The Alpha King's Contracted Luna by Nelson Claudia

Chapter 261

Chapter 261

-Grayson’s POV-

The night smelled like blood.

Or maybe that was just because Elaine and I had made it so but it didn’t matter because all I felt was satisfaction.

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Liam had suffered and he would continue to suffer for as long as he continued to live, and I didn’t feel an ounce of guilt about it. No part of me regretted what we had done. A tiny part of me might have wished for things to be different but what was done is done.

The boy I used to be—he would have felt differently. He would have mourned the loss of what Liam and I had once been. He would have carried the weight of it, let it settle like a stone in his chest, suffocating him.

But I wasn’t that boy anymore.

Neither was Liam.

And while I had played a role in what became of us, in how our friendship rotted into something unrecognizable, he had made his choices. He had done what he had done. And as vile, as monstrous, as utterly broken as Elaine had become, she did not deserve what he had done to her.

So, he would pay. For the rest of his life, he would

pay.

“Grayson, quit standing around.”

Elaine’s voice cut through the thick fog of my thoughts. I blinked, only then realizing I had stopped moving.

I looked at her, but my feet wouldn’t move. It wasn’t hesitation–it wasn’t even fear. It was something else.

I had come here for a reason because Elaine had said that if I truly wanted to move on, I had to face them.

My father. My mother.

But now that I was here, all the words I had carefully strung together in my mind unraveled like thread.

“Grayson?”

Elaine stepped closer, concern flickering in her eyes.

I let out a slow breath. “I don’t know what to say to them. Either of them.”

Her expression didn’t soften. It hardened.

“Do you remember all the times you used to come into my room just so he wouldn’t find you?” Her voice was quiet, but there was a sharp edge to it, “How he used to hit you? No matter how many times your mother tried to stop him, he never stopped. Do you remember how much you hated him? How badly you wanted to kill him?”

hard, but I

another step forward. “And then you did. You started that fire, Grayson.” She sucked in a sharp breath, as if steadying herself. “I know you learned to lock up your emotions. I know you taught yourself not to feel anything. But

Because I wasn’t. At least not at him.

despised my father. I always would. But anger wasn’t what I felt–not anymore. I was angry at myself

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Chapter 261

he had won.

he wanted me

Cruel Cold. Feared

worst

I had liked being powerful. I had liked watching people tremble in my presence but

was stuck somewhere in

the promise of a future, but I wasn’t sure who I was supposed

I still the monster my

I

was a bad idea. I never should have ungeved it. Let’s

away and that was

She stopped.

turned back toward me, watching as I looked around, really looked at where we

their inscriptions softened by time. Fresh flowers rested at the foot of her parents graves, carefully arranged and I knew she

only one at my mother’s grave. A single, withering bloom.

her parents, my father–had all been buried near the original

too far from here. The same home I had burned

home where they had

she spoke, “Not

shook my head,

a long time. The air between us was heavy, thick with everything that had been left unsaid

years.

has happened,” she murmured. “And I never thought you and I would ever be standing here together because the fact that we were cousins became nothing but a tag. but here we are.” She exhaled, almost like she couldn’t believe it herself, “Times are changing. So much blood has been spilled, but if you really want to have a future with Ava, like you told Liam, you can’t do that without facing your past.

toward my mother’s grave, “Why don’t you start with

the small, withering bouquet,

didn’t hesitate, “I

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Chapter 261

kiss against my cheek. It was brief, almost weightless, but I felt the hesitation ins it, the silent permission she was giving me to walk away from this if

barely,

Then she left.

there, staring at the grave, at the way the earth had settled, at the cracks

sure how much time passed before

why I moved.

rough beneath my fingertips as I settled in front of the headstone. My gaze flickered briefly to my