Chapter 170: There Can Never Be An Us

SELENE’S POV

"This is what you came here to do, isn’t it?" William said to Lucian, still trying to land a few punches on him.

"Shut the hell up, William. We all know you got everything you have through privilege. You can’t stand me on an average day." Lucian shot back. Then he turned to me, still holding William back alongside Celeste. "How about you leave your husband alone and watch your Alpha get a beat down?"

"Enough ... all of you!"

Roran’s voice cut through the room like a blade.

He was the only one among us who carried the weight of age, and he used it. He stood beside his Luna, his face creased with irritation that he didn’t bother hiding.

"This is so childish and stupid," he said, his voice tight. "This is not what we came here for. A festival is going on, for goddess’s sake." He smashed his fork against the table and walked out in anger.

He wasn’t even trying to settle anything. He was only expressing his frustration. Nothing more.

William and Lucian eventually calmed down, though Lucian never stopped smiling. That damn smile.

"Leave him, please ... just leave him," I whispered into William’s ear. I didn’t want to see what would happen if those two entered a full brawl. I didn’t want to know who the winner would be.

That wasn’t why I was here. I had wanted to bring everyone together. I had wanted us to accept each other as one.

We all left the table ... breakfast ruined.

I caught Valerie’s eyes as everyone filed out. We exchanged a look that said everything ... pure pity, shared helplessness. We both wished we could do something. We just didn’t know what.

---

It turned out Lucian wasn’t over me. Not even close.

He had dared to kiss my hand in front of my husband. Without flinching. Without fear. He didn’t seem to think William could touch him ... but that wasn’t even the worst part. He hadn’t stopped to think for a second how Celeste would feel. He hadn’t cared. He just did it, like I was something he still had claim over.

"William, let’s go." I reached for him, tried to wrap my arms around him.

He shrugged me off.

"What’s going on? Is this about what happened at breakfast? Oh, come on, William!"

He turned to face me, eyes already beginning to flame red. "You shouldn’t have let him touch you. You’re my pride and my dignity, Selene. You should have taken his hands off the moment he reached for you."

"It wasn’t my fault. It happened so quickly ... I didn’t even realize he had my hands in his."

He turned away again and kept walking. I was practically chasing him down the corridor, talking at his back, explaining myself to someone who had already decided not to listen.

He didn’t answer.

"William, say something."

Nothing.

I stopped walking. He didn’t.

I stood there and watched him go, my explanation swallowed up by the distance between us.

In seconds, I had become the center of a royal tug-of-war that I never asked for. Two men, both pulling at me, neither one stopping to ask what I actually wanted. I felt like an object. Something to be claimed. Something to be won.

And Lucian had caused all of it.

I already belonged to William. I was carrying his name. Nothing was supposed to beat that.

---

My assistant appeared at my side, asking if I needed anything.

"No, I don’t. Thank you," I said. It came out sharper than I intended. I just needed to be left alone.

I found the restroom at the end of the hall and slipped inside ... not because I needed to use it, but because I needed somewhere to fall apart.

I sat there and cried.

The rest of the festival was going to unfold without William at my side, all because of Lucian. I grabbed a tissue and pressed it against my eyes and nose, both completely soaked. I couldn’t hold it in. This wasn’t how I had imagined any of this going.

"You’ve never known me to be someone who backs out from a fight."

The voice came from behind me.

I spun around.

Lucian.

Walking out from further inside the bathroom, cool as ever.

What the ... this was supposed to be the women’s section. The thought screamed through my head before I could stop it, and it was like he heard every word.

"This is actually the men’s section," he said. "Fate just keeps bringing you to me."

I moved immediately, reaching for the door. I had it half open.

"You can’t leave like that, Selene. You can’t fight destiny."

His voice was infuriatingly calm. Like someone who had already decided he’d won ... just from kissing my hand. How short-sighted could one man be?

"I thought we were past this, Lucian." I kept my voice low, controlled. The last thing I needed was someone walking in on this. "I thought we both agreed to move on. I can see that you’ve moved on ... you have Celeste. So did I. So what is all of this supposed to mean?"

"Believe me, I tried, Selene. I just couldn’t..."

"Fuck you."

I didn’t let him finish.

