The Lunar Queen Chapter 97

Cole POV

Walking away from her is the hardest thing I’ve done but she’s hiding something, and as long as she is I can’t talk to her. Every instinct in me keeps pulling toward her anyway. Toward my mate. Toward fixing it. But the second I think about the way she looked me in my face and said nothing, anger twists back through my chest. I head to the dining room for dinner but she isn’t there. The empty seat beside mine feels impossible not to notice.

My mother raises a brow when I walk in. “Where is Lyric?” she asks.

“I’m not sure” I say. Lie. I know exactly where she is. Curled up in our room crying if I had to guess. The thought makes guilt stab at me instantly, and she goes to respond but Joshua speaks first “She went to bed mom, Henry is outside the room now” he says.

Her eyes blaze when she looks at me “Why is she in bed and you are here?” she asks.

“we are figuring some things out mom” I say. The second the words leave my mouth the entire table goes quieter. Too many mated wolves in one room not to immediately feel tension.

Hunter looks at me “Conversation later?” he links.

I just nod at him. I don’t trust myself to speak about it out loud right now.

“Jonathan where is your mate?” Mom asks.

“She is with Sable and Tabitha creating wards around the pack” He says.

“oh Tabitha is still here?” she asks

“Yes she said she will leave once Lyric knows everything she knows” I reply.

She laughs lightly “Oh I know Toby is going crazy without her” She says laughing.

I chuckle “Yeah he told me to stop hogging his mate” I say. The laugh feels forced coming out of me. Hollow.

Lydia walks in the dining room with her mom “Lydia sweetheart I am so happy you are back” Mom says.

She smiles “I’m happy to be back and with all the high ranking couples having pups I’ll be pretty busy” she says looking around the table.

Normally Lyric would’ve made some smart comment by now or smiled at me over the table. The silence from her absence keeps pulling at me.

Winter just shakes her head. “Aria are you grieving your first mate still?” I blurt out

“Cole” Winter snaps.

Every head at the table turns toward me instantly.

I shoot my eyes to her. “I just want to know if it’s only my mate” I respond. The bitterness in my voice surprises even me.

Everyone at the table looks at me. “Cole this is not the place for that” Winter shoots.

“And you know it’s not that simple for her. I’m not saying she was right but it’s more than him just being her first mate” Winter snaps.

“I get you are hurting and I honestly do think that she was wrong but you know she isn’t just grieving her first mate, and yes you died and yes she should care about that or atleast show it more than she has but before you it was only him for her entire life. She went through hell for loving him and being loved by him. No I’m not saying forgive her but cut her some slack because she killed him and if you know your mate then you know what that really did to her” She says.

Her words hit harder than I expect because deep down I already know all of this. That’s what makes being angry at Lyric so complicated. I understand her pain while still drowning in my own.

“Can you help me up Dom, I’m done here” She says.

The entire table is silent. Nobody even touches their food anymore.

I know she is right and I do know my mate and I know she didn’t really show how she felt after killing him. Maybe that was for me. Maybe it was for Aria and Winter or maybe herself but it doesn’t change how it has made me feel.

Aria clears her throat. “To answer your question big brother, I do still grieve him I may not have had a lifetime with him but we had some time and we did have a pup together but he was also a shitty mate to me so it may not be constant that he crosses my mind” She says.

I immediately regret bringing her into this. Her pain flashes across her face for only a second before she masks it.

I don’t even respond I just stand and walk out the room. I can feel my mother’s eyes burning into my back the entire way out.

I head straight to my office, 10 minutes later the guys are all piling in. Elias walk over to my bar and grabs the spiked scotch and starts pouring glasses and passing them around.

Nobody jokes when they walk in. Nobody teases. The mood in the room is too heavy for that.

I thought having all this extended family would be a lot but I do admit it has been a breath of fresh having more male energy around. Eli hands me my glass and I down the entire glass.

The burn barely registers.

He doesn’t say anything and just pours me another glass. He leaves the bottle on my desk and goes to take a seat. I had to add another couch and rearrange my office to fit all of us now.

