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The Alpha Burned His Own Moon
Novelix
new
Completed
Eight years after Alpha King Cedric locked me in the silver dungeons, he returned with his new Luna. Samantha knelt on the icy floor, cradling a pale pup who looked just like Cedric. "They say witches can extend a life," she wept. "Snow, please save my son!" "He's dying," I rasped. "Even the Moon Goddess couldn't save him." Cedric pressed a silver sword to my throat. "Revive my son in three days, or I'll offer you as sacrifice to the Moon Goddess at the full moon!" A mocking smile touched my lips. He didn't know I was the Moon Goddess, descended from the heavens...
Chapters (3)
Chapter 1
In the eighth year since Alpha King Cedric condemned me to the silver dungeons,
He returned, accompanied by his newly crowned Luna.
Lady Samantha dropped to the icy stone floor, cradling a frail pup whose face mirrored Cedric’s own.
"They say witches can extend a life," Samantha wept. "Snow! Please save my son!"
The boy was deathly pale. I could see his inner wolf was slipping into the dark abyss.
"He's dying," I said hoarsely. "Even the Moon Goddess could not save him."
Alpha Cedric pressed a silver broadsword against my throat.
"You used forbidden sorcery to ensnare my senses. I spared your life eight years ago,"
Cedric's Alpha command echoed.
"Revive my son in 3 days! Or, I will offer you as sacrifice to the Moon Goddess when the full moon!"
A mocking smile touched my lips.
He did not know that I am the Moon Goddess, descended from the heavens.
……
Samantha laid the comatose pup before my knees.
"I beg to you, Snow!"
She wailed, striking her forehead against the stone until dark blood smeared the rock.
"Take my life instead! Just let my child live!"
Cedric looked upon her with tenderness.
When he turned back to me, his golden eyes burned with indignation.
"Samantha is the Luna of the Bloodmoon Pack. She has discarded all dignity to kneel before you. Why must you remain so heartless?"
Heartless?
Eight years ago, to seize my place,
Samantha accused me of using black witchcraft to ensnare Cedric’s mate bond.
I was dragged onto the altar, subjected to forty-nine days of silver flames.
Then, shackled in silver-spiked chains, I was cast into this subterranean abyss.
Now, a few knocks of her head were supposed to wash away eight years of agony?
"Life and death belong to the Moon," I whispered coldly. "My strength is broken. I can do nothing."
Cedric’s brow tightened.
"Are you still bitter because I stripped you of your title?"
"If you save Shane, I will take you back as my second mate."
Samantha froze, turning tearful eyes toward him in terror.
"Alpha, no!" she shrieked.
"Have you forgotten how her specter haunted my dreams, draining my vitality?"
"If you release this witch, the elders will riot!"
I watched her with dead eyes.
Back then, to force me into revealing my power, Samantha hired rogues to attack Cedric.
I fell into her trap, unleashing light to shield him.
From that moment, she convinced the council that my power was dark witchcraft that corrupted our mate bond.
"Do not fret, Samantha," Cedric said. "I will have the High Priest excise her power core."
"Once it is ripped out, she will never wield witchcraft again. Snow, you will have no power to resent me."
A shudder ran through my spine.
Excising a shifter's core meant tearing soul from bone, leaving the victim a crippled husk.
"Cedric," I murmured, my voice hollow as a winter grave.
"My heart withered the day you put silver on my neck."
"Take your dying pup and leave."
Cedric grabbed my wrist.
"Snow, you cannot deceive me. Our bond once answered to every beat of my heart!"
"Do not touch me!" I snarled, ripping my arm away.
A flicker of hurt flashed across Cedric’s face, and Samantha caught it.
With a wild shriek, she threw herself headfirst into the stone pillar.
Her skull cracked against the rock, and she crumpled.
Cedric swept her up, his gaze snapping toward me with venomous fury.
"A witch is a witch—devoid of loyalty, incapable of love!"
"Snow, you are a monster!"
A dry laugh tore from my throat. I pressed a trembling hand against my flat belly.
"I am a monster? Do you remember, Cedric? There was a heartbeat right here."
"When you drove your silver blade through my womb to purge 'the witch’s unholy spawn,'"
"Did you consider yourself a monster? Did you ever grieve for your own unborn pup?"
Back then, the baby inside my womb was taking physical shape.
