Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 297

Chapter 297

Chapter 297

ARYADA

I stood in the viewing chamber that overlooked the stadium, my hands gripping the stone railing hard enough that I could feel the ancient rock beginning to crack under the pressure. Below, Aria had just walked out after her… her *speech*. Her audacious, presumptuous, utterly infuriating speech where she’d had the nerve to call out the pack for their entirely justified concerns about her inadequacy.

“The absolute audacity,” I said, my voice low and dangerous. “The sheer fucking audacity of that woman.”

Beside me, Lunaris made a small sound that might have been agreement or might have been caution. I didn’t care which.

“She stands there glowing with power she barely understands,” I continued, my rage building with each word. “Calls herself Luna as if she earned it rather than stumbling into it through convenient timing. Accuses the pack of hypocrisy when they’re the ones who’ve had to watch their Alpha be faithful to someone who doesn’t deserve him.”

“Aryada-” Lunaris started, but I wasn’t finished.

“Kael has been nothing but faithful,” I said, turning to face her. “Despite all odds. Despite having Ivory right there-a woman he knew intimately, a woman who earned his partnership through three years of suffering, a woman who actually deserves to be his mate. He’s been loyal to Aria. He hasn’t demanded Ivory’s memories be restored. He’s tried to navigate a platonic friendship with a woman who should have been his Luna, and it’s been torture for everyone involved.”

I turned back to the stadium, watching the crowd below process what they’d just heard. Some looked thoughtful. Others looked angry. A few-gods, a few actually looked like they might be reconsidering their positions.

“He’s done everything an Alpha should do,” I continued. “Granted, he hasn’t been behind Aria constantly, hasn’t been the lovesick fool making excuses for her every failure. But that’s what good leadership looks like. An Alpha who can prioritize the pack’s needs over his personal feelings. Who can be faithful without being blind. And this is how she repays him? By standing in front of his pack and accusing them of hypocrisy?”

The magic was building in my hands, responding to my rage in ways that would be dangerous if I let it continue. I wanted to confront her. Wanted to use my considerable power to remind

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her exactly who she was talking to when she spoke about respect and earning positions.

Wanted to show her what happened when inadequate wolves who’d stolen their way into power got too comfortable with their unearned authority.

“Don’t,” Kalicus said from behind me, his voice carrying the weight of warning. “Don’t do what you’re thinking about doing.”

I turned to face him, letting my power manifest visibly-crackling energy around my hands, my eyes probably showing the divine light that marked us as something more than mortal. “She’s a traitor. She visited our enemy. She compromised pack security. And now she’s standing in that stadium acting like she has any right to demand respect?”

“She completed the Hunt,” Solas pointed out, her voice maddeningly calm. “Four fragments. More than anyone in recorded history. That’s not nothing, Aryada. That’s significant.”

“It’s significant that Ivory carried her through it,” I snapped. “Ivory did the actual work while Aria stumbled along behind her being inadequate and barely surviving. Don’t pretend Aria’s accomplishment wasn’t built on someone else’s capabilities.”

“Ivory didn’t carry her through the final trials,” Nyx said quietly. “The mirror chamber. The truth trial. Aria faced those alone. Confronted her deepest shames..Confessed her betrayal when she could have kept hiding it. That takes a different kind of strength than physical capability.”

“It takes stupidity,” I corrected. “And a complete lack of understanding about how power actually works. You don’t confess your failures publicly unless you’re too foolish to understand the consequences.”

Lunaris moved closer, her expression becoming more serious. “Aryada, I need you to listen very carefully to what I’m about to say. You cannot harm Aria. You cannot use your power against her. You cannot interfere with her position as Luna beyond what the investigation naturally reveals.”

“Why not?” I demanded. “Give me one good reason why I should let that inadequate, traitorous woman continue occupying a position she stole from someone who actually earned it.”

“Because she’s a child of the moon,” Lunaris said, and her voice carried the kind of finality that made even my rage pause. “A true child of the moon. The bloodline we’ve been watching for, waiting for, testing through these Hunts for generations. That’s what the fragments were for, Aryada. That’s what we’ve been searching for-someone with the bloodline strong enough to claim all five fragments and survive the trials that should have killed anyone else

The words hit like cold water on my burning fury. “You can’t be serious.”

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“Her eyes glow with moonlight,” Solas said. “Her magic responds to lunar cycles. She collected four fragments when most die trying to claim even one. She survived trials that we

deliberately sabotaged-trials you deliberately sabotaged-and came out stronger rather than broken. What more evidence do you need?”

“She’s weak,” I insisted. “Inadequate. Everything we’ve seen proves she’s not capable of-”

“She’s capable of surviving impossible things,” Kalicus interrupted. “Which is exactly what we’ve been testing for. The child of the moon isn’t supposed to be the strongest warrior or the most obvious leader. They’re supposed to be the one who survives when survival seems impossible. Who finds strength in places others don’t look. Who transforms through suffering rather than being destroyed by it.”

I wanted to argue. Wanted to insist they were wrong, that Aria was just lucky rather than actually being what they claimed. But the evidence was there. The glowing eyes. The fragments. The way the trials had responded to her differently than they responded to other competitors.

“We are forbidden from harming a child of the moon,” Lunaris said, her voice becoming almost gentle. “It’s one of our oldest laws. One of the few restrictions placed on our power. If she truly is what we think she is—and all evidence suggests she is then interfering with her directly would violate rules we cannot break without severe consequences.”

“So we just let her destroy Kael?” I demanded. “Let her compromise Shadowmere’s security? Let her continue being inadequate while occupying a position meant for someone better?”

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