The Heartless Alpha’s Beloved Luna (Avery and Gideon) novel Chapter 569

Sebastian’s POV

Someone had tied my wrists behind a wooden post. I could feel the rope and the wood biting into my skin in equal measure before I even opened my eyes, before anything else came into focus.

My lids cracked open, eyes adjusting to the gold and red flicker of torchlight. My mouth tasted like copper. Dried blood, probably, from wherever Colt had hit me. When I turned my head to get my bearings, pain lanced through my neck, making me groan.

“Good,” Colt’s voice said. “You’re awake for this part.”

I looked over to find Colt standing a few feet away, arms crossed, watching me down the length of his nose like one might look at an insect they planned to squash. Cold, unfeeling.

Behind him, six or seven pack members were standing along the edge of the torchlight, silent, watching everything with wide eyes.

I realized where I was. In the arena in the courtyard. The same spot where I’d beaten Colt’s uncle, the previous Alpha of Evergreen, to a pulp. The same spot where Gideon had been my perfect match.

“For this part of what?” I asked, although I had a pretty good idea already. My voice came out cracked and raw, and it made the pack members exchange glances. A couple snickered, as if this was all too satisfying.

“Your trial, of course.” Colt crouched down in front of me, bracing his elbows on his knees. “The same one my uncle got.” His jaw worked. “Tonight, Sebastian, I challenge you—and if I win, Evergreen is mine, and you will be cast into the wilderness as a rogue.”

I stared up at him. “Is this really what you want?”

“It’s what I’ve wanted for a long time.”

He straightened and nodded to one of the others, who came forward with a knife that they used to cut the ropes binding my wrists. I rubbed the raw skin, looking between the pack members.

“No one has anything to say about this?” I asked.

They remained silent.

Colt folded his arms. “Get up,” he said. “Unless you want me to assume you’re surrendering before the fight has even begun.”

Right now, I didn’t know if I had it in me. And Melissa and Avery were still out there, Bjorn too, who I was supposed to help. I stood, opening my mouth to say just that, but just then, another voice called out from past the ring of torches.

“Colt—wait.”

We turned. A Gamma jogged up to us, breathless.

“What is it?” Colt barked.

“Nightwolf’s holding a wedding tomorrow.” He looked at me. “It could look bad for the pack if there’s been a recent struggle with the Alpha when you attend…”

“To hell with a fucking wedding!” Colt snarled. “I need to take care of—”

“Wait,” I said. My mind raced.

Tomorrow. The wedding was tomorrow.

She’d told me to wait. “Be a good boy and wait a little longer, and I’ll give her to you. Every. Last. Piece.”

That was what she said.

And now, I knew what she meant.

She was never going to give her back. Not in one piece. If there were even any pieces left.

“The witch has Melissa and Avery,” I said.

The Gamma blinked. “But Avery is the one who…”

“She’s an imposter.” I looked imploringly at Colt. His face was pale. He knew it as well as I did. That was not Avery. That was the witch wearing her skin, and now she was going to install herself as the Luna of Nightwolf, one of the strongest packs in the territories…

If that happened, then what was next? Another pack to take over? And another? Before we knew it, she might have taken over all the packs, blood would be shed, and Avery and Melissa and maybe even Bjorn and Gideon—they’d all be dead.

I sighed, thinking about Melissa and Avery in pieces. I thought about that toe with the blue nail polish. Becoming a rogue wasn’t as bad as all that. And there was always a way to turn it around in the end. I just needed to think carefully.

Finally, I nodded. “Alright.”

The others were still watching, staring in shock.

An Alpha who steps down instead of losing a fight isn’t an Alpha at all in most packs’ eyes. He’s something worse. Weak. A joke. I’d spent ten years making sure no one ever looked at me like that.

But I didn’t care anymore.

“There isn’t going to be a trial,” I told them, and my voice carried further than I expected in the quiet. “Evergreen doesn’t answer to me. Colt is your Alpha now. I’m conceding the title—all of it—right here, in front of all of you, so there’s no question about it later.”

I dropped to my knees before Colt, bowing down, and pressed a kiss to the tip of his shoe.

“Alpha Colt,” I said, and the words came out from somewhere far away and full of disgrace, but I meant them, because not saying them might spell the end for two women and a child who I cared about, deeply, even if none of them believed it anymore.

“I concede to you.”

The moment the words left my mouth, I felt something shift. Not just in the air, but inside of me. My wolf howled, strong at first then weaker. My body thrummed with the pain of an Alpha’s power being stripped in an instant. I gnashed my teeth and dug my fingers into the dirt, and it hurt, Goddess it hurt so bad—but I didn’t take it back.

When it was over, and the pack bond was nothing but a memory now, and my wolf was quiet, licking his wounds, I slowly looked up.

Colt’s jaw was tight, his eyes shining gold.

He said nothing. Just extended his hand to me.

I took it and let him haul me to my feet. One last time.

For Avery, Melissa, and Bjorn.