Reborn Luna Of Vengeance : The Woman All Alphas Kneel For

∆SERAPHINA∆ "Luna... Luna!" The hurried voice cracked through the silence like glass shattering, I sat up instantly from reading a book. Just as I looked at the door, it was Lily, she rushed into the room with a dress stained by dirt, while her eyes were full of fear and tears as if she was horrified by something. "What happened, Lily? Why are you tensed like that?" I asked, my heart is already sinking, because nothing good ever comes with that tone. She didn't answer. Instead, she grabbed my trembling hands. "Please... Luna, you must come with me, right now!" My legs felt numb as she pulled me through the corridor. The cold stone floors echoed our steps as I'm running barefoot, each step louder than the last, as if the walls themselves knew something terrible and waited ahead. "Lily?" I whispered again, but she didn't turn. We reached the main hall, and the moment my eyes landed there, my body froze in the next second. Corpses, one after another lay on the cold floor, bloodstained armours, torn banners, the smell of blood and mud filled the air. "No..." My voice cracked, barely a breath. "No... this... this isn't..." My legs almost trembled, Beta Stephard rushed to my side with an injured face, while dust covering his armour. "My apologies, Luna..." he began quietly, bowing his head. "Wh... What hap... Happened?" I stammered nervously, but the bowed head of Stephard didn't raise and he didn't answer either. My heartbeat roared in my ears with fear and anxiety. "What happened?" I repeated louder this time, "why exactly are you staying silent? Speak something, damn it!" Still nothing. Then I screamed, louder than I ever had in my life, "What exactly happened? Where is KAEL? Why aren't you saying anything? Please don't scare me... Just tell me the truth..." The hall went totally silent, Stephard swallowed hard, and stepped aside pointing at a coffin with a voice totally breaking out, "My lord... died in the battlefield, Luna." For a second, everything inside me stopped. My mind went numb while my breath stopped along with my heartbeat. Then something sharp and violent tore through my chest, I'm not sure if it's disbelief or pain, no matter what kind of name this feeling has, but it is clenching my heart beyond explanation. "No..." I shook my head slowly. "No, you must be lying, you must be mistaken, he... He can't be my Kael... There's no way my Kael...." "I am sorry," Stephard whispered, his eyes lowered in grief. "There was an ambush, they wiped out everyone who stood with him, we are too late to rescue them." I couldn't breathe, and everything around me felt suffocating. "Luna... please prepare yourself," a warrior muttered shakily. "We must... we must open the coffin." Two men stepped forward, their hands trembling as they lifted the lid of the dark wooden coffin. And there, wrapped in the blood-soaked cloak of our pack, was Kael. My Kael, my husband... My Alpha, the man I had loved more than breath, more than life. His face was still in front of me, it is the same as I've seen for the first time but now it is lifeless and full of bruises, his skin cold as winter stone. His chest is unmoving, my vision blurred instantly. "No..." My voice broke on a sob. "No, Kael... Kael, wake up... please... please..." My hands reached out on their own, shaking uncontrollably as I touched his cheek, it was cold.... Too cold. A painful and raw sound escaped my lips, a broken cry I didn't even recognize as my own. "How am I supposed to breathe in a world without you, Kael?" I collapsed against the coffin, the edge digging into my knees. Lily rushed to hold me, but I pushed her away, reaching for Kael again as if touching him could bring him back. "You promised..." Tears poured down my cheeks, hot and relentless. "You promised you'd return back safely... Kael... how can you leave me like this? How..." My voice dissolved into sobs. Beta Shephard bowed his head while deeply holding back the pain just like mine, "Your husband... Our Alpha fought until his last breath, Luna, the enemy's group ambushed them at night.... Those beside him... died along with him, no one survived." My entire world shattered with those words. The sound of my crying filled the hall, broken, echoing and hopeless. For a moment, time did not move, I couldn't hear anything, I couldn't see anything except Kael's bruised face. Then, the large doors of the hall were opened, and a soft cry filled all the corners, "Kael... My love...." The moment I turned around, my breath hitched. The one standing in the entrance with dust on her boots, armor still strapped across her shoulders, was none other than Lydia. The woman who spent half her life in barracks, trained in blood and iron, proudly declaring she'd rather die on a battlefield than live under a man's shadow. My husband's first love, the name he never mentioned openly, yet never forgot. The ghost who shared our bed for years, if not in body, then in every silent space between us. She walked in like a survivor of war, but her beauty was untouched by grief, beside her stood a small boy, clinging to her hand. A child with green eyes exactly like Kael's, tho eyes met mine instantly... almost knowingly. My chest tightened so sharply I couldn't think of anything, he looked barely five, and the scent around him, that familiar, orchid smell Kael always carried, wrapped around him like a protection. My stomach twisted in horror, I wanted to deny it. Pretend it was coincidence, pretend the child was not his, but the truth