Chapter 46: The Fall of Moon Crown

Helena Voss's arrest opened twenty years of sealed records.

Moon Crown wasn't one laboratory.

It was a network.

Doctors.

Council officials.

Pack financiers.

Security officers.

Some knew everything.

Some knew pieces.

Some convinced themselves they were funding legitimate mate-bond research.

The investigation spread across territories.

Adrian suspended six Council officials.

Three resigned before they could be questioned.

Two disappeared.

Cassian wanted to hunt them personally.

I refused.

"We have investigators."

"They're slow."

"They're lawful."

"Exactly."

Rhea sided with me.

Mostly because she enjoyed watching Cassian complain.

Lucian Voss was arrested four days later at a private airfield.

He claimed he knew nothing about his daughter's work.

Financial records disagreed.

Mara Snowe was found with him.

Elodie's aunt had been helping move Moon Crown funds and survivor records for years.

When Elodie learned, she went silent.

I found her outside the university library.

"You okay?"

"No."

I sat beside her.

She laughed bitterly.

"Funny."

"What?"

"I thought my biggest problem this semester was losing Knox to you."

"You didn't lose him to me."

"I know."

She looked down.

"My family helped destroy yours."

"Your grandfather did."

"My aunt continued it."

"Yes."

"My father benefited."

"Maybe."

She looked at me.

"Why aren't you angry at me?"

"I was."

"Not enough."

"That's not your decision."

She stared.

I continued.

"You were cruel to me."

She flinched.

"I hold you responsible for that."

"Okay."

"I don't hold you responsible for crimes committed before you were born."

Her eyes filled.

"How do you separate it?"

"Practice."

I thought about Rowan.

About Marcus.

"You have to."

Elodie wiped her eyes.

"My father wants me home."

"Are you going?"

"No."

"Good."

She smiled weakly.

"I applied for independent student housing."

"Also good."

"And I told him I'm not marrying for Pack alliance."

"Very good."

She looked toward the field where Knox was training.

"We're talking again."

"I know."

"Of course you know."

"Tessa knows everything."

"Terrifying."

"Correct."

Knox and Elodie weren't back together.

Maybe they never would be.

That was their story.

I was glad not to be in the middle anymore.

At Lunaris, reconstruction accelerated.

Moon Crown assets seized by the Court were partially redirected into survivor compensation.

I insisted on it.

Some Council members objected.

I learned that being Alpha involved listening politely to terrible arguments before saying no.

Rhea was better at the politely part.

I was better at the no.

Together, we worked.

A memorial wall was built first.

Every confirmed victim of the Lunaris massacre received a name.

No anonymous numbers.

No subjects.

Names.

Seraphina's name was placed beside Aurelius's.

Rhea stood before it for a long time.

Mom held her hand.

Then Rhea added Elias and Mara Venn to a separate memorial for those who protected Lunaris survivors.

"They weren't Pack," one elder objected.

"They died protecting a Lunaris child," Rhea said.

The elder nodded.

No further argument.

Helena requested to speak with me twice.

I refused.

Marcus requested once.

Also refused.

I didn't need closure from them.

That surprised me.

For years, I thought closure meant hearing the right apology.

Knox apologizing.

People admitting they were wrong.

Enemies explaining why.

Now I understood that sometimes closure was simply deciding someone no longer had access to you.

The Moon Court formally dissolved Project Moon Crown.

All involuntary research was sealed from public exploitation.

Medical findings could only be reviewed through an independent ethics board and only if survivor representatives approved.

Rhea chaired that board.

She was terrifying.

Perfect.

One evening, Rowan and I walked through the new Lunaris medical center.

"You're staring."

"At you."

"Why?"

"You're bossy."

"I'm Alpha."

"You were bossy before."

"True."

He smiled.

His hand brushed mine.

The mate bond warmed.

We still hadn't completed it.

Nobody asked anymore.

At least not to my face.

I appreciated that.

"Do you ever think about what Helena said?" I asked.

"Which horrifying thing?"

"That she predicted us."

"Sometimes."

"Does it bother you?"

He considered.

"Less now."

"Why?"

"Weather forecasts predict rain."

I stared.

"Are you comparing our relationship to weather?"

"Let me finish."

"This better improve."

"A forecast doesn't cause rain."

I paused.

"Okay."

"Helena predicted compatibility."

He took my hand.

"She didn't cause me to stay awake when you couldn't sleep."

My chest warmed.

"She didn't make you send me that old photo."

"She didn't make you think I was catfishing you."

"Still reasonable."

"Still offensive."

I laughed.

He continued.

"She didn't make you choose me after learning the truth."

"No."

"And she definitely didn't make me fall in love with you."

I looked at him.

"How do you know?"

"Because she would've designed someone less argumentative."

I punched his arm.

He laughed.

At the end of the corridor, a new plaque had been installed.

LUNARIS COMMUNITY MEDICAL CENTER.

Below it:

NO RESEARCH WITHOUT CONSENT.

I touched the engraved words.

Seraphina had died resisting people who believed her body belonged to their project.

Rhea had survived them.

I had survived their final attempt.

Moon Crown was over.

Not because every document had been destroyed.

Because the people it tried to reduce to bloodlines had taken control of what happened next.

That was the fall Helena had never understood.

Not the loss of her laboratory.

The loss of ownership.