FOUR: The Shard In His Chest
1100 Words
VALERIE'S POV
The emergency council meeting was the most chaotic gathering Moonfang has seen in decades. The meeting had been called together by Elder Marcus to talk about Alpha Knox Valor, my mate.
I walked into the council chamber and saw Theoron sitting there, looking pisssed. He glanced at me and then looked away.
It hurt to see him like that.
The room was carved with dark stones and lit by silver moon crystals which were embedded in the walls. The council chamber had always belonged to Knox but now it felt like a battlefield.
“He’s an imposter.”
Elder Marcus screamed explaining that there was no way a person would survive five years in the hands of the warden.
General Ronan slammed his hand against the table
“I trained that boy from childhood. He bears the Alpha’s scent. That is Knox.”
"We cannot simply believe him." Elder Maris, sharp-tongued and suspicious since birth, slammed a wrinkled hand on the table. "Knox Valor died five years ago. This creature—this thing that walked through our doors..."
"Is Knox." Gideon's voice cracked. Knox Beta stood against the wall, arms crossed, eyes red-rimmed. "I served him for fifteen years. I know his scent. I know his wolf. That is my Alpha."
“The alliance has already been negotiated. Blackridge pledged warriors, supplies and protection. The kingdom needs stability.” A noble argued.
Why was Elder Marcus trying to convince everyone that it wasn't Knox when it was clearly him?
I couldn't concentrate while the meeting dragged on. I felt myself becoming invisible the more I sat here.
All I could think about was Knox, the first and only wolf I had ever mated with.
The man whom the moon Goddess had blessed me with.
I tried to push my worry aside and thought back to my past.
I was an orphan and my parents were killed in a rogue evasion. That obviously put me at the bottom of the wolf hierarchy.
I was just a lowly omega and the pack hadn't treated me well until the day of the mating ritual, when Knox was revealed as my mate.
Despite being the Alpha’s son, he loved me to the moon and back and swore to protect me with his life.
“Luna”
I was snapped back to reality when I heard Theoron call my name.
He walked up to me and gently patted my back
“You need rest”
Rest?
My mate just came back to my life, and I was still in a daze.
“We continue” I said
The meeting resumed and the council eventually reached one conclusion.
Knox would remain under observation until the healer examined him.
"I want to speak with him alone," Knox said.
He stood in the doorway of the council chamber, flanked by four guards who looked like children holding back a hurricane. His ruined voice carried despite its rasp, and the elders flinched as one.
I did not flinch.
"No."
"Valerie..."
"You will not speak with me alone." I kept my voice level, dispassionate, the voice I used for border negotiations and disputed territories. "You will submit to a healer's examination. You will remain in the guest wing under guard. And you will not challenge my authority in this pack, not tonight, not until we understand what you are and what you want."
Knox's scarred face did not change. But the bond—that terrible, resurrected bond pulsed with something that felt like admiration. Like pride.
He's impressed, Vina whispered. He didn't think you'd be this strong.
I crushed the thought before it could take root.
The healer, Gretha, arrived carrying a bag of herbs and condiments.
Gretha has always been the pack’s infamous healer since I was a young pup. She was old and frail but she remained one of the most powerful healers in the wolf kingdom.
Wolves from different packs journeyed to Blood Moon Pass to see Gretha hoping to find solutions to their problems.
She placed her hands, flaring with blinding, white-hot light, against Knox’s chest and began examining him.
I stand at the doorway, observing.
After a long silence, she finally spoke
“What happened to you?”
“t*****e” Knox’s voice was rough
The word sounded so simple but his tone made it so terrifying. Vina whimpered because she could feel the pain that Amidus must have gone through in the hands of the warden.
Gretha took his hand and the silver-white light that lived underneath her skin emerged. She touched the scar on his face
"Moon save us," Gretha breathed. "You've been altered."
“I've never seen injuries like these. These scars should have killed you. The monsters hadn't just clawed you but they'd mixed dark magic into the wound.”
Then she tore a part of his shirt and recoiled in shock.
“What are these markings?”
“What is it?” I ask
“There are magical restraints embedded beneath your skin. The warden bound something to your body.”
Knox looked more terrified than I'd ever seen him
“What exactly did he put inside me?”
“I don't know”
I stared at Knox who had always been wild and strong. His humour that carried across the entire pack territory, his movements had always been firm and confident like a king.
Now, the man lying on the bed looked like a shadow of himself. His eyes were hollow and he had scars running across his entire body.
Greta walked up to me
“Luna. He suffered unimaginable t*****e, his body carries scars caused by blade and others caused by magic.”
The room fell silent
“And there’s more. There’s darkness inside him, something was placed inside his chest. A shard of dark magic.”
My body trembles as I hear what had befallen my mate
“Is there anything we can do to help him?”
“For now, I will cast him into a deep sleep. My job is to protect the sanctity of this pack and I need to consult the ancient spirits.”
I stepped back from the door.
My hand pressed to my own chest, over the mating mark that had darkened in sympathy with his. A shard of darkness. Near his heart. Inside him.
I had imagined his captivity a thousand ways over five years. t*****e. Chains. Starvation. But I had never imagined this—someone reaching into my mate's chest and leaving a piece of shadow behind.
"What did they do to you?" I asked no one.
- Writer
