Chapter 30: The Heir's Judgment

Marcus Vale stared at me as if he still expected the frightened freshman he had imagined from old records.

He was wrong.

For the first time since learning the name Lunaris, I understood why everyone kept reacting to my wolf. The power beneath my skin was not asking me to attack him. It was asking me to decide.

Cassian stood several feet away, breathing hard. Rowan remained between Marcus and the broken window. Knox guarded the stairwell behind us.

Marcus smiled again. "Well? Your Pack was slaughtered. Your grandfather died because of me. Surely the great Lunaris heir wants blood."

I hated how easily he said it.

"You want me to kill you."

His eyebrows lifted.

"Because then you become the victim," I continued. "You get to die claiming Lunaris is exactly what you always said it was—a dangerous bloodline that shouldn't have power."

Cassian's jaw tightened.

Marcus's smile disappeared.

I stepped closer. "No. You don't get that ending."

"You think a courtroom can hold me?"

"I think eighteen years of evidence can bury you."

He laughed. "Child, half the Council owes its position to people like me."

"Then maybe half the Council needs to fall."

Golden light spread over my wrists.

The strange pressure in the corridor deepened. Marcus's knees bent for half a second before he caught himself.

His eyes widened.

Rowan looked at me sharply.

I felt it too.

Not domination.

Recognition.

My wolf was demanding acknowledgment from someone standing on Lunaris business after confessing to Lunaris bloodshed.

Marcus fought the pressure.

"You haven't even been confirmed."

"Maybe my wolf didn't read the paperwork."

Knox made a choking sound that might have been a laugh.

Marcus lunged.

Everything happened at once.

The silver blade flashed toward me.

Rowan moved faster, but I was already moving.

Months of training took over. I twisted aside, caught Marcus's wrist with both hands, and drove my knee into his forearm. The blade hit the floor.

Marcus struck my shoulder.

Pain exploded down my arm.

Before he could attack again, Rowan slammed him into the wall.

Cassian kicked the silver blade away.

"Enough," Rowan growled.

His Alpha command shook dust from the ceiling.

Marcus froze.

Security thundered up the stairs seconds later.

Adrian Vale entered behind them.

He looked at Marcus for a long moment.

No anger showed on his face.

That was somehow worse.

"My father mourned you," Adrian said.

Marcus laughed weakly. "Your father was sentimental."

"He blamed himself for your death."

"Orion always blamed himself for everything."

Adrian's eyes turned silver. "You let him."

Marcus said nothing.

"You murdered people under our name. You corrupted Council security. Then you disappeared and let Nightvale carry questions it didn't know how to answer."

"You enjoyed the power I preserved for you."

Adrian stepped forward.

"No. You preserved nothing. You poisoned it."

Security restrained Marcus with silver-resistant cuffs designed for high-ranking wolves.

As they dragged him away, he looked at me.

"This isn't over."

I believed him.

Not because I thought he would escape.

Because men like Marcus never built systems alone.

Back in the main chamber, the attack had been contained. Several infiltrators were arrested. Judge Voss, the judge removed from my hearing, had apparently vanished before authorities could detain him.

Councilor Vael survived the attack.

He looked twenty years older than he had when he entered.

The presiding Moon Court judge called an emergency recess.

I almost laughed.

"Recess?"

Rowan touched my uninjured shoulder carefully. "Courts enjoy procedure even during attempted coups."

"My hearing was interrupted by the living architect of my family's massacre."

"Technically, yes."

"And we're taking a recess."

"Also yes."

"Your government is ridiculous."

"Frequently."

A medic approached me.

I tried to wave her off.

Rowan gave me a look.

"What?"

"Your shoulder."

"It's fine."

"You got hit by a seventy-year-old terrorist."

"That sounds much less impressive when you say it like that."

"He is still an Alpha-trained wolf."

"Formerly."

"Nessa."

"Fine."

The medic examined me. Nothing was broken.

While she wrapped my shoulder, Mom arrived.

She hugged me so hard I forgot the injury and hissed.

She immediately pulled back.

"You're hurt."

"Bruised."

"I told you not to run after him."

"I know."

"You did it anyway."

"I know."

Her eyes filled with angry tears.

Then she grabbed my face and kissed my forehead.

"You are exactly like my father."

"Apparently everyone keeps telling me that."

"That was not a compliment."

Mireya joined us.

"It was from me."

Mom glared at her.

For one absurd second, surrounded by broken stone, armed guards, and political scandal, I laughed.

The Moon Court resumed three hours later.

This time, Marcus sat behind a reinforced barrier.

Silvercrest withdrew its request to suspend my claim.

Not voluntarily.

Their evidence had collapsed.

Mara Snowe was wanted for conspiracy, kidnapping, unlawful surveillance, and suspected cooperation with Marcus.

Garron Snowe's historical role had been confirmed by Aurelius's records and Vael's confession.

Then the presiding judge addressed me.

"Nessa Arden, the challenge to your maternal succession is dismissed."

I stopped breathing.

Mom squeezed my hand.

The judge continued.

"Selene Lunaris's renunciation occurred under extraordinary threat, used an assumed identity, and did not explicitly renounce succession rights on behalf of future descendants. The Court therefore recognizes you as a legitimate direct descendant of Alpha Aurelius Lunaris."

Whispers swept through the chamber.

"However, legal descent does not automatically restore a dissolved Pack."

I nodded.

"You must complete the traditional recognition process. Surviving Lunaris members must be given an opportunity to register support or objection. Territorial residents must be consulted. A final Alpha recognition hearing will follow."

"So I haven't won yet."

The judge almost smiled.

"This is not a competition, Ms. Arden."

I glanced toward Silvercrest.

"Could've fooled me."

Someone coughed to hide a laugh.

The judge continued more sternly. "Do you wish to proceed?"

I looked toward the gallery.

Mireya.

Garrick.

Lyra.

Cassian.

My mother.

People who had hidden their names for eighteen years.

Then Rowan.

He didn't nod.

Didn't tell me what to do.

He simply waited.

Exactly as he promised.

I turned back.

"Yes."

The word felt heavier than anything I had ever said.

"I want to proceed."

The silver runes beneath the Court floor flickered.

A murmur swept through the room.

The judge looked down in surprise.

Cassian stood.

Golden light spread through the crescent symbol beneath my feet.

My wolf lifted her head.

Then a howl echoed from somewhere outside the Moon Court.

Another answered.

Then another.

Mireya began crying.

The judge stared at me.

I swallowed.

"Is that normal?"

"No," Rowan said from behind me.

Cassian smiled for the first time that day.

"For Lunaris," he whispered, "it is."