Semua Bab Luna's Last Oath: Bab 51 - Bab 60

The council chamber still clung to her like smoke. Even after she left its marble floors and its rows of watchful eyes, the echoes of voices trailed her. Words that doubted, demanded, diminished. And yet she had stood through them all. She had not flinched.Now, in the quiet of her own chambers, the silence pressed heavier than their noise. She braced her palms on the edge of the table, staring at the map splayed out before her. The territories, the borders, the marks of rival packs. Ink lines and sigils that had once seemed like abstract politics, now they were her battlefield.Her breath came shallow. Not fear. No, fear had burned out of her long ago. This was something harsher: the knowledge that every choice she made from this point forward would etch itself into the bones of her wolves. That if she faltered, it would not be her who paid first, it would be them.The chamber door creaked. She didn’t look up. She didn’t have to. She knew the tread, heavy and careful all at once.“Ni

The chamber still thrummed with the echo of his words.Brian hadn’t moved. He stood as if rooted, as if tearing his gaze away from her would undo the last scrap of dignity he had left. Nicole could feel the eyes of the council boring into her, the pack caught between disbelief and hungry anticipation.For a long, unbearable heartbeat, she let the silence linger. She wanted him to feel it — the weight of what he’d asked, the shadow of what he’d done.When she finally spoke, her voice cut the air clean in two.“You come here,” she said, her tone measured but sharp as a blade, “and ask me to believe in the man who left me bleeding for dead. Who chose power, ambition, betrayal — over me, over us, over his own pack.”Brian flinched, just barely, but he didn’t back down. His hands flexed once at his sides before stilling.“Yes,” he said hoarsely. “Because I was a coward. And I would rather face your fury than live one more day pretending I can survive without you.”A low murmur rippled thro

The chamber doors groaned open, heavy iron scraping against stone.By the time Nicole stepped into the corridor, the air was already alive. Wolves packed the hallways shoulder to shoulder, faces tense, eyes sharp, the hush of held breath giving way to a crackling murmur. News traveled faster than feet, faster than truth. What had been spoken inside had already bled beyond the walls, twisted by whispers.“Did you hear? She defied the council.”“No—Silas threatened them.”“She’s going to split us apart.”“She’s going to save us.”Nicole’s boots clicked against the stone, the sound swallowed by the swell of voices. For one wild second, she felt the weight of hundreds of gazes pulling at her, trying to pin her down, trying to decide what she was. Savior. Usurper. Both.Silas followed close behind, silent, a storm held on a leash. He didn’t touch her, but the space between them carried its own voltage, a silent message the pack could read as clearly as any decree: together.The crowd shift

The courtyard didn’t breathe.For a moment, after Nicole’s last words, it was as though every wolf in the pack had turned to stone, waiting for someone else to twitch first. The air hung heavy with that sharp metallic taste of storm about to break. Eyes flashed, hackles raised, but no one moved—until one did.A snarl cut across the silence, ragged and reckless. Then claws scraped stone. One wolf lunged at another, the motion too fast, too angry to be stopped. The impact cracked like thunder, bodies slamming against the courtyard wall. Snapping teeth followed, the sound raw enough to rattle bone.That was all it took.The dam broke.Wolves tore into each other, some shifting half-form, some staying skin-bound but striking anyway. Growls rolled into shouts, the courtyard a sudden maelstrom of rage and betrayal. Dust rose where bodies collided, boots grinding gravel into sparks.Nicole didn’t move.She stood at the center of it all, unflinching. The chaos licked at her edges, but she did

The courtyard stank of iron and smoke. Blood smeared the flagstones in streaks where wolves had been dragged back, some breathing, some not. The echoes of snarls still clung to the air, ghosts of a battle that had ended only because exhaustion or Nicole’s command—forced it down.Now, silence pressed against them. Not peace. Never peace. Just the brittle hush of wolves eyeing each other across the divide, hackles still half-raised, waiting for the next spark.Nicole stood at the center of it, her boots tacky with drying blood. Every eye pulled toward her whether in defiance or reluctant deference. Her throat ached from the force of her earlier roar, but she kept her chin high. She couldn’t let them see her falter. Not here.Silas hovered just behind her shoulder, still breathing hard, his shirt torn at the sleeve. She could feel his restraint like a taut wire ready to snap. He had wanted to join the fight, to rip down the challengers himself but he had held because she had stepped forw