Thalira's POV
The sharp crack echoed through the cell, bouncing off the walls with a force that made me tremble.
Loud.
Viseral.
The sound so commanding, the sting rippled against my own cheek.
And with it, a soft sob finally escaped my lips.
She slapped her.
The Luna slapped Cassia.
"Mother!" Khage and Rydian chorused in unison, shifting just in time to break Cassia's fall as she crumpled to the ground.
Unconscious.
With Cassia sprawled against his chest, Khage stared up at her wide eyed, his jaw slackening as Rydian caressed the black and blue handprint rapidly forming against Cassia's swollen cheek.
Khage shoulders shook with each stroke, growls reverberating in his chest. Transfering her head to his brother's chest, he slowly stood up and turned to face her, his hands fisted against his side.
"I thought you didn't believe in violence." The words were barely above a whisper, his eyes narrowing as they fell to the accused limb.
The one she had used to slap Cassia.
"'These hands are reserved for pruning leaves and signing treaties'. Remember? Isn't that what you said, mother?"
Without saying a word, she turned her back to him and strolled back over to me, back straight and shoulders squared in that quiet regal way that she was known for.
But I could see it.
That slap had cost her a piece of her soul that she could never get back.
With each step, the light in her eyes dimmed, until it was completely snuffed out.
But Khage couldn't see it. And he didn't stop.
"A Luna is supposed to be fair and just, right?!"
Tenderly, Luna Rhagena scooped me up in her arms, and buried my head in the crook of her neck. She didn't speak. Just held me as I felt the weight of it all. Not the bruises, nor the torture or the blood. But the choice she'd made.
Her broken oath—for me.
"I-I…" Guilt twisted deep in my gut, hollowing me out.
She'd sacrificed the essence of her being with that one slap. Everything she'd believed in as a true Luna.
Gripping the front of her gown, I nestled closer, the whimpered apology like a litany on my tongue. "I'm sorry."
"Shh, my little fire," she whispered, her voice trembling against my forehead. "I'm the one who's sorry. I'm so so sorry, Lira."
Her aura stretched out and swaddled me like a warm fuzzy blanket, binding around my scars as she turned towards the door. "But it's ok now. I've got you. I won't let go. I promise."
Nymeris, her wolf, purred in her chest, the vibrations seeping into my bones and warming my insides.
Alpha Kydan stepped forward solemnly, the corner of his mouth tilting downwards. "The healers have arrived, my love. They're waiting in the Luna suite as you've requested."
The Luna suite? She intended to bring me to her room? But I wasn't…
"Give her to me, Rhagena." He outstretched his hands, his eyes and voice soft as they held mine. "I'll carry her for you."
And he always had. For her, his mate. And them, his pups.
Every time I'd used my body as a shield for his sons, he'd been the one to rush me to the infirmary, his growls breathing down my neck as his alpha commands insisted I keep my eyes open.
Commands I instinctively followed, even without my wolf.
This time, however, Luna Rhagena pulled me closer to her chest, inhaled my hair, and shook her head. "No. Not this time. I've got her."
"What?" Khage growled, stepping in front of us, blocking the cell door. "No. She's not going anywhere."
Hadn't they tortured me enough? What more could he possibly want?
"Give. Her. To. Me."
The crazed look in his eyes as they settled on me made my heart shrivel up in my chest.
It wasn't just hate.
It was intent.
A promise that said my nightmare was far from over.
That whatever they'd done to me before paled in comparison to whatever he had concocted in his head.
And I felt every ounce of it in my marrow.
"We have rules. That is how we function as a pack," he seethed. "Just because you have a soft spot for Lira, doesn't mean she gets to walk away scott free."
Free??? They'd tortured me for hours. No holds barred.
They'd even tried to… to…
"As the soon-to-be future Alpha of this pack, I will ensure that," his finger pointed at me accusingly, contempt cracking over me like a sharp whip, "that traitorous mongrel pays for her crimes."
"Khage Luzaeris Vidaran Vitale, that is quite enough."
She didn't raise her voice. She never needed to.
"You speak of rules, yet you desecrate the very pack that is your legacy, your lineage and destiny by seeking justice without trial."
Her aura surged—not in violence but fortified steel.
"Now, move. You are my son, but I will not ask again."
"You're really going to choose her over us! Your own flesh and blood!" Khage clenched his jaw so tight, the veins in his neck bulged.
His breaths came in short bursts, his chest heaving. The murder never left his eyes.
He didn't move.
And neither did she.
"No. Thalira," he spat my name like it was wolfsbane on his tongue, "doesn't get to leave."
The invisible knife from earlier carved its way deeper into my chest, the dull edge determined to split me in two.
He'd never called me that before.
I was always his Tali when he was teasing, and Lira when he was upset.
Now my name… the one thing that was mine to protect… my bloodright… was spilled carelessly with so much irreverence that not even an exorcist could scrub it clean.
"Thalira leaves over my fucking dead body."
"Better yet, lets leave the choice up to her. If our little love leaves this cell, she leaves this pack." Rydian chimed in, that twisted grin once again on his chiseled face. "What do you say, Red? The choice is all yours. In here with us, or out there with who knows what. Tell mother dearest that you want to stay. Right?"
That was it. The last spark before the match was finally snuffed out. A tank now empty with no more gasoline. The final curse I heard before I swayed in the Luna's arms. The two closest people to me, disposing of me like garbage.
There was no place left for me here. Looking at the raw hatred reflected back at me, I doubt there ever truly was.
"Ok. A-as you w-wish" I murmured, the words barely through my lips before my chest caved in completely and the dark void hugged me close and swallowed me brokenly whole.