13. The Queen's Reach
1258 Words
FREDERICK
The wind reeked of burnt sulfur and wolf blood.
Frederick stepped over a smoldering corpse, no longer recognizable as anything natural. It had once been a man. Maybe. But Monica's allies had long given up humanity in exchange for chaos magic and venomous strength.
“Two left,” Talon mindlinked sharply. “Eastern corridor.”
Frederick didn’t respond. He couldn’t.
Brooklyn’s presence had just slammed into his chest like a second heartbeat.
His knees buckled, just slightly. Not from pain.
From sheer power.
His claws lengthened against his will. Vision sharpened. Muscles coiled like drawn wire. Her energy was threading through his veins like liquid wildfire.
“What the hell was that?” Talon asked out loud, breath ragged.
“She’s reaching,” Frederick said under his breath, heart thudding. “Even unconscious, she’s calling us.”
Talon swore somewhere behind him. “Remind me again why we’re not all worshipping her already?”
“Because she hasn’t claimed us,” Frederick said grimly. “But that, whatever the hell that was, means she could."
A crack echoed through the ruined halls, stone shattering.
They moved as one.
---
TALON
He wasn’t one to feel things. Not like this.
Talon was trained. Conditioned. Sharpened to a single point of focus, serve the Alpha, protect the legacy, fight to the death.
But now… it wasn’t Josh’s voice roaring in his mind. It was *hers*.
A whisper without words.
A tug behind his ribs.
A sensation that whispered:
**You are not alone. You are mine. Rise.**
He struck the creature down in one clean arc, slicing its throat with his dagger carved from volcanic bone. Its blood hissed as it hit the ground.
And the moment the final enemy dropped, Talon *felt* her—Brooklyn—in his chest like an ache, like sunlight cracking through storm clouds.
Frederick stood across the chamber, panting. Covered in blood. But his face looked… calm.
“She’s protecting us,” Talon murmured.
“No,” Frederick corrected. “She’s empowering us.”
Talon’s jaw tightened. “Then let’s not waste it.”
---
FREDERICK (Moments Later)
The room holding the book was sealed with blood magic.
Talon ran his fingers over the carved doorframe. “This glyph’s from the First Pack. She won’t be able to read it unless—”
“She already can,” Frederick cut in. “She doesn’t need to learn these powers. They’ll come when she needs them.”
He placed his palm against the rune, and it flared open.
The door accepted him.
Accepted her.
Inside, nestled beneath layers of warding cloth and volcanic ash, was the second book: **“The Moonborn Chronicles: Reign of the Queen.”**
They had found the first one two days ago, nearly dying in the process.
Now, this one pulsed with recognition.
Frederick picked it up carefully. It was warm. Alive, almost. Like it *knew* it belonged to her.
“Another one for the Queen,” he murmured.
Then
Josh’s voice tore through the mindlink, like a blade through silence.
> *“Get out. Now. Monica knows. She’s sending shadows. I can’t leave her, Brooklyn’s thrashing in her sleep. Her power is...*”*
The link cut out.
Frederick’s eyes met Talon’s.
“Run.”
---
TALON (Final Scene Excerpt)
They didn’t make it far before the first wave hit.
Five dark wolves, glyphs carved into their bones. Eyes glowing crimson. Not Monica’s best, but still brutal.
The fight was chaos.
Frederick broke one’s back with his bare hands. Talon drove a dagger straight through another’s throat, shattering the glyph embedded in its spine.
But what saved them?
Brooklyn.
Her energy hit again.
This time harder.
Talon’s breath caught mid-fight as her voice whispered across the bond, not clear words, but intent
Strength. Power. Protection.
His spine straightened. The wounds on his shoulder sealed. His heart beat in sync with something ancient and female and utterly unstoppable.
And for the first time in his long, blood-soaked life.
Talon felt something close to worship.
••••••••JOSH••••••••
Josh hadn't slept in thirty-six hours.
Not since Brooklyn collapsed with a scream that shook the house.
He sat beside her, one hand tangled gently in her hair, the other clenched into a bloodless fist on his knee.
She was beautiful in ways that shattered him. Soft and wild. Light and fire.
And she was changing.
Power radiated off her skin like heat from a furnace. The air in the room rippled around her body, charged, pulsing, unnatural.
His wolf was pacing beneath the surface, ears pinned back.
She was dreaming again.
"No... no don't touch him-" she whispered suddenly, voice hoarse.
Josh froze.
Brooklyn's fingers twitched on the sheets, and then the windows *rattled*. The lamps flickered. The walls groaned softly.
Her body arched slightly, like a string being pulled too tight.
Josh moved fast, catching her wrist before she hurt herself-but the moment his skin touched hers-
**Power surged into him.**
Not *at* him. *Into* him.
A flood of heat, of memory that wasn't his.
Visions, fleeting, fast.
A forest.
Blood on a white dress.
A woman's scream echoing across a battlefield.
A crown made of bone and moonlight.
Josh staggered back, gasping, heart slamming against his ribs.
She was leaking through the mate bond.
And she didn't even know it.
He rushed to her side again. "Brooklyn, Brook, come on, you're okay. You're safe, you're here with me."
She whimpered again, then growled. Low. Feral. Her head jerked to the side like she heard someone in the room.
"Don't take him from me."
Josh's breath caught.
His wolf stirred. Growled.
Brooklyn's voice had layered, echoed, like something ancient had spoken through her.
He reached for the mindlink.
"Frederick. Talon. Status."*
Silence.
*"Report, now."*
Pain pulsed down the bond-and then finally:
> *"We've got the book. Fighting shadows. Her power, Josh, she's fighting for us from here. She's inside us."*
Josh's heart dropped.
He turned to her again, watched her skin glow faintly beneath the moonlight coming through the curtains.
"I need you to wake up," he whispered. "You're bleeding power and I don't know how to stop it."
The door slammed open.
It was the scout from Moon Crest, Dara, the silver-haired historian who had been sent to help them with the books.
She stopped dead in the doorway.
"Oh goddess," she whispered. "She's fully awakened."
Josh stood. "What do you mean?"
Dara's hands trembled as she dropped an old leather-bound book on the floor, pages fluttering open. "This is the third volume. I only translated the chapter last night."
She looked up, her eyes glassy.
"She's not just your Luna, Alpha."
Josh's pulse roared in his ears.
Dara turned the book toward him, pointing at a drawing-an ethereal woman with glowing eyes and wolves bowing at her feet.
"She's the Alpha Queen. The rarest kind. Born only once every seven or eight bloodlines. And her mate-"
Josh knew what she was going to say.
"-is destined to become the Alpha King," Dara finished.
Brooklyn groaned again.
And suddenly, every lightbulb in the room exploded.
Josh lunged over her, shielding her with his body as shards of glass rained down like sparks.
When he looked back up, Dara was on her knees, her head bowed low.
Josh's breath caught in his throat as he stared at the woman in his arms.
**Brooklyn wasn't just powerful. She was power itself.**
And now... Monica knew it.
- Writer
