THE LAST MOONFANG

The Last King's Legacy

The clash of steel echoed through the Hidden Sanctuary.

Victor Nightfang's black blade crashed against Hogan Blackwood's silver sword, sending sparks across the ancient stone floor. The force of the impact shook the mountain itself, and loose pebbles rained from the ceiling.

Neither Alpha yielded.

For nineteen years, both men had waited for this moment.

Victor's crimson eyes burned with hatred.

"You've grown slower, Hogan."

Hogan's expression never changed.

"And you've become exactly what everyone feared."

Victor laughed.

"Fear built my kingdom."

"No."

Hogan pushed Victor backward with a powerful strike.

"It built your prison."

The two Alphas circled each other beneath the towering stone pillars, each waiting for the slightest mistake.

Outside the sanctuary, Kael stood motionless.

His sharp golden eyes followed every movement inside the ruined hall, but his attention repeatedly drifted toward Lyra.

She looked pale.

Confused.

Every revelation tonight had shattered another piece of the life she believed she understood.

Only yesterday she had been a rogue girl searching for food and shelter.

Tonight strangers were calling her a princess.

She didn't know what frightened her more—the possibility that they were lying or the possibility that they were telling the truth.

Selena gently touched her shoulder.

"Lyra..."

"I'm fine."

"You don't look fine."

"I said I'm fine."

Her voice was sharper than she intended.

She immediately lowered her eyes.

"I'm sorry."

Selena smiled sadly.

"You don't have to pretend you're strong all the time."

Lyra looked away.

If she stopped pretending...

She was afraid she might fall apart.

Another explosion echoed from inside the sanctuary.

Victor spun beneath Hogan's sword and drove his shoulder into the older Alpha's chest.

Hogan stumbled several steps before regaining his balance.

Victor smirked.

"Age is finally catching up with you."

"It isn't age."

Hogan raised his sword once more.

"It's patience."

Before Victor could attack again, a deep rumble rolled beneath their feet.

Everyone froze.

The sound came from deep inside the mountain.

Slow.

Heavy.

Like the heartbeat of a sleeping giant.

Boom.

Boom.

Boom.

Lyra's hand instinctively pressed against her chest.

Her own heartbeat matched the rhythm.

"No..."

she whispered.

The heartbeat grew louder.

Boom.

Boom.

Boom.

The crescent-shaped birthmark beneath her collar suddenly burned.

She gasped in pain.

Kael reached her before she could lose her balance.

"What happened?"

"I..."

She struggled to breathe.

"It hurts."

A faint silver light escaped through the fabric covering her shoulder.

Selena stared.

"Your mark..."

Lyra quickly pulled away.

"Don't look."

But it was too late.

Everyone had seen it.

A perfect silver crescent glowing against her skin.

Aldric slowly closed his eyes.

"The royal mark."

Victor's smile vanished.

"So it wasn't a rumor."

His gaze locked onto Lyra.

For the first time since entering the sanctuary, he looked genuinely surprised.

"You truly survived."

Lyra stared back at him.

"I don't know you."

Victor slowly lowered his sword.

"But I know you."

His voice was strangely calm.

"When I burned Moonfang Castle, I searched every room."

His smile faded.

"I searched for one child."

The mountain seemed to grow colder.

"A little girl with silver eyes."

Lyra's breathing stopped.

"I never found her."

Silence settled over the sanctuary.

Then Victor laughed.

"And now she walks into my hands."

Before anyone could react, Victor vanished.

His speed shocked everyone present.

Within a heartbeat he stood only a few steps away from Lyra.

Kael moved instantly.

Steel met steel.

Victor's blade stopped inches from Lyra's throat.

Kael held him back with both hands gripping his sword.

Their eyes met.

Victor smiled.

"So..."

"The Blackwood Alpha protects Moonfang."

Kael didn't answer.

He simply pushed Victor away.

The force sent both Alphas sliding across the stone floor.

Victor studied him carefully.

"I've heard stories about you."

"I don't care."

"You should."

Victor's smile widened.

"Because when this night ends, every Alpha in the kingdom will know where the last Moonfang heir has been hiding."

Kael's expression hardened.

"No one is taking her."

Victor laughed.

"We'll see."

Without warning he attacked again.

This time Hogan intercepted him from the side.

The three Alphas collided in a whirlwind of flashing steel.

Their swords blurred faster than the human eye could follow.

Strike after strike echoed through the sanctuary.

Neither Hogan nor Kael could gain the advantage.

Victor fought with terrifying precision.

He was outnumbered.

Yet he showed no fear.

Aldric watched with growing concern.

"He isn't trying to win."

Selena frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"He's buying time."

The old general looked toward the ancient altar.

"It starts tonight."

As though responding to his words, another violent tremor shook the mountain.

Cracks spread across the stone beneath the altar.

Thin lines of silver light escaped through them.

The glow grew brighter with every passing second.

Hogan noticed first.

His face changed.

"It can't be..."

Victor smiled without taking his eyes off his opponents.

"So it still answers the Moonfang blood."

The altar split apart with a thunderous c***k.

Dust filled the sanctuary.

A hidden staircase slowly emerged from the darkness below.

Cold air poured upward, carrying the scent of ancient stone and forgotten history.

Every warrior present stared in silence.

No one spoke.

No one moved.

Aldric slowly stepped toward the opening.

Tears filled his old eyes.

"For nineteen years..."

His voice trembled.

"I prayed this day would come."

Lyra looked from the staircase to the old general.

"What is it?"

He turned to face her.

"It is the path your father prepared."

"My father?"

"The last King of Moonfang."

