Rebirth Of The Rejected Luna Chapter 146: Muted World

**Erika’s POV**

My ears were ringing. The world around me was muted, as my head reverberated with a hollow, echoing chime.

Banished.

The word barely registered because all I could pay attention to was my mother.

Her hands were still bound behind her back and her body stayed lying on its knees, as if she could still rise. But she never would. A grotesque, gaping wound spilled scarlet into the dirt, and where her head had been lay several feet away. The deep red seeped into the cracks of the earth, seeping into the dry soil like ink spreading on paper.

At the edges, the world was blurred. I felt weightless, as if detached from my body as if I were in a world but outside it, watching. The crowd was far away, the crowd had been muffled by a thick, suffocating smell of blood. Of her blood.

I didn’t move when the guards approached.

Didn’t flinch when rough hands seized my arms, their fingers pressing into my flesh, forcing me upright. My legs wobbled, unsteady beneath me, but I barely felt it. The touch of their hands, the uneven ground beneath my feet—none of it seemed real.

The stench of her blood curled in my lungs, coating my tongue. A sickening mix of sweat, dirt, and death clung to me, suffocating, unrelenting.

Somewhere beyond the haze, I heard his voice.

Corvin.

He was no longer my Alpha.

His voice was calm and steady, but I couldn't make out what he was saying. The crowd's murmurs were a distant hum, and the ringing in my ears was deafening. I heard shuffling feet, a gasp, and the clinking of metal, but it was all just a blur.

All that mattered was her. My mother's body slumped forward, stripped of all power and warmth. She was just a broken shell, discarded like trash. I never got to say goodbye. The thought hit me like a punch to the gut, leaving me breathless and reeling.

I took a sharp breath, and my body reacted before my mind could catch up. My hands jerked forward, desperate to touch her, to hold her. I needed to feel her warmth, to know that she was still with me. But the guards yanked me back, their grip tightening like a vice.

A choked sound escaped my lips, but it was swallowed by the buzzing in my ears. I couldn't reach her. I would never hold her again. The realization was crushing, suffocating me beneath its weight.

"Let go of me," I rasped, my voice raw and barely audible. But the guards didn't obey. They dragged me backwards, their grip tightening as they tried to restrain me.

I struggled harder, my vision blurring as tears pricked at the corners of my eyes. Grief and rage twisted together inside me, fueling a wildfire that I couldn't control. My heartbeat pounded in my skull, deafening me to everything else.

"Let me go!" I snarled, louder this time, my voice cutting through the din. But the guards still didn't release me. They held me firm, their faces impassive as they watched me struggle.

I thrashed harder, my body consumed by a fierce, uncontrollable rage. I was trapped, helpless, as I watched my mother's lifeless body being taken away. The injustice of it all burned within me, fueling my anger and my determination to make things right.

"She’s already dead!" one of the guards hissed, his fingers digging painfully into my arms. "Don’t make this worse for yourself."

Worse?

A laugh bubbled up my throat, jagged and bitter, but it never made it past my lips.

How could it possibly get worse?

I twisted sharply, wrenching one arm free just long enough to lunge forward. The world tilted, my muscles screaming as I reached for her—one last, desperate attempt.

But before I could take a single step, a hand clamped around my wrist, yanking me back with enough force to send me stumbling.

Not a guard.

Carlo.

I froze.

My breath hitched, my entire body locking in place as I turned to him. His grip was firm, unyielding, but not cruel. His fingers pressed into my skin, steadying me, grounding me.

His face was unreadable, his dark eyes betraying nothing. No sorrow, no anger.

I wanted to scream at him, shove him away, demand why he was stopping me—but the words caught in my throat, tangled in the knot of emotion suffocating me.

He didn't speak. Didn't loosen his hold.

He just held me there.

“Let me go,” I whispered.

His fingers twitched but didn’t loosen.

“Erika—”

“Let me go!” I snapped, shoving against him.

Carlo exhaled sharply, his expression twisting into something unreadable, something almost… pained. But he didn’t release me.

“Don’t do this,” he murmured, his voice barely above a whisper.

I hated the way his words made my stomach clench, the way his touch grounded me when all I wanted was to lose myself in the storm.

I hated that he was here, that he was seeing me like this.

“Don’t do what, Carlo?” My voice trembled, rage bubbling to the surface. “Fight for the only family I had left? Call out the lies that got her killed? What exactly do you expect me to do?”

His jaw tightened, but he said nothing.

Coward.

That single word echoed in my head, and I knew that he was hiding something.

His eyes flickered to Corvin.

That was all I needed.

I ripped my arm from his grip, my entire body trembling.

“Don’t touch me again,” I hissed.

For a moment, something flashed in his expression. Pain? Regret? But I didn’t care.

I turned away from him.

**Carlo’s POV**

I watched her go, my stomach twisting into knots I couldn’t untangle.

I wanted to stop her.

I should have stopped her.

But I couldn’t.

Not when I was the one who had to make sure she never came back.

Corvin’s gaze slid to me, sharp and knowing. “Sundown,” he murmured, his voice quiet enough that only I could hear. “She’s gone by sundown.”

I nodded stiffly, my throat tight.

Because I understood what he meant.

He wasn’t just talking about banishment.

He was talking about elimination.

I clenched my fists, watching Erika’s silhouette disappear into the trees.

Sundown.

I had until sundown to decide if I was really capable of killing my mate.