All Chapters of Blood Ties And Moonlit Lies: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Mara exhales slowly beside me, the tension between us stretching out like a cord pulled too tight. Her expression softens for the first time since she approached me.“I’m sorry, Emerald,” she murmurs, her voice quieter than I expect. “I truly am. I know what you’ve been through . . . what you’re still going through.”I glance away for a moment, unwilling to accept her pity.“Are you?” I ask, bitterness creeping into my voice before I can stop it. “Because if you were . . . maybe the council would’ve ruled differently. Maybe Myron wouldn’t be standing here with his pride intact and his side woman parading his illegitimate heir like it’s something to be proud of.”Her face tightens, but she doesn’t argue. That alone tells me more than I want to know.“I’m disappointed, Mara. Deeply. I trusted this council to do what was right. But instead, I watched you all shrink in the face of his arrogance. The judgement . . .” I shake my head, unable to keep the tears from pooling in my eyes, “it wa

The Alpha Supreme office looks like a matchbox standing on its narrow side. It used to be just a jail house but was remodelled and offices added. Emerald once commented on how there is something brooding about it, an ominous air about the corridors and narrow cells. She’s right but this is all the pack here can provide for my office. Other packs in my jurisdiction are worse. We go up two flights of steps and stop at a cell door with a guard posted in front of it. I wave off the guard so that there’s only me and Kresten, staring at the two occupants of the cell. The two men look like ferrets trapped in a dark alley. The cell is dry this time of year but the lighting is dismal, a low hanging lightbulb with as much wattage as a firefly on a winter night. Both chained, both bruised. I motion Kresten forward. “Take a good look.”He steps up to the bars, peering inside. His expression doesn’t shift. No flicker of recognition. No hesitation. “You know them?” I ask, watching his face more t

Just before sunset, my phone rings again. It’s Eli.I almost don’t answer. I’ve been angry all day—at the world, at Myron, at Selene, at the Council, and, for some reason I can’t fully explain, at Eli too. Maybe because he’s too kind. Maybe because he makes me feel something I’ve tried to bury. Or maybe because I’m scared of what’s next, and he keeps reminding me that there’s still something left to lose.I swipe to pick up.“Hey,” I say, with little enthusiasm. “Emerald,” Eli says, “you need to come to the council building. The final judgment is happening tonight.”I close my eyes. Of course it is.“Fine,” I whisper. “I’ll be there.”When I arrive, the sky is already turning gold and bruised with the coming night. The council building looms in its familiar stoic silence. I climb the steps slowly, each one heavier than the last. The wind pulls at my coat, whispering something I can’t hear.Inside, the council chamber is almost empty. I spot Myron first. He’s seated up front, slouched

I should be used to it by now—the way this place finds new ways to break me. But standing there as Mara declares the final judgment, as she casts me out of the home I once helped build, it hurts deeper than I thought possible.I don’t cry. I don’t plead. I nod once, tight-lipped, and walk away with my head held high.But inside, I’m a wreck, I'm crumbling. It’s not just the divorce coming up. It’s not just losing everything I once thought was mine. It's knowing that I’m still not safe. That this pack will smile in my face and twist the knife in my back, all in the name of tradition and protocol.Later, I find Mara near the back gardens of the council building, pretending to enjoy the sunset like her world isn't unraveling in secret.“I want to appeal the judgment,” I say in a voice firmer than I feel.She startles, then composes herself quickly. “You can’t.”“Why not? It was unfair.”“It’s not just about the adultery,” she says, eyes darting like someone afraid of shadows.I grimace,

It’s early morning.Sunlight spills through the slits in the curtains, washing the room in a golden hue. I should feel warm, safe, and protected. Instead, I feel like I’m standing on the edge of something unknown, one breath away from unraveling again.I sit up in bed, the sheets tangled around my legs. I slept, but barely. But I’m awake now, and for once, I’m not filled with rage. There’s something else humming inside me. Hope. Fear. Longing. A complicated tangle of emotions I haven’t allowed myself to feel in weeks.Maybe living here with Eli, under his protection, would bring some changes. It’s not a fairytale, and it’s not love—not yet, at least—but it’s something. A fresh breath. A second chance. If nothing else, it’s sanctuary. I don’t expect to just fall into his arms and have it all figured out. I’m not a fool. I know I’m not ready. But there’s a small part of me that imagines what life could have been like if I’d married him instead, if fate had rewritten itself and chosen E