Chapter 3

Marcello's POV

The night felt endless. My wolf would not calm down, no matter how hard I tried to control him. He kept pacing inside me, growling one moment and whining the next. One second, he wanted to tear everything apart, and the next, he wanted to run back to our room and hold Ludovica until the pain disappeared. But every time I closed my eyes, I saw those pictures again, and I heard the guard's words in my head. I could not escape them, no matter how hard I tried.

Manfredi walked beside me in silence as we made our way down to the dungeons beneath the palace. The deeper we went, the colder the air became, and the smell of damp stone mixed with the smell of blood. Torches burned along the walls, their weak flames moving whenever the cold air passed through the narrow hallway. I could already hear someone breathing heavily ahead of us, and with every step, my anger grew stronger.

The guard was chained to the wall when we entered. His face was swollen, his lips were split, and bruises covered almost every part of his body after my warriors had questioned him throughout the evening. The moment he saw me, his eyes widened with fear, and he lowered his head as if he already knew why I had come.

I stopped in front of him and stared into his frightened eyes. "I'm going to ask you one more time," I said, keeping my voice low. "Did you sleep with my mate?"

The guard's lips trembled as he looked down at the floor before slowly raising his eyes to mine. Tears mixed with the blood on his face as he swallowed hard.

"I'm sorry, Alpha," he whispered. "The Luna forced herself on me. I swear I tried to stop her, but she kept coming to me. She said she needed someone to comfort her because you were always busy with pack matters."

His words hit me like a knife. Until that moment, a small part of me had still been hoping there was another explanation. Maybe the pictures had been misunderstood. Maybe there was something I had not seen. That tiny bit of hope disappeared as I listened to him speak.

The guard continued, his voice shaking badly. "She told me she was planning something bigger. She said that once she got rid of you, she would take control of the pack. She never wanted to become pregnant because she didn't want your heir. She wanted to rule the pack alone."

For a moment, my legs felt too weak to hold me. I reached out and grabbed the iron bars beside me to steady myself. Ludovica? My Ludovica, the woman who smiled at me every morning and kissed me goodnight, was planning to kill me? The same woman I had protected whenever the pack turned against her was now being accused of plotting against me.

She wanted me dead.

The thought tore through me so deeply that I could hardly breathe. How could the woman I loved more than anyone else have done this to me? I had believed she loved me just as much as I loved her. I had trusted her with everything I had, and now I was standing in a dark dungeon listening to another man tell me that she wanted to destroy my life.

The mating bond inside my chest burned painfully. It had always felt like a warm golden thread connecting me to Ludovica, something strong and impossible to break. Now that same bond felt like it was on fire. Every memory of her laughter, every gentle touch, and every time she had cried after someone called her barren suddenly felt different. I began to wonder if all those moments had been lies.

Manfredi stood behind me without saying anything. Through the pack link, I could feel his worry, but I pushed him away and blocked him out. I did not want anyone's sympathy. At that moment, this was between me and the woman who had shared my bed while secretly betraying me.

The guard lowered his head and began to sob. "Please, Alpha. Have mercy on me. I didn't want any of this. I swear I didn't."

I stared at him for a long moment without answering. My wolf pushed forward, demanding blood. This man had touched my mate, and according to his confession, he had also listened to her talk about killing me. I could not find any mercy inside myself.

My hand shifted into claws, and before the guard could react, I struck across his throat. He made a choking sound before his body went limp against the chains. Blood ran down onto the stone floor, but I felt no regret. My anger was still there, but beneath it was a cold sense of satisfaction.

"He touched what belongs to his Alpha," I said quietly as I turned toward Manfredi. "No one touches my mate and lives."

Manfredi stared at me for a moment before slowly nodding, although the concern in his eyes had not disappeared.

"Alpha, are you sure about all of this?" he asked carefully.

I looked away from him. "The guard confessed, and the pictures don't lie. What more do you need?"

