Chapter 8
Griffin echoed the same word I had just spoken. The room fell silent, but he reacted quickly, sliding an arm around my shoulders and
declaring
“My Luna doesn’t need anyone’s pity, least of all yours.”
He tightened his grip on my hand and stepped protectively in front of me.
I held his hand just as firmly, raising my chin to meet Xander and Lucas’s eyes.
“Did you
hear me clearly? I have my own life now. I won’t revolve around you, and I won’t beg for scraps of affection. I’m not doing this to spite you. I truly want to spend the rest of my life with him. He’s my mate.”
For years, I had resented that someone else could so easily take the place I thought was mine. Now I understood; the one who truly loves you doesn’t make you wait forever.
Twenty years of unfinished stories would end in regret. They had chosen Maxie, an omega they’d known for two months, over me, someone who had stood by them for two decades. What was there left to hold on to?
Griffin smiled at my words, lifting the jewel–encrusted crown and settling it carefully on my head. Its worth far surpassed the bracelets Xander and Lucas had gifted Maxle, a quiet reminder of the royals‘ power and standing, and a visible humiliation for them.
Lucas snapped, his face twisted in fury.
“Willow, you’re really going to throw away twenty years of affection for power and wealth? I never thought you’d be so greedy and shallow!”
I laughed softly. Once, I had wanted nothing more than true love. In return, I received Xander’s slap and Lucas’s kicks.
They never knew that these days, the Bloodstone Pack was constantly under attack by rogues, our territories being seized one after another. If it weren’t for the aid from the royals through their alliance, we wouldn’t have lasted this long.
All these years, it was me and my mother holding this pack together
We’d owed each other nothing for long
The moment Maxie entered their lives, their attention shifted entirely to her. They still thought I was the same helpless burden I had been as a child. But we had been drifting apart long before this, and I had no reason to look back.
With Griffin at my side, I no longer had to endure. I ordered the guards to remove them.
Lucas resisted violently, but he was no match for trained warriors. He could strike a weakened she–wolf mercilessly, but against warriors he was powerless.
Dragged back, he shouted curses at
at me
“Willow, you can’t be this heartless! I know you still care about me. Griffin, how can you marry such a vile woman? You’ll never be happy!”
Xander remained eerily calm.
His eyes glinted faintly as they fixed on me with an intense, deep stare.
Then he spoke, his voice utterly cold, “You’ll regret this, Willow, I’ll be waiting for you to come crawling back.”
Once they were gone, silence settled over the room. Griffin turned to me, “Willow, do you regret it? If you do, we can postpone the ceremony‘
I studied him. Years of training had shaped his bearing until he carried the same noble aura as King Devon Unlike the hypocrisy and selfishness I had seen in the Alpha twins, Griffin embodied the quiet strength of an Alpha King.
No wonder my mother had urged me to accept this union
Talk & Translate Trancist
I traced the elegant line of his brow and pressed a kiss to his lips.
“No. The only regret I have is not meeting you sooner. I’ve never once regretted my choices. All I want now is to spend my life with you.”
Griffin froze for a heartbeat, then pulled me into a fierce embrace, our kiss deep and consuming.
So this was what true love felt like–within reach, not some distant dream. Sometimes a brief encounter could last forever. When the right person finally arrived, everything else simply fell into place.
After the bridal shop incident, the royals had wanted to hold the Bloodstone Pack accountable, but out of respect for my mother, they relented. Instead, they focused on shielding Griffin and me, ensuring we wouldn’t be harassed again.
Life smoothed out. The bonding ceremony preparations went forward.
But no one remembered Maxic.
No one knows how she got our location. She appeared suddenly as Griffin and I returned from a bonding photoshoot, crying desperately in front of me
“Willow, I was wrong. Please forgive me. I shouldn’t have bullied you, or ruined your relationship with the Alphas…”
Through her sobbing, I pieced together the truth.
After I left, Xander and Lucas’s obsession with her cooled. Alpha Victor discovered that Maxie had been embezzling from the pack’s emergency fund and even selling out weak points in our defenses to rogues, the reason our territory had been plagued for years. Furious, he took her to the pack court.
Xander and Lucas, who had once supported Maxie, now fell into silence:
To avoid jail time, Maxie had no choice but to
me to the wolf castle and beg me for help.
“Please, help me! Say a few words for me. Now you are the only one they’ll listen to!”
She reached for my ankle, but Griffin’s guards wrenched her away.
Griffin’s face remained impassive, his eyes cold, as if he were looking at a pile of trash. He simply squeezed my hand. “Let’s go home.”
“Alright.” For me, the saga of Xander, Lucas, and Maxie was already over.
But just as we stepped forward, dizziness swept over me. My knees buckled, and I collapsed into Griffin’s arms.
