Underwater: The Silent Luna novel Chapter 70

Chapter 70

Ashley couldn’t stand the sight of Meadow walking away from the table with quiet dignity.

It burned.

Not the explosive kind of burn that demanded an immediate outburst, but a slow, poisonous one that ate through restraint and patience alike. The kind that settled into bone and stayed there, whispering poison into every thought.

The softness in Amber’s eyes when she looked at that mute girl burned even more.

Ashley saw it. The slight easing of Amber’s shoulders. The way her voice softened just a fraction. The way concern replaced command where Meadow was concerned. It was a tenderness Ashley had fought for, bled for, bent herself into pieces to earn, and yet it was being handed freely to someone who had never asked.

Ashley watched her leave, resentment tightening around her chest like a noose. The way Meadow moved, gentle, unassuming,

untouched by the brutality of ambition, made Ashley feel unseen. Replaced. Threatened.

Meadow did not posture.

She did not compete.

She did not even seem to want anything.

And somehow, that made her the most dangerous thing in the room.

Ashley had built her entire life around strategy, timing, positioning herself where she could never be ignored. Every step she took

was calculated. Every smile masked intent. Every kindness was an investment.

But Meadow?

Meadow existed.

And the world bent around her anyway.

And Ashley did not lose.

Not like this.

She decided it then, in that moment of clipped silence and swallowed rage,

She would destroy Meadow before the girl took everything from her.

Not loudly. Not dramatically.

17

OIGO

|||

O

<

1/6

11:58 Wed, Jun 17

Chapter 70

Cleanly.

She needed dirt.

i

Real dirt.

Not rumors. Not speculation. Truth twisted just enough to become a blade.

She would dig into Meadow’s past, walk through every crack in her life, talk to anyone who had ever known her. Neighbours.

Teachers. Friends. Employers. Anyone who had ever shared a breath of space with her. There was no such thing as a perfect history,

only histories that hadn’t been searched hard enough.

And Victoria.

Yes.

Victoria would be the easiest door to open.

The girl was desperate to belong. Desperate for purpose. Desperate to be seen. All Ashley had to do was offer sympathy and stand

close enough to feel like safety.

Ashley would draw her close.

Feed her sympathy.

Fake concern.

Pretend loyalty.

And when the girl finally relaxed, when she stopped guarding her tongue,

Ashley would extract everything she needed.

Knowing how paranoid and mistrusting Amber truly was, Ashley understood one sharp truth:

It wouldn’t take much to turn her again.

Trust was fragile. Especially when fear lived underneath it.

Ashley also knew something deeper, something darker.

As long as Meadow remained in Ethan’s life, Ashley’s position as Luna was not secure,

Not truly.

Meadow did not need titles to command loyalty. She inspired it without trying.

DO

17

G

|||

O

Г

2/6

11:58 Wed, Jun 17

Chapter 70

So Meadow had to go.

Not pushed.

Not warned.

Erased.

Meadow returned quietly to the room.

The door shut with barely a sound behind her. The silence inside was dense, not empty, but weighted with absence. She crossed the

space slowly, as though the room itself might hear her thoughts.

She freshened up slowly, her movements absent-minded. Water ran over her hands. She barely noticed the temperature. Her/

reflection stared back at her with wide, thoughtful eyes. Her thoughts drifted too easily to Ethan, where he was, what he might be

doing, whether he had thought of her at all that night.

When she finally lay down on the bed, she noticed the sheets had been changed.

The forest scent was gone.

The realisation struck deeper than she expected.

It shouldn’t have mattered. It was only fabric. Only scent. Only memory.

But Ethan’s presence had always lingered in that smell, pine, earth, warmth. Now it was sterile. Clean. Impersonal.

She turned her head toward the nightstand where her phone rested, untouched. The screen was dark. Silent. She wished, quietly, desperately, that he would reach out to her.

It was the fifth day.

Five long nights without him.

She missed him with an ache that sat behind her ribs, constant and quiet and unrelenting. A kind of longing that did not scream,

but never left.

Though Amber had warmed to her, though the house no longer felt openly hostile, her joy remained incomplete.

Something vital was missing.

Amber’s words about the Alpha of Ceenas echoed in her mind.

He does not have a good reputation.

The unease settled in Meadow’s gut.

17

OG

III O

r

3/6

–

wed,

Chapter 70

She wondered what had gone wrong.

She wondered why they had stayed so long.

She wondered if danger followed Ethan even when he was far from her.

And helplessly, she slept.

Ethan and Joseph did not return until midnight.

An odd hour, but one shaped by broken negotiations and unspoken threats.

The darkness swallowed their arrival with unnatural quiet. No welcoming ceremony. No loud announcements. Just shadows, tension,

and the sound of tires against gravel like a warning scrape through the night.

They had not left Ceenas on Malcolm’s schedule.

Malcolm had tried to delay them. Tried to soften his demands into something Joseph could accept. Tried to make it look like

compromise instead of conquest. But they were no longer interested.

The treaty was dead.

If anything, they returned home with a war already breathing down their backs.

Every mile between Ceenas and Whitewood felt heavier than the last.

If Ethan had still been whole, if his wolf still answered his call, Malcolm would never have dared to make such an offer.

That truth sat like a bitter taste in Ethan’s mouth all the way home.

Joseph had tried.

No one could deny that.

Held the line longer than anyone had expected of him. Negotiated with patience that scraped at his pride but preserved peace for a

fragile moment longer.

But Joseph was never meant to be Alpha.

Even their father had known that.

Amber had once known it, too.

During the journey, Ethan realised something with bone-deep clarity,

This stalemate was unsustainable.

.ם

GO

|||

O

<

4/6

11:58 Wed, Jun 17 0

Chapter 70

Without Echo… without his wolf… without his power,

He was exposed.

And he hated that helplessness more than the paralysis itself.

It wasn’t the wheelchair that broke him.

It was the silence inside him.

He wheeled himself into his room quietly.

The house slept. The halls were dark. The world seemed to be holding its breath.

The dim glow of soft lighting greeted him.

And there she was.

Asleep.

Peaceful.

Curled around his pillow as though it were an anchor keeping her tethered to him.

Something in his chest cracked open.

A sound that might have been a laugh, might have been a sob, nearly escaped him.

She missed me.

Warmth spread through him as he turned toward the bathroom to freshen up. Since Meadow was asleep, he chose to dress himself, slowly, carefully. Each movement was deliberate, Controlled. Quiet.

When he returned, the bed looked colder than he remembered.

Meadow had drifted onto his side in her sleep.

So he took hers.

As soon as he lay down, she stirred.

Not fully awake, just enough to feel him.

And instinctively, she moved.

Ethan gently drew her into his arms, careful not to wake her.

|||

O

5/6

11:58 Wed, Jun 17 D

Chapter 70

Careful not to scare her away.

And with her breathing warm against his chest,

He drifted to sleep.

Comments

T Tracy Gordon

2 Comments >

I hope so and give her back her voice. sounds like a command given by a higher rank wold, like Levi. she’s afraid of him for a reason. and is Ashley his daughter? or has it been said where she ranks in the the pack.

7 days ago

1

<SHARE

|||

O

<

6/6

Underwater: The Silent Luna