The Substitute Luna Chapter 07

The Substitute Luna Chapter 07

It took Taryn days of arguing before Ronan agreed to make the ceremony public.

She was a fool.

A public ceremony left her nowhere to hide.

Ronan wanted privacy, to protect her. She didn’t understand.

I counted the days.

After the banquet, I received an anonymous message.

The sender simply wrote: [Elias Hale didn’t fall by himself. I was too afraid to tell you before. Taryn

will come for me.]

Elias.

No one had spoken that name in a long time.

That night, I watched the footage over and over.

Now I understood why he died on the day I was about to confess.

Because of me.

On the day of their ceremony, I stood in the corner, unwilling to miss a second.

Taryn, in her silver-threaded gown, walked the path lined with white roses. Ronan waited at the

end, face expressionless.

A perfect picture: destined mates, finally united.

They recited vows under the seer’s gaze, vows until death.

Then chaos erupted.

A video went viral across the network.

Location: the old school ridge.

The footage was crystal clear: Taryn’s younger face, and a boy who looked exactly like Ronan.

Snow fell. Taryn stood at the ridge’s edge, swaying.

She cried, “You’d rather watch me die than be with me?”

Elias sounded impatient, “Told you a hundred times. I’ve found my fated mate. Are you deaf?”

She screamed, “Who? Who could be better than me?”

“Is it Vivian? That lowborn woman?”

“I’ve loved you for two years. I’d die for you. Would she?”

Elias’s voice turned ice-cold. “I know you completely, Taryn.”

“Your little tricks work on Ronan. They don’t work on me.”

“I swear, touch Vivian again, and I’ll kill you.”

She was silent for a moment. Then she laughed.

“What are you? The pack’s disgrace. Ronan’s the real Alpha.”

“Want her naked photos? Come get them.”

“Miss, and I’ll spread them to every male in the territory. Let them see what she really is.”

She held up the photo album.

Elias moved. She leaned away. The ridge was slick, the wind fierce.

A boy fell over the cliff, growing smaller, smaller, until he vanished.

I still remember that morning. He ruffled my hair, told me to wait for him after school.

I nodded, cheeks burning, the confession letter safely tucked in my bag.

He never came back.

The letter is still there.

During the ceremony, someone shoved a phone in front of Ronan.

Taryn went pale. She grabbed his coat. “Don’t look. It’s not real. I didn’t mean to… he slipped, not

me…”

“I didn’t know the rocks were that slick. I didn’t think he’d fall…”

Ronan shoved her to the ground. Her crystal tiara shattered. Her hair spilled everywhere. Ash and

tears smeared her face.

The pack swarmed in, recording everything.

The ceremony she’d dreamed of, became her public execution.

I took one last look, then turned away.

Taryn, I told you. You’d wish you were dead.

Taryn was convicted and led away, eyes hollow, flinching at every flash.

She sobbed openly, begging, screaming.

She finally understood fear.

Rumor had it her cellmates were people she’d once tormented.

I imagined she received their undivided attention.

Ronan fell with her. Stripped of his Alpha title, banned from the pack council, disowned by the Hale

family.

Old enemies resurfaced, draining his fortune.

A video showed him collapsed at the border, covered in blood, stabbed while fighting off robbers.

Whether he survived, no one knows.

The Hales, who’d shown no care for Elias even after his death, suddenly appeared on the news.

They wept, praising their lost eldest son.

Their grief seemed so real. They had no idea he’d hated roses.

I had to go several times to clear them away.

I cleaned his grave and sat quietly, letting the sun warm my

back.

I wanted to say something.

But what?

Maybe…

Maybe I’d tell him the words I never had the chance to.

I loved him.