THE ALPHA'S REJECTED HEIR

THE LUNA'S WAR

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*Lyra’s POV - 6:17 AM*

I woke to chaos.

Not in my penthouse. On my phone.

PackNet: 47 notifications.

Stary Trending: #SilverLuna #VolkovKneels #TrueLuna

Voicemail: 19. All Alphas. All begging for alliances or screaming about tradition.

And one text.

Unknown Number: You humiliated the Circle. Blood will answer blood. The challenge is issued. -R

R. Riven. Alpha of the Nightfang Pack. Kade’s oldest rival. Stronger. Meaner. And pissed I took his shot at being Top Alpha.

I rolled over.

Kade was still on the floor. Awake. Staring at the ceiling. Shirt off. Bandage on his ribs where Selene’s wolf got a claw in.

He’d heard my phone.

“Riven,” he said. Not a question.

“Riven,” I confirmed.

He sat up. “He’ll challenge for you. For them. Pack Law says I have to accept.”

“I know the Law.” I threw his shirt at him. “Get dressed. We’re not doing this on my floor.”

“Mommy?”

We both froze.

Aria stood in the doorway. Hair a mess. Bunny in hand. Ice gray eyes went from me to Kade on the floor. To the blood stain on his bandage.

“Why does Daddy sleep on the carpet?” she asked. “Did he get a time-out?”

My wolf whimpered.

Kade recovered first. He smiled. It was wrecked, but real. “Yeah, baby. Big time-out.”

“Why?” Aria padded over, dropped her bunny, and tried to climb into his lap. He let her. Careful. Like she was glass.

“Because,” he said, looking at me over her head, “I was stupid. And when you’re stupid to Mommy, you get the floor.”

Aria patted his cheek. “You say sorry?”

“Every day,” Kade rasped.

“Okay.” She nodded, satisfied. Then pointed at his bandage. “You got an owie.”

“Bad lady,” Kade said.

Aria’s face went hard. Lyra mini hard. “We put her in timeout forever?”

Lyra-mini.With my eyes and his violence.

God help the world.

“Yes,” I said, walking over. I knelt. Not for Kade. For her. “Forever.”

My phone buzzed again.

Rhett: Riven’s at Volkov Tower. With 20 wolves. Demanding a challenge circle by sundown. Says if you don’t show, he’ll declare you unfit and take the pups.

The air went arctic.

Kade stood. Aria in his arms. He set her down behind him. Blocking her from me. From the rage.

“Kade,” I said, low.

“I know.” Gold bled into his eyes. “He doesn’t touch them.”

“Rule #10,” I whispered.

“I remember.”

---

*Kade’s POV - Volkov Tower, 5:43 PM*

The challenge circle was drawn in salt and blood. Old Law. Old ways.

Riven waited in the center. 6’5”. Scar across his throat from my claws, five years ago. He was bigger than me. Always had been.

But I wasn’t fighting for territory.

I was fighting for a four-year-old girl who asked why I slept on the floor.

Lyra stood at the edge. Ash on her hip. Aria holding her hand. My suit jacket around Aria’s shoulders because it was cold and she refused to let go of me before we left.

My jacket. On my daughter.

Riven saw it. Sneered. “You let a Silver b***h leash you, Volkov? You kneel for pups that might not even be yours?”

The crowd of Alphas went dead silent.

That was the line.

Not for me. For them.

I stepped into the circle. “Lyra King is my Luna. Aria and Ash Volkov are my blood. My heirs.” My voice carried. “Say they aren’t mine again. I dare you.”

Riven shifted. Half-shift. Claws, fangs, red eyes. “Then die for them, kneeler.”

We hit.

He was strong. Alpha of a war pack. But he was angry. Sloppy.

I was precise.

Five years of self-hate. One night of holding my daughter while she slept. One morning of “Did Daddy get a time-out?”

I fought like a man with nothing left to lose and everything to protect.

His claws raked my back. I took it. Got inside his guard.

Break his stance, Lyra’s voice in my head from years ago, training. Then break his will.

I snapped his left leg.

He howled. Went down to one knee.

I didn’t stop.

I grabbed his throat. Hauled him up. Slammed him into the concrete. The circle cracked.

“Yield,” I snarled. Blood in my mouth. His or mine. “Yield or I finish it.”

Riven choked. Looked past me. At Lyra.

She hadn’t moved. Ash’s face was buried in her neck. But Aria...

Aria was watching. Ice gray eyes. No fear. Just... assessment.

Like her mother.

Riven saw it too.

He went limp. “I... yield. Alpha.”

I dropped him.

Silence.

Then Lyra’s voice. Clear. Cutting through the crowd.

“Nightfang Pack,” she said. “Your Alpha yielded. To mine.”

She stepped into the circle. Into _blood_. Barefoot again. Always barefoot for war.

Ash still on her hip. Aria’s hand in hers.

“Kade Volkov is my weapon,” she told the Alphas. “My choice. My mate.” She looked at Riven, bleeding on the ground. “Challenge him again. Challenge my pups again...”

She smiled. It wasn’t nice.

“And I’ll show you why the last Silver Luna started a war.”

No one spoke.

Because there was nothing to say.

We’d won.

---

*Lyra’s POV - Penthouse, 11:02 PM*

Kade was in the kids’ bathroom.

Bandaging cuts. Letting Ash ‘help’ with dinosaur bandaids. Aria supervising from the toilet seat, lecturing him about “bad fighting.”

“Daddy needs to use his words first,” she said solemnly. “Like Ms. Jenny says.”

“Ms. Jenny’s right,” Kade muttered, wincing as Ash slapped a T-Rex on his bicep.

I leaned against the doorframe. Watching.

He looked up. Caught me.

We didn’t speak.

We didn’t need to.

The bond was quiet. Sated. Home.

“Daddy done,” Ash declared. “All better.”

“Almost,” Kade said. He stood. Went to the sink. Met my eyes in the mirror.

“Where do I sleep tonight, Luna?”

Rule #1. Separate bedrooms.

I looked at Aria. At Ash. At the blood he’d spilled for them.

“Rule #1 is suspended,” I said quietly. “Until further notice.”

His breath hitched.

“But,” I added, “floor stays. You snore, you’re out. You touch me, you die.”

His mouth twitched. “Yes, Ms. King.”

“Lyra,” Aria corrected, yawning. “He’s Daddy. Daddy says Lyra.”

Kade went very, very still.

I closed my eyes.

“Finish bedtime,” I said. “Then... we’ll see.”

I walked out.

My wolf was purring.

_

Traitor.