Semua Bab The Triplets' Regret: Bowing to Their Luna: Bab 131 - Bab 140

"We agree to all of it," Jaren said for the group. "Every single condition.""You do not even want to negotiate? You will not ask for a single compromise?""What would be the point?" Kaelen offered a faint, tired smile. "You are building protective walls to keep yourself safe. We would be fools to argue against your safety.""And if I demand a hundred more conditions?""Then we would agree to a hundred more," Thad said. His voice was rough, scraping against his throat. "Because our primary job is to make sure you feel safe. You deserve to finally have control over your own life."I stared at the three of them. This impossible combination of raw intensity and total sincerity finally dissolved the last jagged pieces of my defense."Alright," I whispered. "Let us try."The physical reaction was instantaneous. Thad let out a choked sound that was half laugh, half sob. Kaelen's silver eyes instantly welled with hot tears he did not bother to hide. Jaren stepped forward and gently took my h

The Duchess stood trial exactly three weeks after I finally agreed to give the bond a real chance.I outright refused to attend the proceedings. I had zero desire to see that monster in any context other than locked behind solid iron bars. But avoiding her face did not mean escaping the reality of her judgment. I heard about every single session. Daily reports trickled in from Mira, from the triplets, and from the nervous servants who traded hushed whispers in the estate corridors.The Duchess refused to speak in her own defense. She sat in total silence, her expression disturbingly serene, as witness after witness testified to her atrocities. Former servants who had been gagged with violent threats and heavy gold finally found the courage to speak. Guards who had blindly followed orders they knew were twisted confessed their sins on the stand. Even Clara, the spy, took her oath and provided sickeningly detailed accounts of the Duchess and her specific instructions regarding my suppos

"Yes." She offered no hesitation. No pathetic excuse. "I told myself it was absolutely necessary. That the alternative fate for our family was worse. I convinced myself that if the bond completed and my brothers turned their backs on me, I would lose everything." She swallowed hard, her throat bobbing. "But that was just another comforting lie. It was a fabricated story I fed myself just so I could manage to sleep at night.""How did you sleep?" My voice dropped dangerously low. "Knowing exactly what was happening to me right down the hall?"The heavy question hung suspended in the cold air between us. Evelina's last shred of composure finally shattered. Hot tears spilled over her lashes and tracked quickly down her pale cheeks."I didn't. Not well. Not for years." She reached up and wiped her wet face with violently shaking hands. "Every single night, I lay awake in the dark. I listened to the muffled sounds echoing from your quarters. The crying. The desperate begging. The sickening

The Duchess received her sentence on a brutally cold morning in late autumn.I did not attend the final proceeding. I had absolutely no desire to look at her face or watch her stand before the pack to receive judgment for crimes that had violently shaped my entire existence. But avoiding the Great Hall did not mean I was cut off from the reality of it. The news traveled fast. I heard about every single detail from the triplets, from the restless servants, and from the hushed whispers that spread through the estate corridors like a wildfire.Death.The Alpha had pronounced the ultimate penalty without a single ounce of hesitation or mercy. The Duchess of House Vane was to be executed for high crimes against the pack, against the sacred mate bond, and against the natural order of our kind. Her vast financial assets would be completely seized. Her territories would be absorbed by the pack. Her name would be permanently struck from the historical records of honorable houses.The execution

"They are choosing me," I repeated, my voice growing louder, echoing off the stone. "Not because of some magical pack instinct. Not because a moon goddess commanded it. Because they looked at the broken, bleeding mess you made of me and decided to help me stand back up.""Your pathetic naivety will get you killed.""Then it will be my own mistake to make." I stepped right up to the bars, refusing to back down from her toxic gaze. "That is the one thing you never allowed me to have. A choice. You treated me like a pawn on a chessboard. But I am the one walking out of this dungeon, and you are the one dying in it."The Duchess stared at me for a long, heavy moment. The manic energy slowly drained out of her posture, leaving behind nothing but a bitter, defeated old woman."The bond does not care about your little choices, Cassia," she whispered darkly, stepping back into the shadows of her cell. "It will consume you eventually. It will take over, and you will realize you are just a slav