Chapter four

Flynn’s POV

I still couldn't place the events happening around me.

One minute, I am awake in a large room I had no idea how I got in, with a pounding headache and no sight of Celine anywhere. And before I can make sense of that, Ronan, my fiancé, walks into the room, furious, calling me all sorts of names and now, I am being dragged shamelessly into the council room. What is happening?

“Where is Celine?” I question in my head as only her can save me at this point. Ronan is adamant and won't even let me talk.

If eyes could kill, I could have suffocated under the boring, dagger-like stares of the werewolves I pass by. Their gazes cut through me like sharp blades, filled with scorn, like I have done something outrageous. Their scents mingle — bitter with disdain and thick with judgment.

What’s going on?

“I heard she disgraced the pack and disrespected her soon-to-be husband, Alpha Ronan of the Moondawn pack,” one of the female wolves staring at me says, her voice dripping with malice.

“Oh my,” the other gasps, covering her mouth with her hand, her eyes widening in fake horror. “She is really shameless.”

“Shameless? Me? Oh, goodness, why can't I remember anything?” I murmur, my head still banging as if drums are pounding against the inside of my skull. “I knew following Celine to that bar was a bad idea — a grave one. Now I am being punished for going to the bar.”

In a few minutes, we come in front of the council door, one every wolf fears to enter.

The wooden scent of the ancient mahogany stings my nose. One of the guards holding me drops me roughly to the floor, making room for him to push open the huge door. The impact jolts my already aching body, the cold marble biting against my knees.

The council room, woven from rough-hewn wooden beams and stone walls, smells of old leather, wood smoke, and the lingering dampness of earth and moss. A heavy silence cloaks the room, thick like fog.

"Flynn Greg," the eldest of the wolves, speaks after the heavy silence is broken, his voice like a distant rumble of thunder. "You have brought dishonor to our clan, your family, and the moon goddess."

“I…I…I apologize for going to the bar. I know I shouldn't have,” I try to speak, to defend myself, but my voice is barely a rasp, dry as dust. The clan howls, their voices a deafening chant, rising like a violent storm.

Then silence falls again, sharp and sudden.

And it’s Ronan who tears it apart.

“Who is talking about going to the bar?” Ronan, my fiancé, blows out, his voice venomous. “You think you can fool us, you shameless woman? We have proof of your insolent act.”

With his words barely leaving his lips, he flings a brown envelope at me. It lands on the floor with a heavy, accusing slap. I rush immediately, tearing it open with trembling fingers. My pulse pounds in my ears. I need to understand this whole ordeal. Me? Insolent act?

My mouth opens in shock as my eyes fall upon myself in the arms of another man — one I can’t even remember. My stomach turns, my pulse quickening, ice trickling down my spine.

“Wait… what? This can't be. This isn’t…”

“Isn’t what?” the woman I call mother spits scornfully, disgust clearly evident in her eyes. Her words sting like open wounds, salt poured over them. “Isn’t that you in the picture and video?”

For a moment, I am dumb, no matter how hard I try, words refuse to leave my lips. I feel the walls closing in, the stifling scent of sweat, old wood, and burning torches pressing around me.

I look at Ronan, pleading with him with my eyes, but he remains unmoved. Cold. A stone wall.

I am unable to wrap my mind around the twist of events. My head swims.

All I remember is Celine’s voice, sweet as honey, telling me to rest in the room, and the next thing, I am waking up with a tugging headache, my clothes off, and now accused of infidelity. My temples throb, sharp flashes of pain with every thought.

“Celine… Yes, Celine,” I finally begin to mutter, low at first and then louder. “I went to the bar with Celine, and we were together all through till this morning,” I add, relief breaking through the panic like a tiny beam of light in a storm.

Just then, a noise of clicking heels across the marbled floor comes through the door. The sharp rhythm echoes in my ears. I can smell Celine — that sweet, familiar perfume of lilac and powdery rose.

Oh, goodness, finally, someone who will clear this whole thing, and tell everyone the truth.

From my kneeling position, I watch as Celine walks forward, her waist and hands swinging in harmony, the bright red silk of her gown dancing against the cold stone floor with every step.

I am happy she is finally here. I try to meet her eyes but something seems off. She avoids mine, her gaze cold and distant.

“Oh, Flynn, please don't add lying to the pile load of atrocity you have done already. Just confess,” she purrs, stepping down from the step, her voice sickly sweet. The light catches her gown as it glimmers blood-red in the firelight. “Spare yourself the shame, and us, the time.”

I can’t believe my ears. A bitter laugh bubbles up, but it sounds broken. This must be a joke, right? The whole thing.

“I was at the pack throughout yesterday night,” Celine announces in the room, her voice steady, turning her back against me and facing the council elders. “My mother and a few people can attest to it.”

