Chapter 71

~KAIROS’S POV~The world didn't explode when Kael spoke. It didn't catch fire. It just… stopped.“The child in her womb isn’t yours, Kairos! It’s a priest’s bastard!”The words hit me with the force of a physical blow, knocking the air right out of my lungs. I felt a ringing in my ears that drowned out the sound of Genevieve’s sobbing and the wind howling outside the stone walls. My heart, which had been beating with the rhythm of a war drum, suddenly felt like it had turned to lead.I looked at Genevieve. She was still on the floor, her silk robe stained with the blood of the boy I had just tortured. She looked pathetic. Small. But as Kael’s words sank in, I saw her eyes shift. The panic was there, but so was the calculation. She was already trying to find a way to spin this.“He’s lying!” she shrieked, her voice cracking as she looked up at me, tears streaming down her face. “Kairos, look at him! He hates me! He’s been trying to destroy this alliance since the day I arrived! He foun

Chapter 72

~ELARA’S POV~The room was so quiet I could hear the steady drip-drip of the blood falling into the silver basin. I stayed rooted to the spot near the doorway, my fingers digging into the stone wall. My heart was thudding so hard against my ribs I thought it might actually burst.I looked around the room. It was a sea of terrified faces. Genevieve was trembling so hard her teeth were chattering, her eyes darting between the priest and the bowl like a trapped animal. Malphas looked like he was already dead, his head hung low, his chains rattling with every shaky breath. Even the Beta and Gamma looked tense, their bodies coiled like springs.But then I looked at Kairos.He was the only one who wasn't shaking. He stood tall, his chin tilted up, his amber eyes fixed on the silver bowl with a chilling, absolute confidence. He didn't look like a man waiting for a result; he looked like a judge waiting to deliver a sentence. He already knew. In his soul, he had finally realized the truth.Th

Chapter 73

~ELARA’S POV~The silence in the study wasn't peaceful, it was heavy. It felt like the air before a thunderstorm, thick with the smell of old blood and the ozone of Kairos’s fading Alpha aura.I stood by the heavy oak door, my chest heaving. I looked at him, really looked at him. He stood there by the silver basin, his head bowed, his hands trembling. He looked like a man who had lost everything. And he should.“Elara,” he said again. His voice was a broken rasp. “I… I am so sorry.”Something inside me snapped.“Sorry?” I repeated. The word felt small and insulting. I let out a sharp, jagged laugh that sounded more like a sob. “You’re sorry? That’s what you have for me after all of this?”I took a step toward him, my vision blurring with hot, angry tears. “You called me a scentless mutt, Kairos. You stood in front of the entire pack and told me I was nothing. You rejected me so cruelly that I ran into the rogue lands, praying for a quick death because the pain in my chest was too muc

Chapter 74: The Princess Of Nothing

~GENEVIEVE’S POV~The stone floor of the corridor was freezing, but it was nothing compared to the ice in my veins.As the guards hauled me toward the dungeons, I saw Elder Mara standing by the doorway, her face twisted in a mask of pure loathing. This was the woman who, only this morning, had been discussing the embroidery on my bridal veil.“Mother!” I wailed, reaching out a hand toward her. I just needed one ally. One person to believe my lies. “Please! You know my heart! You know I love Kairos! This is a trick by the Shadow girl!”I tried to grab the hem of her silk robes, but Mara yanked them away as if my touch were a plague. She looked at me with such disgust I felt smaller than the dust on her boots.“Do not call me mother, you wretched girl,” she hissed. “You have brought shame upon my house. I hope the North forgets your name.”The guards didn't give me time to beg further. They jerked my arms back, making me stumble.I couldn't believe it. I had been so bold. I had been the

Chapter 75: The Alpha's Reckoning

~KAIROS’S POV~ The air at the communal grounds was thick enough to choke a man. Thousands of wolves stood in the moonlight, their eyes glowing like tiny lanterns in the dark. As I stepped onto the elevated stone platform, the low hum of whispering stopped instantly. The silence that followed was heavy, expectant, and sharp. I looked out at my people. They looked confused, tired, and wary. And they had every right to be. I stood at the edge of the platform, not as a King looking down, but as a man who had finally seen the rot in his own house. I didn't wear my ceremonial cloak. I stood in my plain training leathers, my hands still feeling the ghost of the blood I had spilled in the study. “Pack of the Eclipse” I began. My voice carried across the grounds, amplified by the power of my wolf. “I did not call you here to celebrate a wedding. I called you here to face the truth.” A ripple of movement went through the crowd, but no one spoke. “An Alpha’s first duty is to protect h

Chapter 76: Reduced To A Commoner

~GENEVIEVE’S POV~I knelt on the jagged stones of the communal ground, my knees bleeding through the fine Northern silk of my skirts. Every breath I took was a struggle, not because of the heavy iron chains around my wrists, but because of the weight of thousands of eyes. I could hear them, the low, guttural growls of the Silver Moon wolves, a sound that promised death.I looked up at the platform. Kairos stood there, looking every bit the Alpha I had tried to tame. And beside him stood her.Elara.The scentless mutt. The shadow-cursed girl I had spent months trying to erase from existence. She stood with her head held high, the moonlight catching the silver in her eyes. She wasn't just standing next to the Alpha, she was standing above me.The shame was a physical heat, burning through my skin. I had left the North for this. I had endured Malphas’s disgusting touch for this. I had plotted, lied, and ruined a man’s life just to secure a crown that was now slipping through my fingers l