Three days after that whole crowning craziness, I was basically living my best life, sprawled on this giant hanging chair in the palace garden, feet dangling, feeding the twins strawberries while they tried to paint each other's faces with whipped cream. Regulus was pretending to work on some boring reports a few meters away, but every ten seconds he'd glance up like I was gonna vanish if he blinked too long. Typical.
Then the head butler came sprinting in like his ass was on fire, tripped over his own robe, and face-planted into a bow.
"Your Majesties… uh… that Isabella chick, former Crimson Moon Luna? She's at the front gate screaming she'll kill herself if the Queen doesn't see her. Says she has some earth-shattering secret or whatever."
I almost dropped the strawberry I was holding. Aurora just smeared cream on Aiden's cheek and giggled.
Regulus snapped his pen clean in half. Ink went everywhere. "Side hall. Now."
Ten minutes later they dragged her in.
God, she looked rough. Hair like she'd been electrocuted, whip scars still raw, belly completely flat. She took one look at me sitting there in a random white sundress and the crown I still hadn't bothered to take off (the kids liked the sparkles, okay?) and just collapsed.
Started bawling like someone ripped her soul out.
"Sister, no, Your Majesty, please please please save me, save Crimson Moon—"
I didn't tell her to get up. Let her kneel. Felt kinda nice.
Regulus dropped into the chair beside me, arm slung over the back of my seat, fingers playing with my hair like this was just another Tuesday.
"Talk," he said. One word. Ice cold.
Isabella was shaking so hard I thought she'd puke.
"The… the baby… the one I lost after the whipping… it… it was never Ethan's."
Dead. Silence.
I actually laughed. Couldn't help it. "Sorry, run that by me again?"
She pulled out this sad little stack of photos from her pocket and just flung them on the floor like dirty playing cards.
I picked one up. Isabella and some blond pretty-boy going at it in a cheap motel. Another in a car. Another in the sacred cave, seriously?? Date on the corner said it was a whole month before that rejection ceremony.
Regulus's power leaked out so hard the windows frosted over. I swear I saw a guard's coffee freeze mid-air.
I was wheezing at this point. "So let me get this straight, you cheated on Ethan, got knocked up by some random dude, then staged that whole dramatic rejection thing so Ethan would feel too guilty to ditch you when the truth came out?"
She was ugly-crying now. "I had to secure my position as Luna… I never thought you'd—"
"End up banged by the Lycan King and pop out his pure-blood twins?" I finished for her. "Yeah. Life's a bitch."
She started kowtowing so hard her forehead left red marks on the marble.
"I know I was wrong! Ethan found out after the whipping, he lost his mind, locked me in the dungeon, he's gonna disband the whole pack, please Your Majesty I'll do anything—"
I stood up, walked down the three little steps, crouched right in front of her and grabbed her chin.
"You want to live?"
She nodded like a broken bobblehead.
"Cool. Three things."
"Anything!"
"Tomorrow. Global live stream. You kneel in the square and confess every nasty detail, how you slept around, how you framed me, how you faked the pregnancy, all of it."
Her eyes went huge.
"Two, every single cent Crimson Moon owns goes straight into my kids' trust funds. Everything."
She opened her mouth, probably to whine.
"Three," I smiled real sweet, "you and Ethan spend the rest of your lives as bottom-tier Omegas in the northern mines. Forever. No rank, no name, no mercy."
She just stared. Like I spoke alien.
I patted her cheek, maybe a little too hard. "Or go die at the gate like you said. Up to you babe."
She collapsed again, sobbed for like five straight minutes, then finally croaked, "…I'll do it."
I stood up, brushed my hands. "Perfect. Butler! Get her the best glam team we have. I want her looking Instagram-ready when she ruins her own life tomorrow."
They dragged her out.
Once the hall was empty Regulus yanked me onto his lap, arms like steel bands.
"You were scary hot just now," he muttered into my neck.
I tilted my head so he could reach the mark better. "You turned me into this."
He laughed against my skin. "And I'm never letting you change back."
Next day, global live stream, round two.
Isabella on her knees in the square wearing the ugliest gray sack-dress we could find. Makeup on point though, looked almost innocent until she opened her mouth and spilled every dirty secret to ten billion people.
The affair. The fake pregnancy. The whole damn plot. Everything.
Internet exploded again. My phone wouldn't stop buzzing.
Ethan got dragged out halfway through, looked like a walking corpse. When he heard the full truth he legit puked blood on camera and passed out. Dramatic much?
I watched the whole thing from the royal balcony, feet up on the railing, Aurora on my lap stealing my popcorn, Aiden sitting on Regulus's shoulders waving at the drones like a little king.
When it was over, Crimson Moon Pack was officially dissolved before dinner.
Every dollar, every inch of land, every rusty spoon, now legally belonged to my babies.
Isabella and Ethan got branded with the Omega mark right on their foreheads in front of the cameras, loaded into a prison transport, and shipped north. Chains and everything.
Haven't heard from them since. Don't plan to.
That night it started snowing, big fat flakes drifting over the palace.
I stood on the balcony wrapped in Regulus's arms, watching the snow melt the second it touched the mating mark, still warm from his lips.
"It's really over," I whispered.
He rested his chin on my head. "The revenge part, yeah. The part where I spend every day making you happy? That's just getting started."
I turned around, stood on tiptoes, and finally said the words I'd been too stubborn to say for three years.
"I love you, Regulus."
He froze. Then crushed me so tight I squeaked.
"I never stopped, Evelyn. Not for one single second."
Behind us the twins were already passed out in their ridiculous new beds surrounded by mountains of toys they bought with their brand-new ex-pack fortune.
The moon was huge and silver and perfect.
For the first time in forever, I fell asleep without planning my next escape route.