Chapter 235

AURELIA’S POV I locked the door the moment I returned to the guest room. My hands shook as I pressed my back against the wood, as though it could shield me from the weight of their stares, from the way I had been paraded like a jewel that belonged to someone else. Draven’s words still echoed in my ears, his threats wrapped in a lover’s tone. His touch on my arm had burned, not with passion, but with ownership. The way he whispered into my ear before the feast, demanding my obedience, demanding that I behave—every syllable clung to me like invisible chains. And then the party itself… The dress, the jewels, the eyes of strangers admiring me as if I were some prize he had won. My family had been seated among the crowd, silent, their expressions unreadable. My mother didn’t meet my eyes. My father seemed almost… relieved, as though this arrangement solved all his worries. But for me, it was suffocating. When Draven announced me as his Luna, the applause was deafening. My heart hammered wit