The Luna He Rejected Is The Millennium Wolf

Chapter 021

Sienna's POV

"Try me."

The words left my mouth with a weight I didn't recognize, sounding completely different from my own voice as they emerged lower, vibrating with a metallic edge that seemed to catch right in the dry air of the arena. My tongue felt heavy while the taste of that copper-honey blood coated the back of my throat, ensuring I didn't feel like the girl who had been crying in the silk sheets an hour ago.

The warrior across from me stopped laughing. He was a Gamma, his frame thick with the kind of muscle that only comes from decades of guarding the border, and as he shifted his weight to grind his boots into the sand, he looked at me and then at the sword Duke had handed me before I walked out here.

"Let me be direct with you, human," the warrior said, tightening his grip on his own blade until the leather wrap creaked under his palm. "I will be soft on you, because I don't want to damage the skin before the Alpha gets his use out of you."

I didn't blink, feeling the heartbeat of the crowd as a dull thudding in the soles of my feet while I adjusted my grip on the hilt. The coldness from the Eucharist was spreading, numbing the tips of my fingers until the sword felt like a natural extension of my arm.

"I will be soft with you too," I replied, "if you decide to underestimate me."

The warrior’s face hardened, showing he didn't like the tone at all, since he was used to humans trembling instead of talking back. "You're mine now, girl, and I'm going to toss you into the dirt where you belong."

The guards rang the heavy iron bell, leaving the sound to echo off the stone walls to run sharp and final.

"Kill her!" someone screamed from the stands.

"Let her know her place!" another voice joined in.

The murmurs of the wolves rose like a tide, proving they wanted blood and didn't care whose it was as long as it stained the sand. My heart hammered against my ribs, but it wasn't following the rhythm of fear—it was acting as a countdown.

I knew I wouldn't win this through strength, forcing me to use every possible means even if my ribs ended up in splinters. We circled each other with eyes locked, leaving him to track my neck while I tracked his lead foot.

He lunged in a massive, crashing blow that sent a shockwave straight up my arms.

The metal screamed as I stepped back, my boots sliding in the loose sand because I couldn't let him pin me against the wall when I needed space. He swung again in a horizontal arc meant to take my head off, but I ducked to let the air from the blade whistle right over my scalp.

He was taking it easy on me, playing with his food as I saw the arrogance in the way he kept his guard low. I gave him a small, gentle smile as our eyes met, offering the exact smile of a trap closing.

The sword came again, and instead of just parrying this time, I rolled beneath his strike to aim for his lead leg. He ran fast, catching my blade with his own to leave the metal sparking inches from my face.

"It seems you're vigilant," he muttered, his breath smelling like raw meat.

"What is taking so long?" a voice hissed from the stands. I recognized the sharp-faced girl from the hallway as she leaned over the railing, her eyes narrowed in boredom. "Take the human down already."

The warrior heard it too, forcing his ego to flare as he stepped in close to try and overwhelm me with his sheer bulk. It was the exact mistake I needed, allowing me to drop my shoulder and pivot the moment he pressed his weight into the clash.

The blade flashed as the steel bit deep.

The tip of my sword caught the sunlight right before it sliced across his cheek, plunging the arena into total silence.

The warrior stopped mid-motion, reaching up with thick fingers to touch the jagged red line on his face. He pulled his hand away to stare at the blood steaming in the morning air, and when his face changed, the skin around his jaw tightened while his eyes bled from a dull brown into a glowing, predatory green.

"I think he's taking it serious now," someone whispered.

The beast was awake, and before I could process the shift, he moved to become a blur of gray and green. I lost my focus for a fraction of a second, which was all he needed to turn and find the gap in my defense, leaving the tip of his sword to slice through my shift dress and deep into the flesh of my side.

"Argh!"

The pain emerged as a white-hot iron, causing me to stumble as the sand turned red beneath me. I looked up at the box to find Duke leaning back with a glass in his hand, smiling at me as if I were a toy that had just made an interesting sound.

I wouldn't show him weakness, using my sword as a crutch to force my shaking legs to hold my weight. I stood up to spit a mouthful of blood onto the sand, thinking of Damien and how he was holding Clara while I bled for the amusement of monsters.

"You really think you can kill me that easily?" I asked, my voice sounding like grinding stones while his eyes ran completely green, showing a Gamma warrior in full battle-frenzy. He didn't answer, simply baring his teeth instead.

"Let’s try it again," I shouted, leaving the words to be fueled by the image of Damien and Clara instead of pain, because the thought of them together made the blood in my veins feel like boiling lead.

He lunged again, acting as a whirlwind this time as he caught the corner of my face in a shallow cut that sent blood trickling down my jaw. My sword flew from my hand, landing with a dull thud in the dirt.

"I don't need my wolf to fight you," I rasped, lunging for the hilt.

"You're stubborn, human," he said, pacing around me to close the circle. "Not many humans last this long."

He prepared to lunge one last time with muscles bunching for the kill, but I didn't wait for him to hit me, letting out a scream that tore through my throat as I moved. I didn't see the blade move, only feeling the resistance of his neck.

The sword sliced through, leaving the head to fall.

A fountain of blood sprayed across my face, running hot and thick while the arena was obscured by a cloud of dust kicked up by our feet. For a moment, nobody could see what had happened.

