Page 128 of Claimed By My Fiancé's Brother

Drew broke the silence, a sneer on his lips.

“Just because you’re now the luna of the Nightshade Pack, you dare to keep us waiting?”

“Be quiet,” Father snapped before turning to face me, a poor mimicry of a fatherly smile on his lips. “My dear, what is?—”

I cut straight to the chase.

“The Nightshade Pack will no longer back your conquests or send aid to the Red Moon Pack.”

Father blanched, his face several shades paler. He must have been thinking of his war to forcibly annex the Mystic Frost Pack, which was currently fully funded by my pack’s coffers, as per his agreement with Dylan.

“We have an alliance,” he protested.

Had he always been so small?

He’d seemed so much larger when he’d tossed me around and beat me into submission.

“You had a deal with the late alpha,” I said, rising to my feet as my guards fell in step behind me. “My mate doesn’t intend to renew that alliance.”

Father crossed the distance between us faster than I expected, his hand encircling my wrist, his fatherly façade falling away.

“Is this your idea of payback, after all I’ve done for you?” he snarled.

Malia, my right hand, drew her silver.

“Take your hands off the luna,” she demanded.

Drew shuffled behind Father, his beady eyes flickering around in poorly disguised fear.

Father retracted his hand, but I lingered there for a moment more, taking in the man who’d tried to break my spirit so many times.

The man who, in his bid to secure power, had unwittingly facilitated me meeting Alexander.

“I forgive you,” I told him, before turning on my heel and walking out.

He didn’t deserve my forgiveness. Not by a long shot.

But then again, neither had Anastasia, and I’d let her go.

I still remembered the disbelief in her eyes when I’d released her from the dungeons months ago.

“You’re letting me go?” she asked uncertainly, clearly expecting a trick.

“I would hardly classify banishment and life as a rogue as ‘letting you go,’ but yes, you won’t be executed.”

It was a choice I’d pondered for a long, long time. Alexander had left the decision in my hands, and I knew he’d stand by my choice, even if it was to execute her.

But the truth was that regardless of what she’d done to me, she’d been a good friend to Alexander. She’d helped him in ways I hadn’t been able to. Having lost a friend, even one who’d betrayed me several times, I didn’t want Alexander to go through the same pain I had.

Life as a rogue was brutal, and odds were Anastasia would lose her mind and life the moment she stepped foot outside our borders, but I wouldn’t be the one who took it from her.

Anastasia stared at me, an emotion in her eyes I couldn’t decipher.

“This was why he chose you.”

I wasn’t sure I agreed with that sentiment, but I stayed silent as she was escorted away.

Elena smelled like cookies and sunlight when I hugged her for the umpteenth time.

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