From Rejected Mate to Three Alphas’ Claim: The Split Wolf Luna

Thalia's POV There was blood everywhere, accompanied by bursting flames and howling of fallen wolves. It's funny how, in all the romantic ballads they sing at the solstice festivals, they never mention the unimaginable amount of blood inside a single wolf soldier, or how incredibly untidy a battlefield gets when severed limbs are involved. I stepped over what I sincerely hoped was just a very thick branch, and not one of those severed limbs. “Adonis!” An agonizing scream ripped from my throat when my eyes caught his limp form on the blood-stained ground. He was lying lifelessly, his beautiful, sun-kissed skin going paler and paler by the second. The man I loved, my fated mate, was dying. I ran, ignoring the fire around me, desperately needing to reach him, but apparently, the universe had other plans. Before I could close the distance, a rogue wolf slammed into me, its claws shredded my dress, and tore deep into my side. I was thrown aside like a discarded doll, my back connecting with the trunk of an oak tree with a sickening, breath-stealing thud. Pain exploded through me, my vision swam, and in my daze, I watched the giant wolf stalk towards me, drool dripping from its jaws. “Ugh,” a groan escaped me as I tried to shift, desperately reaching for my wolf, but she cowered deep inside me, too weak to manifest. I squeezed my eyes shut, believing this was the end, when suddenly, a blur of thick fur collided with my attacker. The other wolf tackled it away, sending them both rolling into the smoke. I didn’t wait. Crawling through the mud on hands and knees, ignoring the pain in my side, I dragged myself to Adonis and collapsed on his chest. “Adonis,” I sobbed, tears running down my face, “What did they do to you?” He didn't respond with his usual dashing smile, except for a series of pained grunts as I pressed my trembling hands against him, searching for the source of the bleeding, but my hand simply…sank. This drew another round of extremely painful grunts from him, because right in the center of his chest was a stab wound so deep my fingers had slipped inside. My eyes clouded with a fresh wave of tears as I stared at the ruin of his chest. Beneath my blood-soaked fingers, I could feel the faint pulse of his wolf slipping away whilst Adonis died alongside it. I couldn't just let him die... not my Adonis. But as my mind reeled under the pressure, I recalled the old dusty text I definitely shouldn't have been reading in the nun's private libraries during my travels, full of horrible, forbidden things. The forbidden blood ritual. Highly prohibited and frowned upon by the Elders, with a deadly price. I had no idea what the price was, but anything was worth it as long as it brought my Adonis back to life. I didn’t figure anyone would actually be crazy enough to perform a ritual this draining, but as it turned out, that person was me. I didn't have a manual to guide me, so I just let my instinct take control as I dragged my bloodied palms over his chest and began chanting the ancient words that felt foreign to my tongue. It didn't feel like a beautiful healing with magical lights swirling around me like I thought it would. It felt like someone had dropped an anchor to my chest and hooked it into my wolf, ripping her out by the roots. My wolf screamed as invisible hooks sank into her, tearing her from my very core and pouring her essence into Adonis’s dying soul. The pain was so blinding that I let out a deafening scream until my voice cracked, the world tilted, and I hit the floor, my breath coming in shallow gasps before the darkness swallowed me whole. When I finally woke up, the first thing I noticed was that the fire had died down, and the second thing was that Adonis was gone. I tried to sit up and realized I wasn't alone. Surrounded by a suffocating, oppressing power that felt like trying to breathe underwater, I looked up through my tangled hair and swallowed hard, watching wolves close in. Alpha wolves, looking down at me like I was a confusing bug they were deciding whether or not to squish. Panicking, I instinctively reached for my wolf to protect me, to give me the strength to stand up to them. But there was nothing. Just total emptiness. That's when the reality of what I'd done finally crashed over me—I had traded my wolf to save Adonis… and now I was defenseless. I scrambled backward, my hands patting the scorched ground for a weapon or anything to defend myself. Then my fingers brushed against something, and I held it up with trembling arms. A broken tree branch. “Stay back!” I shrieked, waving the stick blindly in front of me, “I'm warning you!” The wolves didn’t even flinch. Of course, they weren't scared. I was holding a thin stick against feral wolves. One of the beasts let out a deafening growl and lunged at me. But I threw myself to the side, tumbling hard onto the ground, hearing the jaws snap shut, and I thought I had lost an arm, but instead the wolf had clamped its teeth around the tree branch, wrenching it from my grip and splintering it into toothpicks. I scrambled on my back, but the circle was tightening with wolves surrounding me. My breath hitched as I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the inevitable. Then, I heard it. The sound started deep in the earth and vibrated straight up into the marrow of my bones. It was deeper than anything the other Alphas had produced, a sound that commanded submission. Whining softly, the other wolves began to cower and back away, parting like the Red Sea to reveal the source of the nightmare as a massive, battle-scarred wolf stepped forward. But what happened next was a slaughterhouse; the wolf moved with a speed so shocking, and the forest exploded into snarls and tearing of flesh as he dismantled them. I pressed my bloody hands over my ears and tucked my head into my knees, trembling so badly I thought my ribs might crack. And then, as suddenly as the chaos started, it ended. The silence returned, broken only by the faint whimpering of the remaining wolves on the ground as I slowly lowered my hands and peeked through my hair. I froze, waiting for him to finish the job, but he just stared… Before he took off into the pitch-black forest. ××× “I still can’t believe that was two years ago,” I muttered, fighting with my stubborn curls in the mirror. In the background, Eris battled with the zipper of her dress. She had been unusually quiet tonight. It has been two years since that nightmare. Everyone believed Adonis had saved me that night, but something had never felt right. His wolf didn’t match the one that protected me… and why would he save me and then flee? I shook my head, clearing my memory, and turned around to face my best friend, forcing an uncertain smile to my face. “But... do you think he likes me, Eris?” Eris froze mid-struggle and stared at me like I had just asked her if water was wet. “Why on earth would you ask such a dumb question?” She scoffed, finally abandoning the zipper to look at me properly. “Thalia, of course, Adonis likes you. You two are fated mates, for goodness' sake.” A wave of heat rushed straight to my cheeks, and I looked down at my shoes, biting my lip. Fated mates still sounded like something out of a cheesy romance novel. “I know, I know,” I whispered, “But do you think he’ll actually WANT me as his mate? I mean, if we’re being realistic here... he has so many other options for a befitting Luna. Women who can actually, you know, grow fur and protect the borders…not me.” Eris let out a dramatic sigh, marched right across the room, and grabbed me by the shoulders before spinning me back around to face the mirror. “Look at yourself,” she demanded, “Your beauty is honestly offensive, Thalia. If I had your face, I’d be insufferable. And let’s not even start on that massive heart of yours. You literally performed a forbidden blood ritual and sacrificed your own wolf just to keep him breathing, so of course Adonis would be absolutely mind-blown to make you his Luna.” I couldn't help but smile. “I guess…” And maybe she was right, but a feeling of unease twisted in my stomach. The coronation was in exactly two days. Two days until Adonis took his rightful place as the head of the pack, and two days until I stepped into the light right beside him as his Luna. I took a deep breath, my heart fluttering at the exciting thought. I really, truly couldn't wait.