Rejected And Reborn As The Alpha King's Luna

Chapter 14: The Wolf's Revenge

POV: Thelma

The power exploding through me felt like lightning trapped inside my bones. Thalia's rage was so intense, so overwhelming, that for a moment I lost myself completely. All I could feel was her fury at being caged, her hatred for the people who had hurt us, her absolute refusal to be stolen from..

"Stop her!" Marcus shouted, but his voice sounded like it was coming from underwater.

The golden light blazing from my eyes grew brighter, and I felt my body beginning to shift. But this wasn't like a normal transformation. This was violent, chaotic, fueled by twenty-three years of suppressed rage and the magical backlash from the interrupted ritual.

"The circle is breaking!" someone screamed.

I looked down and saw that the carved channels in the stone platform were glowing red-hot, the ritual markings crackling with uncontrolled energy. The ancient magic that was supposed to transfer my power to Yvonne was turning back on itself, becoming destructive instead of transformative.

Yvonne stumbled backward, still clutching the ceremonial dagger. "Father, what's happening? This wasn't supposed to happen!"

"Control her!" Marcus roared at the guards. "Use the silver restraints!"

Several pack members rushed toward me, but Thalia was done being controlled by anyone. With a growl that shook dust from the stone ceiling, I lashed out with claws that had grown longer and sharper than any normal werewolf's.

The first guard to reach me went flying across the room, deep gashes across his chest. The second one managed to grab my arm, but I spun around and backhanded him with strength I didn't even know I possessed. He hit the wall with a sickening c***k and didn't get up.

"Silver!" Marcus was yelling. "Get the silver chains!"

But the silver couldn't hold me anymore. Whatever had awakened inside me was burning it away like acid. When one guard tried to wrap silver rope around my wrists, I grabbed it with my bare hands. It should have burned me, should have weakened me. Instead, it crumbled to ash at my touch.

The pack members were panicking now, some trying to flee toward the exits, others standing frozen in terror. They'd never seen anything like this before. Hell, I'd never felt anything like this before.

"Thelma!" Xavier's voice cut through the chaos.

I turned toward him and saw that the magical backlash from the ritual had shattered his restraints. He was struggling to his feet, blood running down his face from where they'd beaten him, but his eyes were alert and focused on me.

"You have to get out of here!" he shouted. "The ritual energy is unstable! This whole place could collapse!"

As if to prove his point, cracks began appearing in the stone walls. The interrupted blood magic was tearing the chamber apart from the inside out.

"Kill her!" Neon's voice roared from somewhere behind me. "If we can't have her power, no one can!"

I spun around to face him, and what I saw made my blood run cold. Neon had shifted into his massive black wolf form, his teeth bared and his eyes glowing with murderous intent. Behind him, three other pack members were shifting too, their bodies growing larger and more dangerous.

But I wasn't the same weak girl they'd been bullying for years. Thalia's rage had awakened something primal in me, something that had been sleeping in my bloodline for generations.

When Neon leaped at me, I didn't dodge. I met him head-on.

The collision sent us both crashing into the stone platform. Neon's jaws snapped at my throat, but I caught him by the muzzle and held him back with strength that shocked us both. My eyes blazed brighter, and I felt my own partial shift beginning, not into a full wolf, but into something in between. Something more dangerous.

"You want my power so badly?" I snarled, my voice distorted by the fangs that had grown in my mouth. "Let me show you what it really looks like."

I threw Neon off me with enough force to send him sailing across the room. He hit the far wall and slumped to the ground, stunned. The other wolves hesitated, suddenly realizing they might be facing something they couldn't handle. That hesitation was all I needed.

"Xavier!" I called out. "Can you run?"

"I think so!" he replied, limping toward me.

The chamber was falling apart around us now. Chunks of stone were raining from the ceiling, and the magical energy crackling through the air was making it hard to breathe. Several pack members were already fleeing up the stairs, abandoning the ritual entirely.

But as Xavier reached my side, Marcus stepped into our path. His ceremonial robes were torn and dirty, and his face was twisted with absolute fury.

"You ungrateful little b***h," he snarled. "After everything we did for you, everything we gave you, this is how you repay us?"

"Everything you gave me?" I laughed, but it came out as more of a growl. "You gave me nothing but lies. You stole my real life, murdered my real parents, and tried to use me like a tool. I owe you less than nothing."

"You owe us everything!" he roared. "Without us, you'd be dead in some forest somewhere!"

"Without you, my parents would still be alive!"

