Chapter Seven ;- Between Crown and Promise
981 Words
(Idris’s POV)
---
One year.
That was how long Blood Moon had been dead.
Not gone. Not lost.
Dead.
Twelve moons of chasing ghosts across borders that no longer felt real. Twelve moons of interrogations that ended in blood or silence. Twelve moons of waking every morning with the same question burning behind my eyes:
Where are they?
Indra paced inside me like a storm trapped in bone.
We should have found something by now, he growled.
“I know,” I whispered, standing on the highest watchtower of Silver Claw, staring at forests that hid too many secrets.
Below me, two packs lived under one sky.
Silver Claw strong, disciplined, structured.
And Blood Moon broken, quiet, surviving instead of living.
I had brought them here.
Not as an Alpha.
As a promise.
Some nights, through the pack link, I heard their grief leak into my dreams. Soft crying. Muttered names. Mothers calling daughters who would never answer.
They believed in me.
That belief was heavier than any crown my father could ever place on my head.
Indra’s voice softened.
They trust us because we are still standing.
But what if standing isn’t enough? I thought.
What if I fail them too?
---
Saadun found me in the training yard long after midnight.
My beta. My shield brother. The one person who had seen me bleed without asking why.
“You’re going to break yourself,” he said simply, tossing me a bottle of water.
I caught it without looking. “Already broken.”
He snorted. “You’ve stopped laughing. That’s new.”
I finally turned to him.
Saadun studied me with the same calm eyes he used in battle.
“You’re not chasing the girls anymore,” he said. “You’re chasing guilt.”
I opened my mouth.
Indra snarled.
He sees too much.
Saadun stepped closer. “You can’t save everyone, Idris.”
“I can try.”
“That’s not what scares me,” he replied. “What scares me is that you’re using this hunt to avoid choosing a life.”
My jaw tightened.
Indra’s voice was sharp.
We will not choose a lie.
Saadun sighed. “Salma is pushing the council. They want a Luna. They want heirs. They want stability.”
I looked at the ground.
“They want me to be someone I’m not yet.”
Saadun smiled sadly. “Then maybe you should figure out who you are before the pack decides for you.”
---
Salma cornered me two nights later.
Not in public.
Not with elders.
Just us, beneath the moonlight of the eastern garden where we used to train as children.
“You’re still chasing ashes,” she said. “While your crown gathers dust.”
Indra growled low.
Not her.
Never her.
I didn’t respond.
She stepped closer. “You were supposed to be at Alpha College by now. You were supposed to be ruling, and me beside you”
I met her eyes. “I was supposed to protect people.”
She laughed bitterly. “You don’t even know their names.”
“Neither do you,” I replied quietly.
Her voice cracked. “Come back to me, Idris. Choose me. Choose something real.”
Indra surged forward.
We are not choosing comfort over truth.
I felt it too that deep refusal in my bones.
“I won’t take a chosen mate,” I said. “Not you. Not anyone. I'm waiting for my fated mate and I will get to her even if she is in the another side of the world”
Her eyes filled with something dangerous.
“Then you’ll end up alone.”
I almost said the truth.
I already am.
---
My mother,Luna Aisha, sat with me on the balcony one evening.
our Luna.the woman I admire
“You’re thinner,” she said softly, brushing ash from my armor.
“I eat.”
“Not enough.”
She studied my face.
“You feel her, don’t you?” she asked gently.
Indra stilled.
I swallowed.
“Yes,” I admitted. “Somewhere. I don’t know who. I don’t know where. But she exists.”
Indra’s voice was steady.
We will wait for her until the world ends.
My mother smiled sadly. “Then don’t let anyone rush you into the wrong life.”
My father, Alpha Ibrahim Claws, was less gentle.
“A leader does not wait for permission to care,” he said. “But he also does not drown in one tragedy and forget the living.”
He placed a hand on my shoulder.
“You are Alpha by blood. Not by ceremony. Not by council.”
I looked up at him.
“No one commands you,” he said. “Not even me.”
The truth was…
I wasn’t just hunting the girls.
I was running.
From choosing Salma. From wearing the crown. From becoming Alpha without knowing who stood beside me.
Indra felt her.
A presence in the world like a heartbeat we couldn’t locate.
She is alive, he whispered. I know it.
And I believed him.
Some nights I stood among Blood Moon survivors.
“I’m still searching,” I promised them. “I won’t stop.”
They never accused me.
Never blamed me.
That hurt more than hatred ever could.
Doubt whispered in the dark:
What if they’re dead?
What if I’m chasing ghosts?
What if I’m afraid to move forward?
Indra answered without hesitation.
Even if she is ash… we will find her.
One year of blood. One year of silence. One year of promises I couldn’t fulfill.
And somewhere in the world…
A girl with four gifts still breathed.
I didn’t know her name.
Didn’t know her face.
Didn’t know she was already part of my fate.
But every step I took…
was leading me to her.
Whether I was ready or not.
- Writer
