BloodMoon: Captivated by the Forbidden Lycan Alpha
Chapter 190: DEATH OF A TRAITOR

Chapter 190: DEATH OF A TRAITOR

{ "The total act of betrayal is broken trust."}

"You’re quiet," Wave said beside me, not even looking my way, and I knew he sensed the turmoil in my heart about everything that had been happening for the past two days.

"I’m thinking," I replied, adjusting the strap on my shoulder, fingers twitching with the need to shift. "Trying to make peace with what we’re about to do."

"You never make peace, Spark," he said. "You go to war. Then make sense of the wreckage later."

I let out a dry laugh. "You sound like my father."

Commander Belle glanced over her shoulder, her pace sharp and certain. "Save the therapy for after the cell doors close. They’re waiting."

We passed the final line of the beach, a threshold of driftwood spires, carved with old sigils, weather-worn but still humming faintly with the pulse of protective wards. General Tiger stood beneath one of those spires like it had grown around him. Still. Solid. Storm-grey eyes unreadable. Ralph, his mate, crouched just behind him in his Rogourau form, massive and silent, golden eyes locked on us like we were prey he’d been told not to eat.

Tiger nodded at Belle, then looked at me. "Don’t let emotions get in the way, Spark. You need to deal with the traitor and crush them so that they make an example of anyone who dares betray the Bay Shifter pack.

I met his gaze evenly. "How can we not feel the emotions about what they have done?"

"Then keep the emotions chained, like the traitors you’re going to visit."

I didn’t respond. What was there to say? The truth hurt worse than claws.

We moved past them, silence trailing behind like a second shadow. The path turned to stone, the air growing damp and tight as the cliffs closed in. The Bay Shifter jail was cut straight into the marrow of our land, hidden from outsiders, even from many in the Pack.

Wave reached me as the stone tunnel began to slope down. "They were family."

"Were," I echoed, hollow in my chest. "They were."

Sam Crest. The Pack’s best water-tracker. My father’s friend. A man I once idolized and Lily... still a girl. Seventeen, maybe. Fire-bright. Wild. Too smart for her good. She followed him, they said. Helped him. Brought the vampires right through our wards like they were guests.

Vampires. In Bay Shifter territory, using the secret paths that led to our homes. Commander Belle’s voice cut through the air like a blade. "No talking once we reach the lower level."

"Understood," I replied automatically.

But I was already hearing her voice—Lily’s—before we even reached the final stairwell. She was shouting something. Furious. Desperate. "Let me talk to Spark! He knows I wouldn’t, he knows I wouldn’t betray him!"

I stopped cold at the bottom step, and my heart clenched. Hard.

Wave’s fingers brushed mine. "You will not go soft on me, Spark?"

The cell door at the end of the corridor glowed faint blue under containment runes. Inside, Sam Crest sat still, eyes hollow. Lily looked up from where she knelt beside her uncle, tear-streaked and wide-eyed. Sam stayed silent on the bench, as if waiting for something to pass over him. Maybe guilt. Maybe judgment.

Belle didn’t wait. "I want their heads," she said, voice like steel dragging across stone. "Both of them."

Lily gasped, recoiling, her hands clutching the bars, and Sam didn’t even blink.

I stepped forward, stunned. "Commander—"

"No!" she barked, cutting through me like a whip. "They betrayed us. They let blood-drinkers into our lands—let them walk our shores, past our wards. They risked the lives of our young. Of our elders." Her gaze swept across the cell like fire, scorching. "Betrayers do not get redemption. They don’t deserve it."

Lily opened her mouth, trembling. "I didn’t—"

"You did!" Belle roared, silencing her with a single, blistering word. "You followed your uncle like a coward or a conspirator. Doesn’t matter which." The air buzzed with power; old magic woven into Belle’s presence. She didn’t need to shift to be terrifying. She was the command made flesh.

Wave stepped forward, arms crossed, voices cold as saltwater. "I agree with her."

Lily’s gaze shot to him, desperate. "Wave, please—"

He didn’t even flinch. "You walked them in. I don’t care if you regret it now. You broke faith. You let leeches near our younglings. If Belle says your head should roll, I’ll hold the blade steady."

I felt the weight of his words in my chest, the bond between us taut and strained.

