Chapter 67 The Challenge
KAEL POV
I stood in my office, staring at the reports spread across my desk without really seeing them.
Three pack members with severe burns. Seven with minor injuries. Two dead from the coalition attack, not from Lira's flames but from the rogues she'd been fighting when she lost control.
Thomas entered without knocking. "The pack is gathering in the central den. You need to be there."
"Why?" I didn't look up from the casualty list.
"Because a young warrior just challenged Lira's right to be Luna." He crossed his arms. "Publicly, in front of at least fifty pack members."
My head snapped up. "Who?"
"Stone. She is twenty-three, ambitious, thinks she should have been chosen as your mate instead of the 'unstable Moonblood.'" Thomas's voice was bored. "Her words, not mine."
"Where is she?" I was already moving toward the door.
"Still in the northern cabin, I assume." He blocked my path. "Unless you're about to tell me you let that rogue train her right under our noses last night."
I froze. "How did you."
"The guards talked. Said you found her with him in the forest, flames everywhere, looking more in control than she has since the blood moon." He studied my face. "You were going to keep that quiet, weren't you? Let the pack keep thinking she's dangerous."
"She is dangerous." I pushed past him. "She burned three people, Thomas, she nearly killed them."
"And now she's learning control." He followed me down the hallway. "But you'd rather keep her locked away than admit she's getting stronger without you."
"That's not" I stopped, jaw clenched. "This isn't about my ego."
"Isn't it?" He raised an eyebrow. "Because from where I'm standing, you're more afraid of her surpassing you than actually harming anyone."
I wanted to hit him. Wanted to use my alpha command and make him shut up. But he was my brother. And he might be right.
We reached the central den to find it packed with wolves. Stone stood in the center, young and cocky, her friends clustered around her for support.
"Where's the Luna?" She called out when he saw me. "Too scared to face me?"
"Watch your mouth." Fenris pressed against my consciousness, demanding I rip the challenger's throat out. "You're speaking about your Luna."
"My Luna?" Stone laughed. "She's no Luna. She's a curse wrapped in pretty skin. She nearly burned us all to death, and you locked her away because even you know she's too dangerous to lead."
Murmurs of agreement rippled through the crowd. Not everyone, but enough to make my blood run cold.
"Lira is learning to control her power." I forced my voice to stay neutral"She's more than proven her worth through the trials."
"The trials you helped her pass." Mira stepped forward, her expression sympathetic but her eyes gleaming with satisfaction. "We all know the mate bond influenced everything, she hasn't proven anything on her own."
More murmurs that were louder this time.
"I invoke the right of challenge." Stone raised her voice. "Let her face me in single combat, no mate bond interference. No alpha protection. Just her power against mine."
"Denied." I stepped forward, my alpha presence filling the room. "Lira is your Luna, you don't get to challenge her authority."
"Actually, she does." Elder Selene's voice cut through the tension. She moved through the crowd. "Pack law states any wolf can challenge a Luna's fitness to lead if they believe she endangers the pack."
"She's recovering." I turned to face the elder. "Give her more time."
"Time for what? To burn more of us?" Stone voice rose. "She's had weeks to control this power. Instead, she sneaks around with rogues, disobeys your orders, and nearly killed Sarah and Jacob."
The crowd shifted, restless and afraid.
"If she cannot face one challenger," Selene said quietly, "then perhaps she is not strong enough to be Luna."
"I accept." Lira's voice rang out clear and strong.
Every head turned. She stood in the doorway, flanked by two guards. Her hair was pulled back, her clothing simple, but she carried herself like royalty.
She met my eyes across the room. I felt her feelings through the bond, her anger, her hurt.
"Lira, no." I moved toward her. "You don't have to do this."
"Yes, I do." She walked past me without touching, without acknowledging the bond that screamed between us. "Stone. You challenge my right to be Luna?"
"I do." She circled her. "You're unstable, dangerous, and unfit to lead."
"Then prove it." She moved to the center of the circle. "Combat. Here. Now."
"Lira." I tried again, desperation bleeding through. "You're not recovered, wait until"
"Until what, Kael?" She finally looked at me, and the emptiness in her eyes gutted me. "Until you decide I'm ready? Until the pack stops being afraid? That day will never come unless I make it happen."
Selene raised her hand. "Combat challenge accepted. First blood or submission. The Luna may not use lethal force against a pack member."
"But she can use it against me?" Lira asked dryly.
"You're Moonblood." Selene's expression was unreadable. "You'll survive."
