Chapter 74 - The Punishment

CELESTINA VILLARAMA'S POV

The rage within me immediately rose to my head. The desire to take the collar of Siege and push him to make him float from the ground was stronger than my will to live. I know my boundaries, but if the alpha really has the intention to step on the Silver Moon's turf, then it would be best to force him to stop.

I rushed towards the alpha's spot, completely ignoring the beta even though my arms bumped on him. "What the heck are you plotting, Siege?" I raised my voice at him.

Siege didn't even look at me. He was busy staring at the document that he read earlier, which kind of made me feel infuriated even more. I harshly gripped his left shoulder, forcing him to face me as I turned his seat around.

"Didn't you hear me? What the heck are you plotting?" I repeated the same query, with my pitch getting higher with each word that came out of my mouth.

"War," Siege answered briefly. "There's no solution other than war, is there? If the Silver Moon Pack would cease to exist, then we wouldn't have any issue with continuing the Luna ceremony, right?" he added.

I scoffed, removing my grip on him as I massaged the temple of my head. "War?' I held my waist as I tried to calm myself down with consecutive deep breaths. "War is just your excuse, Siege. You just want everyone to fear you. Why did I even forget that you were born as the most ruthless alpha in this realm?"

Siege shrugged his shoulders with a wide grin. "You know how desperate I am to have a Luna for my pack. I desire the greatest power for my pack and myself. If I would allow Lucas, Leo, or anyone else from your pack to step on me, then that would be the same as being defeated."

"Celestina, we have to hurry back to help Lucas. Or if you want, Leo and I will go back there on our own if you still want to insist on stopping them." Ice intervened between my discussion with the alpha, causing me to glance his way. "I can't let Lucas die in vain. We have to protect the Silver Moon Pack no matter what. But if you can't fight alongside us, then that's okay," he added.

I clenched my fists, not knowing what I should prioritize. I gave one final look at both Siege and Stella before I made my way to the door.

I thought that it was only Leo and Ice who followed me; I didn't expect that even Kris would leave Siege's side. "Are you turning your back against your own brother, Kris?" I asked, worried about the consequences of what the beta chose.

"I told you, I wasn't on anyone's side. I just want to lend a hand to Lucas, since he took care of you while you were banished by Siege," Kris explained, shutting the door of the alpha's office.

An hour after we headed out of the Crimson Moon's territories, we arrived at the Silver Moon. It was a complete disaster here, and I could sense how the blood of many wolves was creeping into my nose. There were bodies scattered on the ground, and it seemed like it was a one-sided fight.

"How did this happen?" Leo asked, confused about how his troops were killed by the warriors. "I trained them to be stronger than me. If their lives were easily taken like this, does this mean that..."

"You're not going to die like them, Leo. They were definitely ambushed, so they were just unprepared for the warriors' attack to the point that they could no longer protect themselves and survive." I cut him off before he could think of anything else that would hinder his strength.

I heard Leo complaining every time we passed by a dead wolf. He might have regrets that he followed me to the Crimson Moon.

"Lucas!" Ice yelled, looking at the mansion.

I squinted my eyes to get a better sight of the mansion's fourth floor, where I caught a glimpse of the alpha fighting the warriors with his injured body. All of us ran hastily and struck down all of those who tried to stop us from going upstairs.

"Lucas," I mumbled his name when I finally saw him on the corner of the same hallway.

The three of them were the ones who made way for me to cross and come in front of the alpha's spot. I noticed that there were a lot of wounds on Lucas' body that weren't healing. My lips trembled when I thought that there was a possibility that his lifespan would be greatly reduced as his blood was continuously gushing out.

"Why are the warriors here? What happened with your discussion with Siege?" Lucas asked, his voice barely making a sound.

I bit my lower lip, shaking my head to tell him that I also had no clue. Thinking back, it was a mystery to us how the guards obediently let us through the gates.

"It's Siege and Ace's doing, Lucas. They're scheming a war!" I said, making him even more confused. "Siege's true colors are finally showing. I shouldn't have trusted him at all. I should've known that he was only pretending to be good."

I carried Lucas, together with Ice. His left arm was wrapped around my shoulders, while his right was on Ice's. He had to be dragged to a safe room where there weren't any warriors lurking around.

"What's our plan now? I think they don't have the intention of going out of the mansion as long as there's still someone alive inside," Leo mumbled as he was the one guarding the room.

Kris tried to tend to Lucas' wounds. They weren't talking to one another, but I could observe how much affection and worry Kris had for Lucas.

"If that's really what they wanted, they could've just burned the entire Silver Moon's territories. And since they were only killing the members here, I think they're after something else," Ice spoke, carefully placing Lucas' head on his lap while he was seated on the ground.

I nodded. "It's either something or someone."

I crouched in the corner of the room, biting my nails. The Moon Goddess is the only one who can help us at this point, but if this escalated to judgment day, then I doubt that she'd still aid us.

She's probably laughing at our current situation.

"Aren't they going to be punished for creating a massacre? Those wolves that were killed were purely innocent; they had nothing to do and weren't involved in any of our businesses. They just wanted to live peacefully," Leo said.

I shook my head. "Sarina is in favor of this, Leo. Do you know about judgment day?" I asked and continued speaking when he shrugged his shoulders. "Judgment day is about to come. Assuming that it will occur after the Luna ceremony, Sarina will surely let Siege do as he pleases," I explained.

If my guess is right, Sarina would let Siege continue ordering his warriors to kill those that are deemed to be weaklings. The moon goddess hates having fragile wolves living in her realm.

And maybe it's one of the reasons why I was brought to this realm, since Sarina wanted me to grow stronger and face the alpha of the Crimson Moon Pack head-on.

"The Moon Goddess probably wants me to defeat Siege instead of making him accept me as his mate." I blurted out my assumption.