Chapter 28 · Celeste Exiled

Celeste Vane received her sentence on a winter morning.

Pack justice was swift when the Alpha demanded it. Attempted murder. Espionage. Conspiracy. The evidence Ethan had compiled—Raven's testimony, the captured rogue's confession, security footage—was irrefutable.

Celeste stood in the great hall, her beauty dimmed, her eyes hollow. She'd lost Northern Ridge's protection. She'd lost Sebastian. She'd lost everything.

"You framed an innocent wolf," Elder Vance intoned. "You hired rogues to murder a mother and her children. You betrayed the pack that welcomed you."

Celeste's gaze found Zaia—standing at the back, Leo and Milo with Priya in the hallway, safe from this ugliness.

"You think you've won," Celeste said. Her voice was raw. "You think he's yours now."

Zaia didn't respond.

"He'll destroy you too," Celeste continued. "He destroys everything he touches. I was a fool to want him. You were a fool to love him."

"I'm not a fool anymore." Zaia's voice was ice. "I'm a survivor."

The sentence: exile. Permanent. No pack territory. No communication with Blackwood or Northern Ridge. A life on the fringes, alone, forgotten.

Celeste was led away.

Sebastian found Zaia in the garden afterward—