"Once, I loved you enough to kneel.
Now I know better, a crown is not a gift.
It is a birthright." —LadyHedti
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Selene stepped into the study and halted at the sight of Ronan seated beside his Beta, a broad-shouldered man with sharp eyes named Caelan. The moment Ronan noticed her, he rose swiftly and dismissed Caelan with a quiet command. The Beta bowed once and took his leave, shutting the heavy door behind him.
"Selene," Ronan began, but she brushed past him without a glance, her expression carved from stone.
He turned to face her, and as she moved closer, a strange scent clung to him-faint, but unmistakable. Her breath caught. It was not hers. It had never been hers. And yet it lingered now. How had she not noticed it before? How had it escaped her for all these years, only to strike her now like a blade between the ribs?
"Selene..." he tried again, his voice low with concern.
She said nothing. Instead, she slammed a bloodstained parchment upon the table.
He frowned, reaching for it.
"Ares has my mother," she said. Her voice was low but burned with fury.
Ronan unfolded the parchment, scanning the words. "Where did you find this?"
"In my mother's home," she said. "Pinned beside Theron's head, staked to her wall like a warning."
Ronan's jaw clenched.
"I need forty of your best men," she continued.
"For what?" he asked.
"To dance with them? what do you think I need them for Ronan? I need those men to rescue my mother, not to waltz into some ambush blind and barehanded. Ten will ride with me. Ten will guard the borders. The rest will serve the justice your guards failed to uphold.
My mother was taken, and no one saw.
Do you understand how absurd that is? Guards stationed at every post, every gate, every corridor. And yet she vanished. So I will take those forty men, not only to face Ares but to remind your soldiers what duty means."
Ronan's jaw tightened. "You know what this says. He wants you alone. And you ask me to send the best warriors into the jaws of a trap? What if this is exactly what he wants? If we lose those men, the pack will be left exposed."
Selene began to pace. "The pack. The pack. The pack. Always the pack. Every word from your mouth is the pack."
"And it must be," Ronan snapped. "Their safety comes first."
She turned sharply, her eyes gleaming with fury. "Even over my mother's life? No, Ronan. Not this time. I have given enough to this pack. My father died for it. I will not let it take my mother too."
You're asking me to risk the backbone of the pack... "
I'm telling you they failed their duty the moment my mother was taken under their watch. I'm not requesting, Ronan. I'm holding them accountable.
His voice lowered, firm but not cruel.
"Selene, you know I cannot..."
"I am not asking," she said coldly. "You will give me what I ask for."
"The pack does not need..."
"I don't care," she cut in, her voice breaking like a storm. "I do not care what the pack needs. I care about my mother. She is all I have left.!
Silence stretched between them, thick with the weight of too many sacrifices.
"You are asking me to risk everything we have built," he said quietly. "Ares Kaidos is not a man who writes letters. He is a man who burns them. This message is deliberate. Measured. He knows exactly how to get to you, and through you, to us."
Selene stepped closer. "Then let him come. Let him try. But he will not use my mother's blood to write his message. I won't allow it."
Ronan's brow furrowed. "You would lead soldiers into the Edge Cliff alone? Knowing what he is?"
"I have known what he is since I was a child," she said. "And I've learned to live with the shadow of his name. I am not afraid of him."
He reached out, but she pulled back before he could touch her. His hand fell to his side.
"You are not thinking clearly."
"I am thinking more clearly than I have in years," she said. "And maybe that's the problem. Maybe if I had done this sooner, none of this would be happening."
"What if he just wants to negotiate?" Ronan said. "If that's the case, you don't need an army. Go alone. Speak to him. It might ease the tension instead of provoking it."
Selene's head snapped toward him, eyes cold and cutting. "Negotiate? Is that what this is to you? He took my mother, Ronan. You don't steal a woman from her home and stake a man's head in her wall if all you want is a civil conversation."
"I'm saying we should be cautious. If you walk in there with forty soldiers, you could trigger something worse."
"And if I walk in alone, I walk to my death." Her voice sharpened. "Be honest. That's what you want, isn't it?"
Ronan stepped forward. "That's not what I mean, Selene."
She turned her back to him slowly, then looked over her shoulder, voice low and dangerous. "Wouldn't that make you happy? To finally be rid of me. Then you could chase your precious mate without me in your way."
"Selene."
"No. Do not speak to me like I am some fragile thing you care for. You have fooled me long enough."
"I am not giving you those men."
"Oh, you will," she said, stepping closer.
"I will not. And as your Alpha, I forbid it"
She lifted her chin. "And as your Luna, I overrule it."
His eyes narrowed. "Are you?"
Silence. Her lips parted, but no sound came. Then, slowly, she shook her head. "No," she said. "I am not your Luna."
He exhaled as if victory had been won, but she took a step back, lifted her hair, and revealed the curve of her ear. Etched at the corner was the mark of the Alpha, the letter A —but without the line that completed its center.
"Every Alpha is born with this mark. The middle line connects blood to power. Mine is incomplete. Do you know why?" She turned to face him. "Because the center line lies on you now. It was transferred when our blood was sealed together in that sacred bond. That glass in the temple holds more than blood Ronan. It holds everything. It holds control. My blood gave you the power to rule, to command this pack. My blood made the pack follow you.
Ronan stared, unmoving.
"Imagine what happens if I step into that temple and shatter the glass," she said, lowering her hair. "What would you become then, Ronan? Not Alpha. Not even their leader. You would fall among the ranks, just like the rest."
"You would not dare."
She smiled faintly. "Would I? Or are you too afraid to find out?" Her gaze never wavered.
"So no," she said. "I am not your Luna.
I am your Alpha.
He stood motionless, the air thick with unspoken fury and something darker...the sharp tang of truth.
Selene turned for the door.
" I ride at dawn. And Ronan," she added, looking back over her shoulder, "if your men value their lives, they will be ready."
And then, she vanished beyond the door, the only thing left echoing in the room was her final, unspoken warning.
TEAM RONAN
OR
TEAM SELENE?🌓