"Did the human die?" a voice stammered.

The dust began to settle to reveal I was the one standing, my hand wrapped in the warrior's hair while his severed head hung heavy in my grip. I looked up at Duke in his box without the fear I should have felt, feeling nothing but a cold, empty satisfaction.

I raised the head above my own, forcing the crowd to step back as a collective gasp of terror echoed through the stands, since they couldn't figure out how a wolfless girl had just executed a Gamma. I tossed the head aside to let it roll through the sand, leaving a dark trail before I wiped the blood from my eyes to look at the crowd.

Before I could even catch my breath, Duke raised a single finger to let a female Omega step into the arena.

She didn't look like the first warrior, looking at me with pity out of eyes that ran soft and clear. She didn't move or pace, simply standing there to wait while I gripped my sword tighter with a palm slick with sweat and gore.

"What exactly are you?" I whispered.

She didn't answer, disappearing from sight entirely.

A blow landed in my stomach with the force of a battering ram, delivering a strike I didn't even see coming. I was flying until my back hit the stone wall of the arena with a sickening c***k, leaving me to cough with swimming vision. I tried to see where she was, but she was already on me, landing a second kick that caught me in the ribs to send me tumbling across the floor to clutch my stomach as the world turned gray.

"You look weak," she said, her voice remaining calm. "Use your power—use the same power you used to kill him."

I wiped the blood from my lips with bones that felt like they were vibrating, allowing a deep ache to flood my marrow as I surged toward her to swing my sword with everything I had left, but she wasn't there.

I turned, right as a massive surge of invisible energy slammed into me like a wall of air hitting me at a hundred miles an hour. I hit the floor head-first, leaving the impact to ring through my skull as I coughed out a glob of blood that ran thick, though as it hit the sand, I saw it: brilliant, pulsing gold mixed with the red. I let out a jagged, hysterical laugh.

"Bring it on," I said, forcing myself to stand. "Come on!"

Juvien, I hope you will help me.

I closed my eyes as a surge of raw energy flooded my veins, running so intense it felt like my skin was peeling back. I fell to my knees to cough more of that golden blood into the sand, and when I looked at Duke, I saw he wasn't smiling anymore, looking concerned instead to make me find it funny.

Then, a voice rang in my ear—ancient, familiar, and filled with a sorrow that made my heart ache.

"Let’s finish it, Sienna."

My breath hitched. "Juvien? You came back for me?"

I looked around, realizing no one else could hear it as I mindlinked with the wolf I thought I had lost.

"Naughty girl," Juvien said, her voice fading even as it spoke. "I am only lending you this power, so it will not last long."

"What do you mean?" I asked, struggling to breathe as the Omega female watched me, waiting for my next move.

"I am not yours anymore, Sienna," Juvien said, leaving the words to hit like a knife to the chest. "You remain wolfless and human. I am here to let you live, but this power will backfire, because it is too much for a human body to hold."

"I don't care," I said, tears blurring my vision. "I will bring you back, Juvien—I promise."

The energy surged into a roar, forcing me to stand with a bleeding mouth and footsteps that ran heavy and staggered. My vision began to narrow, leaving the world outside of the Omega female to turn into a gray blur as every breath felt like inhaling ground glass while my lungs struggled to expand against my broken ribs. I could feel the gold heat fighting the cold void where my bond used to be.

The Omega girl moved again, and as I saw the shift in her shoulders and the way the sand puffed up around her feet, I knew she was preparing to strike. To a human eye, she was a ghost, but to me, she was moving through honey as I felt the gold in my blood ignite, turning the agony in my marrow into a freezing, absolute focus.

She lunged with her fist aimed at my throat, but I didn't dodge or flinch, stepping straight into her space with boots that barely touched the ground. It felt exactly like the air itself was carrying me, pushing me forward with a momentum that defied physics.

I pivoted and struck.

I was on her before she could even register the change in my position, resting my hand on her shoulder to feel her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. Her eyes went wide as the pity vanished, replaced by a raw, primal terror the moment she realized she was no longer the predator.

She tried to twist away, but she was too slow, allowing me to reach out and twist her neck with a strength that didn't belong to me. Her eyes went wide as blood flooded the whites right before she slumped to the ground.

I looked at Duke and smiled, even though my vision was starting to fracture while the silver ring in my sleeve vibrated so hard it was burning my skin.

"The time is up, Sienna," Juvien whispered. "It is left to you now."

The presence left me, feeling exactly like the sun going out.

"Wait!" I cried, but she was gone.

My voice boomed through the arena, and suddenly Duke was there, appearing out of a cloud of dark smoke instead of walking. He looked down at the bodies, and then at me.

"Bravo," he whispered. "I did not know you were this strong."

I tried to speak, but something inside me shattered, feeling like a thousand blades were slicing through my muscles from the inside out.

"Argh!"

The scream tore out of me as my sword hit the stone with a heavy thud, leaving Duke’s warm hands to wrap around my waist to hold me up as my legs gave way completely.

"It seems the power you consumed is backfiring," Duke whispered into my ear. "Besides, your bond with Damien is hurting you, because he is marking her now, Sienna."

The blackness took me before I could hear the rest.