The last flicker of hope within me extinguished at her words.
Sophie had betrayed me, cast me aside and lied shamelessly to everyone. How could she do this after everything we'd shared? I had loved her deeply, trusted her with everything, and now she was acting like I had never meant anything at all.
Tears welled in Sophie's eyes as her voice trembled before the crowd.
"Aria was devastated when she learned of Miss Woods' pregnancy, and I watched as it slowly chipped away at her mental stability, something I had already noticed was fragile. While in her service, I witnessed several episodes where she'd burst into laughter at the most disturbing things. Her mood swings were even worse. One moment, she was gentle and kind, the next she'd snap, irritable and angry without warning."
I stood frozen in disbelief. She was twisting one isolated moment into a narrative filled with lies to push her own agenda. Had she secretly resented me this much all along?
"She convinced me to try and run away with her, but I now realize she never told me the full truth. I believed I was helping a broken girl in need of compassion. Instead, I was unknowingly assisting someone involved in something unspeakably vile."
She turned to Leah then, tears streaming as she spoke.
"Miss Woods... I don't know if you'll ever be able to forgive me, but please believe me, I never meant to hurt you. I truly thought I was delivering a peace offering from Aria that day, not unknowingly taking the life of your child. I believed she wanted to make things right before we left. I was wrong… so terribly wrong… and I am so, so sorry..."
Her voice dissolved into sobs as murmurs rippled through the crowd.
They believed her. Every twisted word, every tear-soaked lie.
And there was nothing I could do.
Then, Leah rose slowly to her feet. The room fell into hushed silence, all eyes locked on her, expecting a storm, a slap, a scream, some kind of reckoning for the woman who had poisoned her.
Her steps were uncertain, swaying faintly with the weakness of someone still recovering from the brink. Every motion seemed to reinforce her recent time in the hospital. But instead of fury, what she offered was something else entirely.
When Leah reached Sophie, she embraced her. A warm, tight hug, as though they were long-lost friends finally reunited. Gasps echoed around the room.
After a long moment, Thea pulled back and smiled kindly, her hands clasping Sophie's as though offering strength.
"I forgive you, Sophie," she said gently, her voice carrying like a hymn. "I feel the truth in your words beneath the light of the Goddess this evening. I know your heart meant no harm to me or my baby. And so I will not lay the weight of your mistress's sins upon your shoulders."
I glanced out at the crowd and saw their faces lit with admiration, utterly entranced by every word she spoke. They hung on her sentences like gospel, their eyes gleaming with reverence.
"This might be a bit premature to share, but..." she turned toward Alex, no, Alec…who was watching her with that same spellbound expression. She was silently seeking his approval, and with the smallest of nods, he gave it. Her smile in response was dazzling.
"But Alec and I have been discussing things, and he's expressed his desire for me to take on the role of Luna once this... unpleasantness is behind us. Sophie, your heart is so full of compassion and loyalty. I see it, I feel it. And I know the Goddess sees it too."
And then it clicked.
This was all a performance, a carefully staged display. There had to be a deal between them. Sophie's cooperation, her false testimony, in exchange for her freedom after the trial.
Calling him Alec in front of everyone? That was deliberate. No one had used that name publicly since his father's passing. She was sending a message: she had his favour, his intimacy.
The whole thing was a facade meant to win over the pack.
To cast her as a benevolent saviour.
And me as the monster.
A murderer.
A baby killer.
"Sophie," she continued, voice warm and open, "I may not be Luna yet, but I would be honored if you would serve beside me, offering me the same loyalty and care you once gave to the wrong person."
Without hesitation, Sophie dropped to one knee and kissed her hand, bowing her head with the devotion of a loyal subject.
"Miss Woods… no, Luna... it would be the greatest honour of my life to serve you and to spend whatever years I have left atoning for my mistakes."
Thea smiled softly, lifting Sophie to her feet and embracing her again.
The crowd burst into thunderous applause.
