Chapter 6:: THE LUNARA'S PRICE
1606 Words
The crown was heavier than I expected.
Not metal. Not gold. Just eyes. Hundreds of eyes watching my every move from the moment Darius set me down in the Luna suite after the Spirit Trial.
I sat on the edge of the bed, his black shirt still wrapped around me. The claiming mark on my shoulder glowed faintly, silver light pulsing in time with my heartbeat. My wolf was awake now. Curled inside me like a cat in sunlight. But every sound outside the door made her ears perk up.
Darius hadn’t left me. He stood by the window, arms crossed, gold eyes tracking movement in the courtyard below. Moonlight cut across his face and made the scar on his throat stand out white.
“The pack howled for you,” he said without turning. “That hasn’t happened for a Luna in fifty years.”
“I heard,” I whispered. My voice still felt new. Like the wolf had changed it. Deeper. Stronger. “They bowed.”
“They bowed because they had to,” Darius turned. Face hard. “Not because they wanted to. Not yet.”
He crossed to me in three steps. Knelt so we were eye level. His hand came up and brushed hair from my face. Gentle. Like I’d break if he used Alpha strength.
“You shifted,” he said. Like he still didn’t believe it. “White fur. Silver eyes. The Goddess’s mark. You’re not just my mate, Aria. You’re a prophecy they tried to bury.”
“Prophecy?” My stomach dropped. “What prophecy?”
Before he could answer, the doors slammed open.
Rafe. Out of breath. Blood on his knuckles. “Alpha. We have a problem.”
Darius stood instantly. Alpha aura rolled out and made the air heavy. “Talk.”
“Elders called an emergency council,” Rafe said. He glanced at me, then looked away. “They’re calling it… an abomination. Saying the white wolf brings curse. Saying the bond was forced. They want her executed before dawn.”
My blood went cold. I’d just learned how to breathe without pain. Now they wanted me dead again.
Darius’s jaw ticked. “They wouldn’t dare. Not after the pack accepted her.”
“They will if Selena convinces them,” Rafe said. “She’s in the council chamber right now. Crying. Saying you drugged Aria. Saying the shift was dark magic. Half the elders believe her.”
Darius looked at me. Gold eyes burned. “Stay here. Lock the doors. I’ll handle—”
“No.” I stood. Legs shook but held. The shirt fell to mid-thigh but I didn’t care. “I’m the Luna. If they want to kill me, they do it to my face.”
Darius stepped close. Hands on my shoulders. “Aria, council is politics. Blood. Old wolves who’ve ruled for centuries. They don’t care about mate bonds. They care about power.”
“Then let me see it,” I said. My wolf rose up inside me, tail high. “I didn’t shift just to hide in a room. I shifted to fight.”
He studied me for three seconds. Then nodded once. “Fine. But you stay behind me. You don’t speak unless I say. You don’t bow. Ever. Understood?”
I nodded.
---
The council chamber was built from black stone and old bones. Torches lined the walls and cast shadows that looked like claws. Twelve elders sat in a circle on raised seats. Each one older than the last. Each one wearing furs and gold chains that marked decades of power.
Selena stood in the center. Back in red leather. Eyes red-rimmed like she’d been crying. But when she saw me, the tears dried instantly. Hate replaced them.
Darius walked in first. I followed one step behind. Head high. Wolf at my back. Every elder’s gaze hit me like stones.
“Alpha King,” the oldest elder croaked. White fur, yellow eyes. The one from yesterday. “You bring the abomination before us?”
“She is not an abomination,” Darius said. Voice calm. Deadly. “She is my mate. My Luna. She shifted under full moon. The law is satisfied.”
“Law says omegas shift by age twenty,” another elder snapped. “She’s twenty-two. Late shifts are corruption. She’ll poison the bloodline.”
“She’ll strengthen it,” Darius countered. “White wolves are rare. Not cursed. The Goddess marked her.”
“Goddess didn’t mark trash,” Selena cried. She fell to her knees dramatically. “Alpha King, please! She used dark magic to force the shift! I felt it! She hurt me in the trial!”
Lies. But delivered well. Half the elders nodded. Old wolves loved drama more than truth.
