Chapter 734 I am not putting duty before our honeymoon
Luna Cassandra had met most of the Lunas across the packs, but she had never spoken with Seraphine. The Western Tribe was a thousand miles away from the Centenary pack, so their paths had never crossed.
The Grimroot pack was around eight hundred miles from the Western Tribe, but nothing had ever brought them together. Distance had kept them strangers. Distance and the careful isolation that Dean had always insisted upon.
“In fact, I feel ashamed to have believed the rumors when I heard them.” Cassandra confessed, turning to face Seraphine as she propped herself up against the pillows. Her movements were slow, labored, as though even the simple act of sitting up required effort she did not possess.
“Even after you became queen, I heard rumors that you only got the crown because you married the King. Now, I doubt everything.”
Seraphine did not care about pack gossip. She had learned long ago that whispers were the weapons of the weak, the idle chatter of those who had nothing better to do than tear down those who rose above them. She had responsibilities on her shoulders, a kingdom to help run, a family of her own to protect.
“Whatever you heard about me does not matter as much as what your husband did. He is currently in the dungeon, and investigations are underway. He has slept with most of the maidens in your pack. And if he began to sleep with a girl he raised as a daughter since she was fifteen, then there is a possibility of him sleeping with more underage women.”
Seraphine’s voice was steady, clinical, each word a scalpel cutting through the fog of denial. “The king has ordered for him to be castrated. He will soon be banished or executed when the investigations are complete.” She paused, letting the weight of it settle. “My question is, can you take care of the pack on your own?”
It was clear that Seraphine was a strong woman, forged in fire and hardened by betrayal. The sight of her, young and composed and utterly unyielding, only made Luna Cassandra feel more ashamed. She had spent years in the shadow of her husband, believing that was where she belonged.
“I am a traditional Luna. Dean always said to enjoy my time and not stress myself with pack matters.” Her voice was small, defeated. “How could I manage a pack alone?”
Seraphine was disappointed. The emotion flickered across her features, brief but unmistakable. But she did not give up. She had learned long ago that strength was not always inherent. Sometimes it had to be taught, nurtured, coaxed out of the darkness.
“Do you want to learn?”
The woman shook her head, her eyes filling with tears. “It is too late. I am even ashamed to step there.”
Her responses only deepened Seraphine’s dismay. But one thing was clear. These Lunas had been made to believe a lie, made to lean on their husbands and take whatever was given to them.
They had been conditioned to be ornaments, not leaders. That was why some Alphas behaved the way they did. They had been given all the power and none of the accountability.
“In that case, I cannot help you. But what do you intend to do with your daughter? She is in the punishment room as we speak.”
Cassandra shook her head, her expression hardening into something cold and unreadable. “I do not care for her anymore. Pass whatever judgment you want on her.”
Seraphine nodded, accepting the answer without judgment. “Since you are not willing to take up the management of the pack, I shall inform the King to find someone else. That is, if your beta is not capable too.”
At the mention of the beta, Cassandra’s face lit up. It was a subtle change, a softening around the eyes, a slight parting of her lips. Something flickered there, something that had been buried for years but was not quite dead.
“Beta Bright was capable. But Dean never allowed him to handle anything. He only carried the title of a beta.”
There was a little blush on her cheek when she spoke, a pink tinge that betrayed more than words ever could. Seraphine recognized it instantly.
“Did you have an affair too?”
“No.” Cassandra’s denial was immediate, fierce, her eyes widening with something that looked like horror at the suggestion. “Actually, he was the one I was supposed to marry. When he brought me to his pack, Dean forced me to marry him. Bright never got married after. I think he was afraid Dean might snatch another woman he loved. He drew a wedge between us, and we never spoke much after that.”
Seraphine was thinking of so many things. The complexity of it all, the layers of pain and manipulation that had shaped this woman’s life.
She did not want to stress the leaders so much by tearing them away from their mates so soon when the mate bond had just taken effect. The blood moon had changed everything, reshaped the very fabric of their society.
There should be capable people among the packs to handle affairs until the Grimroot pack leaders were ready to take the next step.
“Rest. I will come to see you again. But if you are to work with Beta Bright, will you be willing to learn and take over the management of the pack?”
This time, Cassandra nodded eagerly, a spark of something that might have been hope flickering in her eyes. “Yes. I will.”
Seraphine did not say anything more. She rose from the chair and left the room, her steps quiet against the sterile hospital floor. By the time she reached her office, a mindlink hit her, warm and insistent.
’My queen, let us have an emergency leaders’ meeting. I am not putting duty before our honeymoon. It has dragged on for too long.’
Seraphine could feel the heat creeping to her cheeks, a flush that had nothing to do with embarrassment and everything to do with the memory of his lips on her neck, his hands on her skin.
Only Voren would stop an army to have an intimate moment with his wife.