The Luna they betrayed became Untouchable

Chapter 11: Chapter 11

The rain hadn’t stopped, but Tristan hadn’t moved either.

He remained on his knees before me, water running in sheets down his bowed back, his forehead nearly touching the mud. He looked nothing like the Beta who had once stood so composed at Kael’s side. He looked like a man who had already decided he had nothing left to protect.

"What are you doing here, Beta Tristan?"

"My Luna..." he began.

"Don’t call me that," I hissed. "I stopped being your Luna the very moment you took and buried my child, the moment you chose to deceive me and play me for a fool." The words left my lips in a rush.

I took a deep breath. "Leave, Beta Tristan. I have no need or use for you. Go back to Silver Creek."

Tristan never lifted his head. The rain beat against his shoulders, soaking through his clothes until they clung to his skin like a second layer.

"I deserve every word," he said quietly.

His voice was hoarse, almost swallowed by the storm.

"I deserve far worse. I didn’t come here to defend myself. I came to beg."

A bitter laugh escaped me. "Beg?" I asked incredulously.

I looked down at the man who had once stood at Kael’s right hand. "The great Beta of Silver Creek... begging? I never imagined I’d live long enough to see such a thing."

"I imagined it every day," Tristan replied. "For five years, I have imagined it."

The smile disappeared from my face immediately.

He finally raised his head. His eyes were bloodshot, dark circles carved beneath them as though sleep had abandoned him long ago.

"I committed a grave sin against you. I buried your son. I held him in my arms."

"I dug his grave with these hands." His voice cracked. "And every handful of soil I placed over him has buried me with him ever since."

My breath hitched. For a second, it felt like I was back there in that abandoned forest temple, scurrying through the weeds, searching for him.

"I hate you."

Tristan closed his eyes.

"I know."

"I hate you," I repeated, louder this time. My voice shook with anger.

"I hate Kael! I hate Sophia, and most of all, I hate myself." Fresh tears blurred my vision, and for the first time that day, I was glad for the rain.

"Why did I fall unconscious that night? If only I had stayed awake, if only I had fought with everything I had—then I would’ve held him. I would’ve seen him—"

"I spent five years..." I laughed bitterly. "Five years wondering why the Moon Goddess refused to bless me with another child."

"I blamed myself. I wondered what was wrong with me. I prayed until my knees bled."

My chest tightened painfully. "All while my son was already dead, and worst of all, you all knew. You watched me celebrate Lily’s first birthday up to her fifth."

"You helped Kael and Lily visit Sophia in her former pack. You watched me make a fool of myself, believing another woman’s child to be my own while mine lay buried in a makeshift grave in an abandoned forest."

Tristan’s breathing became uneven. Every word I spoke struck him harder than any blade ever could.

"I know," he whispered.

"You know?" I laughed, the sound hollow and broken. "That’s all you have to say?"

"You watched me thank the Moon Goddess for another woman’s daughter, and yet you said nothing."

His shoulders shook violently the more I spoke.

"...Yes."

"And you said nothing."

"I said nothing." A sob escaped him. "I am a coward."

"You are."

"I betrayed you, and I failed you."

"You did," I replied, my chest heaving.

"I failed everything the Moon Goddess ever expected of me."

The rain swallowed the silence that followed.

For the first time since I had known him, Tristan looked... small.

"I wanted to tell you." His voice was barely audible. "Every single day... I wanted to tell you. The guilt... it was tearing me apart."

"Why didn’t you? Why?"

His lips parted, then closed again. When he finally spoke, the words sounded as though they were tearing their way out of him.

"Because Alpha Kael forbade it."

Something inside me snapped.

"So that was enough?" I demanded.

He shook his head. "It was never enough. But the chief healer... she said your condition was delicate. She said your body couldn’t bear the truth, and any more pain would tear you apart."

I laughed harshly. "So you kept this from me for... my own good? Is that what you tell yourself so you can sleep?" I barked.

Tristan flinched as though I had struck him.

"No." His answer came immediately. "No... I stopped telling myself that a long time ago."