He did not answer.

We left the dungeon in silence, but my mind would not stop racing. I could not sleep that night. I sat alone on the roof of the palace and stared at the moon while the cold wind moved around me. The Goddess was supposed to watch over us, but she gave me no answer. I kept thinking about the last five years of my life and wondering if I had missed something.

Had Ludovica been pretending all this time?

Had every smile been fake?

Had she really been waiting for the right moment to take everything from me?

By the time the sky began to turn gray, I had made my decision. It was one of the hardest decisions I had ever made, and it hurt more than any wound I had received in battle, but I believed I had no other choice. I had to protect my pack, even if protecting it meant destroying the woman I had once planned to spend the rest of my life with.

I reached through the pack link and spoke to every member of the Bluestone Pack.

"Everyone is to gather at the pack grounds at dawn. There will be an important announcement. No one is to be absent."

I immediately felt their curiosity and worry moving through the link, but I gave them no further explanation.

When the sun finally rose, the entire Bluestone Pack had gathered in the large open field. Hundreds of wolves stood together, including warriors, elders, mothers with their pups, servants, and other members of the pack. The field was filled with quiet whispers as everyone wondered why I had called them there so early.

I stood on the raised platform at the front of the crowd, dressed in my formal Alpha clothes. My face remained calm, but inside, I felt like I was falling apart.

Then I saw Ludovica.

She stood at the very edge of the crowd, looking pale and exhausted. Her eyes were red from crying, and she kept looking at me with a mixture of pain and confusion that almost made me lose my resolve. For one brief moment, my heart ached so badly that I wanted to walk down from the platform and take her into my arms.

Then I remembered the photographs.

I remembered the guard's confession.

I forced myself to look away and hardened my heart.

I raised one hand, and the entire pack slowly fell silent.

"Bluestone Pack," I began, my voice carrying across the field. "Today, I stand before you with a heavy heart. Our Luna, Ludovica, has committed treason against me and against this pack."

A wave of shocked gasps moved through the crowd. Everyone turned toward Ludovica, and I could see the confusion on her face. Some people looked shocked, while others looked almost pleased, as though they had been waiting for this moment.

I took a slow breath before continuing.

"She betrayed our mating bond and plotted with a guard to take my life so she could rule this pack alone. She never wanted to give me an heir. While I was defending her and standing beside her against every cruel word, she was secretly planning my death."

Ludovica's face became completely white. She slowly shook her head as tears ran down her cheeks.

"Marcello... no," she whispered.

Her voice was almost lost beneath the growing noise from the crowd.

Murmurs quickly turned into angry shouts.

"Traitor!"

"The Barren Luna was never good enough!"

"She should have been rejected years ago!"

I heard the words around me, but I kept my eyes on Ludovica. Then I noticed Beatrice standing near the front of the crowd. Unlike everyone else, she did not look shocked. There was a small, satisfied smile on her face, and something about it made my chest tighten, but I pushed the thought away.

I raised my hand again, calling for silence.

The crowd slowly quieted.

"By the authority given to me as Alpha of the Bluestone Pack, I hereby banish Ludovica from this pack and strip her of her title as Luna."

The words left my mouth and hung heavily in the morning air.

Ludovica staggered backward as if I had physically struck her. One hand immediately moved to her stomach, while the other hung weakly at her side. She looked across the distance between us, her eyes wide with disbelief and filled with a kind of pain I had never seen before.

The mating bond between us suddenly pulled tight.

A sharp pain went through my chest, and my wolf howled inside me as if he understood exactly what we were doing. We were destroying the bond that had connected us for years, and some part of me was mourning even though I refused to admit it.

Ludovica stared at me as tears continued to fall down her face, but I did not take back my words.

The pack erupted into noise. Some people cheered, while others shouted in shock. I remained standing on the platform with my fists clenched at my sides, keeping my face cold and expressionless while everything inside me felt like it was dying.