THE ALPHA'S REJECTED LUNA

Chapter 6: The Devil's Lair

pain.

That was the first thing I felt when I woke up. Not the hollow ache of Kade's rejection. Not the electric burn of Rhys's touch.

This was different. A dull, throbbing pain at the back of my neck where the needle had gone in. And a cold so deep it was in my bones.

I tried to move. My hands were tied. Rough rope cut into my wrists behind my back. My ankles were tied too. I was lying on a cold, damp stone floor.

The smell hit me next. Damp earth, old blood, and wolfsbane. So much wolfsbane that my newly awakened wolf was whimpering inside my head, weak and dizzy.

*Where... where are we?*

*We... were drugged again...* my wolf snarled weakly. *Same smell... like the tea...*

My eyes snapped open.

I wasn't in the forest anymore.

I was in a cell. A real dungeon. No windows. Only stone walls dripping with water and a single iron door with a small barred window. The only light came from a flickering torch outside.

And sitting on a stool right outside my cell, polishing a long silver dagger, was a man I knew since I was a child.

Elder Magnus.

He was old, his hair completely white, his face full of wrinkles, but his eyes were still sharp and cruel. He was the oldest Elder of Silver Moon. He was the one who had told stories of the White Wolf to pups. He was the one who had put his hand on my mother's head at her funeral and said, "Such a tragedy."

"Aria," he said, without looking up from his dagger. His voice was calm, almost kind. "You are awake. Good. I was starting to think the wolfsbane was too much for your little Omega heart. But then again, you are not an Omega anymore, are you?"

My blood turned to ice. I thrashed against the ropes. "Elder Magnus? What... what is this? Why am I here? Leave me alone!"

He finally looked up. And he smiled. It was the most terrifying smile I had ever seen.

"Why? Because you are a miracle, child. Because for eighteen years I have waited for this night. I watched you. I drugged you. I made sure you stayed weak, wolfless, pathetic. Your mother's tea every morning? That was my recipe. Luna Selene was just happy to deliver it."

My breath stopped.

*The tea. Luna Selene. My wolf said... they made us weak.*

"You... you drugged me?"

"Of course," he said, as if explaining to a stupid child. "Your mother, Layla... she was a White Wolf too, did you know? A weak one. A diluted one. But she was still too powerful. She started to suspect. She found out what Selene was doing to you. So she had to be... removed."

He held up the rusted locket I had found in the forest. My mother's locket.

"You found this. 'ELENA KILLED ME. RUN.' Your mother was a dramatic woman. She wrote that to scare you. It wasn't Elena who killed her, not directly. Elena was only fifteen then. She just held her down while I slit her throat. She has always wanted to be Luna, you see. Even as a child, she was... ambitious."

I screamed. A raw, broken scream that tore my throat.

"YOU KILLED MY MOTHER!"

"Lower your voice, White Wolf," Magnus snapped, his kind mask slipping. "You should be thanking me. I kept you alive. Selene wanted you dead the day you were born. But I told her, no. Let the White Wolf grow. Let her power mature. And on her eighteenth birthday, when her wolf finally awakens, we will take it."

He stood up and walked to the cell door, his keys jingling.

"The White Wolf's power is in her blood, in her heart. If I rip your heart out under the Blood Moon tomorrow night, while you are still unmarked, I can drink your power and become immortal. I will be able to rule all packs. Not Kade. Not that cursed bastard Volkov. ME."

He unlocked the door.

I scrambled back until my back hit the cold wall. "No... no, please... Rhys... Kade... someone... HELP!"

"Oh, your Alphas?" Magnus laughed. "They are still in the forest, rolling in the mud like pups fighting over a toy. They didn't even see my man take you. By the time they realize you are gone, you will already be dead. And that stupid note you found? Elena will never be blamed. Because tomorrow, we will tell the pack that you, heartbroken after your Alpha's rejection, ran away and were killed by Rogues. Just like your mother."

He stepped inside the cell. The silver dagger in his hand glowed.

"Now, let's see what color a White Wolf's blood really is."

He grabbed my hair and yanked my head back, exposing my neck.

I closed my eyes, tears streaming down my face. My wolf was too weak from the wolfsbane to fight. I was going to die here. Alone. In a dungeon. Just like my mother.

*Forgive me, Mom.*

**BOOM!**

The entire dungeon shook. Dust fell from the ceiling.

Magnus froze, his dagger inches from my throat.

**BOOM! AGAIN!**

This time, it was louder. It was not an earthquake. It was something slamming against the dungeon's main door.

From far above, muffled but deafening, we heard a roar. A roar so full of pure, murderous, possessive fury that even Magnus's hand trembled.

It was not Kade's silver Alpha roar.

It was deeper. Darker. Cursed.

**"WHERE IS SHE?!"** Rhys Volkov's voice shook the stones. **"MAGNUS! I CAN SMELL HER BLOOD! IF YOU TOUCH ONE HAIR ON HER HEAD, I WILL RIP YOUR SPINE OUT AND FEED IT TO MY WOLVES!"**

And right behind him, a second roar, equally furious.

**"ARIA!"** Kade's voice. **"ARIA, IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, HOLD ON!"**

Magnus's face went pale. "How... how did they find this place? No one knows about this bunker! No one except—"

The iron door to the dungeon at the top of the stairs exploded off its hinges.

Heavy, fast footsteps thundered down the stone steps. Two sets. One light and deadly. One heavy and apocalyptic.

Magnus pressed the silver dagger hard against my neck, drawing blood. I gasped.

"One step closer and I slit her throat!" he screamed towards the stairs.

The footsteps stopped.

Slowly, two figures appeared in the doorway of my cell.

Kade Blackwood. His grey t-shirt was torn, his knuckles were bleeding, his silver eyes were glowing like a madman's. He looked like he had run through hell.

And next to him, Rhys Volkov. Shirtless still, his tattoos now glowing blood-red, his red eyes burning like hellfire, his massive chest heaving. A long, fresh claw mark was bleeding on his shoulder — from Kade.

They were both staring at me. Tied up. Bleeding from the neck. On a dirty floor.

And for the first time in history, the ruthless Alpha of Silver Moon and the cursed Devil of the North looked at each other and felt the exact same thing.

The need to kill.

Rhys's voice was a whisper, but it was more terrifying than any roar.

"Magnus... you have exactly three seconds to take your filthy knife off my mate's neck... before I make you eat it."

Kade's claws extended with a *shing* sound, his eyes never leaving my bleeding neck.

"Touch her again," Kade growled, his voice shaking with rage, "and I will burn your entire bloodline to ash."

Magnus's hand shook violently. He was trapped. Two of the strongest Alphas in the country were at his door, and his hostage was the only thing keeping him alive.

He looked down at me, panicked, desperate. And then his eyes fell on my white streak of hair. On my glowing silver eyes.

A crazy, desperate idea flashed in his old eyes.

If he couldn't have my heart tomorrow... he could take my power now.

He yanked my head back further and opened his mouth, his own teeth sharpening into fangs, aiming for my mark spot — to forcibly mark a White Wolf and steal her power through a false bond.

"No!" Both Alphas lunged at the same time.

But Magnus was faster. His fangs sank into my neck.

I screamed as searing, wrong, cold pain shot through my entire body.

It was not like Kade's rejection. It was not like Rhys's electric spark.

It was violation. Pure, dark violation.

And as his fangs pierced me, something inside me — something ancient and white and furious — finally, truly, snapped.

My eyes exploded with pure white light, so bright Magnus had to let go, screaming.

My wolf's voice in my head was no longer a whimper. It was a Queen's roar.

ENOUGH!