Chapter 18
927 Words
Kairo’s POV
The moon hung heavy and low in the sky, casting the grounds in silver shadows as I walked alone beneath its watchful eye. The palace behind me glowed with celebration preparations—lights in every window, servants scurrying to perfect every last detail for tomorrow’s grand ceremony.
My engagement ceremony.
My marriage to a woman I did not love.
My future sealed by duty.
I said nothing as I passed the guards; they lowered their heads and did not question where I went. I was their Alpha. Even if I wandered alone in the dead of night, no one dared stop me.
The path to my parents’ graves was well-tread beneath my feet. I had walked it many times before. Perhaps more lately than ever.
Two stones side by side. Carved in marble. My father—the strongest Alpha I’d ever known. My mother—the fiercest, most loyal Luna this kingdom had seen. Both taken by the enemy long before their time.
Selene’s people.
Her bloodline.
I stood before their graves, hands clenched at my sides, my chest heavy with conflict.
“I’m sorry,” I said into the cold wind. “I know what’s expected of me. I know what duty demands. But…”
But what? That I felt something for her? That I couldn’t look at her without remembering how soft she was beneath me, how her tears tasted, how her voice trembled when she said my name? That I couldn’t stop thinking about her, no matter how hard I tried to push her from my thoughts?
How pathetic.
“I’ll do what you’d want,” I said bitterly. “I’ll marry Liana. I’ll secure the heir. I’ll lock this weakness down and bury it deep.”
Because that’s what an Alpha does. He protects his people. He honors the dead. He does not fall in love with the daughter of his enemies.
I closed my eyes, pressing my palm to the cold stone. For a moment, I imagined them answering. My father’s harsh tone. My mother’s sharp rebuke. Strength above all. Duty above all. Emotion makes you weak, son.
But I wasn’t weak. I was tired.
Tired of pretending that cruelty didn’t weigh on my soul. Tired of pretending that the sight of Selene shrinking beneath Liana’s venom didn’t gut me inside out.
I left them there in silence, turning my back on graves and ghosts and walking into the night as though my footsteps could outrun my heart.
Sleep never came. I laid in my bed, staring at the ceiling, listening to the ticking of the clock as hours slipped through my fingers like sand. Tomorrow would come whether I was ready or not.
Tomorrow, I would stand beside Liana.
Tomorrow, I would bind myself to a future I did not want.
Tomorrow, I would become everything I hated to protect the people I loved.
But tonight… tonight I drowned in silence.
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Selene’s POV
I wept quietly, my face buried in my arms as I sat curled in the corner of the small servant’s room that had become my prison.
Tomorrow was the day.
Tomorrow, he would stand before the kingdom and bind himself to her. Liana. The perfect Luna. The woman worthy of him.
And me? I would serve wine. I would bow. I would smile through cracked lips and pretend my heart hadn’t already been shattered into something beyond repair.
“You need to sleep,” Olna’s gentle voice broke through my sobs. “You’ll be too weak to handle tomorrow if you wear yourself out tonight.”
I lifted my head, my eyes swollen, my throat raw. “How do you sleep knowing the person you love never even saw you as more than something beneath his boot?”
Olna sighed, sitting beside me, pulling me into her warmth. “You’re not beneath anyone’s boot, Selene. You’ve survived things most couldn’t even dream of. That’s not weakness. That’s strength.”
I let her hold me, let my tears soak into her sleeve. She didn’t flinch. She didn’t pull away. She just sat there, steady as stone while I unraveled piece by piece.
“I thought… I thought maybe…” My voice broke, shame thick on my tongue. “When he looked at me, when he touched me… I thought I mattered. I thought something had changed.”
Olna said nothing for a long moment. Then: “Maybe it did. But even love doesn’t always beat duty, Selene. You know that better than anyone.”
Duty. That cursed word again. That chain wrapped tight around my neck.
I pulled back, wiping my face with shaking hands. “I wanted to run tonight.”
“I know.”
“But I couldn’t. Not while you’re all still here. Not while they still suffer.”
“That’s why you’re stronger than he’ll ever be,” Olna said softly. “Because you stayed.”
Her words wrapped around my battered heart like thread trying to stitch something broken back together.
I nodded, swallowing my grief like glass. “Tomorrow… I’ll survive it.”
“You will.”
“But it’ll kill something in me, Olna. I can feel it already.”
She held my hand tighter. “Then I’ll help you pick up the pieces after.”
Outside, the bells tolled midnight. A new day dawning. A day of endings. A day of beginnings I never wanted.
In my heart, I whispered goodbye to hope.
And promised myself I would learn how to live in the ruin he left behind.
- Writer