To them, it was a breathtaking scene of grace and redemption. Their future Luna had forgiven the woman who confessed to poisoning her, welcomed her even. She was radiant, compassionate, powerful.
Everything they had never seen in me.
They had respected me, yes. Feared me, maybe. But adored me? Never.
"I believe we've seen enough," Alex said gently, rising to his feet.
He strode forward and wrapped an arm around Thea's waist in a gesture that was both protective and possessive.
And then, I saw it.
The thing that shattered the last thread of calm holding me together.
As they embraced, Leah tilted her head just so, brushing her hair back with calculated grace. It wasn't an accident. She wanted me to see. She wanted the pain to settle deep inside my chest before the final blow of my conviction.
Because there, on her neck, was his mark.
Alex's mark.
The one he had always refused me, even after we had mated. The one he claimed he "wasn't ready" to give.
He had marked her. Chosen her.
It hadn't even taken a week.
No hesitation. No grief. No shame.
He'd claimed her as his mate in the eyes of the pack and the Goddess… while I stood alone, condemned.
I was angry. No, furious.
The mate bond was broken, severed, and with it went the unnatural compulsion to love him. But that didn't stop the rage burning through me like wildfire. I had begged him for years to mark me, pleaded, compromised, waited. And still, he never did. Not once.
But Leah?
She had it within a week.
Disgusting.
I hated him.
I hated Leah.
I hated this pack.
But above all… I hated Sophie.
Yes, Sophie.
More than any of them.
Because I knew what came next, Alex didn't even need to speak the words. Her testimony, her sweet, tear-soaked lies, had been the final nail in my coffin.
Loving them… Alex and Sophie… had been my greatest mistake.
I had poured everything into them, my heart, my loyalty, my soul and it had all curdled into poison. Used against me like weapons I had forged with my own hands.
Was this what I had always been destined for?
Not a future. Not love. Not peace.
But sacrifice.
Born and raised to serve the pack, to bleed for their victories, to be the stepping stone they crushed on their way to glory. They had their mighty Alpha now. Their perfect, merciful Luna. Their thriving pack, built off the bones of my work.
There was no place left for me.
I was a ghost in the empire I helped build.
"I believe the evidence has led us to an obvious conclusion," Alex said, his voice steady, self-assured. "Do you have anything to say in your defence, Aria?"
I took a breath.
Cleared my mind.
What was the point? There was no defence I could offer that would change the outcome. Their minds had already been made up long before I ever stepped into this room.
"I sincerely hope the Goddess smites every one of you for the murder you're about to commit," I said, my voice low and bitter. "There's nothing left I can say to prove my innocence, not against the mountain of lies you've so willingly accepted. But deep down, I hope you suffer.
When I'm gone and you're left alone with your guilt, I hope I haunt you. I hope it's my face you see when your end finally comes.
My only crime was loving the wrong people."
Silence.
Not a word. Not a breath.
No one had expected that.
They probably thought I'd crumble, sob like Sophie, beg Thea for some hollow, public forgiveness.
But I wouldn't bow to that bitch.
They could take my head.
But they'd have to cut off my legs before they ever saw me kneel.
I turned to her, expecting guilt, pity, or even indifference.
But instead… she looked back at me. Directly. Calmly.
And then, she smirked.
It wasn't the vacant, fluttery look she used to wear.
This wasn't the sweet, naive girl I'd known over the years.
There was sharpness in her now. A calculated glint in her eyes.
For the first time, Thea looked at me as herself.
And I saw it.
She had planned this. All of it.
My isolation. Alex. Sophie. The trial.
She had played the part of the helpless innocent to perfection, disarming everyone with her wide-eyed charm. No one ever suspected her. No one ever looked.
And then an uglier thought crept in, one that twisted my stomach in horror.
Had she even been pregnant at all?
Or worse… had she really killed her own unborn child just to eliminate me from her path?
I prayed desperately that it had been a lie.
