The Alpha King And His Chosen Luna novel Chapter 98

Power without command–2

The sight of it should have felt impossible.

It didn’t.

It felt correct.

I moved past her without speaking.

Torvin stood in the third cell, and that was where my steps slowed. His hands were bound in front of him, and for the first time since I had known him, he wasn’t the one holding the key. He looked smaller without purpose in his hands. Without the chain, without the gloves, without the permission to touch what could hurt me.

My ankle remembered him.

Not with pain now.

With truth.

The place where the wolfsbane chain had sat no longer burned, but memory still knew the shape of it. I remembered the click of metal, the gloves over his hands, the way he never looked at me like I was a person. He looked at me now.

He tried to hold my gaze.

He failed.

Vaela moved inside me, calm and ancient, and the space around me seemed to answer her. Torvin’s knees bent slightly before he caught himself against the wall. His breathing changed, quick and rough, but he didn’t speak. I kept walking.

Brent was next.

He was standing when I reached him, but he didn’t look like he wanted to be. His hands were chained, his face pale, his mouth pressed tight as if words were trapped behind it. When he saw me, the old anger tried to rise. It died before it reached his eyes.

I stopped then.

Not because he deserved it.

Because I chose to.

The chamber changed around that choice. The guards seemed to feel it, and the prisoners did too. Even Caius stopped beside me without saying a word. He didn’t interrupt the moment.

Brent’s throat moved.

He didn’t speak.

He didn’t get to.

Clan

Hooked at him and telt nothing like fear. I remembered his hand, his foot, his laugh, the way he had enjoyed being stronger when he thought strength meant no one would ever answer for it. Now he stood behind bars, unable to look at me for more than a breath. That was answer enough for now.

I moved on.

Derek was farther down.

He sat on the floor instead of the bench, his back against the wall, his head lowered. He didn’t rise when I came close. He didn’t call my name this time. Maybe he had learned that my name was no longer something he could use to reach me.

I stopped outside his cell too.

He lifted his head slowly, and the sight of me seemed to take what little strength he had left. His lips. parted, but no sound came. The man who had once looked through me now looked at me like I was something he couldn’t survive seeing clearly. I let him look.

I didn’t tremble.

I didn’t shrink.

I didn’t search his face for apology.

The need for that had been buried with the version of me that had waited for him to choose me. He hadn’t. He wouldn’t have. That truth didn’t hurt the same way anymore.

Helene was in the next cell with Vera and Cole.

My mother looked at me first, then away, then back again because looking away didn’t save her this time. Vera cried silently, one hand pressed against her mouth. Cole stood behind them, his face pale but controlled, as if even now he was trying to decide the safest way to exist. None of them spoke.

Good.

I didn’t come here for their words.

I came here for this.

I stood in the center of the holding chamber and let myself settle. Not rush. Not react. Not give them anything before I chose to. The power inside me didn’t rise like anger. It unfolded.

The first bow came from a guard.

Then another.

Then the prisoners felt it fully.

Rodan lowered first, not by choice, not completely. His knees bent as if his body had reached a truth his pride couldn’t outrun. Maren gripped the edge of the bench, but her head lowered anyway. Torvin slid down the wall until one knee touched stone.

Brent fought it the longest.

I watched him try.

Claim

His jaw tightened, his shoulders locked, and his hands curled inside the chains. Then his knees hit the Toor. The sound carried through the chamber. He didrit look up after that.

Derek lowered his head until his forehead almost touched his bound hands. Helene folded in on herself beside Vera, and Cole bowed last, slow and stiff, but bowed all the same. No command had been given. No one had told them what to do.

I hadn’t spoken.

Caius stayed beside me, silent.

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