Chapter 142

Giana lay dying on the same marble floor that had once hosted weddings, visits from royalty, and formal Blood Moon pack ceremonies. Blood pooled under her body, dark and wet against marble.

Kane's claws had ripped straight through her chest—clean, efficient, deadly. All that terrifying magic? Gone. What lay here now was just a dying woman, choking on her own spite.

The woman who'd terrorized an entire kingdom had been reduced to this. Bleeding out on cold stone.

Even dying, she wasn't finished spewing poison.

"Think you've won?" Giana wheezed. Barely audible, but Moon Goddess, the venom in those words. Blood bubbled at her lips. "You think that this doesn’t change anything?"

Kane's arm pulled me closer, solid and warm. Her spell over him was now shattered beyond repair. The golden thread of our mate bond pulsed with warmth between us—stronger than ever after surviving her magical assault.

She'd tried to turn us against each other. All she'd done was prove our bond couldn't be broken. Not by her, not by anyone.

"You don't deserve to be happy," she gasped, trying to sit up even with those gaping wounds. Her lips were bloody, but her eyes still blazed with hatred. "Neither of you deserve a damn thing!"

Her voice grew stronger despite her wounds. Pure spite kept her talking when her body should've quit. Every syllable soaked in the poison of someone who'd always thought she deserved more.

"I worked for everything!" The words came flooding out—years of bitter resentment finally breaking free. "I sacrificed everything for power, for love, for control! You just stumbled into your happiness while I had to fight and scheme for every scrap of recognition!"

I watched this woman who'd terrorized so many people reveal her true nature at last. All her sophisticated plotting had been driven by simple jealousy. She couldn't stand that others had what she felt entitled to possess.

The ballroom bore scars from our battle. Broken glass sparkled everywhere, and the walls bore ugly burn marks from Giana’s runes.

"I deserved David's love more than anyone," she spat, blood spattering her chin. "Deserved to rule, to be respected, feared!"

Her voice broke—a woman who'd never learned you can't force people to respect you. She'd confused fear with admiration. Control with love.

Kane's response was cold. "You deserved nothing. Love can't be stolen or forced and respect can't be demanded. You spent so much time trying to take what others had that you never built anything real for yourself."

Something flickered behind her eyes, just for a second. I glimpsed the hurt that had twisted her into this. But it was quickly replaced by renewed malice.

Giana's laugh was bitter and broken, echoing off the ornate walls like the death rattle it was. "Love? You call what you have love?"

Her gaze fixed on Kane with malicious satisfaction, even as her life force drained away. "You'll destroy each other eventually. Kane will betray you again, just like before. Men like him always do."

"What Kane and I have isn't built on lies," I shot back, not letting her poison get to me. I stepped closer to Kane. Our bond flared with shared determination. "It's built on choice. On trust we've earned through shared struggle."

Kane pulled me closer. "We've been through hell together. Fake love would've crumbled—ours has just gotten stronger."

"You destroyed everything," she hissed, weaker now but still dripping venom. "All my work, my plans, my dreams—you ruined it all."

She kept trying to cast spells with shaking hands—but nothing happened. Her magical trinkets lay in pieces across the floor. A woman who'd once commanded dark magic, now powerless.

"You could've been something great," Kane said, almost sounding sorry for her. "You had intelligence, charisma, magical talent. But you wasted it all on hatred and revenge."

"Great?" Giana's voice cracked, revealing the wounded girl beneath the calculating woman. "I was never allowed to be great! David was the only one who saw what I could become, who thought I was more than just a pretty face!"

For a heartbeat, I saw who she might've been—someone overlooked, hungry to prove herself worthy. But instead of building something positive, she'd chosen destruction.

"You used David," I said quietly, my voice gentle despite everything she'd done. "He didn’t love you. He might have been kind to you, but you stole him from his mate and controlled him.”

She flinched like I'd slapped her. The truth cut right through all her lies.

Giana's eyes flared with one last burst of defiance, mustering her final breath for denial. "He loved me! He chose me!"

"You planted thoughts inside his head," Kane said without sugar-coating it. "You twisted his mind. You destroyed him, forcing him to be what you wanted. That's not love."

Reality shattered something deep inside her. For the first time ever, she looked genuinely wounded instead of scheming. But it didn't last. Her hatred flared brighter—like a candle burning itself out. "You'll never get what we had," she breathed, each word weaker. "Never understand how you’ll do anything for someone you love, how you’ll make them into anything…"

Her breathing turned ragged. Blood loss was winning now. This woman who'd caused so much destruction was finally dying, taking her warped idea of love with her.

Those were her last words. Her eyes went vacant and that evil spark just... went out. Her breathing grew irregular, then stopped entirely.

The ballroom fell silent except for our own breathing. After months of fighting her influence, of struggling against her schemes, it was over. Really, truly over.

Kane drew me tighter against his side as we looked down at her body.

"It's over," he said softly, sounding tired and relieved all at once. "She can't hurt anyone now."

I nodded. Felt relief, sure, but also something like sadness. Giana had been evil, yes. But she'd also been broken. Twisted by her own pain into something monstrous.

When Giana died, her magical trap vanished with her. That crushing weight of dark magic lifted, and the runes that marked the walls faded into nothing.

Footsteps rang out in the hall—the Alpha King and his guards, coming to help. They found us here, beaten up but alive, standing over the woman who'd almost brought down our entire world.

The Alpha King stepped in first, sharp eyes taking everything in. Pack leaders and council members crowded behind him—relief and amazement written all over their faces.

"The conspiracy's over," the Alpha King declared, his voice booming through the room. "The Rogue King is dead, and now his mate has joined him. Her whole network of lies dies with her."

He looked directly at Kane and me, respect and gratitude filling his expression. "We'll throw a celebration for everyone who fought to save our people."

The war was finally over, and for the first time in a long time, the future was bright with possibilities. I should be excited, but the uncertainty and openness left me feeling unsure.

I felt something nudge my fingers. I looked down to see Kane’s hand brushing mine. I looked up at his face and saw him looking just as uncertain as I felt. I grasped his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.

Whatever challenges waited ahead, we'd face them as real partners. The kind built on trust and respect and genuine love—everything Giana had tried to destroy but couldn't understand.

We'd proved something important: real love beats any magic, any mind games, any force trying to tear it down.

Now that was worth celebrating.