The Alpha's Regret: From Prisoner to Lycan Queen

Chapter 3: No Longer Luna

Ariana's POV

The gates of The Ironclaw Prison closed behind me.

The guard who processed me didn't bother with pleasantries, he just stamped my paperwork, called a number down the corridor and handed me off to a woman.

The cell she put me in was small, it had one cot, a window too high to see through. The door slammed shut behind her and I sat on the edge of the cot, staring at the floor, trying to remember how to breathe normally.

"Hey."

I looked up and saw a woman in the cell directly across from mine, she had her face pressed between her bars, a burn scar went up the left side of her neck.

"You're the Luna right?" She asked. "The one who killed her kid?"

I looked back at the floor.

"I'm talking to you." Her voice was sharp. "Everyone's talking about you. Word travels fast in here, especially when it's a former Luna."

I didn't answer, I just lay down and faced the wall.

She kept talking and others joined in from further down the block, they talked and talked and I just stared at the wall and breathed, waiting for it to go quiet.

The cell door opening was what woke me.

I didn't remember falling asleep. I sat up fast and the woman with the burn scar was already inside, two others were behind her, and the guard at the end of the corridor was looking very deliberately in the opposite direction.

"Relax." She held up both hands. "We just want to talk."

"Then talk from out there." I tried to keep my voice steady, even though my heart pounded.

"See, we would..." She tilted her head. "But we have a thing in this block, where New arrivals get a proper welcome. It's tradition." She looked me over slowly. "Especially the ones who come in with a reputation."

I stood up. "I don't want any trouble."

"Trouble." She repeated it like she found it funny. "You killed your own daughter and you're worried about trouble." She stepped closer. "What kind of mother does something like that? What kind of person even..."

"I didn't kill her." I said, cutting her off.

She looked surprised for a second, then she smiled wide and slowly. "They all say that."

I moved toward the door and she grabbed a handful of my hand from behind and yanked so hard my neck snapped back and my knees nearly buckled.

"Where are you going?" Her mouth was right at my ear. "We're not done welcoming you." She pulled tighter. "Child killer. Coming in here with your Luna title like that means something, like you're better than anyone in this block." She yanked again. "Let me show you what that title gets you in here."

She shoved me hard against the wall, and I prepared my body for what came next.

Morning came in through the high window in a thin grey line.

I was on the floor. My left eye was half closed, my bottom lip had spilt and had dried blood l. I pressed one palm flat against the stone and pushed.

I tried sitting but my body wouldn't moved, I pushed again and could barely sit up straight.

The guard appeared at my bars an hour later.

"On your feet." He said, ignoring the way my face was. "The Alpha King wants to see you."

They brought me outside to the courtyard in front of the main gates. A crowd was already there, pack members, officials, people who had come specifically to watch this.

Kayden stood at the center of it, in formal clothes, both senior guards at his side, his face completely unreadable.

I was still bleeding, my robe was torn. I stood in front of him and everyone watching and out kept my eyes up.

He looked at my face for a second and then spoke loudly. "I Kayden Cross, Alpha King of the Northern Kingdom, reject you, Ariana Cross, as my mate and Luna."

It felt like the floor dropped out from under me. My wolf screamed once, from somewhere so deep in my chest I hadn't known it existed, and then she went completely silent. I felt her pull back from me and she didn't come back.

My legs didn't give out, I didn't know how but they stood and I kept my face still.

Kayden looked at me for a moment. "You have no further standing in the Northern Kingdom." He said calmly. "No claim, no title, no right to appeal."

Then he turned and walked away, then the guards closed around me from both sides.

They bought me back to my cell.

I sat on the cot and stared at the wall and didn't move for a long time. My wolf had gone completely quiet and my chest felt like an empty room.

A guard came. "You have a visitor."

I looked up and saw Jadya through the bars, already walking down the corridor towards me, looking composed.

The guard let her in and posted himself outside.

She looked at my face and her expression didn't change. She sat on the edge of the cot like she was settling into a chair at a dinner party.

"I thought you had forgotten about me." I said.

"How could I forget my own sister?" She asked, voice sounding sweet.

"How could you do this to me?" The words slipped out before I could stop them. "You were there, you stood there and watched him do that."

"I was a witness." Her voice was flat. "It was a legal proceeding."

"You watched them drag me out of the building looking like this and you stood there." My voice rose slightly. "You know I didn't do it."

"Aria." She said my name quietly. "There's something you should've have you know before the trial."

Something in her tone made my chest tight.

She looked at my hands. "Kayden and I have been together for a year now." She looked at me. "I'm the other woman."

"What?" I asked, shocked.

"I know this is a lot to take in." Her voice sounded almost mockingly.

"You were in my house." My voice came out barely above a whisper. "You sat at my table. You held my daughter, you were there when she was born, Jadya..."

"I'm also pregnant." She said, cutting me off. "Four weeks now. You know he's always wanted a son and I'm going to give him one."

Something in me broke completely. "Why did you come here to tell me all this?" My voice cracked.

"Because I wanted you to know the full picture before you spend the rest of your life in here." She folded her hands in her lap. "The dress they pulled from your wardrobe, I put it there."

I stared at her, unable to speak.

"The knife under your bathroom floor, the witness at the gathering." Her eyes stayed on mine. "I made it all happen."

The room tilted, I could feel the room shaking or at least it felt like it was.

"You-" I couldn't finish the words.

"I needed you gone, Aria." She said without emotion. "Kayden was too proud to leave you." She looked at her nails. "So I made it look like this instead."

"You framed me." The words came out of me felt unreal. "I lost everything I had. My daughter is dead and they think I-" I stopped, something cold move through me. "How did Lena end up in that room, Jadya?"

"She wasn't supposed to be there." She said quietly. "I didn't plan that part."

I crossed the cell before I could think. The guard's arm caught me across the chest and I fought against it with everything I had, it made no difference but I kept fighting anyway because Jadya was sitting right there, so close and my daughter's face was in my head and all I wanted to do was get close to her.

"You killed my baby." The words tore out of me. "She called you auntie, she trusted you. She was just five years old!"

Jadya stood, smoothed her dress and picked up her bag.

"You're going to rot in here, Aria." Her voice was soft. "And when you die, no one is going to miss you. Because you're a Killer Luna."