The Rejected Luna's Secret Alpha

Chapter 17

barely slept that night.

Every creak in the corridor made me sit upright. Every shadow beyond the curtains seemed to move when I wasn’t looking directly at it.

Eventually, exhaustion won.

I dreamed of a forest beneath a blood red moon.

A woman stood among the trees, her silver hair floating around her as though she were underwater. Her face remained hidden, but I could feel her watching me.

Behind her stood the black wolf from my first night in Blackthorn territory.

Its golden eyes burned in the darkness.

“Who are you?” I called.

The woman lifted her hand.

Silver light flowed from her palm.

Remember who you are.

“I don’t know who I am!”

The forest trembled.

Then remember what they took from you.

Images flashed through my mind.

A stone sanctuary.

A silver crown lying broken on the ground.

A golden wolf standing between two armies.

And a man whose face I couldn’t see, driving a black blade into the earth.

The woman turned toward him.

Her voice broke the silence.

The oath was never meant to bind the heir.

I tried to move closer, but the ground split beneath my feet.

The man raised his head.

For one terrible moment, I saw Xavier’s golden eyes.

Then the black blade turned toward me.

I woke with a gasp.

My bedroom was dark, and my sheets clung to my skin.

The silver symbol on my wrist burned.

But this time, it wasn’t alone.

A second mark had appeared just beneath it.

A tiny black crescent, split by a blade.

The same symbol from the letter.

I scrambled out of bed and rushed toward the mirror.

The black mark pulsed once.

A whisper filled my mind.

The oath was never meant to bind the heir.

Then another voice answered it.

A voice that sounded exactly like mine.

It was meant to bind the king.

A knock sounded at my door.

“Freya?”

Xavier.

I stared at my reflection, my heart pounding.

Because in the mirror, behind my own frightened face, stood the woman from my dream.

And she was smiling.

“Do not trust the oath, child,” she whispered.

The silver light went out.

And the woman vanished.