A Broken Kitten Figurine, A Broken Unborn Pup Chapter 16

A Broken Kitten Figurine, A Broken Unborn Pup Chapter 16

I had no idea what measures Blake enforced after leaving the clinic that evening.

But within forty-eight hours, Wendy was dragged into the grand tribunal hall of the Elder Council.

She had managed to dress in her usual luxury wear, a brilliant moonstone brooch pinned firmly to her collar—a pathetic attempt to maintain the illusion of her former status.

Blake sat on the high judicial throne, his face completely bloodless beneath his bandages. His internal injuries were far from healed, yet the sheer velocity of his Alpha aura kept the entire room in a terrified silence.

Wendy looked up at the high throne, her eyes instantly filling with heavy tears. “Blake, are you truly putting me on trial? For her?”

Blake didn’t offer a single word in response.

Jack initiated the projector, broadcasting the restored security logs across the massive screen for the entire council to see.

Zoe was seated in the front row of the gallery, her tiny frame rigid.

The moment the high elder’s gavel crashed down, declaring the evidence valid, all the color drained from Zoe’s face.

Assuming she was terrified for her mother, I bent down, entirely unsure of how to comfort her.

Before I could speak, her tiny fingers wrapped around my sleeve with desperate force. “Tessa…” she whispered, her voice trembling. “It… it wasn’t me who killed your baby, right?”

“No, sweetie,” I said, locking my hand over hers. “It was never you.”

Tears spilled from her eyes, her chest heaving as she let out a long, broken wail of absolute relief. “I… I’m not a bad pup.”

I dropped to my knees on the stone floor, pulling her small, shaking body flus against my chest. “No. You have never been a bad pup, Zoe.”

Witnessing the embrace from the defensive box, Wendy lost every shred of her composure. “I did every single thing for you!” she shrieked, her fingers clawing at the wooden barrier.

“Zoe, you are the Alpha heir! You cannot let a common outsider and her bastard take what belongs to you!”

Zoe shook her head violently, her face buried in my neck. “I don’t want any of it! I never wanted it! I just wanted someone to love me!”

A bailiff stepped forward, delivering Peter’s signed confession to the high elder.

The document detailed every transaction. Wendy had instructed him to use any means necessary to defile me publicly, allowing her to brand me as a loose woman and paint my lost pup as a rogue’s bastard, entirely unfit for the pack lineage.

Wendy collapsed onto the bench, her eyes completely hollow.

The High Elder cleared his throat, reading the consensus of the Council: “Wendy Turner, you are hereby stripped of every privilege associated with the title of Former Luna. Your administrative access to the Stagford Pack is permanently frozen, and you are sentenced to immediate, absolute exile from this territory. You are legally barred from approaching Zoe Turner for a period of three years.”

“Peter Vance is hereby remanded to the High Werewolf Tribunal to serve a life sentence in the silver mines.”

The security guards moved forward, locking the cuffs around Wendy’s wrists.

As they dragged her past the gallery, she lunged toward her daughter one last time. “Zoe, your mother did everything for your future…”

Zoe looked up, her cheeks stained with tears. “But you never once asked me what I wanted, Mommy.”

Wendy looked as though she had been struck across the face. Her knees buckled, and she allowed the guards to hoist her limp body through the heavy exit doors.

Throughout the entire proceeding, Blake never cast a single glance in her direction. His eyes were locked entirely on my face.

I could read the desperate, agonizing apology written in his features.

But I no longer had any use for it.

Three days later, we met at the Elder Council Hall to sign the final dissolution decree.

Once the ink dried on this document, our bond would be completely severed, leaving no path for retreat.

I penned my signature on the parchment without a second of hesitation, sliding the document across the mahogany table to him.

Blake stared at the paper in a heavy, prolonged silence before lifting his red, swollen eyes to mine. “Tessa… if I try my hardest to learn how to love you properly right now… is it too late?”

I looked into his eyes, my expression perfectly serene. “Some things, once missed, are gone forever, Blake.”

His shoulders slumped, and he let out a long, ragged breath. Slowly, his fingers wrapped around the pen, and he pressed his name into the final line.

The ancient silver runes along the border of the parchment flared into brilliant light. Blake muffled a groan, his chest heaving as the unique, heavy scent of amberwood that had lived in my senses for over a year vanished entirely.

Our mate bond was broken. The invisible thread that had bound us together was cleanly severed.

In that final millisecond before the connection went completely dark, I caught the echo of his inner wolf letting out a long, agonizing death-wail in the depths of his consciousness.

Then, everything went completely silent.