Chapter 12
“Everyone said you were a no-wolf, an idiot,” Emery said, stepping forward with an eerie calm. “But I never expected your pure little heart to be the one thing that made him drop his guard.”
“You really think everything’s fine just because you didn’t give him the poison?” she sneered, the sweetness in her voice peeling away to reveal venom. “Because of you, he developed something as dangerous as desire. He wanted to live. And the moment he wanted something-that was my opening.”
I collapsed to the floor. “Why? He’s your son!”
“He is not!” she shrieked, her voice shaking with rage. “He is a curse. A punishment the Moon Goddess laid upon me.”
The tears I thought I’d run out of stung my eyes again. I scrambled over to the bed and clamped my hands over Lucian’s ears.
But it was too late.
That awful bitterness returned, curling in the air like smoke. Lucian opened his eyes, lips pale and trembling. “So you really came to kill me?”
Emery flinched and staggered backward.
“You…” she stammered.
Lucian sat up, his gaze icy as winter wind. “So when Father praised me-once-you gave me poisoned chocolate?” he said slowly. “And when I slaughtered every threat in Liam’s way, you rewarded me by handing him the throne… and making him kill me?”
“Don’t you dare say his name!” she screamed, pointing at him, eyes wild.
Lucian only laughed, though it was the kind that made my chest hurt. His eyes were rimmed red,
like they might start bleeding.
“You think you hid your intentions so well?” His voice dropped like frost on glass. “You really believed the Riverrun Pack wouldn’t make a move when Aubrey entered the palace?”
Emery froze, then seemed to realize something. “What did you do?”
Lucian’s voice was slow and deliberate, each word a blade: “You watched me day and night, praying for my death, and forgot what kind of rats your own bloodline harbored…” He tilted his head. “For the Luna Queen position, the Riverrun Pack is willing to do anything. Did you forget how you got
into the werewolf castle?”
“What did you do to Nolan?” she whispered, pale and shaken, and then turned to bolt toward the
door.
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Lucian leaned back with a cold smile. “Same as his father. He slipped. Into the lake.”
“Drowned.”
The words hit her like a slap. Emery crumpled, collapsing to her knees as if her legs had given out. “You monster!” she screamed. “I should’ve strangled you the day you were born!”
“Compared to you, dear Mother, I still have some catching up to do.”
The Riverrun Pack, accused of conspiring to kill the late prince’s heir, was thrown into the
dungeon.
Emery, convicted of plotting treason against the Alpha King, was sentenced to eternal confinement
in Celestine Hall.
Strike at the root-Elliana had just taught me this tactic. Cut off the fuel, and the fire dies.
“All this trouble,” Lucian muttered later, pulling me into his arms, “and Lyra’s been crying herself thin.” His big hand found my waist and gave it a gentle squeeze.
I huffed. “You need to make it up to me.’
“What would Lyra like?”
I considered this seriously. “I want to be your only Luna.”
He didn’t hesitate this time. “Okay,” he said softly. “But not just Luna-Luna Queen.”
My heart soared. I gave his shoulder a pat. “Then I’ll allow you to stay with me tonight.”
His eyes darkened a little, and I caught the way Callum and Savanna quickly looked away, hiding
smiles.
“…Lyra, do you actually know what ‘stay the night’ means?” Lucian asked after a long silence.
Of course I did.
It just meant sleeping. Right?
Apparently not.
Elliana, red-faced and coughing, brought me a laptop and showed me some videos.
In them, a man and a woman were all tangled up, doing… things. A lot of things I didn’t understand.
I stared, fascinated.
“Tell the Alpha King I’m done! I can’t teach her anymore!” Elliana squeaked and fled the room like
her tail was on fire.
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If even she couldn’t explain it, then it must be extremely complicated.
Naturally, my curiosity only grew.
So when Lucian walked in, I didn’t even notice. Not until he gently took the laptop from my hands.
His eyes shimmered, like spring water catching moonlight. He smelled sweet-like syrup and
warm vanilla-and suddenly, I was thirsty.
“Lyra,” he said, voice soft as a falling feather, “if there’s anything you don’t understand… I can
teach you.”
I went completely red-even my ears burned.
Lucian chuckled quietly. “Looks like someone’s grown up.”
That night was different.
The candlelight swayed gently. Shadows spilled across the floor… and over the trail of clothes we
left behind.
It felt like I was being lifted into the clouds, held somewhere warm and breathless and safe. I didn’t
know how long it lasted.
But when it was finally over, I curled into him, dazed and barely awake. “Lucian…” I murmured,
“you’re finally not bitter anymore.”
He blinked. “What do you mean?”
“The scent,” I mumbled. “Good people smell sweet… bad people smell awful… but Lucian, you… you
were always bitter.”
Lucian buried his face in my neck. For a long, long time, he didn’t say a word.
Just as I began to drift off, I heard his whisper, “That’s because you’re sweet.”
“Like a candy melting on my tongue-wrapping up all the bitterness… and turning it into something I can finally taste.”
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