Page 48 of The Forbidden Alpha

He looked at Jaxon, the green glow behind his mask flaring with predatory heat.

“Shane, heir of Half Moon Kingdom, for the attempted violation of my Luna, the sentence is death. I will take his head before sunrise.”

Chapter 26

The room erupted. Gasps rippled through the crowd, but Beka’s cry cut through it all.

Across from me, Shane didn’t flinch. He didn’t look like a prisoner, but a man who had already read the final page. Obsidian traveled over the bruises on my neck, and for a second, the mocking smirk faltered, a delirious look widening his eyes. Then they went soft, morphing into a look of yearning so raw it felt sacrilegious, making my skin crawl. It twisted something inside me.

“I keep my promises,” he mouthed. His eyes searched mine, desperate for something I couldn’t name.

The scream from Emilia cut through the moment. Shane didn’t blink, the manic look returning.

“You look beautiful in my marks, Princess,” he mouthed, the words silent but unmistakable.

“Wait!” Alpha Hannes’s voice thundered, his fist slamming against onyx like a gavel, the sound echoing. He stood, his violet eyes flashing to gold. “Alpha Ethan, you cannot bypass the High Law. This is a table of Twelve. An Heir cannot be put to the sword without the Right of Tongue. We will hear from the Half Moon Heir, or this is no trial—it is an execution.”

Ethan’s knuckles popped, but he inclined his head. “Observed.”

Every eye locked in on Shane.

He didn’t stand. He leaned back in his chair, the silver chains at his wrists rattling. He didn’t look at Hannes or his father. His stare never faltered from me.

“The King has forgotten the weight of the crown he stole,” Shane said. His voice wasn’t the arrogant sneer I knew, but something quieter. “Shadows always return to the hand that cast them.”

“Enough of your games, boy! Speak plainly! Beg for leniency,” Jaxon hissed, his face a mask of agony.

Shane’s lips curled into a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. He leaned forward. “The moth doesn’t remember the flame from the summer before,” Shane whispered, his words running over me like a reverent caress. “But the flame remembers the moth.”

He looked at Ethan, the smirk returning.

“Strike me. Bleed every last drop,” he said, his voice rising to fill the Hall. “You’ll never be rid of me. Time and time again, Princess, I’ll never stop coming for you.”

He sat back, closing his eyes, already somewhere else. “Let the King have his blood.”

A guttural scream sliced disrupted the hall as Luna Emilia caved in on herself. She bolted from her seat, her silk gown tearing as she fumbled toward me. She threw herself at my side, clawing at my shoes with trembling fingers.

“Adea, please!” she sobbed, her silver eyes filled with grief. Her forehead hitting the top of my shoes, her black hair cascading around her. “He is my only son. We took you in, please. Mercy! Have mercy!”

I reeled back. This was the most emotion Emilia had shown in the years I’d known her. Pain and sadness morphed my features as my heart bled for the mother she was, even as my skin burned with the memory of the bruises she’d chosen not to see. I didn’t have forgiveness for her. But I recognized the woman who had traded my safety for her own peace of mind, and I looked away.

I looked to Shane, who was finally looking at her. He smiled. Of course he enjoyed her degradation. Even his mother wasn’t exempt from his depravity.

I looked to Ethan. He was a statue of malevolent vengeance, the green glow coming through the slits flared with promise. I reached for him, my fingers finding his muscular forearm.

“Ethan,” I said, my voice loud enough to cut through Emilia’s wailing.

He didn’t move, but the tension in his arm shifted. He was listening.

“Don’t give him the dignity of a quick end. Give him a life he has to live with—one where he remembers what he lost every time he draws breath.”

Ethan’s head turned. The silence stretched between us until finally, he looked to Jaxon.

“One hundred lashes,” Ethan declared. “If he lives, you will exile him. His title stripped, and he’s never to set foot on Half Moon soil again. If he is ever found within the Desert’s reach, he will be hunted like the rogue he is.”

My mate leaned forward, the iron spikes of his mask inches from Jaxon’s pale face.

“If you choose to break any of these commands, I will kill him myself. I will wage war against your kingdom and I will win. Not a soul will be left living on your territory. I’ll wipe Half Moon from the map. I offer this deal solely on behalf of my mate. Because she is kinder than your blood deserves.”