Chapter 154: A Mother’s Desperate Plea
Chapter 154: A Mother’s Desperate Plea
(Celeste’s POV)
The chamber’s silence felt alive, smothering every breath I took.
Regina Blackwood sat in her ornate chair, her posture weighted by a grief so profound it hung
thick in the air. Her fingers gripped the armrests tightly, her knuckles white, and her violet eyes
shimmered with unshed tears.
Her despair radiated off her in waves, her wolf’s anguished energy filling the space. The proud
royal wolf who had greeted me with venom earlier was crumbling before my eyes.
“My son.” Her voice broke on the word, raw and trembling.
She whispered it again, as if repeating it might change this cruel reality. “What will become of
my precious Marcus?”
Kneeling before her, I couldn’t bring myself to lift my gaze. My knees throbbed against the cold
marble floor, and my spine ached from holding this unmoving position for so long.
And yet, I didn’t dare shift.
Regina’s grief crackled around the room like a charged storm. Any movement on my part
risked unleashing another lightning strike, and I wasn’t certain I had the strength to endure it.
“These rogues…” her voice suddenly sharpened, cutting through the room. “They dare to
demand recognition from my brother.”
Her tone was a blade, slashing at the air with anger that barely masked her fear.
“Do they think the Alpha King is someone to toy with? That pack hierarchy, centuries of order,
can be so easily upended?”
Her trembling hands gripped the sides of the chair as if to steady her shaking wolf. Though her voice carried fury, her hunched shoulders betrayed the heavy burden of her fear.
A soft whimper escaped her wolf’s spirit, echoing in a way that tugged uncomfortably at my
own.
If I hadn’t despised Marcus for the darkness he carried, the cruelty he wielded, perhaps I
might’ve felt pity for the woman crying before me.
But something about the sight of her–this stoic wolf lost in her despair–stirred a complicated
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Chapter 154: A Mother’s Desper…
ache in me.
“My brother will not yield,” she murmured, the rage ebbing momentarily into a soft tremor. The Alpha King cannot yield. Politics… alliances… the order of the packs–all of it depends on him staying steadfast. And…” her voice cracked again, “and yet?”
Her sentence remained unfinished, but the truth hung in the air.
And yet, steadfastness might cost Marcus his life.
Regina’s wolf wailed softly, her energy spiking erratically. She rocked slightly in her chair, gripping its polished wood as her head bowed in futile surrender to helplessness.
I lowered my gaze back to the floor. The cold seeped into my skin, but I ignored it, staying
perfectly still.
The steel–hearted endurance Moon Shadow Prison had forged in me whispered that pity
would do me no good here.
And yet her grief–it was suffocating.
“My son has suffered enough,” she whispered now, as though speaking to no one in particular. “That cursed injury… It wasn’t fair. It took away his strength. It stole everything he had worked for, everything he was destined to be. He was a prince. A warrior Alpha. He was…”
Her words faltered, replaced by another trembling keening that bordered on a sob.
These sobs–so raw, so ugly–transformed her.
This wasn’t the sister to the Alpha King before me, not the haughty Luna who once eyed me
like I was beneath her.
This was simply a mother. A mother who believed her son was the victim of the world’s
cruelty.
Her tears weren’t for Marcus’s sins–they were for what she believed he had lost, for the
Marcus she chose to see, not the monster I had met.
“Your Highness,” Lucas’s voice broke through the heavy tension.
I startled faintly, not realizing how long he had quietly observed the scene. His golden eyes
flicked to me briefly before refocusing on Regina with all the strength and respect of an
Alpha–in–training.
“We have news,” he said softly, carefully measured.
Regina’s violet eyes snapped up, her head jerking toward him with a newfound intensity. She
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Chapter 154: A Mother’s Desper…
gripped the chair’s armrests tighter, waiting for him to continue.
I saw it then–hope sparking alive again, fragile and desperate.
But Lucas hesitated.
Alexander shifted slightly beside him, his ice–blue eyes hard and unreadable. He nodded subtly, urging Lucas forward.
“The Alpha King has dispatched his elite warrior unit to search for Prince Marcus,” Lucas
informed her, his voice steady.
For a moment, it seemed like the news reached her. Regina straightened in her chair, her lips
parting slightly as if hope had returned, however faintly.
And then she slumped.
“But…” She could read his face better than anyone. She knew. “But they have no idea where to
begin, do they?” Her words were tinged with bitterness.
“The Northern Territory is vast,” she snapped, her tone sharpening once more. “Forests
stretching endlessly, unknown caves, rogue dens hidden behind thick shadows. Do you expect
me to take solace that they will search indefinitely?”
Though her voice rose, there was no true anger behind it this time. Only desperation.
“The rogues,” Alexander finally spoke, his deep voice drawing attention in a way that sent
shivers along my spine. “They did not leave it at that.”
She whipped her head toward him instantly, her violet eyes blazing.
“What do you mean?” Her voice shook with unease. “What else did they say?”
I could feel it before he spoke–sense the weight of what he was holding back.
Alexander straightened, his jaw tensing. When his white wolf stirred faintly, I flinched at the
energy rolling off him.
“They sent another message shortly after.” Alexander hesitated, glancing briefly at Lucas for
support. “Prince Marcus is alive. But…”
He trailed off, his words slowing under the weight of what he was about to reveal.
Regina took in the pause, and her unease gave way to full–blown panic. Her breathing quickened as the muscles in her neck tensed.
“But what?” she demanded.
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Chapter 154: A Mother’s Desper…
“The rogues have demanded an exchange,” Lucas cut in bluntly, though his voice had none of
its usual warmth.
The silence that followed his words was deafening.
Regina blinked rapidly, her trembling lips forming incomplete sounds of disbelief. “An…
exchange?”
Lucas clenched his fists subtly at his sides, his golden eyes darkening. “They will return
Prince Marcus alive,” he said, his tone low, flat.
His next words, however, sent a chill racing through me, frost creeping down my spine and
curling into my limbs.
“In exchange for his claimed mate.”
The world stilled.
The sound of blood roaring in my ears drowned out the soft whimper of my wolf.
My head snapped up instinctively, and for the first time since kneeling in this room, my violet eyes locked with Lucas’s.
He didn’t look away.
And then, as if sensing what was about to happen, I turned to Regina.
She shot to her feet, the silk of her robe fluttering as she moved with unnatural speed.
“Celeste,” she hissed, her tone nearly deranged in its broken urgency as violet eyes burned into
mine with an unwavering, otherworldly desperation.
My breath caught.
I wanted to run–but her hands found mine, clasping over them tightly as if holding onto me
with her very soul.
“Please,” she cried, her regal voice dropping into something almost ragged. “Save him.” Her knees buckled as if even she couldn’t bear the shame of bowing before me. “You’re kind,” she whispered, trembling. “I know you are. Please… return him to me.”
Her trembling made my own ache of grief resurface. I swallowed against it.
For a beat, for just one fleeting second, I hated Regina Blackwood. For daring to ask this. For believing I owed Marcus anything at all.
But the desperation in her voice bled through all my defenses. It became clear then–there
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was no reality in which this didn’t happen.
Powerless, I bowed my head low, barely whispering, “I’ll bring Marcus back.”