"Fuck you, Lucian. Do you know how insensitive that was? You ruined breakfast for everyone just to feed your ego. I’m disgusted. This isn’t the Lucian I know."

"Love changes people," he said. "And when two people are tied together by fate, they’ll always face challenges ... but they always win in the end."

"We are not tied together. We were never meant to be ... and if we ever were, that thread has been cut. There can never be an us. Can’t you see that?" My voice climbed before I could pull it back. "Don’t try this again."

"You’re terrible at hiding your feelings," he said softly.

And he stepped closer.

"We cannot be a thing, Lucian. I’m telling you the truth. Accept it."

"I would never agree to that."

Before I could move, he had me pinned against the wall. His hands on either side of me, his face tilting toward mine ...

I drove my head forward into his and felt the impact before I even processed what I was doing. He stumbled back. I followed it with a punch straight to his face.

"Don’t you ever touch me again."

I stormed out of that bathroom without looking back.

He hadn’t even held his nose. The punch barely fazed him.

That was what scared me. Lucian had become something else entirely. He hadn’t come to Icefang just to see me. He had come to destroy what I had built ... and he had no intention of stopping.

---

ASTRID’S POV

We arrived at the festival venue, and I didn’t get to speak to Selene face-to-face on the first day. I could only watch her from the lower floor, craning my neck upward to where the royalty stood ... her among them ... waving at the crowd and making speeches like she was born for exactly this.

I hadn’t been born for it.

She didn’t see me down there, and it gnawed at me the entire first day.

My parents hadn’t come. They said they were passing on the festival this year ... they didn’t want to lay eyes on Selene, and she probably felt the same about them. I wondered sometimes if she even remembered their faces anymore. What she had done to my father on her wedding day still lived in his head like a wound that never fully closed. I didn’t think he had ever forgiven her for it.

So it was just me and Ethan. I watched Selene work the crowd ... shaking hands, greeting dignitaries, gliding through the room like she owned every inch of it. I tried everything I could think of to be noticed. Nothing worked. She didn’t even glance my way.

I went back to the hotel room that night feeling hollow.

It was a mating festival, and I had absolutely no desire to do what people came to mating festivals to do. The mood wasn’t there. It was there once ... when I had stolen Selene’s mate from her, when I had been so consumed with making sure she never smiled again. I had been enthusiastic then. Driven, even.

But now? Draven had been right in front of me and I hadn’t felt a single thing.

Ethan tried. He reached for me, tried to coax something out of me that wasn’t there.

"Not tonight, Ethan."

"Why? It’s a festival, Astrid," he said, frustration bleeding into every word.

"I can’t do this tonight. Maybe before it’s over." I turned away.

He turned his back to me in silence and went to sleep.

It took me longer, but eventually I drifted off too.

---

The next morning, after breakfast, I made myself a promise. I was going to find Selene. I wasn’t leaving until I did.

I went to her chambers.

The guards stopped me at the entrance. "Sorry, ma’am. You can’t pass."

I stared at them. They had to be joking. I had left my husband in that hotel room, given up what was supposed to be a perfectly good festival, all because Selene Ironheart had turned my life into something I didn’t recognize anymore ... and these men were standing between me and the one conversation that might finally mean something?

"Do you know who I am?" I said, keeping my voice even. "I’m Luna Selene’s sister. Tell her I’m here."

They didn’t move.

I waited.

Then I saw her coming down the corridor ... a trail of wolves moving behind her, heads slightly bowed, the whole energy of the hallway shifting the moment she appeared.

"That’s her ... Selene!" I raised my voice before I could stop myself. "It’s Astrid!"

I knew she heard me.

A beat of silence passed.

"Let her in," Selene said.

The guards stepped aside.

I crossed the distance between us and pulled her into a hug before either of us could think too hard about it. I felt her stiffen slightly. That was fair. The last time I had hugged her, we were children ... back before I had decided that everything she had should have been mine.

"Hello, Astrid." Her voice was calm. Measured. Not warm, not cold. Just... careful.

She wasn’t happy to see me. I knew that. I wasn’t pretending otherwise.

"We need to talk, Selene." I corrected myself quickly. "Luna Selene. Somewhere private ... away from all of this, please."

She studied me for three full seconds, her expression giving nothing away.

Then she said, "Let’s go."