Yet Cedric, blinded by panic and Samantha’s lies, plunged silver through my flesh,
Watching our pup dissolve into dying motes of light.
Cedric’s pupils dilated in horror.
A suffocating guilt flashed across his face, quickly buried beneath savage rage.
"Silence! Speak no more of that cursed thing!" he roared.
"As Alpha King, was I supposed to let another monster crawl out of your belly to plague my lands like you?"
Chapter 2
Samantha went back and collapsed into violent fever.
Whispers spread across the territory that the imprisoned witch had cast a malevolent curse upon the Luna.
She raved through the nights, screaming of silver fangs draining her vitality.
At dawn, Cedric descended into my cell once more, flanked by High Priest Balthazar.
"What sorcery did you unleash upon Samantha?"
Cedric demanded, his gaze searing with betrayal.
I leaned against the damp dungeon wall, keeping my eyes closed in silence.
Without warning, Balthazar flung a stone bowl across my face.
It was a vile brew of concentrated wolfsbane steeped in liquefied silver ash.
A ragged shriek tore from my throat.
The silver ash clung to my skin, searing deep into my flesh.
Agony rolled through my body, tossing me onto the filthy stone.
"Vile witch, still unrepentant!" Balthazar hissed, turning to Cedric with an obsequious bow.
"Alpha King, this creature’s dark arts have grown far too potent during these eight years."
"If we do not cleanse her, she will bring ruin upon the entire pack."
Cedric’s jaw clenched.
The High Priest smiled slyly. "Rest assured, my Lord."
"The priority is to purge the demonic affliction from the Luna."
With a brutal heave, Balthazar yanked the silver-spiked collar around my throat.
The inward-facing barbs sank deep into my neck, drawing hot trickles of dark blood.
"Up, beast. Walk."
Cedric watched without blinking. His handsome face was cold.
I forced my burning eyes open to stare at him.
"Do you truly believe I harmed her?"
Cedric looked away for a fraction of a second, his expression hardening.
"I take no pleasure in watching you bleed."
"But you chose the dark arts. You chose to become our enemy."
Balthazar raised a silver-barbed scourge, striking my back with vicious force.
"Move!"
Above, in the plaza, wolves gathered beneath the moon.
Banners swayed, emblazoned with the crescent of the Moon Goddess.
And beneath those banners, the High Priest dragged the true Moon Goddess by a silver chain.
The wolves turned, eyes gleaming with hatred.
"Look at that witch!"
"She cursed our Luna! She poisoned Alpha's son!"
"Burn her before she brings plague!"
Stones and curses rained down. I said nothing, dragging my numbed legs forward.
My thoughts drifted through ancient memory.
Centuries ago, when the Shadow Wurm awakened, black floods threatened to drown the wolf realm.
I sacrificed centuries of divine power to seal it beneath permafrost, nearly shattering my core to save their ancestors.
For a hundred thousand years, I shielded this land.
And now, their descendants dragged me in silver chains, spitting upon my flesh.
A broken laugh tore from my chest, ending in a spray of blood against the altar steps.
Samantha stepped through the crowd, wrapped in white furs.
Balthazar handed the silver-tipped scourge into her trembling hands.
Cedric frowned slightly. "High Priest, what is the meaning of this?"
"My Alpha," Balthazar purred, "Only if the Luna personally flogs the witch's mortal vessel can the dark tether be severed."
Cedric nodded slowly. "Whatever keeps Samantha safe."
Samantha gripped the silver whip. Without hesitation, she lashed it viciously across my bare collarbone.
"Vile wretch! Will you ever dare covet the Alpha King’s bed again?!"
Crack! The silver tore my skin to ribbons, setting my soul aflame.
I lifted my bloody chin, meeting Samantha’s crazed eyes.
"Samantha... you just want me dead. That was always your goal."
A cruel smile curved her lips.
She stepped forward, grinding the heel of her boot into my bruised cheek.
Leaning close, her voice dropped to a venomous whisper:
"Even after eight years in the dark, Cedric still looks at you. I will make you beg for the pyre."
Gasping for breath, I rasped, "You will regret this. I am no witch. I am..."
Before I could finish, Samantha brought the whip down with maniacal fury.
Cedric finally stepped forward, catching Samantha’s wrist.
"If you continue, she will die," he said, his voice flat. "If she dies, who will save my son?"
