Chapter 53
It had been a few days since Amaya was kicked out. And for the first time in a long while, everything felt normal again. The tension in the air had lifted, the paranoia that had gripped the pack was finally easing. Even I was starting to feel a little more like myself.
Until today.
I was sitting in the dining hall, having lunch, when a guard approached me, his face tense. I swallowed my bite of bread, already feeling the shift in the air.
“Luna,” the guard said. “Amaya is outside the territory. She’s with your stepfather, Gregory.”
I froze. The world around me seemed to tilt for a moment. Gregory. Amaya. Together.
My stomach tightened, my grip on my fork turning white-knuckled. “What the hell do they want?” I hissed.
The guard hesitated. “They’re asking to speak with you and Alpha Tyler.”
Of course, they were. I let out a sharp breath, pushing away my plate. “Where’s Tyler?”
“In the training room,” the guard replied.
I stood. “Get him.”
The guard nodded and rushed off. My hands curled into fists. Why were they here? What could they possibly want? And why the hell did they think they could just walk back onto my territory? By the time Tyler arrived, his shirt was damp with sweat, his knuckles still red from training.
His golden eyes met mine, and instantly, he knew something was wrong.
“What is it?” he asked.
I exhaled sharply. “Amaya and Gregory are outside. They want to talk.”
A growl rumbled deep in his chest.
“Let’s see what they have to say,” he muttered darkly.
Together, we walked outside. The moment I stepped through the gates and saw them standing there, rage ignited in my veins like wildfire.
Amaya. Gregory. Side by side. Like they belonged together. Like they had never betrayed me. I took one step forward, my voice sharp as a blade.
“Get the hell out of our territory.”
Amaya lifted her chin, her eyes pleading, desperate. “Aurora, listen—”
“No.” My voice was ice. “I’m done listening to you.”
Tyler stood beside me, his presence unmovable, powerful. His gaze locked onto Gregory, his lips curling into a sneer. “What the hell do you want?”
Gregory smirked, as if this was all just some game to him. “We came to talk.”
“There’s nothing to talk about,” Tyler snapped. “Amaya is banished. She’s never stepping foot here again.”
Amaya’s eyes flashed with frustration. “I was framed!”
I laughed coldly. Framed? That’s the excuse she was going with?
“You were caught talking to a rogue in the middle of the night,” I said through gritted teeth. “How the hell do you explain that?”
She exhaled, shaking her head. “That rogue wasn’t part of the attack!” she insisted. “I was gathering information. I was trying to figure out who the real traitor was!”
Tyler scoffed. “That’s the best lie you could come up with?”
“It’s not a lie!” she snapped. “Someone in the pack is setting me up! And you fell for it!”
I clenched my jaw. “Then why didn’t you tell me?”
Amaya’s lips parted, but no words came. Because she knew. She knew that if she had been honest, none of this would have happened. Gregory, who had been silent this whole time, finally spoke.
“She’s telling the truth.”
Tyler let out a dark chuckle. “You expect me to believe you?”
Gregory smiled slightly, his expression infuriatingly smug.
“Believe what you want,” he said. “But Amaya has always been loyal to Aurora. She would never try to have her killed.”
Tyler’s body tensed beside me. I turned my attention back to Amaya. “You want to be accepted back into the pack?”
She nodded quickly. “Yes, Alpha. I never should have been banished in the first place. I was only trying to protect Aurora.”
“I don’t fucking believe you.” The word left my lips without hesitation.