“Okay tell us what happened” Hunter says.

I look at Joshua “If I ask you will you tell me?” I question before speaking.

The second his expression tightens I already know I’m not going to like whatever comes next.

He runs his hands down his face “I know you don’t want to break her trust and this will do that so if you want I can just Alpha command you and I can take the blame” I say locking eyes with him and he nods his head slowly.

“What happened at the gravesite?” I ask pushing the command as lightly as possible, he winces before speaking.

“The Luna cast a spell to summon Mason’s spirit and he apologized to her and her him and he said he was wrong and that she shouldn’t be there because he knows you wouldn’t like it, and they talked about me and Aria and the pup. He said he got to see his actions and he regrets it and her dad helped him and then after she sent his spirit back her dad’s spirit showed up and she just cried, he didn’t stay long, he just said he was proud of her and he didn’t blame her for his death” he says before taking a breath.

The room feels unnaturally still after he finishes talking. Even the ice in my glass seems too loud suddenly.

Nobody speaks for a moment as we all process the information we just got. She summoned him, she spoke to him. She didn’t just visit his grave she went there to talk to him. That’s where the guilt comes from.

And somehow that hurts worse than I expected it to.

“Okay that was a lot” Hunter says.

“Cole” he says looking at me.

“We argued about her going and choosing me but it not feeling like that and how I feel she didn’t care about what I needed in this situation. Or in general because I died in her arms and it’s like she forgets that” I say summing it up.

Saying it out loud again makes my chest tighten all over.

“Sheesh” Elias says.

“So how do you feel hearing that she summoned him?” Hunter asks.

“After getting an earful from Winter and knowing the history I understand why letting him go has been so hard for her but it doesn’t change how her actions made me feel. It doesn’t change that she did something she knew I wasn’t comfortable with, and when I asked what happened she said nothing” I respond.

That’s the part I can’t let go of. Not even the spell. The lying.

“I will try talking to her again, but I need her to say it, she has to tell me herself or there will be no fixing this” I say taking a long sip.

“You’re going to reject her?” Jonathan asks.

“What?, No I will never reject her but if this doesn’t get fixed I don’t know what that will look like because there will be no trust” I say.

The second the words leave my mouth a heavy silence settles over the room because every mated male in here knows exactly how dangerous that is. A broken bond can survive pain. Survive grief. But surviving broken trust? That’s harder.

We talk for an hour more before Dom’s eyes glaze over from a link probably Winter.

“Well I just got told to get my ass upstairs and I do not want to make Winter angry while her hormones are raging” he says standing.

A few quiet chuckles move through the room, easing some of the tension slightly.

Everybody follows suit “Yeah I think we should all go back to our mates” Hunter says looking at me.

The meaning behind the look isn’t missed. Stop avoiding her.

“I hear you” I say drinking the rest of my glass and walking out. The alcohol leaves a dull burn in my throat but it does nothing to quiet my thoughts.

I stop at the nursery and I notice only Eloise and Adonis in their cribs, I walk through the adjoining door to our room and stop at the sight in front of me.

My chest tightens instantly.

Zachariah is in the bed with her and she is wrapped around him asleep.

Even in her sleep she looks emotionally exhausted. Tear tracks still stain her cheeks and one of her hands is curled tightly in Zach’s blanket like she needed something to hold onto. Zeus immediately pushes toward her, all anger from earlier fading under the ache of seeing our mate like this.

I go in the bathroom and take a shower, letting the hot water beat against my skin while I try to figure out how everything between us became so complicated so fast. when I come out I pick up Zachariah and put him back in the nursery and then I climb into bed with my mate.

The second I lay beside her she relaxes through the bond despite being asleep and instinctively shifts closer to me without waking up. Like her body still reaches for me even when we’re hurting each other.

Tomorrow I hope we can fix this because we need to be united if whatever happened at Dark Valley is something that needs to be dealt with now.

And because the thought of this distance between us becoming permanent scares me more than whatever may be waiting for us in Dark Valley.