth.I stormed out of the room, my vision blurring with tears. I could hear Damien calling after me, his boots slapping the stone floors of the shrine, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. If I turned back, if I let him catch up to me, I might break completely.“Mira! Please, just listen!”“Don’t!” I snapped, spinning on my heel just as I reached the carriage. “Don’t you dare speak to me!”He stopped short, his chest rising and falling with effort. The look in his eyes was soft—regretful. But
Mira POV I stood in the courtyard, surrounded by the soft murmurs of the guards and the quiet tension that buzzed in the air like a taut string waiting to snap. Everyone was waiting for Adela to return. The amulet swap needed to happen perfectly, silently. One wrong move and Councilman Baylor would vanish into the shadows like smoke. We had one chance to use his connection to the witches to find them, and I couldn’t shake the anxiety tightening around my chest.Adela was brave, no doubt, but this was different. Dangerous. I tried to keep a calm expression as I stood beside Kai, Damien, and Rowan, but my thoughts were far from steady. My mind kept drifting back to the voice I heard last night. The moon goddess. Her words still echoed in my head like a steady drumbeat.You were born for this.The weight of her voice still lingered in my chest. Heavier than armor. More binding than any promise.If I was truly the bridge between the three factions, then I had to start walking that