chapter 8
634 Words
The Alpha Who Rejected His Moon Queen
By MALLO Royale
Chapter Eight
The Moon's Awakening
The first arrow sliced through the air.
Cassian caught it between two fingers before it could reach Seraphina. Without taking his eyes off the enemy, he snapped the silver arrow in half.
"Stay behind me," he said calmly.
The Blood Hunter commander laughed.
"You protect her as though she's already your queen."
Cassian's expression remained unreadable.
"I protect what was entrusted to my family."
With a wave of his spear, the commander gave the signal.
The hunters attacked.
Steel clashed beneath the moonlight. The vampire guards formed a defensive circle around Seraphina while Cassian met the commander head-on. Every strike of the silver spear was swift and precise, forcing Cassian to give ground.
Seraphina pressed herself against a tree, her heart pounding.
She had never seen warriors move so quickly.
One of the hunters slipped past the guards and rushed toward her.
"There she is!"
His hand reached for her cloak.
Instinct took over.
Seraphina pushed him away with both hands.
A brilliant silver light burst from her body.
The hunter was thrown backward as though struck by an invisible force, crashing into a boulder several meters away.
The entire battlefield froze.
The glowing crescent beneath Seraphina's wrist shone through her sleeve.
The commander stared in disbelief.
"The Moon Mark..."
"So the legends were true."
Cassian looked at Seraphina, surprise flashing across his face.
"So it has begun."
She stared at her own hands.
"I... I didn't do anything."
"You did," Cassian replied. "Your power protected you."
The commander slowly smiled.
"This changes everything."
He lowered his spear.
"Do not kill her."
His hunters looked confused.
"But the bounty—"
"I said alive."
His gaze remained fixed on Seraphina.
"Someone will pay far more than gold for the last Moon Queen."
At that moment, a long, haunting wolf howl echoed through the forest.
Every werewolf instinctively recognized it.
Alpha Lucien.
The Blood Hunters exchanged uneasy glances.
"We're surrounded," one of them muttered.
The commander cursed under his breath.
"Retreat!"
Smoke bombs exploded across the clearing.
Within seconds, the hunters disappeared into the darkness.
Silence settled once more.
Cassian immediately turned to Seraphina.
"Are you hurt?"
She slowly shook her head.
"I don't understand what's happening to me."
"You don't have to understand tonight."
He gently draped his cloak over her shoulders.
"You only have to survive."
Before she could answer, another howl echoed much closer than before.
Cassian's eyes narrowed.
"He's here."
From the edge of the forest, a tall figure stepped into the moonlight.
Alpha Lucien.
His silver eyes searched the clearing until they found Seraphina.
For a brief moment, neither of them spoke.
The memory of the rejection still lingered between them like an open wound.
Lucien's gaze shifted to Cassian's cloak resting on Seraphina's shoulders.
His jaw tightened.
"I see you've found new allies."
Seraphina looked away.
"I didn't have much of a choice."
Her quiet answer struck him harder than any weapon.
Cassian stepped forward.
"She owes you no explanation, Alpha."
Lucien's wolf growled inside him.
"She's my mate."
Cassian met his stare without fear.
"You rejected your mate."
The words hung heavily in the night air.
Lucien had no reply.
For the first time in years, the feared Alpha King felt the weight of his own decision.
He had rejected her.
He had banished her.
And now another kingdom stood ready to protect the woman he had cast aside.
As the tension between the two powerful men grew, Seraphina clutched the letter against her chest.
She suddenly realized her life no longer belonged to her alone.
She was the center of a conflict that had begun long before she was born.
And somehow...
She was the key to how it would end.
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- Writer