"You were family," I said, quieter, more to myself than to them.

Belle turned to me, voice like thunder rolled low. "And the family that betrays the pack is worse than any enemy. They know where to strike deepest. You went into Bloodstone Mountain and you led the vampire army to the Bay Shifter Pack. You deserve death."

Sam finally looked up, his face a shadow of the man I once knew. No protest. No denial. Just eyes full of ruin.

Lily collapsed to her knees, sobbing now, not fighting, just unravelling.

Belle drew closer to the bars. "Spark, say the word, and it ends here."

I looked from her to Wave, to the girl sobbing on the stone, and the man who’d once carried me on his shoulders like I was his blood. And still, I didn’t speak, because I didn’t know which truth would hurt more, letting them live or letting them die.

It happened too fast.

One blink and Wave was gone from my side. Just a sharp rush of air, like the room exhaled all at once, and then—crack.

The sound echoed off the stone like thunder underwater.

Sam Crest’s body slumped forward on the bench; his head twisted at a brutal, final angle. Eyes open. Lifeless.

Lily screamed. A raw, shattering sound that split the quiet like glass under a boot. My legs were stone, breath caught somewhere between my ribs and my throat. The scent of death was sharp now—muscle and blood, the silent emptiness that came after a soul was gone.

Wave stood behind Sam’s body, his chest rising and falling slowly. Calm. Collected. Like he’d just cleaned the room, not taken a life.

"Wave..." My voice cracked, barely mine.

He looked at me, unblinking. "It had to be done."

Lily crawled toward Sam, tears streaking her face, fingers shaking as she reached for his still-warm hands. "No, no, no—Uncle—Sam!"

Her sobs echoed through the cell, but no one moved to comfort her. Commander Belle’s boots clicked against the stone floor as she stepped forward, hands clasped behind her back, expression carved from ice.

"Well done," she said, with a smirk that didn’t reach her eyes. "Clean. Efficient. That’s how we deal with traitors."

I turned to her, voice finally breaking free. "He could have spoken. We could’ve gotten answers—"

Belle’s eyes narrowed. "He made his choice the moment he brought vampires to our borders. He said enough."

My fists clenched. My heart felt like it was clawing at my chest. Wave’s presence beside me was steady as ever, but I couldn’t feel steady anymore. Lily pressed her forehead to Sam’s shoulder, sobbing like the grief might drown her.

Lily wouldn’t stop shaking, crumpled beside Sam’s body, her fingers tangled in his shirt like she could pull him back from whatever cold place death had taken him. Her sobs weren’t loud anymore, just jagged little sounds that broke in her throat and scraped against the stone walls.

I stood just inside the doorway, silent. Watching. Bleeding on the inside. Wave didn’t share my hesitation as he stepped forward, slow and deliberate, until he was just outside the flickering edge of the containment field. The magic hummed faintly between them, a barrier made of old laws and older grief.

"Get up," he said.

His voice was calm. Too calm, and Lily didn’t even look at him. "You’ve got one night," he continued, tone edged in frost.

That made her lift her head. Her eyes locked onto his wild, rimmed red, too broken to hold hatred, but too proud to show fear. "One night for what?" she spat. "You already took him from me! What more do you want?"

Wave didn’t blink. "The truth."

She let out a dry, cracked laugh, shaking her head like he’d told a joke in a graveyard. "I told Commander Belle the truth. Since the moment you dragged me into this hole."

"No," he said. "You’ve been crying. That’s not the same."

I watched the air between them tighten, like the whole room was leaning in to hear what would happen next.

"You were with him when the wards broke," Wave said. "You knew the cliffs. You knew the routes. That doesn’t happen by accident." Lily started to speak, but he raised a hand and she stopped. "One night," he said again, voice low and sharp. "Then you talk. Every name. Every plan. Every vampire that stepped onto our land was because of you and your uncle."

She didn’t argue and folded in on herself, her hands slipping from Sam’s body, her face turned to the cold stone floor like it could hold her.

Wave stepped back, eyes never leaving her. I looked at him, but he didn’t meet my gaze. He just walked past me, slow and sure, the way he always did when he knew he was right. As the cell door sealed shut behind us, the sound of it echoed louder than her cries.