Claiming Her Reign

chapter 8

Davon pov

Jerick sputtered, but the subtle holy power I used had locked his throat. I didn't have to wait for his answer. I just looked toward the doors. Isaac, reading my signal, gave a small, barely noticeable nod to two of my Red Moon guards who were waiting discreetly by the entrance.

They moved fast. Before Jerick could even raise his Alpha voice, they were behind him. They grabbed his arms and yanked him out of his seat.

The entire dining hall erupted in shouts and confusion. This was supposed to be a coronation, and the new Alpha was being hauled out like a thief.

"Let go of me! This is my pack! I am the Alpha!" Jerick finally managed to shout as my guards dragged him, stumbling, through the shocked crowd. I followed, Isaac silent and watchful behind me.

We shoved Jerick out onto the main courtyard, where the cold night air hit his face. The coronation banner snapped loudly in the wind.

"This is madness, Davon! You have no right! I'll have you all banned!" Jerick yelled, trying to pull free from my guards.

"Banned?" I laughed, a short, ugly sound. "You're worried about politics when you've just signed your whole pack's death warrant?"

His eyes flashed with pride again. "It was a mistake, yes. The maid will be punished, and then I will deal with you and your insult. She was using a dark curse, nothing more. A wolf-less failure trying to—"

That was it. I snapped. I stepped right into his space, close enough for him to smell the absolute rage coming off me. I waved off my guards.

"Listen, you stupid, arrogant boy," I whispered, but my voice carried the force of a landslide. "That 'wolf-less failure' is the heir to the Moon Goddess's bloodline. She holds the power of our mother, Xi'an, and she is protected by the four greatest Alphas in this world."

Jerick froze. His wolf, which had been fighting against mine, went silent. He stared at me, his eyes wide and vacant.

"The maid you rejected and tormented for eighteen years is my long-lost sister, Xian'na," I said, hitting each name like a hammer blow. "She is the sister of Alpha James of the Purple Moon, Alpha Samuel of the Black Moon, and Alpha Isaac—the true Isaac—who stands beside me. The wolf-less maid is our blood, our prophecy."

Jerick’s mouth opened, but no sound came out. The terror in his eyes was real now, erasing all traces of his smug pride.

"Xian'na... she's your sister?" he whispered, his voice trembling so violently I almost missed it. "So... I let the greatest, most powerful girl go because I thought she was useless?" He leaned in, his voice cracking, only loud enough for me to hear.

I felt a cold satisfaction. "You did more than let her go. You abused her. You rejected the holy bond she offered you."

I straightened up, taking a deep breath of the cold air. The guards and Isaac were waiting. I looked past Jerick, toward the lights of his pack house, the home that had held my sister captive.

"I am Alpha Davon of the Red Moon Pack," I declared, my voice now loud enough for every wolf in the courtyard to hear.

"By the power of the four bloodlines and the Goddess, I declare that the Blue Moon Pack has committed a crime against the rightful heir. Effective immediately, you will be stripped of all alliances, all trade, and all claim to your border territories by the Red, Purple, Black, and Green Moons."

I pointed at Jerick, whose entire body was shaking. "You are now an outcast. Your pack is finished."

I turned my back on the terrified Alpha. "Isaac, let's go. We have a sister to move."

Jerick pov

The moment Alpha Davon’s back was turned, the strength left my legs. I didn't fall; I collapsed. My cheek hit the freezing stone of the courtyard, and the rough surface felt like a thousand tiny needles against my skin.

The cold was the only real thing. The fear was so immense it felt like my skin was dissolving. Davon’s words echoed in the sudden, sharp silence: “You are now an outcast. Your pack is finished.”

I was still shaking when the roaring started, but it wasn't the sound of celebration anymore. It was the sound of a hundred wolves inside the hall, screaming in panic. They were scrambling, running, realizing the weight of what Davon had just done. My pack was being torn away from me, thread by thread.

My eyes found the spot where my sister, Lara, had stood. She was gone. She hadn't stayed. She hadn't even looked back. She had chosen self-preservation over her own brother, the new Alpha. She had chosen safety over my ruin.

