Julian POV:
I handed Leo off to the pack doctor with strict orders to prepare a hot bath and check his vitals. Retreating to my study, I yanked at my tie, pacing like a caged beast. My inner wolf was clawing restlessly at my chest, letting out low, agitated whines.
Elara's empty, dead gaze from the edge of the pond lingered in my mind like a curse. It was an irritating burr under my skin. The mate bond, faint as it usually was, pulsed with a strange, chilling distress.
I scoffed, pouring myself a heavy glass of bourbon to drown the feeling. Manipulative. That’s what she was. She deliberately stayed in the freezing water, maybe even intentionally smashing her hand against the rocks, just to make Leo look like a monster and me like a tyrant. She knew I had sworn to Rosalind on her deathbed to protect Leo, yet she constantly used her title as Luna to compete with a traumatized pup.
The heavy oak doors of the study swung open. My mother, Dowager Luna Genevieve, swept in. The suffocating scent of her heavy floral perfume masked the room's tension. Her perfectly preserved face was etched with sharp, aristocratic disgust.
"I heard about the farce at the lotus pond," she sneered, dabbing her fingers with a silk handkerchief as if the mere mention of Elara soiled her. "That woman is growing bolder by the day. Throwing herself into the water and faking a broken hand to frame a ten-year-old pup? Disgraceful."
"Leo is fine, Mother. She was just throwing another one of her pathetic tantrums," I said coldly, taking a sip of the burning liquid.
"A tantrum today, Julian, but what about tomorrow?" Genevieve glided closer, her eyes flashing with venom. "Leo is the only heir to the Sterling bloodline. She has occupied the Luna's seat for three years, yet your bed remains barren. A jealous, barren female is capable of anything. Next time, she might 'accidentally' slip some wolfsbane into his food!"
My grip on the glass tightened until the crystal groaned under the pressure.
Genevieve delivered her verdict. "For the safety of my grandson, and to preserve the pack's dignity, she must be disciplined. Send her to the Moon Altar in the Ancestral Hall. Let her kneel on the ice-cold marble until sunrise. Let the winter freeze that vicious jealousy out of her system."
Kneeling at the unheated Altar all night in the dead of winter was a punishment meant for pack traitors. For a fleeting second, the image of Elara’s deathly pale, shivering lips and that grotesque snap of her bone flashed through my mind.
But then I remembered Leo's terrified wails.
"Do it," I commanded, my voice devoid of emotion, shutting down my wolf's protests. "She needs to learn her place."
Elara POV:
I had barely peeled the heavy, sodden dress from my freezing body, my teeth chattering violently. I was awkwardly trying to wrap a makeshift splint around my shattered right hand with my left, gasping at the agonizing, white-hot pain, when the door to my chambers was violently kicked open.
Maeve, my loyal maid, was shoved backward into the room, stumbling hard to the floor.
"Move, you useless omega!" Mrs. Fletcher, Genevieve's head servant, marched in flanked by two massive pack enforcers. Her face was a mask of sheer arrogance.
"Madam," Fletcher sneered, her eyes mocking my shivering, half-naked form and my mangled hand. "The Alpha and the Dowager Luna have decreed that for your malicious attempt to harm the young master, you are to proceed immediately to the Moon Altar. You will kneel in repentance until sunrise."
Maeve scrambled to her feet, tears streaming down her face, throwing herself in front of me. "You can't! The Luna just fell into the freezing pond! Her hand is broken! She will die if she kneels in the unheated hall—"
"Slap her!" Fletcher barked.
Before the enforcer's heavy hand could strike Maeve, I stepped forward.
"Touch her, and I will have your eyes gouged out," I said.
My voice was hoarse, barely more than a ragged whisper, but the dead, absolute coldness in my eyes made the towering enforcer freeze mid-swing. Even Fletcher took an involuntary step back, startled by the sudden, suffocating aura radiating from the usually submissive Luna. It wasn't physical strength; it was the chilling promise of death.
I turned to the weeping Maeve and gently wiped her tears with my numb, purple left hand. "Bring me my cloak, Maeve. Don't waste your tears on dead men walking."
Fletcher looked utterly disappointed that she couldn't enjoy the spectacle of my begging.
I pulled the thick winter cloak over my shivering frame, cradling my broken right hand against my chest, and walked out into the drafty corridor.
I knew exactly what this was. This wasn't just Genevieve's cruelty; this was Julian’s explicit permission. My husband, my fated mate, had handed me over to be tortured, fully aware of my shattered bones.
On the way to the Ancestral Hall, the enforcers deliberately led me past the main drawing room. The heavy mahogany doors were slightly ajar. Golden firelight spilled into the dark, freezing hallway, accompanied by the clinking of teacups and a sweet, tinkling laughter.
The cloying, sugary scent of vanilla and roses drifted out.
"Julian..." a sweet, girlish voice murmured. "I heard Elara hurt her hand in the pond. Should I have my family's doctor look at it? I feel so terrible... She must hate me for coming over so often. Maybe she did it because she was upset with me."
I stopped in my tracks. Bianca White. His childhood sweetheart. The beautiful, delicate Omega who had recently returned from abroad, and the real reason Julian had been looking at me with such thinly veiled impatience lately.
Through the crack in the door, I saw her leaning intimately against Julian’s arm, her platinum blonde hair brushing his shoulder.
Julian didn't push her away. Instead, his frigid Alpha aura softened completely. He reached out, gently tucking a strand of hair behind Bianca's ear.
"Don't waste your pity on her, Bianca," Julian’s voice was sickeningly gentle to her, yet the words he spoke cut through the last remaining thread of my mate bond like a silver blade. "She broke her own hand just to play the victim and get attention. Let her kneel and reflect; she'll learn to stop these pathetic tricks eventually."
A bitter, silent laugh tore at my throat.
So, this was the man I had traded my magic, my youth, and my dignity for. The last, pathetic ember of love I held for Julian Sterling turned to ash, blown away by the winter draft.
I pulled my gaze away from the disgustingly warm scene and walked straight into the biting blizzard outside.
I entered the Ancestral Hall. The oppressive chill of the stone walls instantly pierced through my cloak, sinking into my marrow. I walked to the center of the Moon Altar, straightened my spine, and slowly, deliberately, knelt on the freezing marble.
The cold seeped into my bones, and the agony in my shattered hand pulsed with every heartbeat, but it was nothing compared to the absolute, liberating numbness in my heart.
Kneel well, Elara, I told myself as the freezing darkness swallowed me. Let this ice freeze away the very last drop of your stupidity. Tomorrow, the Sterling pack will burn.
