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 didn’t say anything.

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 after all this time…

I wasn’t. At least not

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.

man he wanted me to be.

Cruel Cold. Feared

the worst

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

was stuck somewhere in

I wasn’t sure who

the monster my father

I

know what? This was a bad idea. I never should have ungeved it. Let’s just

her heel and started walking away and that was when I finally spoke, “I’ve never

She stopped.

turned back toward me, watching as I looked around,

flowers rested at the foot of

mother’s grave. A

been buried near the original Blackwood home.

far from here. The same home

where they had

when she

my head,

The air between us was heavy, thick with everything that had been

years.

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

gestured toward my mother’s grave, “Why don’t

on the small, withering bouquet, “You really believe they can hear

“I

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Chapter 261

my cheek. It was brief, almost weightless, but I felt the

barely, “Start somewhere.”

Then she left.

settled, at the cracks forming along the edges of the headstone. I let the silence

time passed before I

why I

the ground, the dirt rough beneath my fingertips as I settled in front of the headstone. My gaze flickered