Chapter 2 Make Them Pay

ELENA

The audio cut off, leaving a silence in the room so suffocating it made my ears ring. I stared at the blank screen of Julian’s phone. My breath hitched, not from the poison, but from the shattering of the last illusions I held. The room felt suddenly too large, too cold. My vision tunneled. 

"Nora..." I gasped, a painful shriek tearing from my lungs. "No... no, how could she?" 

The sweet hugs. The tearful promises. The way she swore blood was thicker than water. It was all a lie. She had been poisoning me. She had been sleeping with my husband. She was carrying his baby. 

The man who I spent years making excuses for was fucking my younger sister while treating my body like a parasite.

I didn’t scream, not as much as I could. I felt my soul bruising from the weight of it all. It took ten agonizing seconds for the shock to turn to ice, and then, for the ice to ignite into something much hotter: fury.

“Help me up," I choked out, grabbing Julian’s shirt. “Julian, help me sit up!"

Julian quickly placed his arm behind my back, supporting my frail body as I sat up. 

My grief was gone, burned away by the cold clarity of survival. I wasn’t just a victim anymore; I was a casualty of war, and I refused to go down without taking the enemy with me. 

If Lucian thought he could throw me off like a broken toy, then secure his future with my throne and my sister, he had miscalculated. I had one card left to play.

With shaking hands, I grabbed the pen from the bedside table and dragged the divorce papers toward me. In angry strokes, I signed my name at the bottom, officially severing my bond with Lucian.

My hand hovered over the signature line. This signature wouldn't just end our bond; it would dissolve his claim to the pack. He had only ascended to Alpha because he had married the Crown Princess. Without my blood binding him to the throne, he was merely a man holding a title he hadn't earned. By signing, I had just taken back the keys to everything he stole from me. 

Now I only needed to hand them to someone else. Someone much more deserving of it all.

I turned to Julian, looking straight into his tear-filled eyes. "Thank you," I whispered, tears spilling over my cheeks. "Thank you for standing by me, even when I was too blind to listen to your warnings about him."

Julian reached up, gently wiping the tears from my face. "I will always stand by you, Elena," he sobbed quietly. "I have loved you for years. Every day, it hurt me to watch you suffer for a man who didn't deserve you."

He was right. Somehow this was still all my fault. My stupidity made me blind. I gave the wrong man my everything, my trust, my love, my heart when Julian had always been here. 

But now, one thing was crystal clear: I could not let Lucian have the final laugh.

"Listen,” my voice slowed, almost a ghost. 

“If I die now, he wins," I rasped, the thought hitting me with terrifying clarity. He would divorce me, marry Nora, and remain Moonspire’s Alpha without a single consequence for the poison coursing through my veins. A cold, bitter resolve settled in my chest. If I was destined to die, I wouldn’t go as his discarded wife. I would go as the woman who stripped him of everything. I gripped Julian’s collar, pulling him closer. "He wants to discard me? Fine. But he won't keep the Alpha title. Not if I marry someone else before my heart stops." 

Julian stared at me in shock. "Elena..."

"Call the pack priest," I demanded, clutching his arm tightly. "Now, Julian! We are getting married."

—

The air in the room was deathly still, save for the unsettling rattle of the storm battering the shutters against the stone walls. Candlelight flickered, casting shadows that danced over the priest’s nervous face.

When Julian called him, the priest hesitated, his eyes darting to the bloodstains on my sheets. "Luna," he began, his voice trembling, "this is… the rites are for the living, not for those at death's door. It is not safe for you."

I didn't have the strength to raise my voice, so I put every ounce of my authority as the Luna into my glare. "As the Luna of this pack," I rasped, the words feeling like glass in my throat. "I am ordering you to perform the bond ritual. Do it, or I will ensure your name is the first one erased from the pack records."

He blanched, finally nodding, his hands shaking as he opened the book. The smell of medicinal herbs and stale rain filled my lungs as I reached for Julian’s hand.

To seal the bond, we had to merge ourselves by cutting our palms and pressing them into each other's, so our blood would connect and form the knot. 

I noticed Julian’s hesitation as he drew the blade closer to my palm. “Elena, are you sure about this?” he muttered, his eyes red from crying. “You can't afford to lose more blood.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying so hard to keep my wolf awake. “Do it.”

Clenching his jaw hard, Julian sliced his palm, then sliced mine. We pressed our bleeding palms together, sealing our marriage bond in the eyes of the Moon Goddess.

The moment the priest finished the prayer, my strength completely failed me. My vision began to blur, dark spots dancing across my eyes. I collapsed back onto the pillows, struggling for air.

Julian fell over me, crying softly as he held my face. "No, please... stay with me."

His tears fell onto my cooling cheek, hot as fire against the numbness. I couldn't feel my fingers anymore, but I could feel his, desperate and gripping. I held on for one more heartbeat, focusing on the scent of his coat. 

"Avenge me, Julian," I breathed, the words barely a vibration in the quiet room as blood spilled past my lips. "Make them feel it all.”

" Shhh. Stop tal…”

I reached up with my last bit of strength, gripping his coat tightly. “Promise me, Julian," I whispered, bleeding faster. "Swear to me... you will avenge my death. Do not let them get away with this. Expose them."

"I swear it," Julian wept, kissing my bloody knuckles. "Their lives for yours. I will destroy them for you."

As my chest stopped moving and the air left my lungs for the final time, I closed my eyes and offered one last, silent prayer to the heavens. Please make them pay for this.