I started toward him, but Xavier grabbed my arm. "Thelma, we have to go. Now. The whole structure is becoming unstable."

As if to emphasize his point, a massive c***k opened in the ceiling, sending a boulder crashing down where we'd been standing just seconds before.

Marcus raised his hands, and I saw he was holding some kind of magical artifact, a crystal that glowed with the same energy as the ritual circle. "If I can't have your power, I'll make sure it dies with you!"

He began chanting in that same ancient language, but before he could finish, Yvonne screamed from across the room.

"Father, look out!"

A section of the ceiling collapsed right on top of him. The last I saw of my adoptive father was his shocked expression as tons of stone buried him and his precious crystal.

"Move!" Xavier shouted, pulling me toward a c***k in the wall that hadn't been there before.

We squeezed through the opening just as the entire ritual chamber began to cave in. Behind us, I could hear screaming and the sound of stone crushing stones. Some of the pack members made it out. Others didn't.

The c***k led to a natural cave system that connected to the forest outside. We ran through narrow passages and underground streams, the sound of destruction echoing behind us. My body was still crackling with uncontrolled magical energy, making every step feel like I was walking on lightning.

By the time we emerged into the forest, dawn was breaking through the trees. The cool morning air felt like heaven after the choking dust and magical chaos underground. But something was wrong with me. Very wrong.

The moment we stopped running, my legs gave out. I collapsed to the forest floor, gasping for air that wouldn't seem to fill my lungs.

"Thelma!" Xavier dropped to his knees beside me. "What's happening?"

"The ritual," I managed to choke out. "It wasn't... wasn't completed properly. The energy is... tearing me apart."

I could feel it now, the magical backlash eating away at me from the inside. The interrupted blood magic had left me unstable, like a dam with cracks running through it. Every second that passed, I could feel myself getting weaker.

"We need to get you to healers," Xavier said frantically. "Real healers who understand blood magic."

"Your pack?"

"Yes. The Silver Moon pack has shamans who specialize in ancient magic. If anyone can help you, they can."

He lifted me in his arms, and I could feel how much the effort cost him. He was injured too, beaten and battered from his captivity. But he carried me anyway, stumbling through the forest toward his pack's territory.

The journey took hours. I drifted in and out of consciousness, sometimes seeing the forest around us, sometimes seeing flashes of memories that didn't belong to me, my real parents, the night they died, the moment I was taken from them.

"Stay with me," Xavier kept saying. "Just a little further."

When I finally opened my eyes again, we were standing at the edge of a clearing. In the center was a village unlike anything I'd ever seen – wooden houses built into living trees, bridges spanning between the branches, everything in harmony with the forest around it. The Silver Moon pack's territory.

Several wolves in human form were approaching us, and I could see the moment they recognized Xavier. Relief flooded their faces.

"Xavier! Thank the Moon Goddess you're alive!"

"We've been searching for you for days!"

"What happened? Who is this?"

Xavier shifted my weight in his arms, trying to hold me steady. "This is Thelma. Alpha James and Luna Catherine's daughter. She's dying, and we need the shamans immediately."

The wolves stopped dead in their tracks. One of them, an older man with gray hair and stern features, stepped forward.

"James and Catherine's daughter?" he said slowly. "The child who died with them?"

"She didn't die," Xavier said urgently. "She was taken by the Tee pack and raised as their own. They just tried to steal her Alpha bloodline with some kind of ritual, and now the magical backlash is killing her."

The gray-haired man studied me with calculating eyes. I could see him taking in my weakened state, the way magical energy was still flickering around me like dying flames.

"Alpha bloodline, you say?" he murmured.

"Beta Marcus, please," Xavier begged. "She needs help now, or she'll die."

But Beta Marcus was looking at me like I was a prize to be won rather than a person who needed saving. "Do you have any idea what this means? If she truly carries James and Catherine's bloodline, if she has their abilities..."

"She's my mate," Xavier said firmly. "And she's dying. Help her."

Beta Marcus smiled, but it wasn't a kind expression. "Oh, we'll help her, Xavier. We'll help her very much. In fact, I think she might be exactly what we need to finally get our revenge on the packs that destroyed us."

My heart sank as I realized what was happening. Xavier had brought me to his pack hoping they would save my life out of love for my parents. Instead, they wanted to use me just like everyone else had.

"What are you saying?" Xavier demanded.

"I'm saying," Beta Marcus replied, "that James and Catherine's daughter is worth more than gold to our enemies. And it's time we started making some deals."