Selene Thorne POV:
My declaration of "justice" hung in the cold night air, a truth Ryker could not refute. But as I watched him, I saw the internal battle end, and my heart shattered into a million more pieces. His loyalty, his love, was not with his pack's laws or his Luna's truth. It was with the weeping, manipulative she-wolf at his side.
Faye, sensing his hesitation, pressed her advantage. She sobbed harder, her body swaying as if she might faint. "Ryker, I… I didn't know it would be so bad," she whimpered. "If I had known, I would rather have died…"
She expertly admitted a sliver of guilt while painting herself as the ignorant, tragic victim.
It was enough.
Ryker took a deep breath, his decision made. He pulled Faye behind him, shielding her with his body, repeating the same soul-crushing gesture from the platform. The past had won. His feelings for her had triumphed over his duty as Alpha.
His voice, when he spoke to me, was as cold and hard as iron. "Her past mistakes will be dealt with by me, as the Alpha. It does not give you the right to persecute her."
He had twisted my pursuit of justice into a personal vendetta. He called it persecution.
*He chooses the traitor!* Kara howled in my mind, a cry of pure, undiluted despair. *Over us! Over his pack!*
I was drowning in an ocean of ice. I had lost.
"So this is your decision?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.
"This is my decision," he confirmed, and his eyes narrowed, becoming hard and menacing. "And you, as my Luna, will respect it."
He stalked towards me, his powerful Alpha aura pressing in, heavy and suffocating. "You will drop this matter," he commanded, each word a stone. "You will return to the Packhouse, and you will not speak of Faye’s past again. To anyone."
It was a gag order, a threat delivered with the full weight of his authority.
I lifted my chin, the last act of a defiant queen. "And if I don’t?"
A dangerous light flared in his eyes. "Don't test me, Selene. The pack needs a Luna, but it doesn't have to be you. You are Luna because you are my mate. A position I gave you."
The insult was absolute. He stripped me of my heritage, my accomplishments, my very identity. He reduced my position, one I held by birthright as much as by our union, to a mere gift he had bestowed upon me. It was a violation of every sacred tradition our people held.
The moment the words left his lips, the burning on my neck exploded.
It was no longer a sting or a burn. It was the agony of my soul being ripped in two. A pain so absolute, so cataclysmic, that a strangled gasp was torn from my throat. My body involuntarily doubled over, and a cold sweat drenched my back in seconds.
His cruel, dismissive words had been translated by our Mate Bond into pure, physical torture.
I clutched my neck, my nails digging into my own skin, a futile attempt to claw away the source of the agony.
Ryker saw my reaction and misinterpreted it completely. He thought his threat had broken me, that I was collapsing in fear of losing my title.
His face held no pity, only the cold satisfaction of a victor. "I see you understand. Now, go."
From behind his shoulder, Faye peered at me. I saw the flash of vicious pleasure in her eyes as she watched me suffer.
With every ounce of strength I possessed, I forced myself to stand straight. The pain was a black vortex, threatening to pull me under, but I would not give them the satisfaction of seeing me fall.
I lifted my head and met Ryker's gaze. My own eyes, I knew, held nothing but a mixture of pity and contempt. He was a fool, blinded by a lie, and he had just destroyed us both.
Without another word, I turned. I began the long walk back to the Packhouse, each step a journey through hell, my body feeling like it might disintegrate into dust at any moment.
I didn't look back. Every step was an agony, a fire licking at my soul through the brand on her neck. She could hear Faye's soft, comforting murmurs to Ryker behind her, and the sound was a poison worse than any physical pain. I thought, *He feels nothing. He causes this pain, and he feels nothing at all.*
