Chapter 18: Haunted

My breath hitched. He was leaning back, his arms crossed over his chest, his silver-grey eyes fixed directly on me. And he was smiling.

It wasn't a loud smile. It was a subtle, victorious smirk. A testament to his absolute triumph. It was a look that said: See? I told you. You are nothing. You will never amount to nothing. Even wearing the King’s silk, you are still just the trash I threw out.

Beside him stood Thorne. The Beta wasn't smiling. His eyes were wide, and as he looked down at me, his expression softened into something that looked agonizingly like pity.

Poor Thorne, I thought, a hysterical, fractured edge bleeding into my mind. Stuck with a ruthless, arrogant monster. If only Thorne had been Riven’s Beta instead of the dead man from the courtyard. But life had never been fair to me. Why would it start now?

"The Council must hear testimony!" a voice shouted from the Frostbane section.

Kaelen stood up.

The hall slowly quieted down. As a registered Alpha, and my former mate, he had the absolute legal right to address the assembly.

Kaelen walked down the stone steps with lazy, confident strides, stopping just at the edge of the circular block. He didn't look at Riven. He looked only at me.

"I am Alpha Kaelen of Frostbane," he began, his voice echoing smoothly. "And I know the biological reality of this female better than anyone in this hall. She was in my care for three years."

My chest seized. No. Please, Goddess, no.

"Lord Varak speaks of weak auras and broken conduits," Kaelen continued, pacing slowly like a predator circling wounded prey. "But you do not know the depths of her failure. I gave her every resource. The best healers. And yet, she could not summon a single spark of a wolf. When she fell pregnant, we rejoiced, thinking the pup might awaken her."

Kaelen paused, letting the silence stretch. He looked at me, his eyes dead and cold.

"But her womb was as defective as her spirit. Three times, she carried. Three times, she bled out my heirs onto clinic sheets because her body was too weak to sustain them."

A collective, horrified murmur rippled through the Alphas.

A tear broke free, hot and stinging, slicing down my cheek. I squeezed my eyes shut, my jaw trembling so violently my teeth clicked together. I thought I had passed the healing phase. I thought the anger had scabbed over. But hearing him weaponize my dead children, hearing him broadcast the bloodiest, most agonizing moments of my life to a room full of strangers… it was like he was taking a rusted knife and gutting me all over again.

"And when she finally managed to carry this one to term," Kaelen sneered, gesturing vaguely toward the bundle in my arms, "it nearly killed her. She tore open. And the pup? It has no Alpha blood. It has no wolf scent. No matter what the Lycan King wishes to believe, no matter his personal sentiments or charity, the consequences of crowning her will be dire."

Mael shifted against my chest. The tension radiating from my body was soaking into him. He let out a sharp, distressed cry, his tiny fists waving in the air.

"Hush, baby, please hush," I sobbed quietly, trying to cover his exposed ear, trying to shield him from the poison filling the room.

But Kaelen raised his voice over Mael’s crying.

"The truth is written in her blood!" Kaelen shouted to the assembly. "She has a weak wolf! She is not fit to be the Luna of the Valrok Empire! She is a defective, useless bitch, and that pathetic pup is exactly the same! Neither of them deserve to stand in front of Kings! They belong in the mud, serving with the maids!"

I gasped, a raw, broken sound escaping my throat.

He said it. He used the words.

I violently whipped my head toward the throne, my tear-filled eyes searching for Riven. Riven had explicitly warned the room. Not a single word of disrespect. Dismembered in a box. Kaelen had just called me a useless bitch in front of the entire continent. I waited for the crushing atmospheric pressure. I waited for Riven to descend from the dais and rip Kaelen’s head from his shoulders.

But the dais was completely still.

Riven was sitting exactly as he had been. But he wasn't looking at Kaelen. He wasn't looking at the crowd.

He was looking away.

His face was turned toward the dark stone wall, his jaw tight, his eyes hidden in the shadows.

My heart completely stopped. The blood roared in my ears, drowning out Mael’s wailing.

Why wasn't he doing anything? Panic, absolute and blinding, consumed me. He wasn't defending me. He wasn't stopping the insults. Was he listening to Kaelen? Was he realizing the truth? Had the Council’s ancient scroll finally broken his delusion? Was the "condition" wearing off, allowing him to finally smell the rot of my weakness?

He’s disgusted, my wolf whimpered, curling tighter into the dark. He knows we are trash. Our fate is already decided.

Kaelen, realizing he hadn't been struck down, swelled with sudden, arrogant confidence. He turned back to the throne, dropping his voice into a tone of faux-diplomacy.

"But I am not an unreasonable man," Kaelen said smoothly. "And I know the laws of the High Court. I know the fate of a woman who threatens the spiritual conduit of the King. Death."

I stopped breathing.

"Let me have her and her pup back," Kaelen offered, opening his hands in a gesture of false mercy. "I am willing to take her back to Frostbane. I will put her in the kitchens where she belongs, and I will raise the kid among the Omegas. Let me take this burden off the Empire's hands, and save her from the executioner's block. Let me have her, and the case is closed."

The Great Assembly Hall went dead silent.

Hundreds of Alphas held their breath. Kaelen stood with a smug, self-righteous smile.

I stared at Riven. Tears were freely streaming down my face, dripping off my chin onto Mael’s blanket. Please, I begged him silently in my mind, my soul fracturing into a thousand pieces. Please look at me. Please don't let him take us back.

Riven slowly turned his head.

His golden eyes finally met mine. They were unreadable. Completely hollow. There was no warmth. No worship. Nothing of the man who had kissed my son’s forehead three weeks ago.

He looked at me for a long, agonizing second. Then, he shifted his gaze to Kaelen.

Riven opened his mouth.

"I guess her fate has been decided then," the Lycan King said softly.