Rejected by the King, Protected by Her Alpha Twin Chapter 09

Chapter 9 The Broken Mate-Bond

Caus stepped forward to block Selene’s path. For the first time, raw panic flickered across the alpha king’s unyielding features.

“Selene, I never knew the truth. “They planted forged evidence and fooled me. Stay, and the luna title is still yours. “I will execute Evelyn and bring our finest healers to mend you wounds.”

Selene held his gaze, calm and unyielding.

“Where were you when silver-barbed lashes first tore into my skin?”

Caius froze solid.

“Back then, Evelyn claimed you’d shoved her into the frozen pool.”

“What of the second lash? The thirtieth?”

Caius’s lips twitched. No words came out.

Selene finished what he could not bring himself to say. “You said I would never learn to follow a luna’s rules until pain burrowed deep into my bones.”

Every drop of color drained from Caius’s face.

“The night they stripped my rank and cast me out, I waited for you to seek the truth. I sat through sunset all the way till moonrise. You never showed. Later, I sliced my wrist and sent a hand-maiden for you. You accused me of twisting our mate-bond just to bend you to my will.”

Her voice stayed soft, yet every single word sliced through his self-serving lies.

“You got chance after chance to learn what really happened. Time and again, when forced to pick between me and Evelyn, you chose to believe her.”

Caius reached out, half-reaching for her.

Selene darted straight behind me.

“Don’t touch me.”

Those three short words rooted the proud alpha king where he stood.

In that exact moment, Evelyn wrenched free from the guards. She snatched a silver blade off the altar and lunged for Selene.

“This is all your fault! Why couldn’t you die inside that silver cell!”

The silver blade darted for my sister’s throat. I snapped my hand shut around her wrist.

She threw her whole weight forward, yet could not move an inch further.

I squeezed.

A sharp, grisly crack rang out as bone split.—

The silver blade clattered onto stone. I twisted her arms behind her back and forced her her knees before the blood-contract stone.

“You stole Selene’s lands, took her fated mate, and wore the luna crown that belonged to her.”

I planted my boot on her shoulder and forced her head down.

“You paraded around in stolen power so long you truly thought this was yours?”

Evelyn sobbed and twisted toward Helena.

“Aunt, save me!”

Helena took an involuntary step forward.

Selene lifted her eyes.

“Stand up for her one more time, and I will never speak to you for the rest of my life.”

Helena froze mid-step.

Pleading melted off Evelyn’s face, replaced by vicious venom.

“You said I was like your own daughter! You swore you owed my mother a life debt! Then kill them both! Only their deaths can make me Luna!”

Helena stared at her, hard realization sinking in.

Only now did she see it clearly.

The girl she’d raised at the cost of her two birth daughters’ suffering was no helpless, pitiable orphan.

She was a ravenous wolf that would never be sated.

The Grand Elder lifted his ceremonial scepter. Silence crashed over the temple hall.

“Evelyn faked her pregnancy, framed the rightful future luna, built a hidden silver prison, and

openly tried to assassinate the alpha king. She receives permanent banishment.

Carrick embezzled resources from the northern frontier. Lock him in the dungeon; execution will fall on the night of the blood moon.

“Helena stood by and covered these crimes. She is exiled from pack lands, forbidden om ever setting foot inside the pack capital.”

The Grand Elder turned to Caius last.

“The alpha king listened to slander, put loyal wolf guards to death, and drove his own fated mate into exile. For six months, command of the wolf guard is revoked and placed under the Elder Council’s oversight.”

Caius offered no pushback. His gaze stayed locked solely on Selene.

“They have all paid for their crimes. Selene, will you give me one last chance?”

Selene shook her head.

“A truth that arrives far too late is no gift from you.”

She laced her fingers with mine, her gaze sharp and steady.

“My sister won this justice for me. It was never yours to hand out.”

The Grand Elder set down the silver ceremonial bowl between them, meant to sever their mate-bond.

Selene sliced her palm open; her blood dripped into the bowl.

“I freely renounce my standing as Caius’s fated mate.

“From this day onward, his honors mean nothing to me. Neither his triumphs nor his death will rouse my wolf spirit ever again.”

The mate imprint shattered.

Caius grunted and dropped to one knee. His cedar-scented pheromones collapsed entirely.

Selene never glanced backward.

I bent and lifted her onto my back, then walked out of the moon temple.

When we reached the capital gates, she tapped my shoulder lightly.

“Sister, slow down.”

tilted my head toward her.

“Are your wounds flaring up?”

“No.” Resting against my back, she watched the royal fortress shrink into the distance and gave a faint smile.

“I just wanted one last look.

“This place that trapped me for three years-

“It turns out it is nothing more than this small.”