novelraw Chapter 124: The price of power
Chapter 124: The price of power
Liana’s expression was distant as she looked out of the window, her posture rigid. Anne sat in silence. The cold elegance Liana usually carried had faltered.
"I was groomed for this life, Anne," Liana began softly, her voice laced with both bitterness and nostalgia. "From the moment I could understand words, I was taught that I would become Luna Queen. That my role was to lead, to be strong, and to marry a man who could rule by my side."
She turned, her eyes distant as though she were looking at a much younger version of herself. "I met Richard a few times before I turned eighteen. He was everything a future Alpha should be—strong, commanding, respected. We had a connection. I liked him. He liked me. We didn’t think of true mates back then. We assumed we were destined for each other. It was a perfect match."
Liana’s voice wavered slightly, and she walked over to a chair, sitting down across from Anne. "But things changed when I turned eighteen. When we both turned eighteen. The day we were supposed to imprint on each other, it didn’t happen." She paused, her eyes shadowed by the memory. "I didn’t imprint on Richard. Instead, I imprinted on someone else."
Anne’s breath caught at the admission. In her pack, the bond between true mates was sacred, but she knew that in certain packs, wolves were expected to reject their mates if they weren’t of high enough rank.
Liana’s eyes glistened with the faintest trace of unshed tears as she continued, her voice softer now, haunted. "In my pack, we don’t accept mates who are of lower rank. It’s a brutal system, but it’s the one we lived by. I had to reject him."
Anne’s heart twisted in sympathy as she listened. She couldn’t imagine the pain of rejecting one’s true mate, the soul-deep agony of denying that bond.
"He was..." Liana’s voice broke slightly, her hands trembling in her lap. "He was everything to me. But my father... he had other plans. He wouldn’t let me choose my true mate. He told me that rejecting him was the only way. And I was young. I was afraid. If my mate hadn’t left the pack, my father would have killed him." She blinked back the tears that threatened to fall. "So, I did what was expected of me. I rejected him, and he left."
She took a deep breath, composing herself. "After that, Richard and I mated. We were both bound by duty, by our packs’ expectations. It wasn’t easy, but we made it work. We cared for each other. But... we could never have a child."
Anne’s eyes widened, realising that this must have been a deep source of pain for Liana.
"We went to healers, doctors, witches—anyone who might have an answer. But nothing worked. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t conceive. And it ate away at me, at us." Liana’s voice had grown hoarse with emotion. "It wasn’t until we sought out an old oracle that we finally understood why."
She met Anne’s eyes, her own filled with a sadness that ran deep. "The oracle told us that because Richard and I were not true mates, we couldn’t have a child together. It was as if fate itself had decided that we were never meant to create life."
Liana looked away, her face a mask of pain. "That knowledge... it broke me. It broke Richard too. We had tried so hard, but the truth was, we were never meant to be parents together."
Anne’s voice was soft but firm when she spoke. "So that’s when you decided to find Richard’s true mate? To have a child through her?"
Liana nodded, the pain evident in her expression. "Yes. It was the only option left. We needed an heir. Richard needed his true mate. And I... I needed to secure our pack’s future. It wasn’t an easy decision, but it was the only one we had."
Anne’s mind spun as she processed everything Liana had told her. The older woman had been through so much, and while she couldn’t excuse everything Liana had done, she now understood the immense pressure and pain that had shaped her choices.
"Weren’t you worried that Richard would leave you once he found his true mate?" Anne asked gently.
Liana’s gaze flickered with something unreadable before she answered. "Of course, I was afraid. But it was a risk I had to take. Our bond may not be one of true mates, but we’ve built a life together based on loyalty and responsibility. That... that’s what kept me going."
"We travelled all over the continent, Anne," she began, her voice steady but filled with years of pent-up resentment. "Every mating ball, every gathering, we attended them all. It was an exhausting, humiliating process watching other couples find their true mates while Richard and I searched in vain. But then... we found her."
Her tone shifted, taking on an edge of disdain. "In Alaska of all places. Richard’s true mate—Jennifer."
Anne’s breath caught at the mention of the name, confirming her hunch that Jennifer was Damien’s real mother.
Liana’s gaze grew cold as she continued, her words dripping with bitterness. "She was a human. A beautiful, young human girl. Barely out of her teens. Innocent, unaware of our world. She had no idea what the mate bond even was when we found her. But Richard..." Liana’s voice wavered, and her jaw clenched tightly. "He was smitten from the moment he laid eyes on her. The bond between them worked instantly, like a fire catching in dry wood. He couldn’t take his eyes off her."
There was an unmistakable sting of betrayal in Liana’s words. For someone who groomed her entire life to be a Luna Queen, to hold a position of power and control, watching her mate fall for another—especially a human—must have been a cruel twist of fate.
"And she fell in love with him," Liana continued, her voice turning venomous. "That girl, Jennifer, didn’t even hesitate. She was captivated by him, completely consumed by the bond."
Despite her hardened exterior, there was an undercurrent of sorrow and loss that ran through her words.
"I hated her, Anne," Liana confessed, her voice tight with the weight of her emotions. "I hated her from the moment I saw her. She was everything I wasn’t—young, innocent, untouched by the world of wolves and politics. She had no idea the kind of power she held over Richard and over me. And the worst part was that she loved him. She didn’t care about his status or his power. She loved him purely, and he... he loved her back."