The Second Chance Of The Rejected Moon (Celine and Bastian) novel Chapter 165

Chapter 165

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“Have you already lost your nerve?” Casius smiles arrogantly. “Look at everything we’ve accomplished, and to be honest, I think you owe all of this to me and my father. We were the ones who discovered my sister’s special blood. We were the ones who went to the human world and sought help from people more powerful than the Thorns. My sister and my mother now live in Rome, where they’ve been given a home, comforts, and wealth, just as they promised us in exchange for setting a trap for ‘the future queen. And they didn’t just keep their word. They also turned the prince into a vegetable. Or do you think we’ve come this far because we’re the best warriors on the continent? We’re where we are because we made a deal with a monster. My sister’s blood in exchange for the safety of the two women who matter most to us.”

The silence that follows is uncomfortable. Some of the alphas lower their eyes toward the fire, while others remain motionless, staring at Casius as though they have just discovered how far he was willing to go.

“That’s cruel even for someone like me,” former alpha Tanner Blackwood half-growls, the man who was once Celine’s destined mate. “What do we know about her? Did they let her live, or did you let them drain her as if her life were worthless?”

Casius tilts his head, and his smile loses every trace of amusement.

“I doubt they settled for a little blood. By now, she must have been dead for a long time, rotting in some grave.”

A knot forms in Tanner’s throat. He tries to swallow it, but the pressure remains, blocking his airway for several seconds. His hands clench at his sides as he stares at Casius with a mixture of rage and disbelief.

“Celine’s life was valuable. I don’t understand your cruelty toward her.”

“She killed my mother. She left my father without a wife. The least she deserved was to suffer and regret ever being born, just as we suffered the loss of my mother.”

Casius’s words fall over the group like a stone.

The other alphas frown. Some exchange uncomfortable looks. For months, they have followed his orders, allowed their hatred for the Thorn family to justify every attack, and repeated the same stories until they became a convenient truth. But hearing Casius speak about his own sister’s death with such coldness makes even them seem to question where revenge ends and madness begins.

“You really did that to your own daughter, Darius? You handed her over to be killed?” Alpha Nick looks horrified. “What kind of son of a bitch does that to his own daughter?”

Darius remains seated, his face hardened and his eyes fixed on Nick. He doesn’t answer.

“It wasn’t him. It was me,” Casius says.

The alpha lifts his chin slightly, as though he is proud to take responsibility.

“If it weren’t for her, we’d be at our pack home, living our comfortable lives like we did before. But no… she had to accept being the mate of the prince who took everything we knew away from us. They locked us in a dungeon. They humiliated us when the pack drove us out by throwing stones at us in the middle of a storm. She showed us no mercy. So why should I have shown her any?”

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16:04 Tue, Aug 18

76

The Second Chance Of The Rejected Moon

Tanner slowly shakes his head.

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The storm outside intensifies. Lightning tears across the sky, illuminating the trees surrounding the camp, the soaked tents, and the tense faces of the warriors for an instant. Thunder follows, deep and prolonged, making the ground beneath their feet tremble.

Tanner stands.

He remains there for several seconds, staring at the dark sky, following the branches as they thrash violently in the wind. For the first time since he arrived there, he feels a fear that doesn’t come from the soldiers inside the castle or the walls they have spent more than a year trying to bring down. There is something about that storm that sends a shiver through him. As though nature itself has grown tired of watching what is happening beneath it.

“I’m leaving, with my people. If I beg for mercy, maybe the king will forgive me, and if he doesn’t… I’ll die for my sins, but I’m not following them anymore. This is suicide, and I’m not taking orders from two sick men.”

Tanner turns toward the seven remaining alphas, deliberately avoiding Darius and Casius.

“Think about it. These two are going to betray you and then keep everything for themselves. What you just heard is only a fraction of what they did to Celine.”

Darius moves for the first time.

“Shut your mouth, Tanner, or you’ll face me. Are you defending her now? Did you already forget how the prince tore out one of your eyes just because you wanted to see her?”

Tanner slowly turns his head toward him. The rain begins falling harder over the camp, and a drop slides down the scar that crosses the place where his eye once was.

He doesn’t back down.

“I only pray to the goddess that one day the prince wakes up and tears out more than one of your eyes for what you did to your sister.”

Tanner pulls his coat tighter around his body and walks out of the tent. The wind strikes his face the moment he crosses the entrance, and the rain soaks the shoulders of his coat within seconds.

“If you leave, I’ll consider you our enemy.”

Tanner stops, but doesn’t turn around immediately.

“Do it. Remember that my pack is the largest among yours. What are you going to do?”

Without saying anything else, Tanner heads toward his own settlement. He walks through the rain with his face hardened, while behind him, the voices of the other alphas disappear beneath the roar of the storm. He doesn’t intend to look back. If he does, he knows he might begin to doubt a decision he should have made a long time ago.

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