All Chapters of The Alpha's Surrogate Luna : Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

The blood binding mark burned on my palm like molten iron, searing straight into my nervous system. Zion didn’t give me a second to catch my breath. He wrapped his massive hand around my wrist, dragging me out of the grand hall and into the freezing corridors of Ironfang Keep. Behind us, the oak doors slammed shut, cutting off the furious mutters of the Pack Council and the broken wheezing of my father as guards dragged him toward the northern transport cell. My knees throbbed with every step. Shards of stained glass were still embedded deep in my flesh, tearing through my tunic with every stride, but I forced my legs to move, refusing to limp. “Slower, Alpha,” I rasped. “Or do you prefer your surrogate crippled before the first night?” Zion didn’t slow down. “You crawled through my gates to make a deal, little wolf. You don’t set the pace.” He hauled me up the winding spiral stairs of the High Keep—the central spire carved directly into the mountain rock. This was the fortress

“I will ask you once more, Emerald,” he growled. “Where did a traitor’s daughter get the Royal Seal of the Kirby Lineage?”My wolf screamed at me to pull away, to draw the silver blade in my sleeve and put it in his throat, but I forced my face still.Panic would get me killed. I needed him to doubt me, not dismiss me.“I stole it,” I said. I looked straight into his black eyes and didn’t blink.Zion’s jaw tightened as his thumb pressed harder against the inner band of the ring. “You stole a royal house crest?”“My father was a commander before you stripped his rank,” I said. “When the High Council ordered the Kirby house slaughtered and the estate burned twenty years ago, my father was in the vanguard. He dragged a chest of scavenged jewelry back to the northern border.”I took a short breath and leaned into his space instead of pulling away.“I took it from his private stash when I was twelve,” I said. “I kept it because silver buys food when an exiled family is starving. I didn’t k

The iron gates of Ironfang Keep slammed shut with a metallic boom that vibrated straight through the soles of my boots. Heavy chains rattled into place. Portcullises dropped like giant iron teeth along the perimeter walls, sealing the fortress off from the snowy valley below. Within ten minutes, Alpha Zion had placed the entire capital under martial lockdown. No one entered. No one left. Anyone caught near the outer ramparts without an officer’s pass was to be executed on sight. I stood on the stone balcony of the central command wing, the freezing mountain wind whipping my hair across my face. Down in the outer courtyards, hundreds of armored war-wolves were assembling in dark, disciplined ranks. Torches flared through the heavy morning fog, casting bloody reflections on silver shields and broadswords. They were preparing for war. Against my bloodline. My knuckles turned white as I gripped the freezing stone balustrade. The distant horn calls from the northern border post hadn't s

My heart slammed against my ribs as the realization echoed in the silence of the war room.I stared into Zion's pitch-black eyes, searching for a trace of deception, a flicker of manipulation. But there was only cold, unyielding iron. He hadn't jailed me as a helpless prisoner; he had hidden me behind the absolute authority of an Alpha's claim."If you kept me alive," I rasped, my voice barely carrying over the distant blare of war horns outside, "then prove it now. Take me to the river."Zion didn't hesitate. "Get your armor."An hour later, six heavy warhorses thundered out through the northern gate of Ironfang Keep, their hooves kicking up clouds of grey frost against the jagged mountain trail.Zion rode at the front on a massive midnight-black stallion, clad in full obsidian plate armor that absorbed the morning light. I rode right beside him on a swift grey mare, encased in light star-steel mail beneath a heavy fur cloak. Flanking us were Beta Julius and four of Zion's elite Shad