Broken
887 Words
Noah's pov
My hand like a vice clamped onto his wrist, twisting it back until the glass fell to the floor as I stepped between them. His face was a mask of absolute fury as he shoved me back.
"That is enough!" I shouted, my Alpha aura flaring so bright it felt like a physical weight in the room.
"Cassian, back off!" I shoved him again, my shoulder hitting his chest with enough force to send him staggering into the velvet armchair.
Aria slumped against the bookshelf, her hand flying to her throat where the jagged glass had nearly tasted her skin. She was shaking, her eyes wide and wet, looking at Cassian as if he were a stranger. And in this state, he was. He was a drowning man trying to pull everyone else under with him.
"She’s lying, Noah!" Cassian yelled, his voice cracking as he pointed a trembling finger at the door. "Maeve is lying, Elena is lying, and she—" he lunged toward Aria again, but I stepped into his path, my Alpha presence slamming into him like a physical wall.
"Enough!" I roared.
The room went silent, the only sound the heavy thud of the scotch dripping from the broken bottle onto the Persian rug.
"You want the truth, Cassian? You want to know why this house is falling apart?" I reached into the inner pocket of my coat. My fingers brushed the cold, heavy manila envelope. I hadn't wanted to do this, not yet, but the fuse was already lit. If I didn't give him something else to bleed for, he was going to kill Aria or himself.
I pulled the envelope out and threw it onto the marble coffee table between us. It landed with a dull, heavy thwack.
"Read it," I commanded, my voice deathly quiet.
Cassian frowned, his eyes darting from me to the envelope. He wiped a hand across his mouth, leaving a smear of scotch and sweat, and reached for the paper. Aria stepped forward tentatively, her curiosity momentarily overriding her fear.
As Cassian pulled the documents out, I watched the color drain from his face. His eyes scanned the lines, the legal jargon, the "Southside Syndicate" headers, and finally, the signature at the bottom.
"What is this?" he whispered, his hands beginning to shake for a different reason now. "A... a bill of sale?"
"It's a contract for Aria's first-born," I said, my heart feeling like a lead weight. "Our mother didn't just want her gone, Cassian. She sold the rights to her lineage to settle a debt with the North. She signed it as a witness before the trial even started."
Aria let out a small, strangled gasp. I couldn't look at her. I couldn't bear to see the realization that she had been traded like a piece of livestock by the woman who claimed to be the matriarch of this pack.
"She sold her?" Cassian looked up, his rage suddenly turning into a hollow, jagged confusion.
"Our mother sold the heir of the Mark?"
"She doesn't care about the Mark, Cassian. She cares about the throne," I said. "And if Julian’s 'lie' is true, if your child with Elena isn't a Vaelor, then mother has already moved on to the next asset."
The silence that followed was absolute. The three of us stood in the wreckage of the library, the weight of our mother’s betrayal pressing down on us. But the universe wasn't done with us yet.
The heavy front doors of the estate groaned open. We heard the sharp, rhythmic click-clack of expensive heels on the marble foyer. It was a sound we all knew too well.
The Grand Luna was back.
"Noah? Cassian?" her voice rang out, cold and commanding, as if she hadn't just abandoned us twenty-four hours ago.
We all moved toward the library door as the Grand Luna swept into the hall, her silk coat flowing behind her. She looked refreshed, her eyes scanning the room with a practiced air of ownership.
Elena appeared from the shadows of the dining room, her face pale. She saw the Grand Luna, and for a second, a look of pure, unadulterated terror flashed across her face, not the fake terror she showed us, but the look of a prey animal seeing the predator return.
"Grand Luna..." Elena whispered.
She took one step toward the older woman, her hand going to her stomach as it always did, but her eyes rolled back into her head. Without a word, Elena’s knees buckled.
She hit the floor in a heap of silk and blonde hair, out cold.
The Grand Luna didn't move to help her. she just stood over Elena’s unconscious body, her eyes narrowing as she looked up at us.
"Well," the Grand Luna said, her voice dropping an octave. "It seems I’ve returned just in time for the truth to come out.”
She bent slowly and casually to Elena's stiff body and touched her wrist. “Well, she's alive."
Then she looked up at the three of us.
“I leave you for a day and this is how you treat your heir?"
- Writer
