He Let Our Pup Die for His Childhood Love

Six months heavy with pup, and Kael Stormbane's childhood companion led the rogue pack into the Crescent Hall, hoping to see me torn apart in the chaos.

I didn't sound the bond-call signal horn his Shadow Fangs had left me. Instead I gathered the Moon Queen and her court Omegas, and we slipped into a side hall to wait for the Court Enforcers.

Because in my last life, after the rogues breached the Crescent Hall gates, they set the place ablaze under the Blood Moon and slaughtered everyone inside. Kael tracked me down by the trail his Shadow Fangs left and dragged me out alive.

But his childhood companion, Seris Ravenmoor, was hauled off by the rogues. Defiled until she died.

Kael soothed me with gentle words, told me it wasn't my fault, and carried me off to the Hot Springs Den to rest out the remainder of my term.

Yet on the very night my body broke into labor, he walked into my chamber with ten rogue captives at his heels, every one of them reeking of filth and old blood.

I watched, helpless, as the pup about to come into the world was reduced to pulp.

Before I died, Kael raged at me like a man gone mad, his eyes flooding to a feral gold:

"If you hadn't let the rogues into the Crescent Hall, Seris would never have come to harm! You venomous woman, you nearly fooled even me!"

"Since you love the company of rogues so much, I'll let you taste them properly!"

I died with hatred choking my throat. But the Moon Goddess took pity, and threw me back to the very moment the Crescent Hall gates were breached.

……

The rogues' excited howls crept closer, carrying that sour reek of strange wolves on the wind, and the leftover terror of my death sent me shaking before I could stop it. Deep beneath my ribs, my wolf pressed low, ears flat, a thin whine she couldn't swallow.

But one glance at the Moon Queen and the court Omegas beside me, every face white with fear, and I bit through the tip of my tongue, forcing myself steady. The taste of iron grounded me.

I threw away the Shadow Fang's signal horn Kael had left me, and shielded the Moon Queen and her party as we slipped into the side hall of the cold palace wing.

The Moon Queen clutched the little prince to her chest and looked at me through tears. Her scent, silver birch and cold amber, trembled with the rest of her. "Lyra Frostvale, if not for you, I'm afraid today I would have—"

I swallowed the pain twisting through my belly and tried to calm them.

I don't know how long we held out before, at last, the familiar clatter of armor reached us through the walls.

Kael's Beta's voice came through, muffled. "The Luna must have gone this way."

Kael didn't act on it. He only said, cold as the iron in his own scent: "But Seris is hurt."

So they'd found Seris Ravenmoor. I rushed to light the Stormbane pack's signal flare, my hands clumsy with hope.

But no rescue came. Only Kael's icy voice drifted in on the wind. "She's putting on an act. Ignore her."

I plunged into ice. The mate-mark at my neck had long gone cold, but it was nothing to the cold that filled me now. The Omega consort, Rowan Ashbrook, hadn't caught those last words, and in her excitement she ran to the door, calling out Kael's name.

She was six moons along, same as me, and had just taken a hard fall. Red was already seeping faintly through her skirts.

Before her voice had even faded, the side hall door was kicked open with brutal force.

Two rogues, drenched in blood, burst in. Their stench hit first, rot and copper, hackles rising on the back of my neck.

Several of the Omegas shrieked, screaming Kael's name, begging him to come save them.

But Kael was long gone.

My nails dug hard into my palms, sharpening to points before I caught myself, a dull ache spreading through my chest where the bond should have been.

When no one answered, the two rogues broke into vicious grins, teeth long and yellow.

"That she-wolf wasn't lying after all. The great War-Alpha's Luna really is hiding in here."

"Not just her. Look over there. Those must be the Moon Queen's own."

"Hahaha, finally our turn to enjoy ourselves."

The cold shot through me head to foot. They hadn't stumbled in by accident at all.

It had to be Seris Ravenmoor's doing.

I steeled myself, snatched up the blade I'd picked up on the way in, and planted myself in front of the Omegas.

Watching the rogues' mocking grins, I clenched my teeth, swung the blade, and charged. My wolf surged up under my skin, fury burning through the fear.

The Moon Queen let out a sharp cry, her Alpha aura flaring out across the room like a sudden drop in the air. "Retreat for what! Do as Lyra taught us. There are only two of them. Even one strike each and we'll turn them to pulp!"

Thank the Goddess there were many of us. The rogues went down fast, hacked to the floor.

The Omegas' faces were streaked with tears, several of them so terrified their limbs gave out and they crumpled to the ground.

The Moon Queen was just stepping forward to check my wound when I saw the rogue behind her grip his blade.

I pulled the Moon Queen behind me and took the strike full on.

Thank the Goddess the Omega consort beside us saw the danger and smashed a stone urn down hard on the rogue's skull.

Both rogues were dead, dead beyond any doubt.