Rise of the Forbidden Luna

Chapter 32: The Traitor’s Blood

The heavy warmth of Ethan’s forehead resting against mine was the only thing keeping my fracturing sanity grounded.

My heartfelt heavy like a trapped bird, the massive secret of my limbo dimension still weighing heavily in my mind. But before I could even swallow the painful lump in my throat to offer a reassuring word, the double doors of the medical suite swung open.

Beta Thomas strode into the room, his massive, armored frame tense. His face was hardened into a grim mask of pure shock.

"My Lord," Thomas barked, bowing his head in tight compliance before looking directly at Ethan. "We have a security breach in the lower levels. The commander we captured three days ago... he was found dead inside his high-security cell less than ten minutes ago. He was poisoned with concentrated wolfsbane before the morning interrogation shift could begin."

The air in the medical suite instantly turned cold, turning thick with a suffocating, terrifying wave of pure Alpha fury.

Ethan slowly lifted his head from mine. The raw, vulnerable relief that had softened his striking face mere seconds ago completely vanished, instantly replaced by a hard, demonic mask of absolute stone. His gold-flecked eyes flashed a dangerous, pitch-black amber as he stood up to his full, towering height.

"Poisoned?" Ethan hissed, his voice dropping into a low, gravelly vibration that literally rattled the glass medicine cabinets on their tracks. "No one has authorization to enter the high-security blocks except my elite inner circle. We have a mole."

"Dr. Evans," Ethan growled, not even looking back at the head physician. "Keep her safe. If a single harm happens to her while I am gone, your head rolls." He turned his terrifying gaze back down to me, his large hand gently cupping my jaw. "Rest, Aria. I will be back soon."

He turned on his heel, his dark cloak billowing behind him as he marched out.

The heavy doors clicked shut, leaving the clinic room enveloped in silence. I lay back against the pillows, letting my exhausted body recover as Dr. Evans quietly moved around the room to clean up the broken glass. The internal crisis of the palace was entirely out of my hands, but down in the deepest, highest-security level of the fortress dungeons, the real violence was just beginning.

Ethan marched down the stone corridors, his broad shoulders tense with pure, unadulterated Alpha fury as he reached the interrogation blocks.

A suspected mole from his inner circle had already been chained to the stone wall, his dark tactical armor stripped away. It was Commander Joshua–a high-ranking enforcer Ethan had personally trusted with the keys to the fortress borders.

"The infiltration commander was murdered with wolfsbane to keep him from confessing," Ethan’s monstrous, booming baritone exploded through the damp cell, his pitch-black amber eyes drilling into the trembling traitor. "Alpha Richard’s assassins couldn't have bypassed my outer perimeter or breached my private penthouse suite without an insider dropping the security shields. Tell me why I shouldn't tear your spine out right now, Joshua."

"They... they have my sister, My Lord!" Joshua wept hoarsely, coughing up blood as Ethan's massive hand clamped violently around his windpipe. The iron grip tightened, cutting off his air completely. "Richard threatened to skin her alive if I didn't send them the palace layout coordinates! I had no choice!"

"There's always a choice," Ethan hissed, his voice dropping into a terrifying, demonic vibration that turned the very air freezing cold. "And you chose to side with my enemy."

With a brutal, sickening snap that echoed off the damp stone walls, Ethan ruthlessly broke the traitor's neck with a single twist of his wrist, dumping his lifeless corpse onto the cold dungeon floor.

He stepped over the body, turning his terrifying gaze toward Beta Thomas and the vanguard of heavily armed royal enforcers standing at the iron gates. His fury was completely unchained.

"Thomas! Throw this garbage to the palace trenches!" the Lycan King roared, his voice escalating into a world-ending command that literally rattled the prison foundations. "Mobilize the entire royal vanguard. We march at dawn, I will not leave a single stone standing in Richard's kingdom!"