Chapter 35: Coward
Chapter 35: Coward
(Celeste’s POV)
The silence after I hurled those words at Lucas felt like the calm before a storm. His golden
eyes burned with fury, flashing dangerously under the hovering moonlight.
The tension between us felt suffocating, charged with years of unresolved pain and
suppressed emotions.
“Why?” Lucas finally snarled, his voice thick with
rage..
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“Why do you always provoke my anger? You stand here, calm, collected, but you only ever look
at me with hatred!” His voice echoed through the sacred walls, his wolf clawing closer to the
surface.
I stood my ground, my fists clenched, my heart pounding hard against my ribcage. “Because
you’re the one who taught me how to hate you!” My words were a loaded arrow hitting their
mark.
His face twisted, wolf energy surging dangerously. The moonlight glimmered against his
auburn hair, casting an almost otherworldly glow over his broad frame.
“You dare,” he whispered, his voice laced with venom. “You dare tell me I’m the one at fault
when all I’ve ever done is protect you?!”
A
He stepped closer, towering over me, his wolf’s dominance pressing down harder. I flinched under the pressure, every instinct in me screaming to lower my head, to bow. But I refused.
“You protected me?!” My voice cracked, surprising even myself.
The words poured out before I could stop them. “Where was your protection when they dragged me into Moon Shadow Prison, huh? When they whipped me with silver chains for
something I didn’t do? Where was your precious protection then?”
Lucas’s jaw tightened, his fangs bared. For a heart–stopping moment, I thought he might
actually lash out, his control barely hanging by a thread.
He moved too fast. Before I could react, his hand shot forward, gripping my arm just above my
scars.
Pain blossomed immediately as his Alpha–enhanced strength dug into my already weakened
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Chapter 35: Coward
skin.
I gasped, trying to wrench away, but his hold was iron–clad.
“Lucas, stop!” Nina’s sharp voice cut through the suffocating tension.
She stepped forward, her silver–gray wolf nearly glowing under the sacred temple’s light.
Her eyes burned with protective fury. “You’re crossing a line. This is the sacred temple, and Marcus has claimed her! Do you want the Alpha King’s wrath on our pack?!”
Lucas’s wolf took over before her words even registered. His clawed hand released me and lashed out toward Nina in one fluid motion, enhanced by his Alpha power. She was fast, but
not fast enough.
The impact of his blow sent her crashing into one of the moonstone pillars. The sickening sound of her body hitting the stone echoed through the temple, followed by her soft whimper.
Red trickled from the corner of her mouth as her wolf struggled to rise.
“Stop it!” I screamed, my voice ripping out of me, raw and trembling. My heart pounded as I ran toward Nina, dropping to my knees next to her.
Her usually strong silvery aura was dim, swallowed by the pain radiating from her still form.
I turned my head sharply, glaring up at Lucas. The sight of his unhinged wolf, growling with rage, only fueled my anger.
“You’re nothing but a coward,” I spat, my voice shaking with unrestrained fury. “Picking on weaker wolves because you can’t handle the truth!”
My words were like gasoline on a fire.
Lucas growled low in his throat, his fangs flashing sharply under the moonlight. He stalked forward, his golden eyes narrowing into slits.
“A coward?!” He roared, his voice trembling with emotion. “You think you understand what I’ve done for you? What I gave up for you?”
I instinctively backed away, but his grip snagged me before I got far. His claws pressed against my arms again, dangerously close to reopening the wounds that refused to heal. “I protected you, Celeste,” he hissed, his voice breaking under the weight of his emotions. “Before Scarlett returned, I gave you everything. I crafted your ceremonial moon pendant myself for your first shift! I traveled to the Northern territories alone, facing wild rogues, just to bring you those damn moonstone crystals you loved so much!” His voice cracked, rage and
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bitterness intertwining. “And this is how you repay me? With contempt? With this… hatred?!”
His words felt like blows, dredging up memories buried beneath layers of pain. But I wouldn’t let his guilt twist the narrative.
My voice came out icy and detached. “I never asked you to do any of that, Lucas. You did it because it was convenient–because it was easy back then to pretend we were family.”
His hand tightened on my arms again, and I knew that I’d shattered whatever fragile strand of
control he had left.
Lucas’s grip shifted, and before I could protest, he dragged me out of the temple’s inner sanctuary. My feet stumbled clumsily against the stone steps as he pulled me into the cold moonlit courtyard.
A growing crowd of wolves had already gathered, drawn by the tension and the waves of dominance surging from the temple.
Lucas stopped in the center of the courtyard, his Alpha energy flaring in an unmistakable signal that demanded attention.
He threw me down onto the moonstone ground with a force that ripped the breath from my lungs. My hands instinctively braced my fall, but the rough surface tore into my scarred palms, sending a fresh burst of pain shooting up my arms.
My breath hitched, but I forced myself to rise, trembling as I faced him. The murmurs of the crowd grew louder, their eyes shifting between Lucas and me. Whispers filled the night air,
venomous and intrigued.
“What’s he doing to her?” one wolf hissed.
“Discipline,” another murmured. “She disrespected the pack–disrespected him.”
“I heard she mocked the Moon Goddess herself…”
Lucas grabbed a silver–infused training staff from the temple’s warrior display–a weapon. traditionally used for disciplining rogues. Its polished surface glinted under the moonlight, its edges humming faintly with sacred energy.
He turned to face the crowd, his voice booming with his Alpha authority. “This is not just
about me,” he declared, his gaze sweeping over the gathered wolves. “This is about pack
loyalty. It’s about eighteen years of bonds she’s thrown aside. It’s about the pack’s honor!”
I forced myself to my feet despite the acid–like pain in my hands. Each breath I took burned
like fire in my throat, but I refused to cower.
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Chapter 35: Coward
“Pack loyalty?” My voice was weaker than I wanted, but it carried enough bite to earn a sharp intake of breath from some of the wolves near me. “You mean submission. You want me to bow like the rest of them. Like I did in prison!”
The crowd shifted uneasily, but Lucas didn’t even flinch. “You don’t understand loyalty,” he spat, his golden eyes locking onto mine. His grip on the staff tightened. “But you will.”
The first blow came down with Alpha–enhanced strength. The silver–infused staff connected with my back, and pain exploded through my entire body. I collapsed immediately, my knees hitting the stone so hard I thought they might shatter.
But he didn’t stop.
The searing burn of the silver against my already scarred flesh sent me spiraling. Each impact carried the weight of betrayal, of years of anguish–the cracks in a once unbreakable bond.
The pain blurred my vision, but I could still hear the whispers of the wolves around us,
watching in stunned silence.
Some murmured disbelief. Others questioned whether this was punishment or vengeance. But
no one moved to stop him.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the silver staff shattered under the force of his final
blow.
I crumpled to the ground, my body broken, trembling, barely able to breathe. The sacred
moonstone beneath me was stained with echoes of my suffering, but Lucas’s rage had been
spent.
The courtyard fell into a haunting silence.
I couldn’t see him–couldn’t lift my head–but I could feel his gaze burning into me. I wanted to
shout, to scream, but the words wouldn’t come. The betrayal cut deeper than the silver ever
could.
And still… I couldn’t cry.
I wouldn’t give him that satisfaction.