"At first, I convinced myself it was to protect you. The chief healer feared the shock would kill you. Your body had already rejected your wolf. You’d lost too much blood..."

He swallowed hard. "I clung to those words because they were easier than admitting the truth."

"And what truth was that?" I asked coldly.

"That I was afraid. I was afraid of disobeying my Alpha."

His voice cracked. "I had served Kael since we were boys. I believed an Alpha’s command was absolute."

"I thought loyalty meant obedience. I thought questioning him made me unworthy of the Beta crest."

A bitter smile twisted across his lips.

"I was wrong. I wasn’t loyal. I was weak. I chose the easier path. I watched your life become a lie because it was easier than standing against my Alpha."

He looked down at his trembling hands.

"There isn’t a punishment severe enough for what I did."

I stared at him in silence.

"You know what hurts the most?" I paused for a second.

"I trusted you. I never questioned you."

"When Kael was too busy, you escorted me. When I needed warriors, you sent them. When Father died..." My throat tightened.

"...you stood beside me at his funeral."

A fresh wave of tears blurred my vision.

"I thought..." I laughed bitterly. "I truly thought that if everyone else abandoned me..."

"...Beta Tristan never would."

His face crumpled.

"Luna—"

"Don’t call me that," I snarled. "Not only am I not your Luna, but you have lost the right to call me that. You were supposed to protect the people of Silver Creek. I was the people. My child was the people."

I shook my head.

"Instead, you chose to betray your people. You chose your Alpha and kept his secret at my expense. You chose his happiness over my right to know my own son had died."

Behind me, the gates creaked open.

"My Lady..."

Clara’s worried voice drifted from behind me, but she stopped the moment she saw Tristan kneeling in the mud.

Celine and Varek followed moments later.

Neither of them spoke. Even Varek, who had every reason to drive Tristan away, simply watched.

Perhaps because some scenes demanded silence.

Tristan slowly reached towards his waist, and Varek instantly moved. His Alpha aura flared.

"If you’re reaching for a weapon," he warned coldly, "you won’t live long enough to draw it."

Tristan shook his head.

"I didn’t come to fight."

He withdrew a small ceremonial dagger.

Then, with both hands, he laid it carefully on the ground before me.

"I came with nothing. I came to surrender."

My eyes narrowed, but he continued,

"I resigned. I placed my Beta crest on Kael’s desk. I told him I could no longer serve him. He told me that if I walked away... I was never to return."

"And?"

"I walked away," he said simply.

"You threw away everything, and for what? Do you think I have something to give you here?"

Tristan shook his head.

"I lost my honour and dignity five years ago. I have not come to ask anything of you but rather to give."

"My loyalty to Silver Creek and Kael ended today."

He bent down and picked up the dagger once more. This time, he drew the blade across his left palm.

Before anyone could stop him, he sliced open his right palm. Blood mixed with the heavy rain.

"My life has already been stained by betrayal."

He lifted both bleeding hands towards me.

"So I have nothing left to offer except the only thing that still belongs to me. My life. My wolf. My future. My loyalty."

His voice rang through the storm.

"I, Tristan Mormont, before the Moon Goddess, renounce every oath that binds me."

"I ask Evelyn Valemont to accept my Blood Oath. If I ever betray you again, may my wolf reject me."

"If I ever deceive you again... may my blood become poison within my veins."

"If I ever abandon you again... may the Moon Goddess strip me of my wolf and condemn me to live as neither man nor beast."

The storm seemed to grow heavier, lightning cracking through the sky.

His blood continued dripping onto the ground between us.

"My Lady..." His voice finally broke.

"I cannot undo what I did. If I could trade my life for your son’s, I would. I cannot return the five years I stole from you."

"But if the Moon Goddess grants me the years that remain... then let every one of them belong to you."

He lowered both bleeding palms until they touched the muddy ground. He bowed so low that his blood stained the earth.

"I am not asking for forgiveness. I am asking for punishment."

"Use me, hate me, despise me... But please... allow me to spend the rest of my life repaying a debt I know can never truly be repaid."

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