Chapter 128: Wearing His Choices

Selene’s POV

We were done and we stood up to dress when the shouting started.

It was the kind of screaming that made you think someone was being sliced open ... raw, unhinged, and climbing the walls. The voice was familiar before I even had to think about it.

Tessa.

"Lucian, come out! You can’t fuck me and then fuck up my life ... I want my position restored, now!" She was screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Don’t come out or say anything," Lucian said to me, low and firm.

I stayed exactly where he told me to.

He walked out and I could hear him the moment he faced her.

"You are a traitor, Tessa. You betrayed your own husband. I can’t let you back," he said.

But Tessa kept going. "You’re not supposed to have a choice! I had no choice ... you belong to me and only me!"

"You don’t have my best interest at heart!" Lucian fired back.

That one silenced her. Even through the wall I could feel the shift.

"Guards ... come and take this nuisance out of here. Restrain her in a private room until she’s properly scrutinised," he ordered.

The guards moved immediately. Tessa was still screaming as they dragged her away, her voice bouncing off every corridor like she wanted the whole territory to hear her humiliation.

"If she gets out, I’ll kill every last one of you!" Lucian roared after them.

He came back inside looking furious ... but the moment his eyes landed on me, something in him settled.

"Lucian, take it easy," I said softly. I was already getting ready to take my leave.

"You’re the only one who can make me calm down," he said, holding my face in both hands.

"I’m so glad you’re in my life," I told him.

"And I never want you to leave. Thank you for teaching me how to love," he replied.

"I’ll be taking my leave now," I said, and we stood there for a moment ... both still holding hands ... neither one of us in a rush. He didn’t want to let go, but he had to. Because I wasn’t his Luna.

He loved me. I could see it clearly in his eyes.

And yet ... what was coming next had nothing to do with love. It was about reckoning. About giving someone back exactly what they had given you.

The moment I left, the whole of Winterwood had already gathered again ... drawn to something their eyes were never supposed to witness. Their own Beta, being judged and handled like a common criminal.

I received a call from Valerie while I was still in my chambers. "Come down to the court now!" Her voice was urgent enough that I didn’t waste a second.

When I got there, I saw Kael.

He looked so beaten and battered it made something twist in my chest. Fuck ... no one should have to look like that. Not even someone who had done wrong. There was something about seeing a man who had once carried respect, status and honour, now reduced to this, that just sat heavy in the stomach.

Blood was dripping from his mouth like he’d been gargling it.

These guards never missed an opportunity to display their cruelty. They had treated him like he was nothing ... like he was disposable.

He was brought before Lucian, who now had full, uninterrupted power to judge him alone.

And Kael had earned every bit of it.

"Kael, I’m going to give you the liberty to speak ... tell me why you did this," Lucian said, leaning back in his seat.

Kael said nothing.

Lucian didn’t move from his chair. He simply gave the guards a signal.

The whip came down.

Kael cried out, and I could hear in that sound just how much punishment he had already endured over the past few hours. It wasn’t just pain ... it was exhaustion wrapped in pain.

"You thought you could beat me, didn’t you, Kael?" Lucian laughed ... the kind of laugh that belonged to someone who had just won everything and knew it.

Kael still said nothing. He stayed on the ground at Lucian’s feet, blood still drooling from his mouth like saliva.

Lucian gave the signal again.

The whip cracked down harder this time. I felt the pity rising in me against my will, even knowing what he had done. Even knowing how grave it was.

"Listen to me, Kael ... you’ve been by my side for a long time. You still don’t know what I’m capable of. My battle experience is beyond yours. I have been fighting since I was barely old enough to hold my own ... you fool!" Lucian’s voice climbed before he caught himself and pulled back. "Whoever talked you into this, whether it was my wife or not ... she isn’t the fool here. You clearly are. Did you actually think you could rule these people?"

The entire arena erupted in agreement.

Lucian let the noise settle and then waited. Just waited ... eyes pinned on Kael ... until Kael finally opened his mouth.

"I was willing to take the risk," he said.

"And now?" Lucian asked.

A long pause. Then ... "Now I’ve failed. I realise my mistake. Please... forgive me."

Lucian laughed harder than before.

"Maybe you need a reminder of who I truly am. I could order your death right now and not a single person in this room could stop me." He nodded at the guards and they flogged him again.

Then Lucian looked out at the crowd. "I want to kill him ... but let me ask the people, since some of you still have a soft spot for this man. Should I?"

A wave of mixed responses rolled through the crowd ... yes from some, no from others. Nobody could agree. Nobody was sure.

"You’re all sceptical. Fine ... I’ll make the decision myself." The crowd pushed back on that too, restless and divided, not fully ready to hand that call over to him either.

"Quiet down, quiet down." Lucian raised a hand. "I’ll give it twenty-four hours, since the people can’t reach a clear verdict. But know this, Kael ..." he leaned forward just slightly, "... you will not end well."

They took Kael back to the cells he had been dragged out of.

I watched him go.

I pitied him ... I couldn’t pretend I didn’t. But I also didn’t want him to walk away from this untouched. Not after everything. He had made his choices and now he was wearing them.

There was still one more person left to face her reckoning.

Tessa.

She was the one I had seen slipping out of Kael’s room that night. Whatever she had gone there to do ... whatever they had planned together ... it was going to come to light. And I intended to be right there when it did. She had escaped consequences too many times already.

She was going to pay for what she did to Leah. To Freya. To my unborn child. To me.

She just didn’t know it yet.