Chapter 3

EDRIC MOON – KING ALPHA POV

I stood still in the heart of my chamber, surrounded by servants I didn’t bother to see.

The maids adjusted my tailored suits like their lives depended on it.

Fox, my most loyal butler, placed a tray of hand-prepared delicacies on the table—imported, expensive, infused with rare spices. Food that cost more than most wolves earned in a year.

I didn’t touch it.

Hell, I hadn’t tasted anything in a decade.

I’d forgotten the scent of desire. The flavor of hunger. The warmth of anything.

Because I, King Alpha Edric Moon—the Golden Wolf, the only winged one in existence—had been without a mate. And with her absence, I lost everything.

My appetite.

My pain.

My damn soul.

I was alive, yes. But not living.

The supernatural feared me. Humans idolized me. Billionaire. Ruler. Untouchable.

But all of it? Meant nothing.

The Moon Goddess had cursed me with power, with eternity—yet left me mate-less. Why?

I had searched every corner of Scotland.

Every pack.

Every damn ball, masquerade, royal hunt, and mating ritual dressed up in gold and moonlight.

And still—no Luna.

I should’ve grown numb to the ache of it. And I had. Until now.

I stood in front of the mirror, adjusting my cufflinks out of reflex more than vanity, when it hit me.

A sharp ache.

Low at first, like a pinprick behind the ear.

Then it spread—searing, alive, like lightning crawling under my skin, down my neck, across my spine. My knees nearly buckled as the surge of raw, celestial power exploded inside my skull.

I growled, hand snapping the corner of the marble sink as I doubled over.

This wasn’t normal.

This wasn’t me.

I hadn’t felt pain in years. But this?

This was agony.

My wings—usually folded and silent behind me—burst out, golden and radiant, slamming against the glass wall behind me and sending it shattering to the floor. The maids screamed. Fox dropped the silver tray. But I didn’t care.

Because I knew.

Somewhere out there—

Someone had just been cursed.

And I felt it.

Felt her.

Not just anyone.

Not just some rogue being punished.

Her.

The one who was meant to be mine.

My mate.

I didn’t see her. I didn’t hear her voice.

But her pain… her pain tore through the bond like a blade made of divine thunder.

It made sense now. Why the Goddess stayed silent. Why I could never find her.

She had been hidden.

Shielded.

Kept from me.

Until now.

I looked up into the shattered mirror. Blood trickled down my temple. My eyes, golden and wild, stared back with something I hadn’t seen in a long time.

Rage.

But underneath it?

Hope.

A dangerous kind of hope.

“She’s out there,” I muttered.

And this time?

No pack, curse, or Goddess would keep her from me.

*****

The War Room. Midnight.

“Summon the council,” I told Fox, my voice low, calm. Deadly.

The kind of command that doesn't get repeated.

And Fox, wise as ever, vanished before the blood could even finish drying on the cracked marble.

Now, I sat at the head of the long obsidian table—carved from shadowglass, imported from the forbidden mines in the North. The war room wasn’t built for comfort. It was built to make men remember who ruled.

The walls were reinforced titanium, laced with ancient rune-silver that shimmered under the modern lights. Monitors glowed with satellite feeds and magical scans. Weapons—ancient and new—hung behind me like silent threats.

Behind my chair blazed the crest of my bloodline.

A golden winged wolf, head tilted to the moon, fangs bared.

The symbol of the Moon Dynasty. My legacy.

Six council members stood in front of me. All sworn to serve. All hardened alphas once—now shadows of their former glory under me.

I leaned back slowly, gaze locked on each of them.

“Tonight,” I began, voice cool as ice, “I felt something I have not felt in over ten years.”

They listened. Eyes narrowing. Even they knew I didn’t waste breath.

“I felt pain.”

A few heads twitched.

“I felt lightning surge through my veins, sear my skin, burn behind my eyes. It wasn’t magic. It wasn’t weakness.”

I placed my hand on the table. The metal groaned beneath my fingers.

“It was her.”

Murmurs broke. One of them—Callen—pressed his lips into a thin line. “Your Majesty, do you mean—”

“My mate,” I confirmed, voice dropping an octave. “After all this time… she is alive. And suffering.”

Silence.

“I felt her curse. I felt her scream, not from her mouth but through the bond itself. She's out there.”

I stood. My wings slowly unfurled behind me. The golden feathers glimmered in the cold light of the war room. “And I will find her.”

Most of them bowed their heads, understanding the gravity. Most.

But not Alex.

The oldest of the six. A former Alpha of the Highland Ridge Pack. Wrinkled. Bitter. Loyal—but limited. Still chained by logic, rules, and that old-school superstition.

He scoffed.

Loudly.

“Your Majesty…” he said, tone coated with disbelief. “We’ve searched the entire region. There is no mate. No golden thread. If this was a sign, then perhaps it was just residual—”

Wrong words. Wrong tone. Wrong moment.

Before he could finish, I moved.

Fast as death.

My hand shimmered gold, claws sprouting in a burst of light. I slashed once.

Clean.

His head hit the table with a dull, wet thud, rolling slightly before coming to a stop beside his steaming tea.

The body slumped, still standing for half a breath before collapsing in a heap.

Blood trickled onto the council floor.

I exhaled, wiping a speck of crimson from my cuff. “Let that be a reminder. I do not question the Moon Goddess. Not when she finally speaks.”

The remaining five bowed deeper, one of them trembling.

Good.

“Mobilize our scouts,” I ordered. “I want every rogue path, every forest edge, every cursed site mapped. Find the source of that magical disturbance in the north quadrant. I want aerial surveillance. Witch reports. Oracle insight. Hell, drag the necromancers from their sleep if you have to.”

Callen, pale but focused, nodded. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

I turned my gaze to the shattered mirror still on the screen beside me.

The curse mark had linked me to her.

A rogue. Cursed. Abandoned.

But mine.

And whoever dared touch what was mine before I could get to her?

I would burn them, kingdom and all.