All Chapters of Crowned by the Moon, Rejected by the Alpha.: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

They came at sunset, when the light was weakest and the shadows deep enough to conceal both danger and despair.But I felt them long before they reached the edge of the sacred grove. Their corruption pressed against the outer wards like a toxin seeping into healthy blood. This wasn’t another test, not a scouting party trying to gauge our defenses. It was deliberate. Coordinated. Predatory.Twelve Eclipse wolves.They walked in human form, but their bodies carried the grotesque weight of unnatural magic. Faster. Stronger. More vicious than anything nature had ever intended. Every step they took left a residue on the forest floor, a warning in the wind. They moved like apex predators, confident and cold.But they were learning differently."Sarah," I said slowly; I wanted to break the fragile silence of the evening, but I had to hear them; "they are there."The old woman left the forest with her hands full of grass and bone dust. Her face, deeply covered with age and pain, was serene bu

The sacred pond was motionless under the crescent vigilante, the vitreous surface shining in the reflection of the stars. They spread over the water like old prayers that were unanswered, ancient and painful. Aria walked through the forest with a calm purpose, fresh moss under her bare feet. The trees, guardians of this ancient place, waved lightly, as if they had recognized her presence. She didn't have to look; she could feel her mate. His energy was there, heavy and full of regret, pulling her heart like an old wound that opened again.She saw before he knew. Kale was lying on the edge of the water cloth, his back slightly cut off, his shoulders falling under the weight of guilt too heavy to even use an alpha. His black hair fell chaotically on his face, hiding it from the world but not from her, his hands shaking and clenching firmly as if holding something that escaped his fingers. He looked nothing like the alpha who was once so confident by her side. He seemed a man who lost ev

The blood moon bled in the air like an open wound and projected the frightening red light onto the sacred forest. Each leaf shone purple, each shade extended for a long time and was very dark. The area was central, her palms leaning against the old oak that dominated her like a vigilant guard. Under his touch, the shell was hot - alive. The tree pulsates at a calm pace, ancient magic reacted to divine energy buzzing in its blood like a moving starlight."They're coming," whispered Sarah in a calm and fragile voice. He was right behind Aria, with his shoulders stretched out, his eyes looking at the darkness behind the forest. Aria hasn't moved. Her eyes were focused on the moon above, shining with promises of war. The child moved in his body, a fluctuation through which his heart jumped. His fingers slipped from the oak tree to rest protective on his belly. A silent force flowed through his knowledge - and your son felt it. The power. The danger."Let them come," I said in a voice tha

The camp smelled like ash and stale blood, the scent of black rituals conducted here every night. It centered around Draven, his silver hair glinting under the light of the fires composed of bones that burned without wood, fed instead by the spirits trapped within. He was still tall, heavily built despite the centuries that had devoured his skin. It was his eyes, though, that drew attention—ancient, knowing, and smoldering with an anger that had seethed longer than most wolves had lived.Once, he had been beautiful. Once, he had been pure. Once, the gods had not turned against his kin, but had instead withered and desiccated them in banishment, while lesser wolves had received the favours that had been his."Report," he ordered without looking around, his voice weighed down with unremediable authority.Marcus, not the defender boy from grove, but his lieutenant Marcus, came forward, limping on his left leg where magic had burned upon bone and flesh. The man's face was an atlas of scar

The power of the crown flowed through his veins like liquid silver, reshaping him even as he could not yet conceive. Yet, even as godly power recalculated his existence, his mind was already on pragmatics. Draven's army moved—hundreds of corrupted wolves and mercenaries who would stop at nothing to burn to the ground all he held dear. The crown had made them powerful, but power would not be enough.He needed an arsenal."Wait with the others," he whispered into Aria, his lips brushing against her forehead in a kiss that was as chilly as starlight and heavy with the presence of old magic."I must ready the last defenses.""Kale—" she began, but he was already on his way, drawn by a sensitivity older than his own soul. The might of the crown called to him in thought, opening before him paths in the grove not previously visible, the entire gamut of the defenses of the sanctuary.He found what he was looking for in a clearing he had never seen