MATED TO THE SECRET ALPHA-Chapter 249: Turned Against Her
Karl laughed, a bitter, sad, laugh. "If Kael hadn’t messed with the caravans we traded with, if Kael hadn’t tried to sabotage Reana, none of us would have gone to the Southern Islands. Nobody would have DIED!" he yelled.
His voice cracked with fury and heartbreak, echoing across the courtyard like a thunderclap. "Do you know what we went through, trying to bring supplies for winter? Do you know the hell we faced, fighting off raiders, cold, m–monsters?" He stuttered at the thought of those monsters in the wastelands.
"We were ambushed, mother! We fled into the wasteland, faced death, watched our warriors freeze to death, get torn by monsters, disappear into the abyss!" Karl’s voice trembled, loud and raw with the weight of buried suffering. "Do you know how many people died because of Kael’s sabotage?"
His eyes blazed with grief, horror, and tears. "And you dare stand here and scream that she tried to kill me? Reana did everything she could to keep us alive, even when we didn’t deserve it! Even when we spat on her name!"
Katherine stared at him, her mouth open, but no retort came. For once, the ever-powerful, ever-persistent Luna Mother had no venom left to spit.
"She could have exiled us after our repeated attempts to destroy her," Karl said, "She could have simply poisoned us to death!" his voice caught in his throat. "I— I spent years thinking she was the enemy."
He looked at Reana again. She hadn’t moved. Her gaze, cool and regal, remained fixed on him.
"But she never hated us," he whispered. "She had every right to. And yet, she still saved me."
A hush swept over the courtyard. The pack watched, silent and still, the truth weighing heavy in the winter air.
"S–she rejected the Crimson Caravan." Someone whispered from the crowd, voice breaking with raw pain. "If she had accepted to trade with the Crimson Caravan who brought supplies to us, my mate and brother wouldn’t have gone on his mission. And they wouldn’t have died!"
Murmurs of approval broke out in the crowd. The pack members finally saw the opportunity to show their dissatisfaction and many began to throw accusations like knives into the air.
"She made that decision alone and refused to listen to the council!"
"My daughter died out there because of her arrogance! No body, nothing to bury!" the old woman dropped to the ground, wailing. "She was my only child..."
The anguished cry pierced the air, cutting through the rising murmurs like a blade. Others followed, grief fueling fury, sorrow twisting into blame.
"She’d always thought she knew better than all of us! She never listened to anyone! And now, she’s brought us more trouble than help!"
"While our warriors suffered and died on foreign soil, she was frolicking with a servant! Disgraceful! Tueh!"
"They said my father froze into ice and shattered!"
By now, Kira was trembling with fury. Her wolf was fighting to take over. She wanted to tear these ungrateful bastards into a million pieces, but she couldn’t move, because Reana’s fingers were wrapped tightly around her wrist like a leech.
Reana knew Kira more than she knew herself. The moment the people started pouring dirt on her, she quickly gripped Kira, holding her back from going berserk.
As for Reana, she watched calmly as her own people, the same ones she had protected, bled for, starved for, suffered for, turned on her.
Their eyes, red with grief and years of hidden resentment, now burned fresh, wrapped around grief.
And still, she said nothing. She didn’t flinch. She didn’t defend herself. She didn’t beg for understanding.
Because she understood something they did not: grief always needed a villain.
And in the silence of a broken people, she had let herself become that villain, so their guilt wouldn’t eat them alive.
"She watched us fall apart and did nothing to stop it."
"She let her brother destroy the caravans. She let the Southern Island mission fail."
"Why didn’t she ever speak up?! Why didn’t she fight for us like we fought for her when she was chosen as Luna?!"
That final question cracked something deep in the crowd. A dull roar of pain and outrage began to build, surging like a storm.
"She’s caused us more trouble! She caused the death of our loved ones over her ego and pride, and now, the Dark Snow Pack members has a rope around our necks, all because of her!"
A young warrior stepped forward, fists clenched at his sides. "We were told it was for our protection," he said, voice tight with rage. "That we couldn’t trade with Crimson because they were untrustworthy, now, who is the untrustworthy one? My father and brothers went on that mission but never came back! Look at my mother, she’s dead!"
Beside the young warrior, his old mother lay on the ground, unmoving.
Reana’s heart clenched, but she did not flinch.
Her fingers around Kira’s wrist tightened, not out of fear, but as an anchor. For Kira. For herself. Because her body still remembered how to be steel, even when her soul was shattering inside her chest.
The murmurs escalated into a storm. What began as a drizzle of doubt had turned into a flood. Grief, long buried, unearthed itself like bones clawing up from a grave.
"She should step down!"
"She’s no Luna of mine!"
"She let the Dark Snow Pack sink their teeth into us. What’s next?"
"She gave positions to Intruders, broke our traditions, laid with an Alpha from an enemy pack and tried to unify us, to be ruled over as slaves!"
"Traitor!"
"Coward!"
"Monster!"
Kira growled, trembling violently now, her eyes flickering gold. "Luna, please, let me shut them up."
"No," Reana whispered. Her voice was barely audible, yet sharp enough to cut through Kira’s rising snarl.
The warriors from the Dark Snow Pack watched, lips raising in snarls. This was something new. A thing like this could never happen in their Southern Islands. Who would dare speak to their Alpha this way? To think a woman like this, soft and stupid, was what their Alpha fell for.
Yaz and Qasas had no expressions on their faces. They simply watched calmly.