Those words struck her harder than any weapon ever could.

The world blurred around her.

"My father wasn't a king."

"He was."

"You knew him?"

"I served him."

Aldric slowly knelt before her.

"And until my final breath..."

"...I will serve his daughter."

Lyra stood frozen, unable to speak.

Deep below the mountain, something ancient stirred once again.

The words echoed through Lyra's mind.

I will serve his daughter.

She stared at Aldric, searching his weathered face for any sign that this was some elaborate deception. Instead, she saw only grief... and unwavering loyalty.

"You've mistaken me for someone else," she whispered.

Aldric slowly rose to his feet.

"I prayed I was wrong."

He reached beneath his cloak and removed a small leather pouch that had faded with age. With trembling hands, he untied the cord and withdrew an old silver pendant shaped like a crescent moon.

The moment Lyra saw it, her breath caught.

"I've seen that before..."

She didn't know how she knew it, but she did.

In countless dreams, a woman with gentle silver eyes had fastened the same pendant around the neck of a little girl before kissing her forehead.

The memory came and vanished like mist.

Aldric's voice softened.

"King Adrian gave this to me on the night Moonfang fell."

He stepped closer and held out the pendant.

"He told me that if his daughter survived, she alone would recognize it."

Lyra hesitated.

Her fingers trembled as she reached for the pendant.

The instant her skin touched the silver, warmth spread through her hand.

The engraved crescent moon began to glow.

A faint silver light wrapped around the pendant before flowing into Lyra's palm.

Everyone watched in stunned silence.

Selena covered her mouth.

"It reacted..."

Aldric bowed his head.

"There is no longer any doubt."

Victor's face darkened.

"So Adrian really entrusted the royal seal to you."

"I entrusted my life to my king," Aldric replied.

"And I would do it again."

Victor's laughter echoed through the sanctuary.

"Your loyalty cost you everything."

"It gave me purpose."

The tyrant's smile disappeared.

"Then die with it."

With terrifying speed, Victor broke away from Hogan and Kael.

He surged toward Aldric, his black sword cutting through the air.

Aldric barely managed to raise his own blade.

Steel clashed.

The old general staggered backward under the force of the blow.

Age had slowed his body, but not his resolve.

He planted his feet and met Victor's next strike head-on.

"You should have stayed hidden," Victor growled.

"I've hidden long enough."

The two exchanged a flurry of blows.

Aldric fought with disciplined precision, but Victor's strength steadily pushed him back.

Kael stepped forward to intervene.

Hogan caught his arm.

"Wait."

"We can't let him kill Aldric."

"Look."

Kael turned.

Lyra stood perfectly still.

The pendant continued to glow in her hand.

She wasn't watching the battle.

Her eyes were fixed on the staircase beneath the broken altar.

The silver light rising from below pulsed in the same rhythm as her heartbeat.

Boom.

Boom.

Boom.

Each pulse grew stronger.

A strange pull tugged at her chest, as though something deep beneath the mountain was calling her by name.

She took one step forward.

Then another.

"Lyra," Selena called.

She didn't answer.

Her feet continued moving toward the staircase.

The light reflected in her silver eyes until they seemed to shine from within.

Aldric noticed immediately.

"The sanctuary has accepted her."

Victor heard those words.

His eyes widened.

"No."

He forced Aldric backward with a brutal kick before spinning toward Lyra.

"If she enters the royal vault, everything changes."

Kael intercepted him again.

The impact of their swords rang through the chamber.

"You'll have to kill me first," Kael said.

Victor smiled coldly.

"I was planning to."

Dark energy erupted from his body.

The temperature inside the sanctuary dropped sharply.

Black mist curled around his feet before climbing his legs like living shadows.

Even Hogan frowned.

"So you've finally embraced forbidden power."

Victor's crimson eyes gleamed.

"Power has no master."

"It always has a price."

"I've already paid it."

He unleashed a savage attack.

The force of the strike drove Kael back several steps.

Before Victor could press his advantage, Hogan attacked from behind.

Victor twisted away just in time, but the tip of Hogan's blade sliced across his shoulder.

Blood splashed onto the ancient stones.

For a heartbeat...

Nothing happened.

Then the blood disappeared.

The sanctuary absorbed it.

A low rumble rolled through the mountain once more.

Silver runes slowly appeared along the walls, spreading outward like veins of moonlight.

Ancient wolf statues hidden among the pillars began to glow.

Aldric stared in disbelief.

"They're awakening."

Victor's confidence faltered for the first time.

"Impossible."

"No outsider has shed blood inside the sanctuary since the fall of Moonfang."

One of the stone wolves opened its eyes.

They glowed bright silver.

Then another.

And another.

Soon every carved guardian surrounding the sanctuary had awakened.

Their heads turned toward the center of the hall.

Not toward Victor.

Not toward Hogan.

Not even toward Kael.

They looked only at Lyra.

She had reached the top of the hidden staircase.

The silver light pouring from below wrapped gently around her like a flowing cloak.

She looked down into the darkness.

There was no fear in her heart now.

Only curiosity.

Only an overwhelming feeling that she had finally returned to a place she had unknowingly searched for her entire life.

Behind her, Aldric smiled through tears.

"The last king kept his promise."

Selena looked at him.

"What promise?"

"That one day..."

"...his daughter would come home."

Before anyone could speak again, a woman's gentle voice drifted from the depths beneath the mountain.

It was soft.

Warm.

Filled with love.

"Lyra..."

The sound froze her in place.

Tears welled in her eyes.

She knew that voice.

She had heard it in every dream since she was a child.

She slowly lifted her head toward the darkness below.

"Mother?”