Chapter 131

EloiseThe official Blood Moon ceremony didn’t begin when I put on the dress.It began weeks earlier, when a girl from the pack stopped me at the market with a basket of night-blooming flowers and told me, with the gravity of an old woman trapped in an eight-year-old’s body, that a Luna couldn’t be officially named without wearing something that had grown under the gaze of the Matterhorn.“It’s tradition,” she said.I looked at Isa, who was standing beside me feigning innocence.“Is it?” I asked cautiously.“It is now,” Isa replied with a smile.The girl handed me the flowers.They were white and small, with a pearly sheen. They had bloomed near the shadowy forest after the restoration. People called them "rest flowers" because they only opened when the fog descended quietly, without hunger.I accepted the flowers as if they were a crown.“Thank you,” I said.The girl looked at me with pride.“You’re already a great Luna,” the girl said before leaving.I didn’t know how to respond.On

Chapter 132

EloisePeace did not arrive like a burst of light.It arrived slowly.It came with weary hands rebuilding roofs, with guards repairing fences, with children running through the square again without fearfully glancing toward the forest. It came with merchants traveling along roads that had once been closed, with official letters sealed with fresh ink, with overly proud Alfas learning to sit at the same table without turning every disagreement into a territorial war.It also came with silences.With names spoken in hushed tones and with white flowers on fresh graves.With people waking in the middle of the night, believing they heard the screams of Hall and his men once more.But it came, and that, after all, was a miracle.Blood Moon changed in the months following Hall’s fall and the restoration of the Shadow Forest. Not abruptly, but as a land changes after a harsh winter: first a crack in the snow, then a timid leaf, then green spreading with the patience of one who knows they have

Chapter 133

EloiseIt turned out to be a false alarm, but hours later, the next day, Elian was born, and the ancient forest blossomed.It wasn’t just a poetic way of putting it—it truly blossomed.I woke up before dawn with a deep pain, unlike anything I’d ever felt. For a few seconds, I lay still, confused, with one hand on my belly. Then another contraction came, stronger, and I understood what it meant.“Elijah,” I said hurriedly.My mate woke up immediately.He didn’t open his eyes slowly or ask what was happening; he was simply awake, alert, with Gref under his skin.“Is it the baby?” he asked right away.“Yes,” I said in a hoarse voice.His face changed.Panic, joy, terror, and devotion played across his face in a matter of seconds. Then, an extraordinary mix of it all.“Elijah,” I said with da

Epilogue – Part I

EloiseYears later…Emmett hated ceremonial robes.That was the first thing he said the morning he was to officially become the Alpha of Steel Fangs.He didn’t say he was nervous or that he wasn’t ready; he just got caught up in the robes while ignoring the fact that he wished our father were there with him. That’s how I knew he was just trying to hide his nerves.And I smiled because Emmett wasn’t the same boy he used to be.He had become an adult—tall, handsome, with our mother’s green eyes and our father’s proud bearing. Everything about him screamed authority, and I held back my mockery as he stood in front of a mirror with an expression of utter indignation while Hann tried to adjust the steel clasp on his shoulder.“This is too heavy,” Emmett said.Hann, with more gray hair than years ago and a patience forged in the

All Chapters of Protected by the Dark Alpha: Chapter 131 - Chapter 134

Chapter 131

Chapter 132

Chapter 133

Epilogue – Part I