Chapter 8

"Caius Langford. Take care of yourself."

I brushed his hand off like a speck of dust.

This time, I took Rhys's hand, and I walked out without looking back.

On the night of our Marking, the hearth candles burned red across Rhys's cheeks. He was gentle with me. Afterward, he told me that back when I was seventeen, he'd gone on the autumn Pack Hunt with his father and seen me.

He'd thought about me ever since.

Something warm settled in my chest. I reached up and touched his flushed cheek. I knew that what I felt toward him now was gratitude more than love, but Rhys was a good Alpha, and I believed I would come to love him.

On the fifth day after we were Marked, my father sent for me so I could attend Caius's trial.

The Alpha who had once been untouchable was kneeling in the Council Hall. Because of his rank, the presiding judge was a senior Alpha of the Council. The charges were read one by one. Some were old Council matters I hadn't even known about.

In the end, Caius was sentenced to banishment to the frozen northern borderlands.

Somehow, Rhea was given the same sentence.

Seeing my face, Rhys said under his breath, "Sometimes letting someone live is crueler than killing them."

On the day Caius, Rhea, and Mina were sent into banishment, Rhys and I happened to be out on a drive.

Our carriage passed them. I heard Mina sobbing. "I don't want a broke Alpha as my father! My father was a powerful Alpha! I don't want this one!"

"Shut up! If it weren't for you, none of this would have happened to me!"

A slap.

"You hit me! Mama, he hit me! You said he was just a fool, that he'd be easy to play!"

The carriage picked up speed. The whole ugly scene fell behind us.

The next time I heard anything about the three of them, it was late autumn. Word was Mina had tried to make the road easier on herself by selling Rhea to a gang of rogues. They took her right in front of Caius, and Caius didn't move.

The road to the borderlands is long. Mina gave out first. A fever took her. Rhea lost her mind after, and fell into a river and drowned. And Caius — for reasons no one could explain — ended his own life just before he reached the border.

When I heard, I quietly burned the letter I'd been holding.

Only I knew that the place where he'd killed himself was his own birthplace. Before he arrived there, I'd sent someone ahead to spread the news that he'd embezzled from his own Pack.

A man like him would rather die than have the people who knew him think less of him.

"Selene! Look!"

Rhys's voice broke my thought. When I looked up, I saw him carrying a crabapple tree in his arms. The tree had just been pulled up, roots still clumped with earth, and Rhys had dirt on his face too.

The night before, I'd mentioned wanting to plant a crabapple tree in the courtyard, and he'd actually gone and done it.

I met his bright eyes. He was like a messy, eager hound, looking at me, waiting to be praised. I rested my hand lightly against my stomach and smiled at him.

"Let's plant it together. When it blooms next year, the three of us can enjoy it."

When that time came, the flowers would be perfect, and the moon would be full.

—— END ——