Free Web NovelChapter 5: Chapter 5 The Only Card Left
_Rowena’s POV_
An hour later, I was watching the Varkos estate disappear in the side mirror.
Velvet sat beside me in silence, hands folded in her lap. Grace had stayed behind, keeping up appearances, going about the ordinary business of the day so no one would think to ask where I’d gone. As far as the pack knew, I was running errands.
No one would guess I was on my way to see Celeste.
"You’re really doing this," Kyra said, a hint of pride in her voice.
"Yes."
"That’s very good." She paused. "But what exactly is Celeste going to do? Kaelen is an Alpha. He has standings even though your mother helped him build it. Celeste isn’t an Alpha either and cannot stand against someone like Kaelen even if she ran half of the state affairs."
"It doesn’t matter, Celeste has more standing than Kaelen would ever have."
Kyra went quiet, turning that over. I knew she didn’t understand what I meant by those words, but she eventually would.
The city moved past the window in streaks of lights.
I kept my eyes on it and let myself think clearly for the first time since this morning. Not about the humiliation of the sitting room, not about the torn dress still folded in the bottom of my wardrobe, not about the cold fury in Kaelen’s eyes when he’d finally walked out.
It was about what came next.
The problem wasn’t Kaelen’s pride. Pride could be waited out, worked around, eventually made irrelevant. The problem was structural. He was an Alpha. In the eyes of pack law, he had authority over this marriage, over me, over every decision that fell within Moonreign’s borders. Without an external authority willing to override him, a divorce on my terms was impossible.
There was only one authority in the region that outranked an Alpha.
It was The Alpha King.
I had been avoiding that particular thought for three years, the way you avoid pressing on a bruise, not because it isn’t there, but because you’re not ready to deal with what it means.
But now, I was ready. It was time to take up my own destiny in my hands.
Celeste’s building rose out of the city skyline the way she occupied every room she entered, quietly and without needing to announce itself. Her private residence was separate from her formal offices, which meant the visit wouldn’t be on any official record. I had called ahead so she would likely be waiting already.
As expected, she met us at the elevator, not the door, which meant she’d been watching the street.
She looked at me once, the way she always did, taking inventory in a single sweep.
"You look like you’ve had a day," she said, a small smile crossing her perfect features.
"I’ve had a day," I agreed with a little nod.
She stepped back to let me in. freewebnσvel.cøm
The apartment was warm and still, every surface clean and luxurious. Celeste had never been the kind of person who kept things she didn’t need. Velvet stayed near the entrance respectfully while we took a seat in Celeste’s living room.
She poured tea without asking and set a cup in front of me, and we sat across from each other.
She waited patiently. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
That was one of the things I had always respected about her. She never filled silence just to fill it.
"Kaelen came to my room tonight," I said, keeping my voice even. "He wasn’t trying to apologize."
Something shifted in Celeste’s expression. Still controlled, but the temperature behind her eyes dropped several degrees.
"How bad?" she asked.
"I handled it already." I wrapped both hands around the cup.
"Velvet threatened to call the elders, then he stopped." I paused. "But it will happen again if I stay. He’s decided I won’t leave, and that belief is going to make him worse."
Celeste set her own cup down very carefully.
"I want a divorce," I said. "On my terms. Not because he’s granted it out of guilt or convenience, but because it’s been formally dissolved by someone with the authority to make it stick." I held her gaze firmly as I added the final words. "I want to go to the Alpha King."
The silence that followed was a different kind, not the empty type, but full of Celeste thinking at high speed.
"Alaric," she said finally.
"Yes." I replied.
"You know this won’t be simple. Petitioning the Alpha King to dissolve a pack marriage means going through formal channels. It means Kaelen finds out immediately. It means this becomes a political matter, not just a personal one anymore, Ro."
"I’m aware of this."
"And you know that Alaric..." she paused, choosing her words. "His position on you has never been uncomplicated."
"Uhm, what does that mean?" Kyra asked sharply, already putting two and two together.
I had my own suspicions about what it meant. I had been carefully not thinking about them for several years.
"It means I have leverage," I said. "If Alaric is willing to issue the decree, Kaelen can’t fight it. Pack law doesn’t give an Alpha grounds to contest a King’s ruling."
"And if Alaric asks for something in return?"
"Then I’ll negotiate." I set my cup down. "I’m done accepting terms that weren’t negotiated. Whatever Alaric wants, we discuss it like adults with equal standing. That’s more than I’ve had in three years."
Celeste looked at me for a long moment. Long enough that I could see her working through every angle, every implication, every three-moves-ahead calculation that was simply how she operated.
Then she exhaled.
"I can get you a meeting," she said. "He owes me a conversation. I can make sure it happens quietly, before Kaelen has any reason to suspect."
"How quickly?"
"In two days. Or maybe three."
"Well that’s enough time for Kaelen to do something irreversible," Kyra pointed out.
And she was right. Kaelen was not entirely unpredictable. I couldn’t afford any mistakes.
"Can you do it in one?" I asked Celeste instead, eyes shining expectantly.
Celeste raised a questioning brow at me, but then she sighed and reached for her cellphone.
"Fine, let me make a call."
