Chapter 360: The Secret
CIAN
I turned to Valentine and Madeline. They were still standing there sohow, watching the entire scene unfold.
"I’m pretty sure I said you could go."
My voice ca out harder than I ant it to. More authoritative. The kind of tone that left no room for argunt.
Valentine’s eyes flickered toward Teagan, then back to . For a second I thought he might say sothing. But he simply nodded and gestured to Madeline. They moved toward the door together without another word.
The sentinels followed.
Their boots echoed against the stone floor as they filed out one by one. The heavy door shut behind them with a dull thud that seed to swallow all the sound in the room.
Now it was just
and Teagan.
She was still on her knees. Her hands were shaking where they rested against her thighs. Tears stread down her face in steady tracks, carving clean lines through the dirt sared across her cheeks.
I looked down at her.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
The words ca out quieter than before, but there was no softness in them.
Teagan let out a choked sob. Her whole body shuddered with it.
"I had an affair with Aldric."
Her voice broke on his na.
I felt my jaw tighten but I said nothing. I waited.
She swallowed hard and forced herself to keep going.
"It was supposed to be a one ti thing. Just once." Her hands curled into fists against her lap. "My husband and I were going through a rough patch. We had been trying for a child for years and nothing worked. He thought it was my fault. He said it out loud more than once. Made
feel like I was broken."
Her breath hitched.
"Aldric said the right words. He made
feel pretty. Like I mattered." She wiped at her face with trembling fingers. "One night with him showed
it wasn’t my fault. I got pregnant. I kept my secret. I raised my boy."
She paused, her chest rising and falling in uneven jerks.
"Eventually my husband realized it wasn’t
who couldn’t perform. It was him." Her voice dropped to barely more than a whisper. "He challenged
about it when he knew. He was going to ruin my life. Ruin Ronan’s life. The sha of it would have destroyed everything. All three of us."
I stared at her.
Sothing cold and sharp settled in my chest.
"Until what?" I said.
She flinched at the question like I had struck her.
"Until what, Beta Teagan?"
Her eyes squeezed shut. Fresh tears leaked out from beneath her eyelids.
"You can punish
for all of his sins," she whispered. "I will take it all because I am responsible."
"Until what?"
She opened her eyes. They were red and raw and filled with sothing that looked like resignation.
"I had to tell Aldric," she said. "He ca up with a plan. A way to keep my secret safe. To make sure Ronan didn’t suffer the sha of what we had done."
Her voice cracked completely.
"We killed him. We killed my husband."
The room went silent.
I felt like the air had been sucked out of my lungs.
For a mont I couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. I just stood there staring at this woman kneeling in front of
while the truth of what she had just said settled into my bones.
Then sothing clicked.
"Now that I know Uncle Gabriel is not an enemy," I said slowly, "so of these things make so much sense."
Teagan’s head jerked up. She looked at
with wide, terrified eyes.
I let out a bitter laugh.
"So he wasn’t killed by soone working for Gabriel." My voice ca out flat. "I rember a sentinel literally took the fall for that. An innocent man I am sure."
She nodded once. The movent was small and broken.
"I know the sins I have committed," she whispered. "I know I need to be punished. The choices I made are what led to all of this."
Her hands twisted together again in her lap.
"Because when Ronan learned what happened. Why he suffered in the hands of his father for so long. Why that man resented him. And how that man wasn’t really his father at all." Her voice shook violently now. "He hated
to hell and back."
She looked up at
with desperate, pleading eyes.
"I’m sure that is when Aldric got his claws into the boy."
I stared at her.
Ronan was supposed to be my sworn brother.
We had grown up together. Trained together. Stood side by side more tis than I could count.
And all of it had been a lie.
"Nothing he has done," I said quietly, "and nothing you have said gives
reason to pity him."
Teagan’s face crumpled.
"Hearing this does make
sad for him," I continued. "Because he could have told . I would have gotten it. I would have understood him."
