Free Web NovelChapter 274: Chapter 274
Nathan’s POV
Her smile widened. It was feral, broken and triumphant. She turned and disappeared inside the house. My feet moved before my mind did. I followed her, helpless, like a wolf trailing the scent of his own crime. freёweɓnovel.com
The door shut behind us. I went into her home with her.
RIP—
The sound of fabric tearing split the night.
My heart stopped.
Her shirt fell in two ragged halves.
Her back was filled with scars, dozens of them.
Some healed, some angry and raised. Some like claw marks. Some like lashes.
My wolf whimpered out loud.
“This...” My voice shattered. “Aria...”
My throat closed. Words were impossible. Breathing was impossible.
The memory of that night, the one I told myself was mutual, wanted and necessary, twisted into something monstrous and unforgivable.
I could remember her soft cries, her trembling limbs, the way my wolf took over when she said no.
Gods.
What had I done?
As if that was not enough, The next morning, when I learned about Aria’s so-called “betrayal,” I let the rage consume me.
I linked everything, my lapse, her fear, that night, to her supposed manipulation.
I told myself she used me. That she’d tricked me again. I wanted to destroy her world before she could destroy mine.
I was such a damn fool.
Now, staring at her scarred back, my fingers trembled as I reached out, instinct screaming to touch, to help, to heal.
But she moved before I made contact.
My wolf backed away inside me, tail tucked, ears down, howling a sound that split my skull. A sound of mourning, of guilt, of knowing we didn’t deserve forgiveness.
The pain in my chest was worse than any silver blade.
“Aria...” I whispered, my voice gone, soul gone. “Tell me how to fix this.”
She slipped into a blanket without panic, just disgust.
Her eyes drifted to the window, toward the shadows pooling outside like ink.
“You thought they would respect my status as Luna Aria,” she said, her voice like crushed frost. “But when even you, Alpha Nathan, didn’t acknowledge me... how could anyone else be expected to treat me kindly?” frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
Her laugh was soft but laced with despair. Like silver bells ringing in a graveyard.
And gods, she was right.
Who in the pack or country would respect a Luna the Alpha himself threw to the wolves?
My wolf whimpered, submissive to her pain. He knew that what we did was unforgivable.
If she hadn’t realized she was carrying my pup soon after...
If her instincts hadn’t sharpened to protect the little heartbeat inside her...
Would she have survived at all?
I swallowed hard, claws itching beneath my fingertips. Her back was a map of suffering. My mark, my failure, was all over her.
She looked different now.
She was no longer a Luna swallowed by my shadow... but a wolf who forged herself from the dark.
Was it prison that taught her this?
Or was it me?
My heart thundered, too loud in my ears. I felt dizzy, my breath was uneven.
My hand dropped, landing against my thigh with a dull thud.
“Aria...” Her name tasted like blood on my tongue. “Didn’t you say it was all a conspiracy a year ago? I’m investigating it now. I’ll... I’ll make it up to you. To you and Lana.”
I stepped forward, my voice cracking. I hadn’t begged anyone in my life, not as Alpha, not as a man, but the words came anyway.
“Aria... let’s not get divorced. Okay?”
Even my wolf leaned forward, tail trembling with hope.
But she didn’t answer.
She didn’t even look at me.
My heartbeat quickened painfully. It felt like my chest was caving in.
Finally, she stared at me. Her eyes were white, cold and merciless.
Then, she let out a mocking laugh.
She covered her mouth, smothering the sound, but her eyes...gods, her eyes...laughed like she was watching something break.
“Nathan,” she said softly, almost kindly.
Like she pitied me.
Like she had already buried us.
“You really think...” She tilted her head, a ghost of a smile on her lips. “...there’s a chance for us?”
Aria’s POV
“Nathan... it was the beginning of fall that year.”
My voice felt foreign in my throat...like I was narrating a ghost’s story, not my own.
I lifted my head slightly, my eyes unfocused.
“Do you know how cold Asterfell winters get?”
I stared into the distance, as though I was reliving the memory. “I had been stripped of everything in prison, even my wolf. Her voice... had gone silent for months. That terrified me more than anything.”
“I had been Luna Aria, the Alpha’s wife, The country’s top attorney, yet I was thrown into a cell like a mutt with mange. My fall from grace didn’t scare me. What awaited inside did.”
“In prison, if one person targets you,” I continued, fingers brushing the base of my neck where a faded collar mark once sat, “it becomes a pack hunt. One wolf bites, and the others taste blood.”
I laughed, soft and brittle. It didn’t sound like me.
“Can you guess how I got these scars?”
