Lies Beneath the Moonlight Chapter 10
(Kane’s POV)
Selene’s room was at the end of the third-floor hallway. The door was closed. A small sign next to the frame said Room 317.
Mary stopped outside. She turned to face Kane.
“She doesn’t have much time,” she said. “The witch said maybe a month, but -” She shook her head. “She’s getting weaker every day.”
“I know,” Kane said. “I know.”
“And she doesn’t know you’re coming. She didn’t want you to find her. She wanted you to move on. To live your life.”
Kane swallowed. “I know.”
Mary opened the door.
The room was small. A bed, a cabinet, a chair. The curtains were drawn, but a small lamp on the bedside table gave off a soft yellow glow.
Selene was lying in the bed.
She was so thin. Thinner than he had ever seen her. Her cheekbones stood out sharply. Her collarbones were visible above the edge of the blanket. Her skin was pale – not just pale, but grayish, like ash.
An IV dripped silver liquid into her arm. A heart monitor beeped slowly in the corner.
There was a bandage on her forehead. The cut from the tavern. From when he had pushed her.
Kane walked to the bed. His legs felt like they were made of stone.
He knelt down beside her.
“Selene,” he whispered.
Her eyelids fluttered. Then they opened.
She looked at him. For a moment, there was nothing in her eyes – just confusion, like she didn’t recognize him. Then her gaze sharpened.
“Kane?” Her voice was barely a whisper. A thread of sound. “How did you find me?”
He took her hand. It was cold. So cold.
“I know everything,” he said. “The silver poisoning. The fake cheating. Your mother told me. The Beta told me. I know it was all a lie.”
She stared at him. Then she looked away.
“You weren’t supposed to find out,” she said.
“Why? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t want to ruin your life, Kane.” Her voice was calm. Too calm. Like she had rehearsed this conversation a thousand times in her head. “If you had known – if you had known seven years ago – you wouldn’t
have gone to the North. You would have stayed here. You would have watched me get sicker and sicker. You would have held my hand while the silver poison ate me alive. And then you would have watched me die.”
“So you decided to make me hate you instead.”
“Yes.”
“For seven years, I hated you, Selene. I cursed your name. I threw away every memory of us. I tried to burn you out of my heart.”
“I know.”
“And now -” His voice cracked. “Now you’re dying. And I’ve wasted seven years hating you.”
She turned her head to look at him again. Her eyes were wet.
“You didn’t waste them,” she said. “You became a warrior. You have a mate. You have a pup on the way. You have a life.”
“I don’t want that life. Not without you.”
“Kane -”
“I love you.” The words came out raw and broken. “I have always loved you. Only you. No one else. I was just too angry and too stupid to see the truth.”
Selene closed her eyes. A tear slid down her cheek.
“You can’t say that,” she whispered. “Not now. Not when I’m -”
“When you’re what? Dying?” He squeezed her hand. “Then I’ll love you until you die. And after that, I’ll love your memory. And when I die, I’ll find you wherever we go next, and I’ll love you there too.”
She opened her eyes. She looked at him for a long, long time.
Then she whispered, “Okay.”