Then I saw Markus, my Beta. He walked slowly out onto the steps, his shadow falling over me. I tried to look up at him, tried to give him a silent order, the Alpha command that was supposed to bind him to me forever.

But my throat was locked. And he didn't even look at me.

"He is no longer our Alpha," Markus said, his voice quiet but clear. "He is the curse."

The word curse hit me harder than any punch. I was the curse.

I had spent my life believing I was the greatest. I was the future of the Blue Moon. I was the pure Alpha bloodline. And in five minutes, I had destroyed everything because of my need to prove superiority over a girl who scrubbed floors.

I finally saw the truth, and it crushed my soul.

It wasn't black magic. It was the Moon Goddess.

I had felt the purity of her power when I looked into her golden eyes. I had smelled the sacred scent when I touched her hair. And I had rejected her.

I was meant to be mated to the sister of the four most powerful Alphas in the world. I was meant to have a Luna who held the Holy Blood. I had thrown away eternal safety, power, and prestige for the pathetic rush of bullying an eighteen-year-old girl.

I was a king who had traded his crown for a muddy rag.

When the last car door slammed shut on the path, the courtyard was empty. The coronation lights still burned, illuminating the abandoned food and broken glass. I was alone. The Blue Moon Pack had scattered like dirt in the wind.

I rolled onto my back and stared up at the real moon. It wasn't the perfect silver orb I used to honor. It was too vast, too powerful. And in the black emptiness of my mind, I heard the faint, terrifying echo of a laugh. It was the sound of the Holy Wolf itself, free, powerful, and laughing at the fool who had given her everything.

I lay there on the cold stone, unable to move, tasting nothing but the shame and the metallic fear of what I had done. The coronation lights were cruel now, shining only on my ruin.

Then the air changed again.

It wasn't the panic of my fleeing pack, and it wasn't the rage of Davon. This was power—raw, ancient, and pure. It felt like the ground beneath me was freezing and humming at the same time.

I slowly rolled my head, expecting to see a Blue Moon tracker returning with bad news. Instead, I saw five shadows emerge from the dark tree line, stepping into the light of the courtyard.

One wolf was pure white, snow against the black night, with streaks of silver that caught the light like frozen lightning. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, and the sight of it squeezed the breath from my chest. Behind her were four others: one deep red, one vibrant green, one regal purple, and one solid black.

They were the Alphas of the world. And they were here for me.

The white wolf stepped forward, her eyes not amber or blue, but the terrifying, perfect gold I had seen in Xian’na’s face just before she left. She stopped maybe ten feet away and looked down at me, and I felt the absolute, crushing weight of my inferiority.

A voice, not from her throat but from inside my own skull, cut through the silence. It was clear and smooth, and it mocked the very root of my existence.

“You finally in agony now, man,” the voice said. “You rejected me. You rejected us. The powerful female of all time. You suppose to reclaim us, but you reject the holy power we possessed. Now you ruin your life. How pathetic.”

I tried to crawl away, to get away from that crushing weight of holiness, but my body wouldn't obey.

“I am Xiuan,” she stated, and the word rang like a chime of final judgment. “The legendary wolf.”

Xiuan.

The name hit me like a physical blow. It was in the oldest textbooks, the texts we burned because they spoke of a time when wolves served the Goddess directly. The legendary wolf of the first Alpha Queen, a spirit meant to guide the true Holy Blood.

And I had rejected her.

I was supposed to be the Alpha who reunited the Holy Blood with the largest pack. I was supposed to be the mate of the greatest power. Instead, I had mocked her, thrown dirty water on her, and cast her out to prove my own pathetic pride.

I whispered, the sound catching on the terror in my throat. “I thought it was black magic.”

The Holy Wolf only laughed—a dry, chilling sound that echoed through the empty courtyard. My wolf, the one I thought was so dominant, whimpered and hid deeper inside my soul. I realized every wrong I had ever done, every cruel word, every moment of misplaced arrogance. It had all led to this. I was broken, rejected, and now I was cursed to live in the shadow of the power I had thrown away.