Chapter 197: The Moment She Walked Away
He shot out of bed, grabbed one of his wireless receivers, and handed it to Emma.
"Alpha Brandon, the suspects are with us," a deep voice reported.
The tightness in Brandon’s face eased.
"And the footage?" he asked, sitting up straighter.
"We recovered everything, Alpha."
A slow smile spread across his face.
"Thank you."
He ended the call and pulled Emma into his arms. He held her so tightly she laughed and pressed a hand against his chest.
On Friday moonrise, they returned to her old pack with a security team. The officers spread out the moment the vehicles stopped.
Brooklyn , Elara and Emma stepped out and watched them move toward the house to begin the search. After that, they would head to the security department to see the suspects themselves.
The doors were shut but unlocked.
One of the security officers pushed a door open and stepped inside. The others followed.
Emma took one look at the wall and gasped.
A dark, dried bloodstain stretched across the white paint.
She stumbled back two steps and grabbed Brooklyn’s arm.
More blood marked the floor.
The officers moved deeper into the house, checking each chamber one by one.
In one bedchamber, used condoms littered the floor. Blood-speckled sheets lay twisted across the mattress.
The search continued for nearly an hour.
Drawers were emptied. Closets were checked. The furniture was moved.
Nothing.
The officers finally called off the search, and everyone returned to their vehicles.
A short time later, they arrived at the territory security department.
Lunara was the first person Emma saw.
She froze.
The woman standing there looked nothing like the Lunara Greens she remembered. Bruises covered her face. A thick bandage wrapped around her head. One eye was swollen and nearly shut.
Emma blinked hard, but tears still filled her eyes.
Beside her, Elara and Brooklyn barely reacted. They looked at Lunara for a moment, exchanged a glance, and turned away.
Lunara’s eyes found her.
Her shoulders sank.
She dropped her gaze to the floor and quickly wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand.
She stepped forward.
"What did I ever do to you, Lunara Greens?" Her voice shook. "After everything you and Daniel did to me, you asked for that house. I still gave it to you."
Lunara let out a dry laugh.
"Don’t act like you did me a favor."
She lifted her head and looked straight at Emma.
"That house belongs to us. Brandon gave it to us."
"You asked for money, silver. After everything you did to me, I sent it."
Lunara gave a short, bitter laugh.
"If you had sent the last one, I wouldn’t even be here."
She leaned forward, eyes sharp.
"The amount I asked for is nothing to a Moon Prince with fifty companies around the world." Her voice sharpened. "You’re both wicked. If I were Damon, I would’ve released that footage already. I would’ve made sure that even if I got caught, someone else would still leak it."
She shoved her chair back.
"Take me away."
One of the security warriors stepped in. She moved past him without waiting.
Emma shot up from her seat.
"Look at yourself," she said, voice breaking. "Ask yourself if this is Lunara Theresa raised."
Lunara stopped, half-turned.
Emma yelled at her.
"Must you be like Daniel? Penny is also his pup. She didn’t get proper support because her mother had been in a dungeon since she was just eight, but she’s not like Daniel."
Her voice cracked, but she didn’t stop.
"Can’t you just be yourself? Can’t you simply be Lunara?"
Lunara’s jaw tightened.
"She’s not like Daniel because he didn’t raise her," she snapped.
Emma didn’t stop. Words poured out of her, faster, louder. Her voice cracked as tears slid down and soaked her sleeves.
Lunara shook her head, eyes glassy.
"I admitted my mistakes. I changed, and no one saw it. No one believed me." She stepped back, shaking. "Just... go, Emma. Let me be."
She turned and walked out.
The guards followed close behind.
Silence settled in the hallway.
Emma dropped into the chair like her strength left with her. Her shoulders shook as she cried, head bowed.
Brooklyn reached her first, then Elara. They pulled her up gently.
Elara opened her clutch, took out a handkerchief, and pressed it into Emma’s hands.
Emma wiped her face without looking up.
"Alpha’s mate," one of the officers said carefully. "Do you want to speak with the traitor?"
Emma shook her head once.
"No."
"My mate will come and talk to him later."
She turned and walked fast toward the convoy, head lowered, shoulders tight.
She stood still for a moment, then reached into the bag she was holding. Her device had been vibrating nonstop.
She glanced at the screen and answered.
"Mother."
"Soft fang," Emily’s voice came through. "How are you?"
"I’m fine, mother."
"We just heard what happened. Your father is already handling it. Can you come to see us now?"
"No, mother."
A silence hung between them.
"Are you at home?"
"On my way."
"Alright. I’m coming there."
The call ended.
Emma lowered the device slowly.
"What does Damon want?" Lyn asked.
No one answered right away.
She exhaled and shifted her weight.
"If money was the issue, he would’ve just asked for it. That wasn’t it," Elara said.
Silence settled again.
Emma looked between them.
"There’s something I can’t figure out," Brooklyn said finally.
"What is it?" Emma asked.
"Where were they when security caught them?"
"In a hidden place," she said.
