Hades' Cursed Luna novel Chapter 181

Hades

The room turned unbearably silent.

Not a flicker of emotion passed over my face, but the Flux hissed, seething beneath my skin, pressing against the edges of my control like a predator ready to strike.

Not safe with her husband.

The words rang in my skull, a deliberate taunt wrapped in feigned concern.

Kael stiffened at my side, but I lifted a hand—just a flicker of movement, barely noticeable, but enough. A silent command. Stay still. Let them speak. Let them believe they had control of this conversation.

I let the weight of their statement hang in the air, drawing the moment out just enough for discomfort to settle in their bones.

Then, ever so slowly, I smiled.

It was not a pleasant thing.

It was not meant to be.

The silence stretched, the tension winding tighter, suffocating, before I finally spoke—calm, smooth, deliberate.

"You’re right," I said softly, my voice measured, controlled.

Lyra blinked, just slightly thrown off by my lack of immediate anger. Darius, however, did not react. He was waiting, watching.

Like the bastard always did.

I leaned back in my chair, one hand resting loosely against the polished table as I tilted my head, my expression betraying nothing. "Ellen is not safe."

The quiet confession made Lyra straighten, her shoulders tensing in expectation of some kind of admission.

But then I continued, my voice dropping to something softer, sharper.

"Not from those who would see her as a pawn. Not from those who stripped her of everything and sold her as a means to an end. Not from the ones who hollowed her."

Lyra flinched.

Darius did not.

Beta James’ expression remained unreadable, but there was the faintest shift in the way he held himself—too still, too careful.

I let my words settle, let them root themselves into their thoughts before I continued.

"She is not safe," I repeated, slower this time, my gaze pinning Darius where he sat. "Because even now, her so-called family has arrived unannounced, pretending to be concerned while wielding her suffering as a weapon against me."

I tilted my head, eyes dark, unreadable. "What, exactly, do you intend to do about it, Alpha Darius? Do you wish to renegotiate the terms of our alliance? Take back what you discarded?" I paused, allowing my voice to cool to something closer to ice. "Do you believe that you can?"

Lyra’s lips parted slightly, a flash of something uncertain in her eyes before she schooled her features. Darius, however, only exhaled, slow and measured.

"Your hostility is unwarranted, Hades," he murmured, his voice carrying the weight of a man who had played this game far too many times before. "We are here to discuss solutions."

"Solutions?" I let out a quiet chuckle, low and humorless. "You think to solve this now, after months of silence? After abandoning your daughter in a foreign land, among wolves she did not know, binding her to a man she had never met?" I leaned forward, my fingers tapping against the table in a steady rhythm. "No. You forfeited the right to discuss solutions the moment you gave her away."

Darius’s smile didn’t falter, but I could see the sharpness behind it, the tension in the corner of his jaw. He knew I was right.

Still, he pressed on. "Ellen’s well-being is still our concern, whether you like it or not."

I let the silence stretch again before I spoke, softer this time, more dangerous. "Your concern means nothing. It is an afterthought. A poorly crafted act."

Darius’ fingers twitched against the table. Finally, a crack. There was more stake to this, far far more beneath the surface that they did not want to expose.

With the amount of tension that was radiating off Darius told me that having Ellen suddenly was non negotiable, it was dire.

I mind tried to conjure up possiblity of what Felicia could have fucking told him. She was not enough of a traitor to the pack to relay our plans, she just wanted to inconvenience me if what Lyra said was true.

But did they know about my plans enough to come and risk a diplomatic disaster, a war or was it something else entirely?

He recovered quickly, shaking his head as if I were some stubborn fool refusing to see reason. "Do not mistake pragmatism for apathy," he said smoothly. "We did what was necessary for the survival of our pack. You of all people should understand the weight of such decisions."

I held his gaze, allowing the words to hang between us before I smiled again—slow, deliberate, deadly.

"Necessary." I tested the word, rolling it over my tongue as if considering it. Then, I leaned forward, my eyes locked onto his, my voice dropping to something almost too quiet.

"Tell me, Darius," I murmured. "When you hollowed your own daughter, was that necessary too?"

The silence that followed was deafening.

Lyra inhaled sharply.

James twitched.

Darius?

For the first time, something flickered in his expression.

Regret? No.

Guilt? No.

It was something colder.

Something closer to annoyance.

He did not deny it.

Of course, he wouldn’t.

The Valmonts had never denied their sins. They simply reframed them.

Darius exhaled, shifting slightly in his seat before offering me that same carefully practiced smile. "There are things you do not yet understand, Hades."

I tilted my head. "Enlighten me."

Another beat of silence. Then, smoothly, "Perhaps, in time."

I chuckled under my breath, shaking my head. "I don’t need time to see what’s in front of me, Alpha Darius." My voice was a whisper of steel. "And neither does Ellen."

Darius’ smile thinned.