The Luna's Revenge: Chosen as his breeder, Born to rule

Astrid’s POV

The court hearing had arrived. Two days had felt like two years in that fucking cell. Still, I didn’t think I was ready to stand before a jury and face trial.

Neither was Draven. We were both anxious about the whole thing.

”It’s time for your trial. Get out!” the guard shouted.

That was how they treated convicts. We were brought before a jury. It was a woman. Her face was the first thing I noticed.

She didn’t look fierce or wicked, so I expected less harshness than I got.

I saw my parents on the other side of the room. They looked like they’d been sitting there for quite a while.

I looked at them and they waved at me. My heart felt a warmth that shouldn’t have been possible inside that freaking cell.

Then I saw Draven’s dad. He didn’t have a mom there. She’d left his dad to marry someone else, or so Draven had told me once.

How could a mother be that cruel, to miss her own son’s trial?

Then I saw Selene’s second father, if not her first, Cipher. The white-bearded man sat there waiting for the proceedings to start. I didn’t think he’d ever believed his daughter was guilty.

”Stand on the podium,” the jury said, and we each stood on one, side by side.

”All rise,” she commanded, and everyone in the room did. We took a minute of silence. I’d never been in a courtroom before, but I guessed that was how they did things ... a moment to honor their heroes and past saviors.

I hadn’t hoped to be in a courtroom again after this, so I couldn’t care less.

We were handed the Morvaine constitution to swear on ... that we would speak the truth and nothing but the truth.

I was panting harder than normal, waiting to see what the outcome would be.

I’m just a pretty wolf. I never expected to go through all this stress.

”Introduce yourselves. The lady first.”

”Um, okay. My name is... Astrid Ironheart.”

Draven paused for a second before he spoke.

(Cough, cough.) ”My name is Draven Blackstone.”

The jury bent her head down to write something. I guessed it was our names.

Her voice was soft, almost like she was soothing us.

”You both stand accused of the murder of Zane ... a case someone else has already been convicted of. But if evidence calls for it, we have to answer it properly.” She looked between us. ”My first question for the both of you: do you have any kind of mutual relationship with each other?”

My heart sank deep into my chest at that question. How the fuck was that supposed to lead anywhere good? I was doomed. I really was, I told myself.

Fuck it. We’d sworn to tell the truth. Only the truth. I ran through what I could possibly say. God, I was trying to check myself for sweat without looking like I was checking.

I didn’t want my guilt to look any more obvious than it already felt.

”She’s my mate’s sister,” Draven cut in.

The jury leaned over and wrote again.

”So why were you both at the scene of Zane’s murder on the night of the festival?” she asked.

”I was taking a tour and happened to stumble upon Draven. That’s all,” I said.

”In the library? That doesn’t sound like a place for a tour.”

”I wanted to learn more about Morvaine, so that night ... maybe it was the euphoria of the festival ... I ended up in the library, and I just... indulged.”

My eyes were wide open as I lied through my teeth.

I was such a badass. I never knew I could go this far. I guess there’s a first time for everything.

”So that means that’s when you stumbled upon Selene killing Zane. Correct?”

”Yes, ma’am,” Draven answered immediately.

”We found something in Zane’s drawer among his belongings ... letters, written boldly to Selene, confessing his love for her. He claimed he’d loved her but never had the courage to tell her. Based on this, there’s no way they could have been enemies to the point of trying to kill each other, as the evidence you brought previously suggested.”

I was careful not to look at Draven. It might have looked suspicious. We hadn’t paid any attention to Zane ... just to Selene ... and now his stupid letters had caught up with us.

Fuck!

”We didn’t know anything about that,” Draven said to the jury. My chest felt too heavy to even breathe.

”No, you wouldn’t have. But it was the truth,” she said.

”Now that we’ve established Selene had no motive to kill him, we also didn’t find her prints on his clothing at the scene of his death. That’s surprising ... someone who murdered a person should have touched them at least once. There should have been a struggle. Yet she was blamed for the murder simply because she was the librarian’s protégée, the closest suspect available.”

The jury wasn’t smiling. She laid out her facts, clear and unshaken.

Her looks had deceived me. She wasn’t warm at all.

We were both speechless. We’d thought that was the end of it. It wasn’t.

”We also have proof that the footage brought before this court was doctored. Something else happened that night. But before I explain, let’s watch another clip.”

I wondered what clip they meant. Everything about this hearing felt aimed at grinding me into the floor.

One of the court workers slid a flash drive into the system to play it on the big screen.

Within seconds it came on, and the entire crowd in the room gasped.

The footage was of me and Draven ... fucking. Oh my god. How could they do this to me?

Gasp after gasp, shout after shout of surprise rippled through the courtroom.

Draven and I finally looked at each other. It was footage of us in our heated moment at the mating festival, in the library.

I had to put my head down. I couldn’t even look at my parents. Whatever was on their faces right now would break my heart worse than anything else in that room.

”This proves one thing,” the jury said. ”Nothing stays hidden under the sun forever. Sooner or later, the truth comes out.”

Murmurs and noise broke out everywhere.

”Silence!” She struck her table with her stick.

”No more questions. We’ll go straight for it now. You and Draven are in a relationship. Selene caught you both that night in your heated moment, and rather than let her expose you, you framed her for Zane’s murder so she’d be exiled or killed ... when you were the ones who actually killed him.”

Tears rolled down my face. I couldn’t hide it anymore. It had finally dawned on me ... there was no escaping this. We were finished.

The jury played the real footage next: me and Draven killing Zane. Nothing we’d tried had worked. The wolf we’d paid to wipe that footage from the Bloodmoon system either hadn’t done it properly, or Bloodmoon had been a step ahead of us the entire time and we’d never known it.

We thought we were smart.

”You both killed Zane. And although Selene has already faced punishment for what you did ... a punishment that may not be reversible ... you will still face your own taste of justice. That is what Bloodmoon stands for. This hearing is adjourned. We will reconvene in four days to pass judgment. That judgment will be delivered by the Alpha of Bloodmoon Pack, per our laws.”

She struck the table again to adjourn the session, and everyone stood to leave. Guards came to pull us off the podiums and march us back to the prison.

Draven couldn’t look me in the eyes, same as always.

”Draven! Draven, look at me ... it’s over! There’s nothing we can do!” I screamed at him through my tears, and all I could see him do was cry too.

In handcuffs, I faced my mom and dad, bracing for a slap, a word of disgust, anything. Instead, they hugged me like I’d just come home from a long trip.

”I love you, Mom and Dad. It wasn’t intentional, I swear,” I sobbed into their arms.

”We love you, sweetheart. That’s all that matters,” my mom said, and they gripped me tight until the guards pried me out of their arms and dragged me straight to my cell ... separate from Draven’s this time.

I lay down on that cold floor with nothing left to do but wait for death.

Then someone knocked on my door.

A minister. Of information. The one who’d gotten us into this whole mess. What was he doing at my cell? What was he looking for now? Ethan Allen had gotten exactly what he wanted. The ambitious freak who chased justice like a hound chased blood.

”I know you think this is the end, Astrid,” he said.

”It is,” I replied.

”No, it’s not. Not if you do what I say. I brought you into this, and I can just as easily take you out of it.”

How could I trust him? How could I even trust myself not to walk straight into a bigger trap?

”What do you want me to do?” I asked, desperation cracking my voice. Freedom was a need now, a pressing one, and I’d have done anything to get it.