After Hearing Their Thoughts, I Chose My Rival as My Mate Chapter 08

After Hearing Their Thoughts, I Chose My Rival as My Mate Chapter 08

Father’s smile froze on his face, and the wine glass in Mother’s hand trembled under her

tightening grip.

Lucian knelt in the center of the hall and looked up at me, his voice shaking.

“I have loved Aveline for a very long time.”

“For the rest of my life, I will seal the mate bond with no one but her.’

I quietly tightened my grip on Rowan’s hand, already dreading how I would have to soothe him

later.

Sure enough, in the next instant, Rowan’s private thoughts nearly exploded.

[How dare he?]

[He’s trying to steal my princess right in front of me?]

Only after spending more time with him did I learn that Rowan Blackthorne was not a block of ice at

all.

He was jealous in the most frighteningly quiet way.

Father’s expression turned completely dark.

“When I was choosing a mate for Aveline, you said nothing. Luna Maren told me the one you cared for was Serena.”

“Now that I intend to arrange Serena’s mate bond, you claim you love Aveline.”

“Lucian Hale, do you understand the crime of deceiving your Alpha King?”

Everyone in the hall lowered their heads, but Lucian was still trying to defend himself.

“At that time, I did not understand my own heart. I taught Aveline myself as she grew up. I could not bear to part with her…”

Rowan could not take it anymore. He let go of my hand and was about to step forward and start a fight.

Amid the chaos, Serena walked slowly to the front of the hall in a plain white gown and knelt.

“Father, Mother, I do not wish to seal a mate bond.”

“I only wish to go to the Moon Goddess shrine at the border and spend the rest of my life praying for

the warriors who died.”

She had shaken the warriors’ morale and nearly ruined the entire battle. If we truly held her accountable, expelling her from the pack would not have been excessive.

But she had not been raised well, and that was not entirely her fault.

Mother shot to her feet and rushed toward me, completely out of control.

“Will you only be satisfied once you’ve destroyed Serena?”

She raised her hand to slap me. I caught her wrist instead and stared at her coldly.

In that instant, the last bit of longing I had for my mother finally snapped.

“I should be the one asking you, Mother. Will you only spare Serena-and me-once I am dead?”

At those words, even Father realized something was wrong.

“Aveline, what does that mean?”

With tears streaming down her face, Serena finally spoke in front of everyone.

She said Mother had been the one who told her to claim the credit for saving Cedric’s life.

Mother had also stolen the oath I wrote for Father and placed it under Serena’s name.

During the mate selection, Mother had secretly pushed Serena to get close to Cedric and Lucian.

Even the plan to switch me into the political-mate convoy and send me to Bloodfang Pack had been silently approved by Luna Maren.

The hall erupted in shock. Only then did everyone realize that the person most jealous of me had not been Serena.

It had been my own biological mother.

Father was furious. He had always known Mother disliked me, but he had thought it was nothing more than tension between mother and daughter. He had thought it was favoritism. He had thought it was neglect.

He had never imagined that, in secret, she had been pushing me step by step toward death.

In the end, Mother was confined to the coldest, loneliest western tower of the pack palace.

She had no attendants, no power, and no right to interfere in any royal affairs ever again.

Lucian had lost all propriety before the court, and he had also taken part in switching the procession. He was stripped of his standing and exiled to the northern border.

On the day Rowan and I held our mate Ceremony, Father announced before everyone that I would be the next heir of Silvercrest Pack.

He said he owed me too much.

But I understood that the man before me was already the family member who had loved me most sincerely in this world.

Not every debt needed to be tallied and settled.

I had lost Mother’s favor, the trust of the boy I grew up with, and those old ties I had once believed

could never break.

But I had also gained Father’s sincerity, Rowan’s unwavering determination to stand before me, and the power and battlefield that belonged to me.

Before I climbed into the carriage, Cedric stopped me one last time.

He leaned on a cane, his broken leg still unhealed, and his eyes were frighteningly red.

“Aveline, if I had agreed to become your mate from the start, would we have avoided all of this?”

I looked at him and smiled calmly.

“No.”

“From the moment you pushed me toward Bloodfang Pack, we were already over.”

I could still hear his private thoughts.

He truly regretted it.

Those feelings that had come far too late rose inside him wave after wave, as if they were going to drown him.

Unfortunately, I no longer needed them.

And I would not give him another bottle of the remedy for old injuries.

I turned and walked toward Rowan. He stood in front of the carriage and reached out his hand to me.

I did not look back again.

The wind swept across the Silvercrest Pack banner. In the distance stood the newly rebuilt gates,

and beyond them lay the future I was about to take into my own hands.