All Chapters of The Rejected Luna: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

The horn blast shattered the quiet of the hall like thunder rolling across dry grass. Every torch flame jumped. Pack members froze mid-step, hands already reaching for weapons they had set aside only minutes earlier. The air thickened with the sharp scent of tension and shifting wolves. My silver light flared brighter around my shoulders without me calling it. Nythera surged forward inside my chest, alert and steady. This was no echo of the last fight. This was something bigger. Drax’s hand stayed locked with mine. His pulse beat hard against my palm through the bond. I felt his mind snap into focus, no panic, only the cold calculation of a king who had just laid his mistakes bare. “Outer watch,” he said, voice carrying clear through the hall. “Council loyalists. They heard what happened here and they are coming fast.” Kade was already moving toward the wide doors, knife ready in his grip. “Sixty at least,” he called back after a quick glance outside. “Border patrols mixed in. They

The bond carried the full weight of the warning between us. The pack turned toward us from across the clearing. They sensed the change in the air. Kade was still gone but the leader approached fast.My knees locked. The silver light around me flared wild, shooting sparks that made the nearest wolves flinch back. Drax’s hand clamped down on mine so hard my bones ached. His breath punched out short and ragged. Through the thread I felt his chest tighten, the same images slamming into him again, the red runes, the ground splitting, that heavy shadow slithering closer. His free hand came up and gripped my shoulder like he needed something solid to hold onto. Not to steady me. To steady himself.The leader reached us in three long strides. His face had gone gray under the torchlight. He stopped a pace away, eyes flicking between us. “What is it?” His voice cracked on the last word. He swallowed hard, throat working.I tried to speak but the bond flooded me again. The shadow had moved. Not

The ground trembled under our feet. A low rumble rolled across the clearing. Smoke rose from the tree line again. Red eyes glowed in the growing dark.The shadow had come for more than the first wave. It had come for the bond itself.The rumble deepened. It vibrated up through my boots and into my bones. The pack staggered. A few wolves dropped to one knee. The mother in the second row clutched her toddler so tight the child cried out. The young warrior beside her gripped his spear until the wood groaned. Drax’s arm clamped tighter around my waist. His fingers dug in like he could hold the earth still. Through the bond his heartbeat slammed into mine, wild and frantic. I felt the shadow reach for the thread between us, cold and hungry, pulling like it wanted to tear us apart.My knees buckled. The silver light around me flared wild, sparks shooting out and dying in the grass. Nythera snarled inside my chest. Drax caught me before I fell. His other hand came up and pressed flat again

The real test was far from over.The quiet after the last wave lasted only heartbeats. Then the ground ripped open with a sound like the world cracking in half. Cracks raced across the clearing in every direction. Red light exploded upward in violent spurts that lit the night blood-red. Smoke blasted out in thick black sheets that swallowed the torches and choked the air until wolves coughed and staggered. Twisted wolves poured from the trees in a screaming flood, hundreds this time, their red eyes burning like a wall of fire racing straight toward the center.Drax yanked me up so fast my feet left the grass. His hand crushed mine until the bones ground together. “It is coming for the bond,” he snarled. His voice was stripped raw, no king left in it, just pure terror and fury. “Right now. It knows we are weak.”The pack exploded into motion. Shouts ripped the night. Kade sprinted from the right flank, knife already flashing, fresh blood from the last fight still slick on his shirt. Th

Dawn broke gray and cold over the clearing. The first light cut through the thinning smoke and painted the grass in pale streaks. Wolves stirred where they had collapsed. Some sat up slowly, rubbing sore muscles. Others checked bandages on fresh wounds. The air still tasted of smoke and blood. No one spoke much. The shadow’s voice from the night before still echoed in every head.Drax stood first. His arm stayed locked around my waist even as he pulled me up with him. His body felt heavy against mine. The bond showed me the storm inside him, the guilt twisting like a knife, the shame that made his shoulders hunch. He did not hide it. He let me feel every bit of it. His hand found mine and held on like it was the only thing keeping him upright.“The pack needs to hear it,” he said. His voice came out rough, like he had not slept at all. “All of it. Now. Before the shadow comes back.”I squeezed his hand. The silver light around me brushed his arm. “We tell them together,” I said. “You