My jaw tightened.
"But he didn’t. Instead, he joined hands with a man who has tornted my family. He played
like a fucking fool because he wanted to. He didn’t have a gun to his head. He has a choice and he didn’t choose ."
"Please, Cian, please." Teagan’s voice rose in pitch. "He would be beheaded. They will behead him."
I looked down at her kneeling there in front of .
"So be it."
For a second she didn’t move.
Then sothing in her snapped.
She let out a raw, guttural sound that didn’t even sound human. Her whole body seed to collapse inward for a heartbeat, folding in on itself like she had been struck.
Then she lunged.
She moved faster than I expected. Her hands ca up toward my throat and her weight slamd into
before I could fully process what was happening.
I stumbled back a step.
Her fingers clawed at my neck, my face, anything she could reach. There was no technique to it. No skill. Just wild, desperate violence fueled by grief and a heck of a fury.
I caught one of her wrists and twisted it away from my face.
She swung with the other hand.
Her nails raked across my cheek. I felt the sting of it, sharp and hot.
I grabbed her other wrist and shoved her back.
She stumbled but didn’t fall. Her breath ca in ragged gasps. Her hair hung in wild tangles around her face and her eyes were wide and unfocused.
She ca at
again.
This ti I was ready.
When she swung, I sidestepped and caught her arm mid motion. I twisted it behind her back and used her own montum to pull her off balance.
She let out a strangled cry and tried to wrench herself free.
I hooked my leg behind hers and swept her feet out from under her.
She went down hard.
The impact knocked the air out of her lungs with a sharp gasp. I followed her down, pressing my knee into the small of her back to pin her in place.
She thrashed beneath .
Her hands scrabbled uselessly against the floor, trying to find purchase, trying to push herself up. Her breath ca in short, choked bursts.
"Stop," I said.
She didn’t stop.
She twisted and bucked and tried to throw
off with everything she had left.
I pressed down harder with my knee and grabbed both of her wrists, pinning them against the floor on either side of her head.
"Stop!"
This ti my voice ca out low and cold.
She finally went still.
Her body sagged beneath . All the fight drained out of her in one long, shuddering breath.
I heard the door slam open behind .
Footsteps pounded into the room. The sentinels had heard the commotion and co running back.
"Take her," I said without looking up.
They moved quickly. Two of them grabbed her arms and hauled her to her feet. Her legs barely seed to hold her weight. She swayed between them, her head hanging forward.
I stood slowly and stepped back.
My cheek still stung where her nails had caught . I wiped at it with the back of my hand and my fingers ca away streaked with blood.
I looked at Teagan.
She was looking back at
now with eyes that were empty. Hollow. Like she had already given up.
"You will be charged with conspiracy to commit murder," I said. My voice was steady. Detached. "You will be charged with adultery under pack law. You will be charged with obstruction of justice for concealing the truth of your husband’s death."
I paused.
"And you will be charged with assault on the ruling Alpha."
Her head dropped.
She didn’t try to argue. She didn’t try to defend herself.
She just stood there between the sentinels like a ghost.
"The only rcy I offer you now," I said quietly, "is the chance to make peace with your son."
Her shoulders started shaking again.
"It all ends today."
The sentinels didn’t wait for further instruction. They turned and started dragging her toward the door.
She didn’t fight them this ti.
She went limp in their grip and let them pull her along without resistance.
Just before they reached the door, she lifted her head one last ti and looked back at .
Her lips moved like she wanted to say sothing.
But no sound ca out.
Then they were gone.
The door shut behind them with a heavy thud.
I stood there alone in the empty room.
My hands were still shaking.
I looked down at them, at the blood sared across my knuckles from where I had wiped my cheek.
Ronan was my cousin. That was hard to accept.
Aldric had fathered him in secret.
And Teagan had killed her husband to keep that secret buried.
I closed my eyes and drew in a slow breath.
What else was going to co out soon?
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