Darius stepped forward until he stood between me and Selena. Shielding me without touching. “You’re accusing me of dark magic, Selena? Your Alpha King?”
“I’m accusing her!” Selena pointed at me. Nail sharp. “She’s Kade’s rejected! Wolf-less for twenty years! No lineage! No mother! She’s a blank page! How can she be Luna?”
The word “blank” hit me harder than mud ever did. Blank page. Nothing written. Nothing worth.
Darius felt it through the bond. His hand found mine behind his back. Squeezed once. _Mine._
Then he turned to the elders. Alpha power rolled off him until torches flickered. “You want lineage? Fine. Let me tell you her lineage. She survived twenty years of neglect. She lifted granite with no training. She outran your best hunters barefoot. She shifted under death’s shadow. That’s her lineage. Strength. Survival. My mark.”
“Words,” the white-furred elder hissed. “We need proof. If she’s truly Luna, let her bleed on the Moonstone. If the stone glows silver, she’s Goddess-blessed. If it glows red, she’s cursed. If it stays dark… she dies.”
Darius stiffened. “Moonstone test hasn’t been used in two hundred years. It’s a death sentence, not a test.”
“Then she has nothing to fear,” Selena smiled. Teeth sharp.
All eyes turned to me. Waiting. Judging.
My wolf pushed forward. _Let me._
I stepped around Darius. Bare feet on cold stone. Walked to the center where a black stone sat on a pedestal. Moonstone. It looked like frozen night. No glow. No warmth. Just death waiting.
“Do it,” the elder said. “Cut your palm. Let the stone decide.”
Darius grabbed my wrist. “Don’t. I don’t care what the stone says. You’re Luna because I say you are.”
I looked up at him. Gold eyes desperate. For once, the Alpha King looked scared. Not for himself. For me.
I pulled my hand free. “If I don’t, they’ll never stop trying to kill me,” I whispered only for him. “Let me prove it.”
Before he could stop me, I dragged my claw across my palm. Blood welled, dark and bright.
I pressed my hand to the Moonstone.
Silence. Thick enough to choke on.
The stone stayed black for one heartbeat. Two.
Then it cracked.
Silver light exploded from the center like a star being born. Light raced through every vein in the stone until the whole chamber was white. Not red. Not dark. Silver. Pure and bright and ancient.
The elders gasped. One dropped his staff. Selena stumbled back like she’d been hit.
The Moonstone spoke then. Not in words. In feeling. In memory. Twenty years of rejection. Twenty years of waiting. Twenty years of the Goddess hiding me until the right Alpha came.
The light faded. The stone stayed silver. Glowing faintly, like it had accepted me.
Darius exhaled like he’d been holding his breath for years. “Proof enough?” he asked. Voice like thunder.
The white-furred elder fell to his knees. Not bowed. Collapsed. “Goddess’s blessing… I… I was wrong.”
One by one, elders knelt. Even the ones who’d called me cursed. Even the ones who wanted me dead.
Selena didn’t kneel. She ran. Red leather a blur as she fled the chamber.
Darius didn’t chase her. He came to me. Wrapped his shirt around my bleeding hand. Pressed his forehead to mine.
“You didn’t have to,” he whispered. “I would’ve burned them all.”
“I know,” I said. “But I’m Luna now. Lunas don’t hide. They stand.”
He kissed my forehead. Then my nose. Then my lips. Soft this time. Not claiming. Thanking.
When he pulled back, the entire council was on one knee. Heads down.
“All hail Luna Aria,” the elder chanted. Voice shaking. “Blessed by the Goddess. Mated to the Alpha King.”
The words echoed off stone walls. All hail Luna Aria.
For the first time in my life, someone chanted my name with respect instead of spit.
Darius lifted me in his arms again. Carried me out of the chamber as wolves lined the halls and bowed.
In the quiet of the corridor, he murmured against my hair: “You passed the test. But the price of being Luna… it’s just starting. Selena won’t stop. The elders won’t forget. There will be more trials.”
I touched his chest. Felt his heart racing under my palm. “Then we face them together.”
His gold eyes met mine. “Together.”
And deep inside me, the white wolf stood up. Tail high. Teeth ready.
The crown was heavy. But I’d carry it. For him. For us. For every omega they’d ever called trash.
---
- Writer
