Chapter 59: Not An Inch

Selene’s POV

The press conference was finally over, and everyone scattered to their various houses.

I walked back into Lucian’s chambers and found him already unraveling.

"Who gave that elder the right to talk to me like that? Kael, how is that even possible?" he demanded.

Lucian was crashing out, and Kael, standing steady beside him, could clearly understand his pain.

"He’s an elder, Alpha. He has the power to overturn decisions like these, especially when they don’t favour the people," Kael said.

"The people?" Lucian scoffed. "So I can’t marry who I want? They all got married to whoever they wanted. Why can’t I?"

He dropped down onto his bed, shoulders heavy. Kael gave him a long look, then straightened.

"I’ll take my leave now, Alpha." He did.

And then it was just us. Just me and Lucian in that quiet room.

"My life is for the people, Selene. That was why I refused to marry Tessa ... because they’d use her to control me. But I love you. I want to marry you. And now they won’t let me." He shook his head. "They only care about themselves."

I sat beside him and took his hand in mine. "If it’s meant to be, it will be. Regardless of what anybody says or does."

I kissed him on the cheek.

But I was sad too. So I left. There was nothing either of us could say to compensate for what we were both feeling. We were going through a tough time, and no pretty words were going to fix that.

It was obvious now. Clear as anything.

We couldn’t get married.

I had to find peace with that somehow.

They wanted Tessa. The elders, the pack, all of them. And standing in the middle of it, I felt the pull ... the desperate urge to just leave. To walk out of Winterwood and never come back. I couldn’t stay in a place where I wasn’t wanted or appreciated. It would drain me slowly, like a wound that never closed, and I didn’t want that for myself.

I left the king’s chambers later in the evening and went to clear my head.

That was when I ran into them ... people I hadn’t seen in a very long time.

The breeders. Four of them.

Valerie was there.

I hadn’t wanted to break down, hadn’t planned to show any of it. But the moment she pulled me into a hug, everything cracked open. I cried on her shoulder, and the others wrapped around us, arms and warmth and the kind of quiet understanding that didn’t need explaining.

They knew what I’d been through since I set foot in Winterwood. Valerie especially. She knew every part of it ... the things we’d survived just to stay together.

"I wish we were still together like the old days," she murmured into my hair. "You wouldn’t have had to go through all this."

"I’m not obsessed with marrying Lucian," I said, pulling back slightly to wipe my face. "I’m just sad that I can’t."

Valerie studied me for a moment. "We have a place you can go. If you need somewhere to breathe for a while."

I agreed without hesitation. I couldn’t stay in those walls any longer. The sadness inside them would choke me to death.

One of the other breeders tilted her head. "What if the king starts looking for you?"

"Then I’ll be nowhere to be found," I replied.

We left together and made our way to the place Valerie had mentioned.

It was a beach.

Evening had already settled in, painting the sky in shades of burnt orange and deep violet. But there was no better time and no better place in the world than this. The sound of the waves rolled toward me in steady, heavy rhythms, filling my ears, pressing gently against all the noise in my head.

What the wolves couldn’t give me, nature was trying to.

Some of the breeders waded into the water, laughing softly, swimming freely like they had no weight on their shoulders. They’d always been like that ... a group that found light even in the dark.

I stood at the edge of the water instead.

I knew how to swim. But the depression I was dragging around that evening felt heavy enough to pull me under, and I wasn’t willing to test it. So I just stood there, letting the cold foam wash over my feet, and tried to breathe.

Lucian’s POV

I still couldn’t wrap my head around it.

I was being refused the right to marry the wolf I wanted. Me. A whole Alpha.

I blamed the past Alpha who’d set up those elders ... given them the power to oversee and overturn the decisions of the ruling Alpha. That was the root of all of this. I didn’t blame the elders themselves for using the power they’d been handed. I blamed whoever was foolish enough to hand it to them in the first place.

"Get me Kael!" I barked at one of the soldiers posted outside my door.

Kael appeared not long after.

"I will get married to Selene," I said the moment he stepped in. "And there’s nothing any of you can do to stop it."

"Your wish is my command, Alpha," he said carefully, "but it isn’t in my hands."

"I’m not asking for your input. I’m telling you." I turned away from him. "I’ve been running this territory single-handedly for years. I didn’t need anyone’s help then, and I don’t need permission now. Where is Selene?"

"She hasn’t been seen for the past hour," Kael said.

My chest tightened.

Selene was hurting. I could feel it even without seeing her. I just prayed she didn’t do anything reckless.

Kael left again, and I moved to the window.

What I saw turned my stomach.

They were protesting. Right outside, in the open grounds of Winterwood ... my people, chanting and marching with banners held high. Tessa’s face plastered across every one of them. We want Tessa as Luna. And there, erected in the middle of it all, was a portrait of Selene ... the one from the baby shower ... with a large red X sprayed directly across her face.

The height of disrespect.

My jaw locked. Every muscle in my body went rigid.

I didn’t love Tessa. I had never loved Tessa. There was no version of my life where I could successfully build a future beside her.

Or should I forfeit my position as Alpha?

The thought came in like a wave. Give up the title. Leave it all behind. Just to be with the wolf I love.

There wasn’t a single option I hadn’t considered in that moment.

I was willing to marry Selene by any means necessary. The love I had for her was not something I was willing to negotiate.

A knock at my door interrupted my thoughts. When I told them to enter, Tessa walked in. She stood in the middle of my room and looked at me like I was a stranger to her ... like we hadn’t spent years orbiting the same space.

"Lucian, I want to talk to you," she said.

"I’m listening."

"I know all of this came suddenly. But the way things stand now, it’s not entirely in our hands. It comes down to what the people want."

"Don’t say the people to me again." My voice was flat and cold. "Those people are out there living their own lives. They should mind their business. If that’s all you came here to say, you might as well leave."

She flinched but held her ground. "Okay. I won’t say it again." She exhaled slowly. "You and I ... we’ve been through a lot together in this territory. Right from the moment it was announced I was your betrothed and future Luna."

I looked at her. Was she serious right now?

"We’ve been through a lot together?" I repeated.

"I stood by your side even when you refused to accept me as your Luna. We can’t think only of ourselves when making a decision like this. Let’s do this ... let’s respect the elders, at least."

I stood up.

"You stood by my side while your goal remained the same the entire time," I said. "You wanted to marry me and become Luna ... not because you loved me, but because you wanted the title. That’s exactly why I cannot marry you. You’re self-centred. I can’t stand the thought of spending the rest of my life beside you."

Tessa’s eyes hardened. "Who told you I don’t love you? I do love you. Why would I have stayed if I didn’t? I can promise you ... no one loves you the way I do."

She was behaving like a desperate, unhinged woman at this point. Before I let my anger off its leash, I turned and walked toward the door.

She wasn’t finished.

"Let’s do this for the sake of our fathers," she called after me. "For the men who trusted us with this."

I didn’t stop. I didn’t look back. I kept walking.

I was not going to be held hostage by a wolf that desperate for a crown.

A message was waiting for me from the elders. They wanted to meet. They wanted to talk.

My stance hadn’t moved an inch. I would marry Selene ... or I would relinquish the Alpha title.

I headed to the elders’ court.