Filed to story: When The Moon Hides Crown
As he was checking the carvings, my wolf sensed something in the distance. I glanced into the darkness studying it.”But the question is why this place…” Seth’s voice was cut off as a low snarl split the air.
Seth spun around just as a feral figure lunged from the darkness. It was the rogue from the earlier, half-shifted, his body grotesquely caught between human and wolf, his red eyes gleaming, with madness as he looked at both of us, skin clinging to bones. His scent hit like a blow: rot, blood, and death.
Seth reacted first, dropping into a crouch and dodging his clawed swipe. I moved in an instant, intercepting the rogue with a powerful punch to the jaw, sending him crashing against a wall.
Dust and debris rained down but more snarls rose around us.
Seth’s head snapped at the snarls. “There are more rogues!”
i watched Seth’s changing expression to this unexpected discovery and the corner of my lips curled up.
“They’re in the walls.”
He turned to me, “How can you be so sure?”
“If you want, you can wait and confirm it,” I put my hand into my pants pockets, watching him frowning.
“What’s with you acting so cool?” He raised an eyebrow at me. “You are going to be hunted by them as well.”
I chuckled and decreased the distance between us, “This predator is just shifting into his wolf to wipe them all out. But what about you Seth?” I leaned forward towards his small face and smiled, “Still not shifting?”
He froze for a moment and gave me a blank look, “I don’t need to.”
He turned around to face the arriving rogues.My eyes flashed with amusement, “There are at least eight to ten of them that you are planning to take down without shifting. You wanna die that desperately?”
“Yeah, I am desperate but not to die but to cross that finishing line before anyone else does,” he glanced over his shoulder and met my gaze.
“So don’t get in my way, Alpha Ronan.. I will fight for you as well to pay back the unexpected and unasked for help you showed me earlier so stand there and have a good show.”
The amusement within me instantly dropped, my eyes boring deep into him intensely as the rogues pounced on him. He wanted to fight for me? To pay off what I had done earlier? The hand at my side shook, my wolf growling lowly in my mind watching him fight without flinching, his moves like lightning finishing one and then instantly heading to another.
However, the moment a drop of blood dripped from his arm, my patience that I did not realise I had been holding, snapped.
jumped in beside Seth, instantly taking care of one of the rogues. Seth glanced at me for a moment as we fell into rhythm, moving as one. He slashed through a rogue’s flank while I landed bone-breaking blows non-stop. The air filled with the sounds of snarls, the clash of claws and fists against flesh and stone.
One rogue lunged at me. I flipped it and he pinned the creature to the ground, my claws poised for a killing blow to finish him at once.
“Wait!” Seth shouted, stepping in, “Don’t kill.”
I growled, my killing mode already activated and not stopping before I finished all of them, “They’re feral. I’ll end him.”
“This is their territory,” Seth snapped. “We trespassed. We are in the wrong here, they are just protecting their land. I don’t kill out of anger or for fun. Let them go. Don’t kill!” The defiance and the mercy in his gaze that I had never witnessed before did something inside me.But no one gave me orders. No one.
I was always in control. In command yet… I found myself letting the rogue go.
“There is no way I don’t kill a person who comes at me with the same intentions.” Getting up, I strode up to Seth and grabbed his wrist, “If you don’t want me to kill then we are leaving.”
We bolted, weaving through the ruins as the rogues sharted behind us.
The feral figures chased but didn’t stray far from their haunted grounds. I glanced over my shoulder as they stopped. Why? Why did they suddenly stop? It was as if they were bound by old, unseen chains and could not cross the ruins.
The moment we crossed the broken archway marking the ruins edge, the night air changed. The oppressive weight lifted.
+ He kept running alongside me, matching my speed. “This is the way I saw on the map!” he exclaimed, turning down the correct path.
I was unaware that I had my hand firmly grasped around his wrist. And together side by side as we were about to break through the final clearing, crossing the finishing line of the trial, he got his wrist slowly out of my grasp.
I stopped in my tracks and glanced back at him. “What’s up? Not crossing the finishing line.”
He relaxed his wrist and glanced up at me, “Is it not funny that the hunter and prey cross the line together?” I froze at his remark where the look in his eyes over actually labeling me in his Prey. My wolf froze in my mind, as he walked past me towards the finishing line, locking our eyes for a brief moment, “Make sure to cross it, Alpha Ronan, don’t just stare at me.”
Watching him cross the line, my lips curled up, “Indirectly warning me to not eye him, huh?” my eyes once again drawn to his hips. “Well, thatseems…a little too hard to ignore.”
SERAPHINA
The academy gates loomed ahead, their iron bars silhouetted against the soft hues of approaching dawn. Every step I took felt heavier than the last. Not sure of exhaustion, but from the weight of Ronan’s unwavering gaze burning into my back.
I had honestly thought that if I told him to stop staring, he’d be ashamed, maybe even offended. Instead, it seemed to have the opposite effect. Ever since then, his gaze had become bolder, more deliberate.
I clenched my fists at my sides. If he kept this up, I was going to get exposed. Worse, his sudden silence was unsettling. It wasn’t the absence of sound; it was the presence of scrutiny. Quiet, calculated observation.
My mind kept replaying the night’s events. The rogue’s attack. The ruins. That goddamn moment in the tree, the way his body had brushed against mine, his manhood pressing against my butt, the heat that had lingered long after. My face still burned at the memory, my heart pounding erratically in my chest.
The adrenaline had faded, but an unease clung to me like a second skin. Ronan’s growing suspicion made it impossible to settle.
And why the hell was he still following me? Shouldn’t he have peeled off already, gone his own way?
As we slipped through the dormitory gates, Reed was there with three Alphas chatting until his gaze landed on me,
“Well, well,” Reed sneered, “Look what crawled out of the cursed woods.”
His friends snickered.”Too bad. We had a bet you wouldn’t make it out, Tiny,” one of them grinned.
“Did I make you lose your money?” I smiled, causing their smiles to disappear, “Next time, put your money on someone else.”
Reed’s sneer faltered for half a second before he laughed. “Oh, we will
“his laughter suddenly died down when he looked behind me at Ronan.
All of their smiles and sneers were wiped off their faces. I did not stay there and walked past them with Ronan was still behind me! Why was this Alpha…
That’s when I spotted Finn emerging from the shower building, hair damp and a towel slung over his shoulder. Relief bloomed in my chest.
This was my chance.
– I plastered on a bright smile and strode over.
“Finn, you crossed the line,” I smiled, keeping my tone light and casual.
He blinked in surprise, then grinned. “Yeah, and you made it too! I was looking for you in the showers earlier.”
I shrugged, feigning nonchalance. “Oh, I was a little slow. But looks like I wasn’t the last one after all.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ronan pause. His gaze lingered on me for a beat too long before he turned and headed toward the showers. Relief flooded my veins.