Rejected And Reborn As The Alpha King's Luna

Chapter 36:“The Possession”

POV: Thelma

We ran, following the trail of dark energy through the corridors of the lair. It moved fast, desperate, searching for something.

"What is she looking for?" Xavier asked as we ran.

"A host," Elena panted. "She can't exist without a body. Her physical form is destroyed, turned into that crystal. But her consciousness, her magic, it needs a vessel. She's searching for someone weak enough to possess."

We burst out of the lair into the forest. The dark magic was ahead of us, moving through the trees like smoke.

Then I heard it. A scream. Female. Terrified.

"Someone's out there!" Theo said.

We ran faster, breaking through the treeline into a clearing. And there, cowering on the ground, was the last person I expected to see.

Yvonne.

My adoptive sister looked terrible. Her clothes were torn, her face bruised. She'd been running through the forest, probably fleeing from something, maybe the packs that had attacked Luna's territory, maybe something else.

"Please!" Yvonne sobbed when she saw us. "Please help me! I didn't know what to do. Marcus is dead. Mother won't stop crying. Everyone wants to kill me for what our family did to you. I've been running for days and.."

The dark magic slammed into her before any of us could react.

Yvonne's scream cut off abruptly. Her body went rigid, then convulsed violently. Dark veins spread across her skin, visible beneath the surface. Her eyes rolled back, showing only whites.

"No!" Elena rushed forward, but Luna held her back.

"It's too late," Luna said grimly. "The possession has already begun."

Yvonne's body rose from the ground, floating a foot in the air. The dark veins receded, and when her eyes opened again, they glowed with that familiar sickly green light.

"Much better," Morgana's voice came from Yvonne's mouth. "A young, healthy body. Not as powerful as I'd hoped, but it will do. Thank you, dear child, for being so conveniently weak and broken."

"Yvonne!" Elena cried. "Fight her! You have to fight her!"

But Yvonne or Morgana wearing Yvonne like a suit, just smiled. "There's no one left to fight. The girl's will was shattered days ago. She's been drowning in guilt and terror since her father died. She practically invited me in."

Xavier moved to attack, but I put my hand on his arm, stopping him.

"That's still a living person," I said calmly. "Yvonne might be terrible, but she doesn't deserve to be possessed by a dark witch."

"How noble," Morgana laughed, using Yvonne's voice in a way that made it sound wrong. "Even with a stone heart, you're still trying to save people. How pathetically heroic."

She raised Yvonne's hands, and magic crackled around her fingers. "But here's the thing about possession, dear Thelma. Now that I have a body again, I can do so much more than when I was trapped in that crystal. I can move freely. Cast spells. And most importantly.." Her smile widened. "I can finish what I started."

"The ritual," Luna breathed. "She's going to try the ritual again."

"Smart wolf," Morgana purred. "With Yvonne's body, I can move in the world. And I know where to find everything I need. Another location with enough dark energy. Another ceremonial circle. And two conveniently weakened Alpha twins who are standing right in front of me."

Theo and I exchanged glances. Even without emotions, I understood the danger. Theo was exhausted from the earlier battle. And I was... broken. Incomplete.

"You can't have them," Xavier growled, moving between us and Morgana.

"Oh, I think I can," Morgana replied. "You see, you're still weak from Neon's poison. Luna's pack is scattered and disorganized. Elena is too broken by grief to fight effectively. And Thelma.." She focused those green-glowing eyes on me. "Thelma can't even feel enough to be afraid of me. She's already halfway to being a corpse."

Through the mate bond, I felt Xavier's rage and fear. Felt him wanting to protect me, to fight for me. But I also felt his weakness. Morgana was right, he wasn't strong enough yet. None of us were.

"So here's what's going to happen," Morgana continued, her voice cheerful and terrible. "I'm going to leave now. I'm going to prepare my new ritual. And in three days' time, I'm going to come back and take you both. I'll drain your Alpha essence, open my portal to the demon realm, and finally achieve my immortality."

"We'll stop you," Theo said, but even he sounded uncertain.

"Will you?" Morgana tilted her head, making Yvonne's body move in ways that looked unnatural. "You can barely stand. Your sister is more stone than person. Your allies are broken. You have nothing."

She was right. I looked at our group, wounded, exhausted, grieving. We'd won the battle but lost so much in the process. "Three days," Morgana repeated. "Use them wisely. Say your goodbyes. Make your peace. Because when I return, there will be no more second chances. No more resurrections. Just death. Final and eternal."

Then, in a swirl of dark magic, she disappeared, taking Yvonne's body with her.

Silence fell over the clearing.

"We need a plan," Luna said finally. "We need.."

"We need a miracle," Theo interrupted. "Look at us. We're broken. How are we supposed to fight a three-hundred-year-old witch in three days when we can barely stand?"

I watched them all, these people who loved me, who'd fought for me, who were suffering because of me. And I felt nothing. Should have felt grateful. Should have felt determined. Should have felt something. But my heart was still stone.

"We find a way," I said calmly. "Because the alternative is death. And I've already died once. I'd prefer not to do it again."

Xavier looked at me, and through the mate bond, I felt his heartbreak intensify. This calm, emotionless version of me was almost worse than losing me completely.

"Thelma," he said softly. "Come back to me. Please. I need you to come back."

"I'm trying," I said, and it was true, even if I couldn't feel the desperation that should have accompanied those words. "But I don't know how."

"We figure it out," Theo said, putting his hand on my shoulder. "We save you, stop the witch, and get our lives back. All of it."

"In three days," Luna added quietly.

Three days to break a curse that true love's kiss couldn't fully heal. Three days to defeat a witch who'd been planning her revenge for centuries. Three days to somehow put my heart back together when I

couldn't even feel that it was broken. The odds were impossible. But then again, I'd faced impossible odds before. Even if, this time, I had to face them with a heart of stone...