Chapter 3
"Rest assured, Alpha King," Balthazar sneered,
"Every dark witch has nine lives and does not perish so easily."
Drawing a silver ritual dagger, the High Priest drove it mercilessly through my core.
A blood-curdling howl ripped from my chest as the agonizing shock shattered my human form.
The silver forced my bones to twist and expand, throwing me into my primal sacred aspect—
A white nine-tailed wolf, though so drenched in blood and grime that it could not be recognized.
Samantha recoiled for a split second before a gloating grin spread across her lips.
She had them hurl me into a heavy iron cage.
……
I drifted in and out of darkness, lost in the fever of burning wounds.
When sensation slowly crawled back into my numbed limbs, a soothing coolness touched my gashed shoulder.
"I wanted to believe you, Snow," Cedric’s voice murmured in the gloom.
"It is just that your nature is too dangerous for our kind."
He was tending to my wounds just as he had done long ago.
"When I first found you freezing in the snowdrifts, I bandaged your paws like this."
Back then, gravely weakened from sealing the monsters, I collapsed in the freezing wastes.
The young Cedric had stumbled upon me, wrapping his own fur cloak around my shivering frame and smuggling me into the royal pavilion.
To repay his compassion, I stayed.
Orphaned, surrounded by treacherous regents and vicious rival alphas, he was a lonely, powerless heir.
Seeing his sorrow, I often took the guise of a soft-spoken pack maiden, hunting beside him and teaching him the ancient ways of the wild.
"You stood beside me through every war," Cedric whispered into the dark.
"I know in my heart you loved me once. But as Alpha King, my duty to the pack comes before all else."
"Heal Shane, and I will grant you exile. You may run free in the outer wastes."
That night, a nightmare bled into my fitful slumber.
Inside the Great Hall of Skulls, dozens of pack elders knelt before Cedric’s throne, their voices heavy with fear.
"Alpha King! The blood-red comet encroaches upon the Moon Goddess's constellation!"
"An omen of death and rot! That white-furred witch cannot be kept alive!"
The hall rumbled with unanimous roars.
"Our lands wither! Our pups are born weak! The Alpha heir lies at death’s door!"
"We implore the Alpha King to execute the witch under the full moon to cleanse our territory!"
Cedric sat upon the throne, his knuckles white against the armrests.
Suddenly, Samantha rushed from behind the heavy furs, throwing herself at his feet in tears.
"Cedric! Shane has been comatose for a fortnight! If you hesitate any longer, our pup will take his last breath!"
Cedric closed his eyes, his hesitation burning away into ruthless resolve.
"Summon High Priest Balthazar. Prepare the sacrificial altar for tomorrow night."
I woke with a violent gasp.
I was no longer in the iron cage.
My limbs were stretched wide, bound to iron rings set into the Bloodstone Altar.
Samantha caught my waking gaze and signaled to Balthazar.
The High Priest chanted a sharper incantation. Blinding agony ripped through my skull.
"Cedric," I rasped through bloody teeth.
"If you intend to slaughter me, end it swiftly."
Samantha bounded up the altar steps, striking my face twice with the back of her ringed hand.
"Insolent beast! How dare you speak to the Alpha King with such disrespect!"
Cedric stepped between us, pulling her back.
"Stay clear, Samantha. Her witchcraft is unpredictable."
He turned to me, his golden eyes cold as midwinter frost.
"Snow, this is your final opportunity. Will you save Shane?"
"If you heal him, I may yet spare your life."
Swallowing the metallic tang in my mouth, I looked at him with burning contempt.
"I search my soul and know I never harmed a single pup in this territory."
"Yet for her lies, you pierced my core and murdered my unborn child."
"And now you demand that I save a soul whose mortal thread is cut? Never."
Samantha shrieked, clutching Cedric’s chest.
"Did you hear her, Cedric?! She curses our child to die!"
Cedric’s eyes darkened into pitch.
"High Priest, you spoke of another method to save my heir."
Balthazar and Samantha exchanged a triumphant glance.
"Alpha King, the sacred texts speak of the Nine Faces of the Moon," Balthazar said smoothly.
"The primordial white wolf embodies nine aspects of the goddess."
"If we sever one of her tails, it can call the heir’s soul back to his vessel."
"However, severing a tail means stripping away one life and all the memories."
Cedric did not hesitate for a heartbeat.
"Carry out the ritual."
