Chapter Fourteen: I Rule Alone

KNOX

Blood Moon Clan – Council Hall

Two days.

Two days since I last saw her.

Yet Aria’s scent still lingered in my thoughts, an invisible thread that refused to break.

But this morning, I wasn’t a CEO in a black suit commanding boardrooms. I was Alpha. And here, power wasn’t dictated by contracts and profits. It was in blood, fear, and the weight of a throne that only one could bear.

I sat tall on the Alpha’s seat, carved from blackwood, leather-backed, raised higher than the others. Mason sat to my right—my Beta, my Second, and the only voice I trusted. To my left, the Luna’s seat remained vacant, as it had been for years.

Let them keep looking at it. I didn’t need a Luna to rule.

Seven elders sat before me, forming a half-circle. Their scents filled the room—smoke, age, steel.

Three were bound to my father’s rule: Elder Ronan, Elder Hale, and Elder Greta.

The other three leaned toward Edric—Third-in-Command. The kind of threat that smiled while sharpening the blad