hit me like a harsh slap. It's undoubtedly Kael's son without leaving a room for argument. Whispers erupted around the hall. "Beta Lydia...?" "How is she alive?" "I thought she also died in the ambush." "Wasn't she fighting beside Alpha Kael?" "How come only she survived?" The hall buzzed with shock and pity, but none of it was for me. Lydia's eyes filled instantly with tears, real or perfectly practiced, I couldn't tell, she just ran forward before anyone could react. Falling on her knees beside Kael's coffin, she clutched the edge, like it was the last piece of him she had left. "During the ambush fight, I... I fell from a cliff last night!" she cried out in a heartwrenching tone, "When I woke up... Kael... you weren't there..." Her sobs tore throughout the hall. "I searched everywhere! I ran here with our child... only to find out I lost you forever!" She trembled violently, tears streaming down her cheeks without a break, "I should've been by your side! Kael... why... why didn't I die with you? Why did you leave me behind?" Gasps filled the hall, some of the people gathered rushed towards her. "Poor Beta Lydia!" "She survived alone with a child!" "Fate is cruel..." "She must be heartbroken!" Their hands touched her shoulders, their voices softened for her as they tried to comfort her. All around me, the entire pack mourned her pain. But me? I stood there frozen. As if I wasn't the woman who shared Kael's home and life, as if I hadn't healed his wounds, waited for him, loved him quietly in every breath. As if I wasn't his wife to begin with, my throat tightened at their isolation, my fingers trembled just like my heartbeat. Lily grabbed my arm when I swayed, whispering, "Luna... breathe... please breathe..." But the words around me twisted like knives aiming straight at my heart. All goes to her, either sympathy or pity or even comfort, everything is for Lydia. What about me? What was I? Nothing? I lost my husband too, I lost my entire world, yet no one even turned to look at me. My grief wasn't loud enough to them, my pain wasn't dramatic enough for them to consider as a real pain, maybe I wasn't enough. Beta Stephard looked at me with a pitiful glance, "Luna it's already pretty late, we need to..." I know what he was about to say, and my heart isn't prepared for that, I'm not ready to send him off, just before I can say anything, someone's voice popped out. "Forgive the intrusion, Luna," Lydia said while wiping off her tears, "I know your pain. Truly, I do, after all you've been by his side as a wife all these years, but I believe the will should be read before we begin... the burial, after all it's his last wish, I hope you've no objections, right?" The will. My head snapped toward her in confusion. "What will? Why didn't I ever hear of it before?" Lydia softly looked at me, feigning pity. "Oh, poor Luna... you didn't know your own husband left a will? Is this how you served him, blind, and ignorant?" All I expected her presence is to offer a final goodbye to the man she loved, but only after listening to her words, I realised she has other motives to show up in this place right at this time. The room suddenly stirred, whispers rose like a growing storm. "Exactly! What kind of Luna doesn't know her Alpha's will?" "She was nothing but a peace offering, a marriage to stop the war!" "An exchange bride can never be a true Luna!" Each word cutting my heart deeper than a sharp dagger, I tried to steady my breath, but the walls were closing in. The elder stepped forward, holding a folded paper with shaking hands. "The will of Alpha Kael Silvermane shall be read aloud, as tradition demands, Luna Seraphina, do you give your consent?" Consent? Is there any such left for me? Even if I say no, no one cares about my words, after all as they said I'm a princess offered to stop the war, then why bother asking my permission? I just held back those tears of mine, and nodded, my voice refused to answer, the hall fell into silence as the elder read aloud. "All properties, rights, and also the title of Alpha Silvermane shall pass to my biological son, born of Lydia Vale, Gabriel Silvermane, as for my wife, Luna Seraphina Silvermane..." Every muscle in my body tensed, my eyes filled with tears hearing the word biological son whom he had with Lydia, when I was left untouched for years despite being a wife, he went to have a child with another woman. What else is there for me? A mere title as wife? The elder's throat bobbed, voice faltering before continuing further, "She shall accompany me into death, as per the old rites decree, her body will be laid to rest beside mine before dawn." The paper slipped from his trembling fingers. For a minute, there was nothing but silence. Then whispers, soft at first, then spreading through the crowd like poison in water. "Alpha Kael made the right decision," someone muttered. "She's barren! How can a Luna who cannot bear an heir lead a pack?" "Only Lady Lydia is fit to stand beside him!" Each voice was a dagger. Every whisper carved a truth they had waited years to say aloud. They're not even faking sympathy towards a woman who lost everything and found nothing but betrayal in the end. She got his love, fortune and status while I'm supposed to share his grave, is this what he has given to a person who has been loyal to him all these years? Lydia pressed her son's head to her chest, eyes sparkling with triumph. "I suppose even in death, he couldn't bear to part with you," she sneered in a soft tone, "How romantic, don't you think, Luna Seraphina?"