Because the alternative was too monstrous to bear.
Alex cleared his throat, snapping the crowd's attention back to him.
"Very well," he said smoothly, though there was a faint edge to his voice. "In accordance with proper procedure, the ranked members and elders will now cast their votes."
He turned toward the panel behind him.
"All those who find Aria Crystal guilty of the murder of the Alpha heir, and of intending harm toward Leah Woods, please stand."
One by one, they rose.
Their faces were stern, judgmental, unreadable.
A wave of dread crashed over me as I scanned the rows of people I had once served, once protected. Every one of them stood with quiet condemnation written into the lines of their bodies.
But then, One pair of eyes met mine, calm and steady.
Elder Lucas.
He was still seated.
Alex paused, clearly thrown.
"Elder Lucas?" he asked, eyes narrowing. "You are the only one who remains."
Lucas didn't flinch. He didn't care that all eyes had turned on him. He sat there, unbothered, his voice level as he spoke.
"I don't believe she did it," he said, the words like a boulder dropped into the still silence. "This smells like a frame job to me. Most of the evidence brought forward was circumstantial at best."
Gasps and hushed muttering rippled through the room.
"She's right," he went on, nodding toward me. "I don't want her face haunting me either, knowing I helped put an innocent woman to death. The rest of you might be fine going along with this charade, but I won't sell my soul for the sake of appearances or political convenience."
Stunned silence followed. The room wasn't used to defiance, especially not from someone of Lucas's rank.
Alex's jaw clenched, a flicker of irritation breaking through his otherwise controlled expression.
But he smoothed it away just as fast.
"No matter," he said, his tone clipped and cold. "The majority vote is sufficient to proceed."
He raised a hand.
"Bring me the broadsword."
Alex gestured toward an attendant off to the side.
They moved quickly, reverently, unboxing the weapon that would seal my fate.
The broadsword was more ceremonial than practical, its blade rarely used in real battle. But that didn't make it any less deadly.
Its hilt was adorned with intricate carvings, silver moons etched into the steel, and clusters of white and sapphire jewels glinting beneath the chamber lights.
It was beautiful.
Or at least… it might have been, had it not been chosen to end my life.
Alex took the weapon in hand, his grip firm. He turned it slowly, examining the blade's edge.
It caught the light like a predator's smile, gleaming, waiting.
Waiting for me.
When he seemed satisfied with its sharpness, he turned to face me.
His eyes were cold. Focused.
They mirrored the blade.
This was it.
The end.
Everything I'd fought for, sacrificed for… meant nothing now.
A bitter, hollow life. Spent in service. Dying in disgrace.
"You have been found guilty of the charges against you," Alex began, voice strong and final.
"The murder of the Alpha heir, and the intent to harm a fellow pack member, are offenses punishable by the harshest sentence under our law. Therefore, by the authority granted to me as Alpha of the Winter Pack, I, Alex Durmont, sentence you, Aria Crystal, former Luna, to death.
Your execution will be carried out immediately."
My heart thundered, no matter how much I told myself not to be afraid.
But I was.
Every step he took toward me ignited the primal urge to run.
To fight.
To survive.
Why hadn't I run sooner?
Why had I wasted so much time trying to earn love, loyalty… justice… from him?
Alex had been my death sentence long before this moment.
And I had been too blind to see it.
With trembling legs, I stepped forward and knelt before the wooden stump.
No one needed to push me. No one needed to drag me.
I went willingly.
I lowered my head onto the block, the cold wood biting against my skin, and shut my eyes.
Waiting.
A tightness gripped my chest, I couldn't breathe. My body shook as silent tears slid down my cheeks.
How foolish I'd been. How blind.
I'd once been called one of the sharpest minds in the kingdom.
And yet here I was.
Broken. Betrayed.
And somehow, still the fool in the end.
Then, the air shifted.
A whisper of motion behind me.
The faint, whistling arc of a blade cutting through the air.
And then, Darkness.