CHAPTER 141: ECHOES OF SILENCE

[Blackmoon territories : Ritual pyre...continued]

Lyla’s hair was unbound, flowing over her shoulders.

Her face was calm, but her hands... her hands trembled.

Kieran didn’t open his eyes...didn’t look.

Lyla swallowed, her voice came barely above a whisper. "I... don’t expect tenderness. Or romance."

Kieran didn’t answer.

She stepped closer, hesitantly placing her hand over his shoulder. "But if this is to happen, let it happen with dignity."

Dignity??! His eyes shut tighter. "I don’t know if I can."

A pause.

Lyla took a breath. "You are not betraying her. You are protecting what you are a protector over."

He turned then, slowly, and finally looked at her.Her eyes were soft...not pleading, not hopeful, but... resigned. Like someone who had long accepted that she would never have what she wanted from life. Only what was necessary...perhaps.

Kieran’s throat worked. His hands curled at his sides.

The aphrodisiac was burning hotter now...clouding his judgment, pushing blood to his skin, making every breath feel too loud, too hungry. It wasn’t his desire. It wasn’t love.It was a bad compulsion.

He hated that.

He hated what was being taken from him.He took another tentative step forward.

So did she.They stood inches apart now.

And for a long time, neither moved.

Then Lyla reached up and slowly undid the clasp of her robe. The silk fell soundlessly, pooling at her feet.

Kieran’s chest heaved. His fingers twitched.

She waited.

Not offering herself.Just enduring.

He reached for his own shirt, slipping it over his head, revealing the mark that shimmered faintly over his chest...the bond scarred by love for someone not here.The Fate bond that he and Autumn shared was reacting to the Ritual Binding...like it should...She was the someone who should have been here.Little did the mark know how Kieran was going to shatter it tonight... in a way that it would never be together... ever.

"Autumn." Her name echoed in his mind like a ghost refusing to leave.

Lyla stepped onto the bed first, lying back on the nest of silks and pillows, her hair fanned out like ink in water. She looked away when he climbed in after her...on top of her, naked...nothing between them.

It was her first time seeing her husband like that...

Her breath caught as his skin brushed hers.His hand hovered above her lower hip.

Frozen.

"I am sorry," he whispered, voice breaking. "I am so damn sorry... " He didn’t know who he was apologising to... Autumn, Lyla or himself??!!

Lyla finally turned her face towards him then.

"Don’t ...please don’t say her name," she said gently, pressing her finger on his lips. "Not right now. You will shatter."

He looked into her eyes...warm, patient, understanding in a way that gutted him.She deserved better...Autumn deserved better too.

And then he lowered himself over her.They stayed like that for a long time.

His chest brushed against her bare breasts, skin against skin, but there was no warmth in it. Only cold.

It was as if his body was moving on autopilot. Each motion was mechanical, each breath was a strained attempt to keep control. Lyla’s body was soft beneath him, but there was no spark, no connection.

Just two bodies touching.Yet two souls miles apart.

Finally, when it was time...when the ritual demanded consummation...Kieran moved faster.

It wasn’t too fast.

Yet it wasn’t too slow or tender.

It was halting...painfully controlled.

Both hands on her hips, a brush of lips against her neck...not for passion, but to make the moment bearable.

He wasn’t rough. He wasn’t loving.

He was... careful. Painfully careful...as if afraid he might break.

Kieran’s eyes fluttered closed as he pushed deeper, but all he could see was Autumn’s face...the way her eyes had looked at him the last time they had shared a moment like this together. Her rage, her defiance, her love.He hadn’t treated her well... he had been scared... he was only trying to make things right for the two of them... but then... everything changed.

Lyla didn’t cry.

She didn’t sigh.

She simply closed her eyes and let herself be held.

Let herself become part of something neither of them wanted.

It was quiet.

Almost reverent.

And when the act was done, the ritual mark glowed faintly on her neck...a thread of silver and red binding their fate.

Outside, the chanting of the elders began again... growing louder and louder, blessing the union.

Drums beat once.

Twice. Ushering in glad tidings...

But inside the chamber, Kieran rolled away, lying on his back, one arm thrown over his eyes.

Lyla didn’t move to touch him.

She simply turned her face to the wall, curling into herself...silent, and so small beneath the weight of that night.

And in the dark, where no one could see, Kieran wept.

He wept for Autumn.

For himself.

For what had just been stolen.

And for the silence that followed, heavier than any war.

He touched his chest where he could feel the Fated mark fading already... even though he could still not feel the bond, he could feel the pain of it receding. He clutched his chest, not to bear the pain but because he couldn’t imagine the amount of pain Autumn must be going through right now!

" Fuck! " He bit his lips. She was somewhere all alone...She needed him the most at this point... And the babies... Fuck!

Kieran couldn’t imagine the pain he just inflicted on his own blood. He didn’t even know if he deserved them anymore.

Kieran felt a subtle motion beside him. Lyla lay there with her back turned towards him... there were slight tremors... perhaps she was crying too.

Alpha Kieran Blackmoon never cried but tonight his tears were falling...relentless... he felt so helpless, so incapable... so small...Just like that night... that fateful night when he had killed a part of himself just like he was doing tonight... Duty... all for the sake of it... for the pack... Because he had to bear the burden of the Alpha Title.