Ashes Of The Moon

Chapter2

I turned and faced the wall, lost in thought about what I should do. I can’t be useless in this place.

A soft hand touched me from behind, followed by a voice, deep and feminine at once.

“Really? You want to give up just like that?” she asked.

I turned. It was one of the girls. She looked slightly masculine, but still dressed like the rest, only, something about her felt different.

“It’s not my making,” I said quietly. “I’m not worthy to stand before the king.”

“It’s funny how someone like you listens to people you’re taller, finer, and smarter than,” she said, resting a hand on my shoulder. “This isn’t just encouragement, cursed girl. This is reality. In this world, if you play it safe, you don’t survive. Sometimes you have to break the rules, and now is that time.”

Her words sparked something inside me. I turned to her slowly.

“Thank you for your encouragement, but I can’t do what you’re asking. I can’t start creating problems for myself the very day I arrived. No.”

She frowned and shook her head, disappointment loud in her eyes.

“Cursed girl,” she said softly, gripping my hands. “You were sold here. You risked your life to be here. Can’t you see? You’re already a warrior. If you face the king and fail, you die. If you don’t face him, you still die. The only difference is, one way, you’ll die with purpose.”

I pulled my hands away. “Sorry, but I just can’t see myself in that chamber you’re putting me in.”

“This is…”

“No is no,” I cut her off.

She turned away, angry, and joined the others. One by one, they followed her in a straight line into the chamber.

Her words wouldn’t stop echoing in my head. Confusion burned through me until it became something else that pulled my leg each time I heard her voice in my head.

I couldn’t stay in that hall. I ran forward, bursting into the chamber.

Every head turned. The air fell silent.

The Alpha King, who had been speaking, stopped mid-sentence. His cold eyes locked on me.

All I wanted was for the ground to open and swallow me whole.

I’m a mess, I muttered silently.

I forced myself to keep walking into the audience chamber. The silence was loud. Each step felt like a nail sealing my coffin.

For the first time in my life, I was the center of attention, the cursed star everyone was waiting to fall.

“Give me your ears and let your brains stay active,” Alpha Khalion’s voice echoed through the hall. “Failure to do that, you will give me your life.”

His words cut through the silence. Yet he acted as though nothing had happened, as though I hadn’t interrupted his gathering.

I blinked, confused. This was not the monster Sion described. My head should already be rolling on the floor.

Instead, he sat there, composed, terrifyingly calm. His presence screamed of royalty and power, but his face… his face carried something worse than charm. The kind that draws you in before burning you alive.

I couldn’t look away. He was supposed to be a demon. But demons don’t look this human.

They don’t command the world by simply existing.

I tried to focus on his voice as he gave orders and instructions. Every creature in that hall, even the air itself obeyed him.

A pinch on my arm broke my focus. I looked by the side and it was her again; that strange girl.

“What do you want from me?” I whispered.

She made signs with her fingers, but I didn’t understand. I turned away, trying to ignore her. She leaned closer.

“You’re losing focus,” she whispered. “Focus on what he’s saying, not on him.”

How she knew where my thoughts were wandering made my skin crawl. Maybe she was a witch like Sion.

“Bring her here,” Alpha Khalion commanded.

My heart dropped. His voice was commanding.

Now I understood why they called him deadly. His tone didn’t rise. His wrath didn’t shout. It whispered.

Before I could move, two guards seized me. Their grips were iron, bruising. It didn’t feel like being presented to the king, it felt like being dragged to execution.

“I told you,” the girl murmured. Her voice held a strange tone. Not pity, not jealousy, but something in between.

The guards threw me to the ground before him. Pain shot through my knees.

“What did I say about service timing in my pack?” Alpha Khalion’s voice was deep and steady.

I froze. He hadn’t said anything about that. I opened my mouth…

“Don’t let him repeat the question,” one of the guards hissed.

I swallowed hard and looked up, trembling. “You never mentioned…”

A heavy slap exploded across my face. My head rang.

“Whenever you speak to the King,” the guard barked, “you begin with My Lord.”

I forced the words through my shaking lips. “My… my… my Lord, you never mentioned anything related to service timing.”

Alpha Khalion rose slowly from his throne. His movement alone silenced the entire room.

“We don’t kill today in this pack,” he said coldly. “That’s how lucky you are. But you will pay for making me talk to myself.”

My breath hitched.

That was when I realized where I truly was, the dead end.

I could hear my own heartbeat. Loud. Desperate. Unforgiving.

His eyes are silver-gray, cold, and unreadable. Studied me like prey he wasn’t sure he wanted to eat yet.

“Do you know what happens to those who interrupt my audience?” he asked, voice smooth but dangerous.

I kept my eyes down. My mouth trembled. “My Lord, I…”

“Quiet.”

The word froze the air around us. Even the guards stiffened.

He circled me once, slowly. I could feel his power pressing on my skin, suffocating. There was something strange about it, though. It didn’t just scare me; it pulled at me.

“You don’t speak unless I command you to,” he said. “You don’t breathe unless I permit it. You exist here because I allow it.”

He stopped behind me. I could feel the heat of him. The cold authority in his voice slid through me like a sword.

“Hold out her hands,” he ordered.

The guards grabbed my wrists and forced them forward. I cried out as the pressure tightened.

“Punishment,” Khalion said, nonchalantly l. “Five strikes.”

One of the guards lifted the whip. I didn’t plead. I didn’t move. I told myself I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of hearing me scream.

The first strike came like lightning. Fire burned across my skin. My breath caught, but no sound escaped.

The second tore through my strength. My knees trembled, but I held myself up.

By the third, I could taste blood on my lip.

He watched in silence. As if he was measuring something invisible between us.

After the fifth strike, the whip fell quiet. My hands shook uncontrollably, but I was still on my knees.

“Enough,” Khalion said.

The guard stepped back.

Alpha Khalion moved closer until his boots brushed the edge of my dress. He bent slightly, his shadow falling over me. “You’re either very brave,” he said slowly, “or very foolish.”

I lifted my eyes for the first time. “Maybe both, my Lord.”

A faint, unreadable smirk tugged at his lips, gone almost as soon as it appeared. He straightened, his expression hard again.

“Lock her up, and make sure there is no air penetration into the dungeon,” he ordered. “I will use her as an example to all of you. If she disobeys again, I’ll make her regret her life.”

I gasped softly. The air became so hot as I found it difficult to breathe.

Before I could think, the guards dragged me away. His voice followed me down the hall, low and cold as winter steel.

“Let her learn what it means to live at the mercy of a king.”