The circle formed. Pack members pressed close, hungry for violence, for proof one way or another.
Stone shifted immediately, her brown wolf large and aggressive. Lira didn't shift. She stood in human form, arms loose at her sides.
"Shift." Stone snarled. "Or I'll tear you apart as you are."
"Come try." She smiled, and it was nothing like the timid girl I'd marked months ago.
She lunged. She sidestepped smoothly, letting her crash into empty space as the pack gasped.
Stone spun, attacking again. This time she blocked with her forearm, and I saw silver flames flicker along her skin for just a second before disappearing.
"You've been practicing." Stone backed up, reassessing. "With that rogue, with enemies of the pack."
"I've been learning." She circled him now. "Something my mate should have taught me but was too afraid to try."
The words hit like a punch but she wasn't wrong.stone attacked in a flurry of strikes, using her wolf speed and strength. Lira shifted mid-dodge, her silver-gray wolf emerging with fluid grace.
They clashed in the center of the circle. But Lira was faster. Smaller, yes, but gods she was fast. And every time she countered, small burns appeared on his fur. Never enough to seriously harm, just enough to hurt, to slow her down.
"She's toying with her." Thomas murmured beside me. "She could end this anytime."
He was right, I could see it now. The way she controlled every flame, every strike. This wasn't desperate survival, this was dominance.
Stone realized it too and her attacks grew wilder, more reckless. Lira let her wear herself out, dodging and burning until she was panting and bleeding from a dozen small wounds.
"Submit." Her mental voice carried through the pack bond, audible to everyone. "You can't win."
"Never." She charged one last time, putting everything into a desperate lunge.
Lira met her head-on. Moonfire erupted along her entire body, bright and contained, she caught her mid-leap, her jaws closing on her throat.
Not enough to kill, just enough to prove she could. The den went silent as stone went limp in her hold, her submission absolute.
Lira released her, shifting back to human form. "Does anyone else want to challenge my right to be Luna?"
No one spoke. The pack members who'd been muttering before now stared with something between fear and awe.
"Good." She wiped blood from her mouth. "Because I'm tired of proving myself to people who should already trust me."
Her eyes found mine across the circle. "Especially you."
She walked out of the den, head high, nacked, leaving me standing in the wreckage of everything I'd broken between us.
"Well." Selene said into the silence. "I believe that answers the question of her fitness to lead."
Pack members dispersed slowly, talking in hushed voices. But the tone had changed. Not fear anymore but respect.
Thomas clapped my shoulder. "You're an idiot."
"I know." I watched the empty doorway where Lira had disappeared. "I was trying to protect her."
"You were trying to control her." He shook his head. "There's a difference, and she just showed you she doesn't need your protection."
Fenris howled in my mind. We're losing her, we have to fix this.
"I don't know how. Everything I do pushes her further away."
"Then stop trying to make her smaller so you feel bigger." Thomas started toward the exit. "Start fighting for her instead of against her."
He left me alone in the den with my failures. Through the bond, I felt Lira's exhaustion, her pain, her determination. Felt her building walls between us, brick by painful brick.
I'd locked her in a cabin to keep her safe. Instead, I'd taught her she couldn't rely on me. And now she was learning to be Luna without me.
The realization was bitter and necessary. I'd been so afraid of losing her to the power that I'd lost her to my own fear.
Outside, I heard pack members gathering again. Something else was happening.
I stepped into the courtyard to find wolves congregating near the main gates. Aria pushed through the crowd toward me, her face pale.
"Kael." She grabbed my arm. "You need to see this."
"What now?" I followed her to the gates.
A messenger stood there, bloodied and barely conscious. Thomas was already questioning him.
"What happened?" I demanded.
"Mira." The messenger gasped. "She's gone to the council. Claims she's pregnant with your child."
The world tilted sideways.
"That's impossible." I stared at him. "I haven't touched her in months, since before"
"Since before you marked Lira." Thomas finished grimly. "Which means if she is pregnant, it would have happened before the official mate bond was sealed."
Through our connection, I felt Lira's attention sharpen. Felt her heart break all over again.
"It's a lie." I reached for her through the bond. "Lira, please, it's a lie."
But she'd already closed herself off. Already decided I wasn't worth the pain.
"The council is calling for an emergency gathering." The messenger coughed blood. "They want both you and Luna Lira present tomorrow at dawn."
"This is a setup." Thomas said what I was thinking. "Mira's playing a longer game."
"I don't care what game she's playing." I turned toward the cabin where I'd imprisoned my mate. "I need to talk to Lira, now."