Underwater: The Silent Luna novel Chapter 137

Chapter 137

Cynthia remained silent. Her tears continued, but they did not move Joseph. If anything they irritated him. Not because women should not cry. Not because he was cruel for sport. But because there were tears that came from pain and there were tears that came when a person realised their calculations had been seen through. Joseph suspected these belonged more to the second kind.

“I noticed that it’s your trend to leave your men when they are down.”

She shook her head hard.

“I learned that you were the one that convinced Sebastien to challenge Derek for the Alpha position. Why leave him when you made

him lose everything?”

Again she shook her head, more urgently now.

“No, Alpha. I do not know why everyone is blaming me for this. I never asked Sebastien to challenge Derek. He did it all on his

own.”

Joseph gave a small nod, not because he believed her completely, but because the matter did not concern him enough to keep

pressing it.

“Very well, that is none of my concern.”

He set the paper in his hands down with deliberate calm. He wanted her to understand that he was not there to debate her life

choices for her sake. He was there to draw boundaries.

“The only reason we let you return to this pack is that Sebastien did not claim you. Had he claimed you, we would have rejected

your request.”

That embarrassed her. Joseph saw it in the way her head lowered, in the way shame moved across her features in a rush. Good.

Some truths were meant to sting.

He continued before she could regroup.

“I know you have been friendly towards Ashley lately, and you might be teaching her certain things that I do not agree with. I

honestly do not care, but do not think you can come here because you are friends with Ashley. I do not want to see you about the place in the name of friendship. In fact, I do not want the friendship, and if Ashley chooses to continue, I will cut her off too.”

Now she looked at him properly, and Joseph made sure she saw that he meant every word. This was no vague warning. No polite

caution. He was finished with subtlety where threats to his brother’s peace were concerned.

Then he held her gaze and said the part that mattered most.

“If I catch you anywhere near my brother or his wife, I will cast you out of the pack. I am not as nice as Ethan, and you know it, Cynthia. I will cast you out. I will not let it slide. Ethan is in a good place now with Meadow, and I would like to keep it that way.

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Chapter 137

Am I clear?”

Her eyes were wet and wide. The reluctance in her nod angered him more than open protest would have. It was the nod of someone

forced to yield, not someone truly accepting a boundary.

Joseph picked up another document and looked down at it, effectively dismissing her before the meeting had even fully ended. He told her to leave without looking back at her. He did not owe her softness. He did not owe her reassurance. Let her leave hurt. Let her leave embarrassed. Better that than let her mistake civility for weakness.

She turned and went, and that would have been the end of it if Joseph had not remembered one last practical thing.

“If you need anything, meet Gamma Brian. Do not come to this place again.”

He still did not look at her. His voice was enough.

She said nothing. She only left.

But Joseph had already seen what he needed to see in her face before she went. Fear. Humiliation. Resentment. Calculation too, perhaps. The look in his eyes had told her what his words already had: he was not playing with her. He would do exactly what he said if she crossed the line. And being packless was no small threat. A packless wolf lived exposed, unstable, vulnerable in ways few

truly understood until they had tasted it.

By the time she was fully gone, Joseph’s office was quiet again. Papers still lay where they had been. Cynthia’s file remained among them. The attack remained unsolved. Ashley remained suspicious. The pack remained heavy on his shoulders. Nothing had truly lightened. Nothing had truly been resolved. And yet he felt a grim sort of satisfaction in having at least handled one thing directly. One threat named. One warning given clearly. One door closed before it could open into a worse problem later.

Outside that office, Cynthia walked away with tears still burning her eyes and humiliation sitting like acid in her throat. Joseph’s cruelty had been colder than Ethan’s ever would have been. Ethan might forgive. Ethan might hesitate. Ethan might let things slide out of softness or patience or simple unwillingness to be harsh without cause. Joseph was different. Harder, Sharper. More dangerous in some ways because he did not seem to care whether mercy made him look good. He cared only that the line be

respected.

And Cynthia understood that now.

She understood, too, that being a packless wolf was not a good thing. Not remotely. It was not a threat to be taken lightly, not when home was the only real safety left to someone like her. So she knew, with a cold certainty settling in her chest, that she would have

to find another approach.

Because Joseph was much crueller than his brother.

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Underwater: The Silent Luna