Chapter 9

Inside her hall, Vivienne heard that her family had fallen. She completely lost her mind. She set fire to the side room of her hall, trying to use her own death as leverage. The Pack Enforcers dragged her out of the flames, her hair half-burned, her Luna's robes scorched and ragged. She was now nothing but a prisoner.

I stood at the gate of the Eastern Wing and watched the thick smoke rising in the distance from the direction of Vivienne's Hall. I patted the Alpha Heir's back softly.

The scheme that had been running for months had finally reached its end.

The next morning, Damien issued a new decree at the council session.

"Luna Vivienne has disgraced her position. The evidence is complete. Effective immediately, her Luna title is stripped. She is reduced to a commoner and confined permanently to the cold quarters of the Pack, never to leave without a direct order."

The decree had barely landed when Vivienne broke free of the guards and burst into the Eastern Wing in a frenzy.

She stabbed her finger at me.

"Serena Colton! You nothing! You climbed up here on the back of one baby, and you think you can steal my position and ruin everything I built! I'll never let this go even as a ghost!"

I held the Alpha Heir, who had just woken. I patted his back and gave Vivienne one flat look. Then I gestured for the attendants who had started to step forward to stay back.

She screamed for a while. When she finally noticed I hadn't changed expression once, when she looked at every attendant bowing to me, when she looked at the Alpha Heir in my arms, she broke.

She dropped to her knees. She crawled toward me with her hands and feet, clinging to the edge of my robes. Tears and ash streaked down her face as she sobbed.

"Serena. I was wrong. I really was wrong."

"I had no children. I gave everything to this position. I was terrified. I was terrified you'd have an Alpha Heir and bury me. Terrified all my years of work would come to nothing. I was panicked, and I did terrible things."

"Please forgive me. Please talk to the Alpha King. Don't put me in the cold quarters. I'll go to the Pack's meditation house. I'll spend my whole life in repentance. Please."

I slowly crouched down. I pulled her hands off my robes, one finger at a time. I looked at her and spoke plainly.

"From the moment you gambled with my child's life. From the moment you killed those two unborn pups belonging to the Pack's She-Wolves. From the moment you spent years poisoning the Alpha King to keep him from having heirs — you should have known this was where it ended."

"You harmed so many lives and ran schemes for over a decade. Cold quarters for the rest of your life is the Alpha King's mercy."

I stood up, turned to the attendants, and watched without expression as the guards pressed Vivienne down hard and dragged her from the Eastern Wing. Her cries for mercy faded as they disappeared past the Pack walls.

Elsewhere, Vera — who had been moved to a remote part of the Colton family estate — paid the price for her years of running her mouth.

Within half a year, she made one careless remark too many to a servant, and was beaten harshly for it. After that she fell ill and couldn't get up, lying in bed every day calling my name. She said she regretted everything. She begged me to come see her one last time.

Gerald wrote letter after letter as well, pleading with me in words that bled, asking me to let go and go see her. I never went. I never said I forgave her.

Three months later, word came that Vera had died alone. She never saw me or the Alpha Heir before the end.

Gerald's spirit broke. He gave up the modest position the Alpha King had given him and withdrew to live alone at the edge of Pack territory. He never disturbed my life again.

Then the Pack Elder Council's head official arrived at the Eastern Wing, carrying a petition signed by every senior Pack member.

He bowed to me with respect.

"Serena. The Luna position has been empty, and the Pack has no one to lead the inner household. Every member of the senior council has signed this petition. We ask the Alpha King to formally elevate you to Luna of Ravencroft Pack. You gave birth to the Alpha Heir. You are respected and capable. You are worthy of leading this Pack. Please accept."

The evening light spread across the entire Pack Manor. The stone walls and the high roof caught the warm glow.

I knew then: those days of being trapped in the mud were finally over.

The road that belonged to me had just begun.