A Warrior's Second Chance (Faye and Alexander) novel Chapter 111

FAYE

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For a long moment the room felt too small for the weight of the choice he’d just thrust at me. I blinked, hearing the blood in my ears. “Me?” I asked, because the idea of spelling out someone’s punishment… deciding the shape of their days, the limit of their freedom…felt like a power I hadn’t earned and a cruelty I didn’t want to wield.

“Yes,” he said. “Bella and Maya’s punishment will be whatever you decide.”

Something cold slid through me. He wasn’t bluffing. He had the rare, quiet confidence of a man who meant exactly what he said.

I leaned back and gripped the arms of the chair until my knuckles went white. Thoughts spun, sharp–edged and unruly. I pictured Bella’s smile…the way she’d leaned into every chance to humiliate me…and then I saw Maya, how she had easily played me for a fool all along. How to punish them without becoming what I despised?

“You want me to spell out the punishments?” I asked, because the idea was still dizzying.” Alexander, I can’t-”

“You can.” He interrupted softly. He wasn’t impatient; he was patient in that terrible way of people who have made conclusions and will wait out any objections. “You’re Luna. You have the authority, and the right. So, why not?.

“At the same time, I’m the victim here,” I said, raw honesty rising up before I could censor it. “I can’t pretend my judgment won’t be tainted. If I decide what happens to them, how do I know I’m not just settling a score in front of everyone? How do I know I won’t make the punishment more about my anger than about justice?”

“Your judgment will be shaped by what you have experienced,” he said slowly. “That is true. It will be hard to separate feeling from fairness. But that is precisely why it must be you.”

“Fine,” I said at last. The word felt both like surrender and resolve. “I’ll do it. But I won’t pretend I’m not biased. I won’t pretend I’m not angry. I’ll say it exactly as I feel it.”

He inclined his head, and there was no mockery in the gesture, only respect. “That is what I expect.”

I thought of Maya first–her voice on that terrible replay, the way she flinched whenever her father raised his tone. There was a cruelty in coercion that deserved correction, but not the same correction reserved for a perpetrator who took pleasure in harm. Mercy and consequence needed to coexist if I wanted to be a leader who could claim moral authority.

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<Chapter 111

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“Maya will have mercy,” I said aloud, testing the weight of the words. “But not without consequence. She may not have orchestrated this willingly, but she chose to play along. For that, she cannot stay here anymore. I won’t live in this house with a spy hovering around me, not after everything that’s happened. She will leave the pack house.”

The words felt like a release. Alexander gave a small nod, approving, but said nothing. He was still letting me own this moment.

Then there was Bella. Even saying her name in my mind brought a taste of bitterness. Bella hadn’t acted out of fear or pressure…she had done everything she did out of sheer spite. She wanted me destroyed, humiliated, erased. There was no excuse for her.

“And Bella,” I continued, my tone colder now. “She deserves the full weight of punishment. What she did wasn’t just betrayal…it was deliberate malice. The most mercy I can show her is this: she’ll be banned from Blood Crescent territory until further notice. And if she ever dares set foot here again, she’ll be treated like the criminal she wanted me to become.”

As the words left me, I felt something stir inside…strength. For the first time since all this began, I didn’t feel like someone struggling to survive. I felt like someone who could decide. Someone who could stand without breaking.

Alexander nodded. “That’s fair.”

ALEXANDER

By the time I left the office…as expected… Cole was already waiting. I would be surprised if he hadn’t showed up.

“You know we need to talk, right?” he asked.

I sighed and just sat on the couch. He sat across from me, his usual calm presence grounding, but even he couldn’t hide the crease of concern between his brows.

“What is going on with you, Alexander?”

My wolf had been restless lately–no, not restless, dangerous. Adrian…the darker half of my wolf was clawing at the edges of my control, and it wasn’t even the full moon, yet. That fact alone unsettled me.

I raked a hand through my hair, trying to steady the discomfort in my chest. “My wolf is on edge,” I admitted, my voice low. “Too much on edge. I can feel him pressing forward, pushing at the seams like he’s trying to break out. I don’t even know what’s happening.”

Cole sat there watching me. “Maybe there is a trigger,” he said carefully.

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I shook my head, frustration tightening in my chest. “No. I don’t know. One moment, I was present… And the next…” I exhaled sharply, clenching my fists. “The next it wasn’t me anymore. Adrian was there, his voice was in my head…loud, consuming…and Aiden was gone. Just silence…nothing but Adrian’s hunger to rip Gerald apart.”

The memory made my jaw tighten. Even now, I could feel the echo of it–the sharp edge of violence, the raw need to tear, to destroy. It had been overwhelming.

“I don’t think Aiden faded away completely.” Cole’s voice was steady, as though he’d already worked it out before I’d spoken. “Think about it, Alexander. You’ve seen Adrian unleashed before, so have I. He doesn’t hold back. He doesn’t stop until there’s nothing left. But this time…” He paused, letting the weight of his words sink in. “This time, you did hold back. That wasn’t just Adrian. That was Aiden–you–fighting to stay in control. If Aiden were truly gone, Gerald wouldn’t still be breathing.”

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