Chapter #11 The Luna Maximus

Lyrina Veega POV

The Forbidden Library

The torches burned low in the corridors beneath the packhouse, shadows slithering along the stone walls like they were alive. Like they knew where I was going. Like they were hungry for it.

Fine. So was I. Every step echoed with the same furious mantra that had looped in my skull since she walked back into this pack:

She died. She died. She fucking died.

I killed her. I watched her bleed into the snow. I watched Father kick the life out of her. I heard the crack of her ribs. I saw her eyes go blank.

She. Was. Dead.

She was supposed to stay dead.

But no.

The goddess resurrected her like some celestial charity case and now every pathetic wolf in this pack was bowing to her like she was royalty. Like she wasn’t the same fat, soft, pathetic healer who used to hide behind her robes and cry when pups insulted her.

And Fenric....Fenric, the bone god of winter himself, looked at her the way every girl dreamed of being looked at. Devoted. Rabid. Worshipful.

He should have been mine. Everything should have been mine.

My future. My Luna title. My crown. My Alpha. My pack. My destiny.

Instead it all swung to the girl I buried in the snow. The one who should be rotting in the dirt. My nails dug into my palms so hard I smelled blood. Good. Pain made the fury sharper.

I reached the iron door of the Forbidden Library, the place wolves whispered about, the place witches once protected, the place the goddess had supposedly sealed.

Sealed to keep power from the unworthy. Well guess what? I was done caring about worth. I shoved my hand toward the runes. “Open.”

The magic writhed. Snarled. Fought me.

Then it flickered… and bent.

The locks clicked. The door swung inward. And a cold draft slid over my skin like a kiss.

Inside, the air was thick with old magic and dust. Shelves towered up into darkness. Scrolls glimmered. Tomes hummed quietly. And in the center of the room....

A book sat on a stone pedestal.

Black leather. Silver veins pulsing faintly like a heartbeat. The cover was carved with a sigil shaped like a twisted moon.

The Luna Maximus.

I didn’t breathe. I didn’t dare blink. The stories said the Luna Maximus chose its reader. That it whispered to those with ambition black enough to stain fate. That it could gift a Luna more power than any Alpha alive.

It should have chosen me years ago.

But the goddess...the bitch...picked Emara instead.

I’d been waiting my whole life to be Luna. To rule. To rise.

Emara wasn’t even supposed to make it past her first shift.

I stepped toward the pedestal.

The book’s pulse quickened.

My heart raced. My breath came out shaky and sharp.

“You want me,” I whispered. “You know what I am capable of.”

The air shivered around me.

“You know she doesn’t deserve the power she has. You know she’s wrong for it. You know the goddess chose wrong. You know she should have chosen me.”

The book throbbed harder, silver light crawling across the cover like veins of lightning.

A laugh spilled out of me, wild, cracked, and joyful.

“Yes,” I breathed. “Yes. I feel you too.”

I reached out a trembling hand.

“I will take what she stole from me.”

The moment my fingers touched the cover, the entire library blew inward with a violent gust of magic. Candles snuffed out. Shadows slammed into the walls. Scrolls ripped from shelves and spun into a cyclone.

And I heard it. A voice. Low. Hungry. Ancient.

“Take it.”

My knees weakened. Power crawled up my arm like fire and frost mixed together.

“Take what you deserve.”

I gasped, delirious with triumph.

“I want everything,” I whispered.

“I want her power.”

“I want her title.”

“I want her death....again.”

“And I want her mate.”

Fenric’s face burned behind my eyes. Those horns. Those scars. That body. That voice. That devotion.

It should have been mine. It will be mine. I will make it mine.

The room trembled around me as the Luna Maximus accepted me, and welcomed me, with a hum of dark approval.

Its pages flipped open on their own, landing on a chapter written in ink black as night:

THE RITUAL OF POWER TRANSFERENCE

For Those Who Dare Defy the Moon

My pulse pounded.

A ritual. To steal her magic. To rip her power from her bones. To end the Shadow Luna… forever. A smile stretched across my lips, sweet and sharp and poisonous.

“Perfect.”

I closed the book gently, lovingly, and cradled it to my chest. The world would kneel at my feet.

And Emara Dell....pathetic, soft, worthless Emara...would kneel first.

If the goddess refused to choose me? Then I would choose myself.

And I would tear the moon out of the sky before I let Emara keep what should have been mine.

___________________________

Goddess Nyra POV

Between Realms

The moment the Luna Maximus stirred, I felt it.

A pulse of power sharp enough to slice through the veil.

A hungry whisper rising from the Forbidden Library.

A book that should have stayed dormant for another thousand years.

And the presence it reached for? I exhaled slowly.

Lyrina Veega.

Of all the wolves in the Nightfall Range… the book had chosen her.

Not because she was worthy. Not because she had strength. Not even because she had ambition.

No.

Because she was weak enough, greedy enough, and foolish enough to try.

I stepped through the veil, standing between realms, half in moonlight, half in shadow. Irritation rippled beneath my skin like storm winds.

“Foolish little wolf,” I murmured. “You play with fire older than your bloodline.”

The Luna Maximus hummed again, responding to her envy, her rage, and her festering insecurities.

Predictable. Pitiful. Pathetically transparent. But dangerous.

Even a child with a sword can slaughter a kingdom if no one watches.

I lifted a hand and summoned a spark of light. A tiny winged creature zipped into existence, glowing bright gold.

Mika. My stubborn, nosy, troublesome pixie.

She popped into a hover before me, hands on her hips. “What did she do now, my Lady?”

I gestured toward the earth below. “The Veega girl opened the Luna Maximus.”

Mika gasped dramatically, her wings buzzing. “The evil book? The one that likes crazy people? That one?”

“Yes,” I sighed. “It seems to have found a fresh idiot to entertain.”

Mika crackled with pixie indignation. “Want me to hex her? Set her hair on fire? Trip her down stairs? Because girlie looks flammable.”

A reluctant smile tugged my mouth. “No fire. Yet.”

I touched Mika’s forehead. A mark glimmered, a rune of sight, truth, and warning.

“You will watch her,” I commanded softly. “You will follow her. Report every word she speaks. Every spell she reads. Every obsession she nurtures.”

Mika saluted. “Stalker duty. On it.”

“If she attempts the ritual,” I warned, and the sky trembled around us, “you will tell me before her first breath finishes leaving her lungs.”

Mika shivered. “And then?”

My eyes burned silver-bright, a cold lunar fury rising.

“Then I will handle her myself.”

The pixie flashed into a streak of glittering gold and shot down toward the Forbidden Library.

I watched her go, my jaw tightening as another surge of Luna Maximus magic curled upward like smoke.

Lyrina believed power could be stolen.

Let her believe it.

Let her try.

Because when the time came…when she dared lift her hand against the Shadow Luna…I would remind her why gods are feared.

And why wolves should never bite the hand that shaped the moon.