CHAPTER 53: CHAPTER 53: NO ONE EVER KNEW HER

Author’s POV ~

Silence crashed over them like a tidal wave.

It wasn’t the kind of silence that settled softly or allowed breath to return—it was the kind that suffocated. That crushed ribs and stole air and made hearts forget how to beat.

No one moved or spoke. Not even Lucian dared to groan beneath the dagger pressed into his chest. Because the words she had just unleashed were not something that could be brushed off. They weren’t rage-fueled accusations or delusions born of pain.

They were the truth.

And that truth now hung in the room like a ghost, staring each of them down, refusing to be unseen.

She wasn’t his daughter.

She wasn’t Eirik Moonveil’s child.

She was his victim.

Kael staggered back, his breath hitching so violently it almost sounded like a choke. Luca stared at her like he had never seen her before, like she had become a stranger in the span of seconds, and not because she had changed—but because they had never truly known her to begin with.

And Aeron—dear gods, Aeron looked like the world had just split open beneath his feet. His shoulders sank, his jaw slack, as if everything he believed in had just been set on fire and left to rot in the ashes.

"No..." Kael muttered under his breath, but even he didn’t sound convinced. His hand rose to his temple, fingers trembling. "That... that can’t be... You were there. At the manor. You lived. You—"

"I lived because he let me," Selene cut in, her voice stripped of emotion now. Hollow. Like even her anger had burned out, leaving behind only scorched earth. "And you should ask yourselves why."

Her words struck harder than any blow could have. Because now they were thinking.

Now they remembered.

The Luna of the Silver Fang Pack—Eirik’s mate—had died young. Murdered in a brutal attack that had shaken the entire region. They had all known of it. Had whispered about the madness of the Alpha, how he had lost control, and how he had turned feral after her death.

But now, that memory returned through a new lens. Not just a tragic story passed down through warriors and elders.

Selene had been there. She was just a child, and her mother was killed in front of her eyes.

A child forced to watch her mother be ripped from her arms, not by rogues or invaders, but by the very man meant to protect them both. And somehow, he had spared her and raised her.

But why?

And now the seed of doubt took root.

Because they all knew Eirik Moonveil had no love to give. He wasn’t the kind to spare life out of pity. He didn’t take in strays. He didn’t raise other men’s children. He barely had enough heart to raise his own.

So why would a monster... raise a child that wasn’t his?

Lucian swallowed thickly beneath her. His strength was draining fast, but even in his haze, he could feel the tremble of something darker beginning to coil in his chest. Something that sounded too much like truth.

"I saw him kill her," Selene said again, quieter now, but somehow those soft words struck harder. "She tried to run. She tried to protect me. And he... he snapped her neck like she was nothing."

Aeron closed his eyes.

He didn’t want to see. He didn’t want to picture it. But his wolf did. His wolf saw it in vivid, brutal clarity. And that image of a small girl covered in her mother’s blood, shaking in a corner while the beast who had done it stood above her... It was enough to make even the strongest Alpha feel sick to his soul.

They had believed her to be a daughter of a monster. But what if she was simply a girl left behind by a man who needed her for something else?

And suddenly everything twisted.

Everything made less sense and more sense at once. Why she had always been treated like a secret. Why was she hidden all her life but suddenly one day appeared and dazzled the entire werewolf pack? Why no one stood for her in the old pack.

Because she wasn’t Eirik’s daughter. She was a pawn.

A child kept alive not out of love—but for purpose.

"You all judged me," she whispered, her fingers twitching where they still held the hilt of the dagger. "You thought I was his heir. You thought I carried his blood. But I only carried his scars."

And none of them could argue. Not with the way her voice trembled like it had never been allowed to break before. Not with the way her eyes glistened with grief that had been buried for too long. Not with the way her soul finally felt seen for the first time.

Luca dropped to his knees, his gaze stuck to the floor like he couldn’t bear to meet hers anymore. Kael turned his face away entirely, his shoulders rising and falling with short, sharp breaths. And Aeron—he stood frozen. A man who had led armies. Broken bones with his bare hands. But he couldn’t take a single step forward.

Because how do you reach for someone when you’ve just realized every reason you had for hurting them... was a lie?

Selene let go of the dagger.

It slipped from her fingers like an offering, falling with a dull, wet thud against Lucian’s chest—still buried in flesh, still hissing softly from the silver laced along its edges.

But she didn’t flinch. She didn’t move to step back or walk away. She just stood there. Staring down at him like a woman whose very soul had finally collapsed inward, like everything inside her had caved and nothing remained but ash.

And for a moment... none of them moved.

Lucian’s chest rose in shallow, broken gasps. Blood pooled beneath him, soaking into the earth like a quiet curse, but even then... he didn’t reach for the dagger. He didn’t pull it free.

He just looked up at her—eyes wide, hazy, filled with something none of them had ever seen in him before.

Remorse. Unmistakable remorse.

"...I’m sorry," he breathed.