Chapter 9

Willow's POV

The next few days passed in a blur.

I arranged a quiet farewell ceremony for Aunt Maeve, attended only by a few people from the pack's outer circle who had been close to her.

Rowan barely looked at me. His entire focus was on Isolde, ensuring that everything she needed for the full moon ceremony was perfect.

The day before the ceremony, I walked into the study with a stack of pack documents. Rowan was on his phone, finalizing the details of the next night's festivities with a high-ranking elder.

He glanced up as I entered and gave a dismissive flick of his finger, telling me to wait.

I stood there quietly, listening as he discussed in the softest tones which rare flowers should be offered at the altar and what music should be played when Isolde walked past, as if his hands had never been stained with Aunt Maeve's blood.

Finally, he ended the call and looked at me with an impatient scowl. "What is it now?"

"Aunt Maeve's final arrangements require your seal as Alpha," I said, placing the parchments on his desk. "Her belongings must be documented according to pack law."

He glanced at the top parchment, not even bothering to unroll the scroll. "Fine."

He picked up the Alpha's seal stamp, carved with the Black Moon sigil.

"I am sorry about your aunt," he said distractedly as he stamped the first parchment. "Natural causes, was it not? You said yourself she was barely holding on after the attack."

I ground my back teeth together.

He stamped one document after another without even looking at them. "Life and death are part of the natural cycle. She lived long enough."

He had personally snuffed out her life. And now he was here, acting as if he were lamenting the natural course of things.

"Take them," he said, pushing the scrolls back toward me. "They are all stamped. Is there anything else?"

"No."

"Good. Get this morbid business over with. The ceremony is tomorrow, and I will not have any funereal gloom ruining my celebration."

"Alright," I said calmly, gathering the stack of parchments.

Just as I turned to leave, Isolde's cloying voice drifted in from the hallway.

"Alpha, are you finished with your work? I wanted you to help me look at this formal gown..."

The moment she saw me, she stopped short. "Oh, Willow is here."

"I was just leaving," I said coldly.

"Wait," Isolde sauntered into the study, her hands deliberately stroking her belly. "There are a few things I need to make clear to you."

I watched her with cold eyes.

"I know you are sad about Aunt Maeve."

"I can understand. After all these years in the pack, she was the only outsider you could rely on."

I tightened my grip on the scrolls.

"But you need to understand," she said, her tone hardening. "That old crone was living on borrowed time. A Luna should be focused on the pack's future, not some borderland healer. Besides..."

She smiled, a sinister edge to it. "If she had not been so nosy, appearing in the woods where she did not belong at a time she should not have, she would not have met that end, would she?"

Something in my head snapped.

My body moved on instinct, my right arm swinging out.

A sharp crack echoed in the room.

Isolde stumbled back a few steps, her hand flying to her instantly reddening cheek. For a second, she was completely stunned. Then, her eyes filled with well-practiced tears.

"Rowan!" she shrieked hysterically. "She has lost her mind! She hit me again!"

Rowan shot up from behind his desk.

"Willow," he roared. "What the fuck are you doing?"

"She provoked me," I said, my voice tight. "She said Aunt Maeve deserved to die..."

"I am not blind!" he roared, and the back of his hand, fueled by brutal Alpha power, struck my face.

The force of the blow made my vision go black. I gripped the edge of the doorframe to keep from collapsing to my knees.

"I was just trying to be nice," Isolde acted out her part. "I was telling her to consider the pack's reputation, not to bring bad luck over some old woman, and she just attacked me..."

"You are lying!"

Rowan grabbed my wrist and yanked me away from the desk.

"Enough," he gritted out. "You will go back to your room tonight, and at the ceremony tomorrow, you will stand in the Luna's place and behave. If you dare cause any more trouble..."

He leaned in close to my ear, his voice a low growl. "Defy your Alpha again, and you will learn the consequences."

I stumbled back a few steps, clutching the documents to my chest.