My knees grow weak instantly, buckling beneath me. I catch myself, but my eyes stay fixed on the floor, unable to meet the gaze of the werewolves around me. But somehow, I can feel their fiery eyes of disgust burning holes into my skin.

“Why would Celine lie?”

I try so hard to raise my eyes, but my gaze comes to a stop as it dwells on the emerald bead ring on my finger, a cold reminder of what I am about to lose.

“Ohhh, it’s a pity, dear sister,” Celine whispers as she bends low to meet my eyes, her wolf coming out to the surface, the sharp gleam in her gaze like a blade. “You are pathetic, and all these? Being Luna, having Ronan, you don’t deserve it one bit. You can’t even shift yet.”

My eyes fall on Ronan, my lover, mate, and fiancé, but his jaw is clenched in anger.

For a second, his gaze meets mine — then drops to the ring on my finger — then away, like he's ashamed to look at me.

“Why Celine?” I ask, tears running down my chin, warm trails against my cold skin.

“We are sisters, Celine,” I utter, my heart cracking into pieces as I say the words.

“Father…” I turn to look at my father, Alpha Romano. He too, like everyone else, avoids my gaze. I guess he is as disappointed as everyone else.

I couldn’t tell which hurts the most. The betrayal or the fact that I have no one to speak for me.

With my head now face to face with the marbled floor, Ranon marches toward me, his boots pounding the stone floor like a hammer, each step reverberating through my chest. That familiar smell of pine needles and campfire smoke — his smell — now reeks like spoiled meat.

My chest beats so fast, somehow, I can tell what he is about to do.

“Please, no. Don’t do this. Not our bond.”

He stops so close, I see the sweat trailing down his throat.

He puts his fist over his heart where our bond used to live. “You,” he hisses, teeth sharp and wet like an animal’s, “are disgusting.”

The words punch through me.

“I Ranon, Alpha of…”

I grab his legs, desperate. “Ranon, please, it wasn’t— I didn’t…”

He jerks away like my touch burns him, eyes flashing with fury. “Don’t speak to me,” he snarls, his wolf snarling beneath his skin, the scent of rage thick and suffocating. The heavy air in the council room presses against my skin like a weight, every hateful glare slicing deeper than claws.

“I swear, Ranon, these are fake, I don't —”

“Disgusting,” Celine mutters beneath her breath, her words cutting sharper than any blade. Around us, the council murmurs like vultures circling a dying prey. Every breath I draw feels like inhaling smoke and salt, burning my throat.

I search for my father. He won’t even look at me. His broad shoulders sag beneath his cloak, but he keeps his face turned away. When he finally steps forward, the sound of his boots echoes like a death toll. He stops before me, towering, eyes hard and tired.

“Father—” I choke out hope clinging to the word.

His stare is ice-cold. “You leave me no choice,” he says, voice flat, like stone grinding against stone. “You’ve brought ruin upon this family.” And just like that, my last anchor snaps.

Beside him, my mother steps forward, the firelight catching the silver streaks in her hair. She’s always favored Celine, but I never thought—never imagined she’d look at me like this. Her mouth curls, eyes brimming with loathing.

“I have always known you would bring shame upon us,” she says coldly, her voice a dagger buried in my ribs. I stagger, the words burning hotter than any wound.

“This isn’t real,” I whisper, but my voice drowns under the weight of everyone's judgmental eyes.

Ronan steps forward, his voice sharp as a whip as he denounces our bond like it was nothing to him. The council leader's voice came next “Flynn Greg, you are hereby stripped of rank and title. We tolerated the fact that you couldn't shift yet as a werewolf and to repay us, you bring shame upon us.” His words fall like hammers. “Guards—lock her away till we decide her fate.”

“No!” I scream, but they’re already dragging me up, iron grips bruising my arms. My wolf whimpers, too weak to rise. The floor sways beneath my feet, the rough stone biting into my bare skin.

Celine leans close, her perfume thick as poison. “It should’ve been me. It always will be,” she hisses, triumph dripping from every word.

Her words shatter what’s left of me. I feel the world tilt, my vision blurring as the heavy doors open.

And then I hear it.

A roar. Not human. Not possible.

The ground trembles. Shouts. Screams. The sharp, metallic scent of fresh blood seeps into the room, mingling with fear. A shadow darkens the doorway — tall, broad, savage with emerald eyes.

The room explodes into chaos.

Whoever it is, I felt something in me resonating with the wolf inside of him, like I've known him before.

Before anyone could say a thing, his wolf came to the surface, and with clothes torn and eyes locked on mine like a predator who’s finally found what was stolen, his voice thundered to the guards.

“lay a finger on her,” the stranger growls, voice barely human, “and I’ll rip your hearts out.”