Page 96 of Moon Cursed

Screams lit the air. Melisent thrashed in her chains, shrieking her pain as Idalia and the others burst into tears. My jaw cracked, choking on a sob lodged in my throat.

He killed her. Just like that, he fucking killed her for the whole world to see!

“That is your last and only warning,” Cygnus hissed as his son stood silent and stoic behind him. “You will keep a civil tongue in your head, or they’ll lose theirs.”

The doors opened at that moment, welcoming in Vice Headmistress Rianna Ash.

“Vice Ash! You have to do something! These are innocent people. Innocent students! You’re a metal wolf. Free them. Get them far away from here!”

Cygnus’s laughter berated my ears throughout my whole plea. “Why on earth are you appealing to her, girl? You truly are stupid.”

I snapped to him, growling. “Not so stupid I didn’t install spy equipment on your little council plant?”

“Pardon me?” Ash cried.

“I read her emails and texts to Sunella, and she’s not cowed by you. Either of you! She stands up and pushes back against you just as much as she agrees with you, and she has to do that now.” I swung to Ash. “Cygnus is holding these people hostage to force my mates to rape me!”

Ash’s brows blew, jaw dropping.

“He just had Ava k-killed for nothing!” Voice cracking, my eyes filled with tears. “You know this isn’t right. You have to do something. Even your clan leader wants you to!” I had to shout louder to be heard over Cygnus’s howling.

“Enough of your bleating, Volana. She is not going to help you.” Cygnus moved to Ash’s side and threw an arm around her shoulder. I didn’t imagine the flash of distaste that went across her face. “I’ll tell you. Because you happen to be speaking to the newly appointed high priestess of Wolf Nation.”

A roaring sounded in my ears. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me quite well.” It was obscene how much he was enjoying this. “After you had a violent public breakdown, attacked and killed my son and your mate, and then took off to gods’ know where for over a year, we realized how little wisdom there is in shoving so much power on the shoulders of some random little wisp of an epsilon girl just because she’s missing a belly button.”

Faint sobs and the sound of the police cleaning and clearing away Ava’s remains were the backdrop to his droning.

“As such, we changed the law. From this point forward, it will be at the discretion of the council to appoint the high priestess and grant her the powers thereof, and your role as of now is to complete your duty to the pack, and then fuck off to whatever hole you disappeared into for the last year.”

I breathed hard, chest heaving and rolling. “This is a joke. You can’t possibly think Luame will stand for this. She burned a charlatan for pretending Luame was sending her visions of the future. What do you think she’s going to do to you for deluding yourself into thinking you get to decide who her chosen is!? Ash isn’t even an epsilon!”

He sniffed. “Luame will find no fault in me or my devotion. She also finds no fault in High Priestess Ash’s—epsilon or not. When she came into this school, did she not set about immediately implementing changes and heeding your false prophecy? She’s proven herself committed to Luame even in the wake of your lies.”

“The vision isn’t a lie!” Frustration strangled my throat. “Luame told me exactly what happens to the world if Project Destiny isn’t stopped. It’ll be the end of everything as we know it. You will rule on a throne of corpses!”

“Nonsense,” he breezed, dismissing me as easily as a malignant narcissist could. “The Golden Age of Wolves is foretold, and that is no lie. Luame is tired of us wolves living in the shadows and feeding off the scraps of beings that are weaker and stupider than us. She desires our rule. She demands it!

“You may not have the stomach for what needs to be done, little girl, but we will not fail in our duty to restore the wolves to their rightful place.”

“Yes.”

“Absolutely.”

“Luame’s will be done.”

One after the other, the alpha council chimed in their agreement.

“Are you hearing yourself?” I rasped, completely dumbfounded. “You’re so stubbornly attached toyouridea of what Luame wants, you’re ignoring the truth of the one who actually speaks for her.”

“No, girl.” Cygnus’s hard, seething gaze pinned me through—holding me down harder than useless chains ever could. “You stopped speaking for her the day you killed my son. She did not want that.”

“Of course she didn’t fucking want that,” I roared, dam breaking. “She didn’t wantyouto kill your son! To sanction his death and allow him to be poisoned like his life was yours to sacrifice!”

His grin wiped away, washed under a flood of shock. That stupid evil fucker didn’t know... that I knew.

“You want the truth?” I shrieked, head whipping back and forth among my audience.

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