All Chapters of REJECTED BY THE MOON : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

CHAPTER 22.Secret Truth Following the incident of the past day, I've now learned to be more careful while expecting the worst to happen.As I walked through the dark atmosphere, I couldn't help but wonder what had happened to Akira, as a result of yesterday's drama.However, I was going to meet her, and I believed that I'd get answers to my inquisitiveness.As I walked along the lonely paths, I couldn't help but notice the shivers and cold sensation that pierced through my skin. Indeed, the entire atmosphere was cold, and I could feel it in my soul.That was it. It was the moment that I'd been waiting for.After walking for what seemed like an eternity, I could finally see the abandoned oak tree, the venue for our meeting.Standing there and waiting for me was Akira. Immediately when I walked out of the darkness, to the warehouse, I finally heard the voice of Akira, speaking to me. At that moment, the color of her hair illuminated the entire atmosphere, as I took my time to proces

The knock on my door came before sunrise.I hadn't slept. I'd spent the hours since the clearing sitting on the edge of my bed, staring at the stone Akira had given me, watching the last traces of light drain out of it like it was breathing itself to sleep."Rory." My mother's voice, tight and strange. "The Alpha has summoned you."My stomach dropped straight through the floor."Now?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer."Now."I dressed slowly, buying myself time I didn't have. Every version of this morning I could imagine ended badly. The only question was how badly, and whether I'd be walking out of the meeting hall on my own feet.Elara was waiting for me outside, arms crossed over her chest, her face pale under the gray morning light."They know," she said, before I could even ask. "Or they suspect. Marcus told me the council's been in session since before dawn.""Suspect what, exactly?""That's the thing, Rory. Nobody's saying it out loud. But everyone's saying it wit

We ran.I don't remember deciding to run. One second I was standing frozen at the boundary, and the next my legs were carrying me through the trees faster than I'd ever moved in my life, branches tearing at my sleeves, my heart slamming against my ribs so hard it hurt to breathe."Elara!" I screamed her name into the dark. "Elara, where are you!"Kieran reached the clearing before I did. I heard him stop short, heard the low, dangerous growl building in his chest, and when I broke through the trees behind him, I understood why.Elara's shawl lay torn on the ground. A single shoe. And drag marks in the dirt leading toward the tree line, deep enough that I knew, with a sick certainty, that whoever had taken her hadn't been gentle about it."No." The word came out of me broken, barely a whisper. "No, no, no.""Rory." Akira caught up behind me, breathing hard. "This isn't a coincidence.""Of course it isn't," Kieran said, crouching to examine the drag marks, his jaw tight with fury. "He s

Power didn't feel the way I expected it to.I'd imagined something clean. Light pouring through me, warm and righteous, the way the old stories always described a hero finally becoming what they were meant to be. This wasn't that. This felt like tearing something loose from deep inside my own chest and handing it to the ground, and the ground taking it without asking whether I had more to give.The root under my palms thickened. Bark that had been gray and brittle a moment ago turned dark and slick, and I felt it happen the way you feel your own pulse, not with my eyes but with something underneath my skin.The creature screamed, that tooth-aching sound, and the root drove straight through the smear of red light where its face should have been. What came out of it after that wasn't a scream anymore. It was closer to silence collapsing in on itself.It folded backward into the earth the way it had climbed out, and the cracked ground sealed shut behind it. The red light in the stone cir

The castle felt different walking through it as a guest instead of a prisoner, though I couldn't have said exactly how. The same dark stone. The same gold worked into the arms of the chairs I'd once been too afraid to sit in. Maybe it was only that no one dragged me through the doors this time. My own legs carried me, one careful step at a time, past the same hallway where I'd first been washed and dressed and handed over like an object with a price tag still attached.Kieran walked half a step behind me the whole way, close enough that I could feel the tension still coming off him like heat off a stove that hadn't fully cooled. Neither of us said anything until the heavy doors shut behind us and it was just the two of us in the entrance hall, the sound of the latch falling into place louder than it had any right to be."You didn't have to do that," I said. "Declare me in front of the whole council like that.""Yes, I did."I waited for him to say more. He didn't, and I found, strange