Semua Bab Rejected: The Lycan's King Fated Mate : Bab 1 - Bab 10

The battle ended at noon.We won. But “won” felt like the wrong word when I walked through the Citadel afterward.The gates were gone. The outer wall had a 40-foot breach where Thorne’s magic hit. The training yard was a graveyard of bodies - Vampire, Fae, Witch, and Lycan all mixed together in the mud. And the smell… gods, the smell of blood and burnt magic and death was everywhere.Roric survived. Barely. He’d be in the healers’ wing for weeks with a broken spine. The two healers from the vault were dead. Thorne’s traitor Lycans were all dead too. Every single one. Elder Vex’s brother had died with a smile on his face, like he’d accomplished what he came for.I found Darius in the courtyard, covered in blood that wasn’t all his, holding Elias who was shaking despite trying not to.“You’re okay,” Darius said the second he saw me, pulling both me and Aria into a hug so tight I couldn’t breathe. “You’re both okay.”“We’re okay,” I whispered back, kissing Aria’s head. She’d slept thro

Three days after Kade swore fealty, the warnings started.They didn’t come with armies. They came with messengers. And every single one of them wanted to see Aria.The first arrived at noon. A Vampire envoy in black velvet and red eyes, standing at the Citadel gates with a sealed letter and a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.“Lady Elara,” he said, bowing low, “I bring greetings from Lord Valen of the Night Court. He requests an audience with the Moon’s true daughter. As a gesture of goodwill between our peoples.”Darius didn’t let him past the gates. “The Queen is resting with her children. Leave the letter.”The Vampire’s smile sharpened. “Lord Valen will be disappointed. He has been waiting 300 years for a Moonblood to rise again.”We didn’t see him after that.The second came at dusk. Fae. Tall and inhumanly beautiful with eyes like shattered glass and skin that seemed to shift in the light.“Queen Elara,” she said, voice like wind through leaves, “the Seelie Court wishes to offe

Darius didn’t sleep that night.Neither did I.After Roric left with orders to guard the chambers, we stayed up reading the recovered Council records by firelight. Aria slept between us in the bassinet. Elias had fallen asleep against my side, clutching her blanket like it was armor.The records were old. Older than the Citadel. Parchment brittle with age, ink faded to brown. Written in High Lycan, the language only the royal bloodline could read without pain.“The last Moonblood Queen was named Lyra,” Darius translated, voice low so he wouldn’t wake Aria. “300 years ago. She was born during a blood moon. Like Aria.”My blood ran cold. Aria was born during the blood moon of her coronation.Lyra’s records were brutal. Short. Angry._“The female child born of full Moonblood is not a blessing. She is a weapon. She can bind packs with a word or shatter them with a thought. The Council fears her because she does not fear us.”_I swallowed hard. “That’s why they erased her. They couldn’t co

One week later.The Citadel didn’t smell like blood anymore. It smelled like incense, moonflowers, and the promise of a new beginning.The broken Moonstone had been replaced with a new one. Clear crystal, carved with the ancient Lycan runes, pulsing faintly with silver light. The Council Chamber had been renamed the Throne Room. And the high dais that used to hold six old fools now held one throne. Mine.The coronation had to happen fast. The packs were restless. The other realms were watching. And I was 4 months pregnant with a Lycan heir who kicked every time someone bowed too low.“You’re sure about this?” Darius murmured, adjusting the silver Lycan crown on my head. It was heavy. Ancient. Made for a Queen who’d been dead for 300 years.I looked up at him and smiled. He was in full Lycan ceremonial armor, black and silver, Elias at his side in a miniature version that made my heart ache.“More sure than I’ve ever been,” I said. “I was born for this, Darius. Even when Kade called me

Dawn came cold and silver.The Moon Field was ancient ground. Sacred to wolves and Lycans both. Where challenges were made, bonds were broken, and blood decided truth.I stood in the center with Darius and Elias flanking me. Kade stood across from us with his three Alpha enforcers and the two traitor elders. Between us: 50 paces of frost-covered grass and 5 years of hate.He looked different in the morning light. Smaller somehow. Like seeing me as Lycan had stripped away his Alpha arrogance and left just a scared wolf.“You don’t have to do this, Elara,” he said, voice low enough that only we could hear. “Call it off. We can talk.”I tilted my head. “Talk about what? How you rejected me for being wolfless? How you called my son a mistake? How you didn’t even know I was pregnant?”His jaw clenched. “I didn’t know. If I had—”“If you had, what?” I cut him off. “You would have kept me? Used me? Claimed my Lycan heir as your own?”Darius stepped forward, Lycan power rolling off him in wav