Filed to story: When The Moon Hides Crown
“We’ve stepped into someone’s territory,” I murmured under my breath.
A forbidden, dangerous place. I could feel it deep in my bones, in the way the very air seemed to press against my skin, thick and oppressive like an invisible hand.
I needed to get out. Now.
Carefully, I began to edge sideways, sliding one foot after the other without letting the soles scrape against the dirt. Each breath I took was shallow, my entire body coiled tight, ready to bolt at the slightest sound
“Don’t look back. Don’t make a sound,” Phina whispered.
And I followed that instinct, until something made me stop cold.
There, in the ruined chamber ahead, crouched a figure.
Naked, coated in a layer of dried mud and streaked with old blood, the moonlight pooled over him, catching the jagged ridges of his spine and the rope-like cords of muscle along his back. His body was a grotesque canvas of grime, old wounds, and twisted scars. And the way he sat – motionless, silent – sent shards of ice through my veins.
His posture wasn’t fully human. Nor fully wolf. It was something in-between, as though he’d been left behind by time itself, an ancient piece of the ruin. His head hung low, hair matted and tangled, and though I couldn’t see his face, something about the shape of him was… wrong. Fundamentally wrong.
Was this his place? Was he alone? Or were others hiding in the shadows, watching?I didn’t want to find out.
I took a cautious step back, then another. Each inch of distance felt like a smalt salvation. I was nearly clear of the space when my heel snapped a dry branch beneath it.
The sound cracked like a gunshot through the oppressive silence.
And the man moved
Shit, I inwardly cursed. The sharp crack of the branch beneath my heel
– was deafening in the brittle, unnatural silence.
The man’s head jerked up a low, animalistic growl tearing from his throat. Crimson eyes snapped toward the sound, burning from beneath the tangle of hair and filth. But I had already ducked behind a gnarled tree.
Only…he wasn’t fooled.
The way he moved, jolting to his feet in a single, feral motion…was wrong. Too fast. Too silent.
My heart lurched into my throat.
As the man surged toward the gnarled tree where I had been hiding, the air rippled with the sound of his snarl. My chest heaved as ! pressed myself against the rough bark, already half shifted.
He was too close. Too fast.
Five seconds, that’s all I had before he would be upon me.
I braced myself, only to feel a hand clamp firmly over my mouth, yanking me back against a solid, familiar chest. A gasp caught in my throat as a presence I knew all too well pulled me up, my body hauled effortlessly into the dense branches above.By the time the creature reached the base of the tree, I was gone.
From the tangle of branches overhead, I crouched beside Ronan, my breathing ragged, pulse thundering like a war drum in my ears. His hand fell away, but the feel of him lingered. Our eyes met in the dark, and for a moment neither of us spoke.
Why did he do that?
“Why are you here?” I mouthed. I hadn’t even heard him follow, or enter.
“Guess,” he whispered.
The corner of my lips twitched. How the hell had I forgotten that he had actually been the hunter. He must have chased me so that he could hunt me down.
Due to his large body and little to no space in the tree, his chest was completely touching my back and my heart was racing like a horse from being so close to him. As an Alpha’s daughter I was not allowed to be so close to this man and losing one’s virginity before mating and marking with your soulmate was out of the question.
That’s why my father would always be furious whenever I trained with male wolves. I hated this rule that only chained females while males would fuck every hole they could get their hands on and still be respected. However, I always kept a healthy distance with males away from training so how did I end up in this situation with this Alpha? With his eyes watching me so closely, as if storing every little detail of my feature to his memory.
I slowly tore my eyes from him, not letting him look any further and figure something out about me.
We both watched, silent and unmoving, as the man prowled around the base of the tree. His head twitched, those eerie, blood-bright eyes searching the darkness. And then, as if something unseen called himback, he turned and wandered slowly to his previous spot.
The man sat down again, just as before, his spine rigid, his face tilted toward the moon. His lips moved in a voiceless chant, as though worshipping the light. The ruin swallowed him once more, a living shadow amid the ancient stone.
I slowly let go of my breath in relief. “Now we should…” saying, I turned to look at Ronan but as soon as I tilted my head to him, I found our faces an inch away from each other.
1 froze in surprise and he seemed to be in the same state for a moment.
Both our eyes remained locked and neither of us blinked as I realised in what dangerous proximity we were in.
RONAN
His face was far too close. So close that our breaths mingled. But when a slight noise came from the darkness, his head snapped in that direction.
We stayed crouched among the branches, but when Seth’s entire focus was on the ground, and instinctively yet subconsciously trying to pull áway from me even if there was not even an inch to move, I found myself looking at his back. Slander with slight muscle unlike other males. My gaze was then drowned to the back of his neck, fair and smooth. I could not tear my eyes away from it for some reason. When the sweat trailed down disappearing in his coltar, the sight of it made my breath run cold. And my heart started taking a sudden race, the desire to glimpse a little deeper into his collar and of his smooth skin grew inside me.
I immediately tore my eyes away from his neck. Had I fucking lost my mind? Staring at a man’s neck and wanting to see what was beneath his collar? Why was this sick desire growing inside me? I clenched my fists and took a deep breath. I needed to think straight. It was all because of the proximity. I couldn’t even remember when I last let a man this close to me. My skin crawled with others’ touch but with this boy…
I even went out of my way to pull him up before I even realised.
“Hey,” I murmured in a low voice.
He flinched and placed his hand on his neck, his big bright amber eyes snapping at me. “Why are you breathing on my neck?”
A frown crossed my feature when he had a look in his eyes that called me a pervert. “How about you worry about yourself and check your audacious ass before acting innocent?!”His eyes immediately snapped down and the color drained from his face when he found himself brushing against my manhood. As if he was struck by thunder, he immediately jumped down from the tree.
I remained seated, watching his red ears. Such an intense reaction over something as silly as his ass brushing my cock?
as jumped down without making a noise and stated, “We need to move.”
He gave a tight nod.
Slowly, carefully, we slid away from the tree. our feet touched the earth in near-perfect silence, and together, we began to move through the twisted remains of stone walls and vine covered pillars. The ruin stretched out in all directions, overgrown and half-swallowed by time.
As we crept along a crumbled corridor, Seth suddenly stopped.
I followed his line of sight to find something half-buried in the dirt, a rusted weapon rack, the remains of long-forgotten blades eaten by corrosion. Symbols were etched into the stone behind it, crude carvings of wolves mid-shift, their eyes hollow. Bones lay scattered nearby. old, weathered, some gnawed clean.
“This wasn’t just a ruin,” Seth whispered, crouching beside the markings. “It seems it was a training ground.”
I stepped closer, eyes narrowing as I scanned the scene. “For rogues,” I murmured, “Wolves who defied pack law… ones too dangerous or broken to be claimed.”
Seth brushed dirt off one of the carvings, the image of a wolf pinned to the ground by spears. “Some of them… never left.”