Oops! My Twin Alphas Claimed Me

Chapter 20: Victoria's Offer

Chapter 20: Victoria's Offer

Victoria found me alone in the library two days after Selene's delegation departed, the confrontation with Ash apparently having reached her ears in whatever quiet, thorough way information always seemed to reach her.

"I heard about the incident in the garden," she said, settling into the chair across from me without waiting for invitation, her presence filling the small room the way it always did..elegant, composed, impossible to ignore. "Ash rarely lets that side of himself show. You must have made quite an impression, for him to abandon his restraint so publicly."

"She insulted me," I said carefully, unsure yet what angle Victoria intended to work this conversation toward. "He defended me. That's all it was."

"Is it?" Victoria's smile was thin, considering. "My son has spent his entire life mastering control, Elara. Even as a boy, he was the one who thought before he acted, weighed every consequence, measured every word. Watching him lose that composure over you tells me your bond runs deeper than even I initially credited."

I said nothing, waiting to see where this was leading.

"I've been watching you these past weeks," Victoria continued, folding her hands elegantly in her lap. "Your power flares beautifully under threat, but you still can't call it on command. Thorne trains you in combat, my sons train you in politics and self-defense — but no one is training the actual source of your strength. The power itself."

"No one knows how," I said honestly. "It's not exactly documented anywhere."

"Not in the pack archives, perhaps." Something flickered behind Victoria's composed expression — satisfaction, maybe, at having steered the conversation exactly where she wanted it. "But I've spent decades studying old bond lore, long before either of my sons were born. I know things about power like yours that even the elders have forgotten. I could teach you control, Elara. Real control. Not the reactive flashes you've managed so far, but true mastery."

The offer hung in the air, tempting in a way I hadn't expected. The fear of hurting someone by accident — of Thorne's bruised ribs, of the terror that had gripped me afterward — hadn't fully left me since that day in the training yard. The idea of true control, of never again fearing my own body's response to danger, pulled at something desperate and hopeful in my chest.

"Why would you want to help me?" I asked, unable to keep the wariness fully out of my voice. "You barely know me. And I've felt how carefully you measure everything, Victoria. I don't imagine you offer anything without calculating what it costs you."

Something like approval flickered across her face at that, quick and genuine. "You're sharper than most give you credit for," she said. "Good. I'd hate to think my sons chose someone easily fooled." She considered her next words carefully. "I want what's best for this pack, Elara. And what's best for this pack is a Luna who can wield her power fully rather than fearing it. A weapon left untrained is a liability to everyone standing near it... including you."

"That's not really an answer to my question."

Victoria's smile sharpened slightly, amused despite herself. "Very well. I want to be useful to my sons again. Since they took the throne, I've felt rather like a decoration in my own home — respected out of duty, consulted rarely, trusted less. Teaching you gives me purpose again. And it ensures whatever power the Moon has handed this family is guided by someone who's actually studied its history, rather than left to chance and instinct alone."

It was, I suspected, only part of the truth — but it was delivered with enough genuine feeling that I found myself unable to dismiss it outright.

"I'll think about it," I said finally, unwilling to commit to anything until I'd had time to weigh the offer more carefully, and perhaps mention it to Ryker and Ash before deciding.

"Of course." Victoria rose gracefully, smoothing her skirts. "Take whatever time you need. Though I'd caution against waiting too long. Power like yours doesn't stay patient forever, waiting for its owner to catch up to it." She paused at the doorway, glancing back with an expression I couldn't quite read. "For what it's worth, Elara — whatever else you may come to think of me, I do want you strong. A weak Luna serves no one. Least of all my sons."

She left before I could respond, and I sat alone in the library for a long while afterward, turning the offer over in my mind, unable to shake the feeling that accepting Victoria's help would cost something I hadn't yet identifiedand unable, despite that unease, to fully dismiss how badly I wanted the control she'd promised.