Brooklyn shook her head slightly.
"Then who stained the wall in your old house? Did Lunara kill someone there?"
"I don’t know," Emma said quietly. "Security is still working on it."
She glanced at Brooklyn and Elara. Something in her face softened for a moment.
A breath left her lips, slow this time.
Her shoulders dropped a little as the tension eased.
For a second, her thoughts drifted away—back to her chamber, her royal mating gown waiting to be unpacked.
A faint smile curved at the corner of her mouth the moment she stepped into her chamber.
She stood before her mating outfits, still adjusting the fabric between her fingers when her device rang. The vibration cut through the quiet of the chamber, and she hesitated only a second before lifting it, but Morgan’s voice was already breaking through the moment she answered.
"Emma... please," Morgan said, her voice rough, strained in a way Emma had never heard before. "If Evan is in your dungeon, just let me talk to him. I need to hear his voice. If my mother doesn’t hear from him within the next hour, her blood pressure will spike again."
Emma frowned slightly, turning away from the mirror as the fabric slipped from her hand and fell against her side. "Slow down," she said, her tone firm but controlled. "I didn’t see Evan. I was supposed to meet him, but he never showed up."
"He was there," Morgan snapped back immediately, panic rising now. "I was talking to him myself when one of your guards stopped him. He said he’d call me back... and then he just vanished."
That made Emma pause. Her grip on the device tightened as her gaze shifted unfocused, replaying the words in her mind. Slowly, she pulled the device away from her ear and dialed Evan’s number.
It rang once.
Then switched off.
Her jaw tightened. She let out a slow breath through her nose, lowered the device from her ear without another word, and immediately dialed Morgan’s number.
"Morgan, I’ll call you back," she said quietly, and hung up.
The silence that followed felt heavier than the conversation. Emma stepped out of her closet, still holding the fabric in her hand, and crossed the chamber with quick, uneven steps toward the intercom.
She pressed the button once.
"Lynda," she called, her voice steady but edged. "Did Evan come here today?"
There was a pause on the other end, longer than it should have been.
"Yes..." Lynda answered at last. "He did. But he left with some guards a few hours ago."
Emma’s fingers curled tighter against the edge of the panel. "Then why wasn’t I informed the moment he arrived?"
Another pause followed, thinner this time, uneasy.
"There was a complication, Alpha’s mate."
Emma’s eyes narrowed slightly. "What complication?"
"The Alpha had him..."
"Had him what?"
The line went quiet again, and when Lynda spoke, her voice had changed, lower, careful.
"I’m sorry... It was a mistake. Not him."
The connection cut.
Emma stayed frozen for a moment, staring at the dead intercom as if it might come alive again and explain itself. But it didn’t. Instead, something colder settled in her chest. Lynda hadn’t chosen to end that sentence. Someone had been close enough to stop her.
Without wasting another second, Emma pulled up Bernard’s contact and called.
"Bernard," she said the moment he answered. "I want the security feed. Now. Connect it to my chamber."
There was a brief silence on the other end, like hesitation forming.
"Alpha’s mate, I don’t have..."
"Stop," Emma cut in sharply. "Are you connecting. Yes or no?"
Another pause followed, heavier this time.
"I’m not authorized to access the feed anymore. I don’t have clearance."
Emma didn’t respond right away. She simply lowered the device, her expression tightening, before switching contacts.
"Starlit," she said when the call went through, her voice quieter now but firm in a different way. "I need you here. Now."
"What’s going on?" Brandon asked.
"I should be asking you that," Emma replied.
The wait that followed didn’t feel like minutes passing. It felt like something in the mansion had closed in around her, sealing the air itself. Every second stretched, slow and thick, until even the silence began to feel deliberate.
Then the doors opened.
Brandon walked in.
The shift in the chamber was immediate, like pressure changing in the air. Emma turned before he had fully crossed the threshold, her eyes already fixed on him.
"So you arrested him," she said, her voice low but trembling at the edges, "just because he came when I called him?"
Brandon didn’t react at first. He simply held her gaze, steady and unreadable.
"Moonheart," he said evenly, "Evan is a distraction. The matebond is less than..."
"I don’t care," she interrupted, stepping back as her voice broke despite her effort to hold it together. "If you can’t even trust me, then I don’t want any royal mating."
That finally pulled a reaction from him. His jaw tightened, the calm in his face hardening.
"He walked in here like he owned the place," Brandon said, his tone firmer now. "Yes, I had him arrested. To stop him from distracting you."
Emma let out a sharp, disbelieving breath, shaking her head slowly as if the words didn’t sit right in her ears.
"I told you why I called him earlier," she said, voice rising slightly before cracking.
He stepped forward without thinking.
She moved back instantly.
"Don’t touch me."
The words landed clean and final.
She turned without waiting for a response and walked out of her chamber. The door closed behind her with a soft but absolute click, leaving the silence behind her even heavier than before.
Somewhere close to the gate, footsteps stopped.
And turned back toward Emma.
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