Chapter 6 The Alpha's Regret

The Silver Moon Pack house had always been a bastion of light and prosperity. But as Alpha Alaric Thorne paced the length of his mahogany-rowed study, he realized the light was dimming. Literally.

The enchanted lanterns that lined the hallways-lamps powered by the spiritual resonance of the pack's connection to the moon-were flickering. Outside, the lush valley that had once made the Silver Moon the envy of the Five Packs was beginning to wither.

The grass was turning a sickly shade of gray. The livestock were falling ill. And for the first time in a century, the pack's warriors were failing to shift with their usual ease.

Alaric gripped the edge of his desk, his knuckles turning white. His chest burned. Ever since the night of the Moon Ceremony, when he had severed the bond with Lyra, a cold rot had started to settle in his bones.

"It's just the stress of the war," he muttered to himself, though his inner wolf whined in disagreement.

The door creaked open, and Elara stepped in, draped in expensive silks and smelling of heavy, cloying perfume. She looked beautiful, but to Alaric's heightened senses, there was something missing.

"Alaric, darling," she purred, sliding her arms around his neck. "The Council is waiting. They want to know when we move the heavy artillery toward the Black Ridge. Why are you wasting time in this dark room?"

Alaric pulled away, his eyes narrowing. "The warriors are weak, Elara. Jaxon's patrol returned today-half of them can't even hold their human forms. The land is dying. Do you feel it?"

Elara rolled her eyes, moving toward the decanter of wine. "The land is fine. It's just a dry season. Once we kill that Lycan beast and bring Lyra back to be executed, the Goddess will be satisfied."

"Is that so?" Alaric's voice was dangerously low.

He looked at the map on his wall. For generations, the Vance line-Lyra's family-had been told they were nothing but servants. But Alaric remembered his father's dying words about a "Lunar Blessing" that anchored the Silver Moon's prosperity. He had always assumed it was the land itself.

But today, he had found his father's secret journal, hidden beneath a floorboard in the archives.

"Tell me, Elara," Alaric said, stepping toward her. "When your mother married Lyra's father, what happened to the Vance family seal? The one that was supposed to be passed to the firstborn daughter?"

Elara froze, the wine glass halfway to her lips. Her heart skipped a beat-a sound Alaric caught with ease.

"I... I don't know," she stammered. "It was probably lost in the fire. Why does it matter?"

"It matters," Alaric snarled, "because according to this journal, the prosperity of this pack isn't tied to the Alpha line. It was tied to the Vance female. It was a 'hidden' lunar blessing. As long as the true heir was treated with honor and kept within our borders, the Silver Moon would never fade."

He grabbed Elara's arm, his grip bruising. "You told me Lyra was a parasite. You told me she was stealing from the treasury. You gave me the evidence that she was plotting with rogues. That's why I rejected her."

"She was!" Elara cried, her face pale.

"I checked the ledgers again, Elara. With a scribe who wasn't on your payroll," Alaric roared. "The evidence was forged. You didn't just want the Luna title-you wanted her dead because you knew if I mated with her, the blessing would become hers officially, and you'd be nothing but a shadow in her house."

The realization hit him like a physical blow to the gut. The "weakness" he had felt in Lyra wasn't her own-it was the weight of her suppressed power. She had been the battery for his entire territory, and he had thrown her away like trash.

The rot in his chest intensified. Without Lyra's presence, the Silver Moon was becoming a graveyard.

"You've doomed us," Alaric whispered, his eyes filling with a horrific clarity. "I rejected a Primordial blessing for a liar."

Elara's mask finally slipped. She sneered, wrenching her arm away. "So what? She's gone now. She's in the arms of a monster. Even if you want her back, she'll never come. She'll watch you starve, Alaric. She'll watch this pack turn to dust, and she'll laugh."

"I have to find her," Alaric said, ignoring Elara's vitriol. "I have to undo the rejection."

"You can't," Elara laughed shrilly. "The Moon Ceremony is final! You claimed me! You can't just trade me back like a horse!"

Alaric didn't listen. He stormed out of the study, heading toward the training grounds. He needed to see the state of his men. He needed to prepare a parley, not a war. If he could explain to Lyra that he was deceived... if he could beg her forgiveness...

But as he stepped out onto the balcony, he saw the sky.

The moon wasn't silver anymore. It was turning a deep, bruised violet.

A shadow fell over the courtyard-a shadow so large it blotted out the flickering lanterns. The warriors below began to scream, pointing toward the mountains.

High above, silhouetted against the violet moon, was a creature of legend. A massive, armored wolf, ridden by a woman whose hair trailed behind her like a cloak of shadows.

It wasn't a rescue mission. It wasn't a parley.

"Lyra..." Alaric breathed, his heart hammering with a mixture of terror and a pathetic, lingering hope.

She looked down at the Silver Moon Pack house-the place that had been her prison and her home. In her hand, she held a scepter of obsidian that pulsed with a rhythmic, golden light.

With a flick of her wrist, she sent a bolt of violet energy crashing into the pack's sacred totem stone in the center of the courtyard. The stone, which had stood for five hundred years, shattered into a million pieces.

The link was broken.

The "hidden blessing" didn't just leave; it was forcibly reclaimed. Alaric fell to his knees as his Alpha spark flickered and died. He felt the strength leave his muscles, his vision dimming as the land's life force was sucked back toward the woman in the sky.

"Alaric Thorne!" Lyra's voice descended like thunder, amplified by the armor she wore. "You said you would forget my name by tomorrow. Do you remember it now?"

Alaric looked up, tears of agony and regret streaming down his face. "Lyra... please... I was wrong! Elara lied! Come home and take your place!"

Lyra's laughter was a cold, beautiful sound.

"I am home, Alaric," she said, gesturing to the Lycan King, Fenris, who appeared on the ridge behind her, his own monstrous form glowing with power. "And as for my 'place'? I've decided I don't want a chair at your table."

She leaned over her mount, her eyes glowing with the fire of a thousand suns.

"I want the table. I want the house. And I want the head of the man who thought he could break a Queen."

As the violet moon reached its zenith, the ground beneath the Silver Moon Pack house began to liquefy.

"Wait!" Alaric screamed, reaching out. "The Silver-Blight! If you attack us, the Council will trigger the traps! They've rigged the entire valley with silver mines!"

Lyra didn't flinch. She looked toward the Council's hidden bunkers in the hills and raised her scepter.

"Then it's a good thing," she whispered, "that I'm no longer made of anything silver can hurt."

A massive explosion of violet light erupted, but it didn't come from the sky. It came from inside the Silver Moon's own treasury.

The ancient Vance seal, which Elara had stolen and hidden in the vaults, was reacting to its true mistress. It wasn't just a symbol-it was a detonator.

As the pack house began to crumble into the earth, a third presence made itself known. A voice, ancient and feminine, echoed through the minds of everyone present.

"The debt is due, Silver Moon. And the collector has arrived."