Chapter 148 In the Shadows
Malia's POV
The revelation in McLunar’s office should have been the end of the day's drama. It should have been the moment we retreated to the safety of the suite to process the fact that my blood wasn't just "special"—it was royal.
But the universe doesn't give you time to adjust to a crown. It just waits for you to put it on so it has a better target to hit.
The attack didn't start with a howl or a scream. It started with silence. A heavy, artificial silence that smothered the usual night sounds of the Mooncrest campus. No crickets, no distant hum of the dormitory heaters, no wind through the ancient oaks. Just the sound of my own blood rushing in my ears—a Sovereign’s blood, pulsing with a rhythm that felt like a countdown.
We were in the west wing corridor, headed back from the dining hall, when the wards shattered.
I felt it first. It felt like a sheet of ice cracking across my skin. I gasped, clutching my chest, and the bond between the four of us flared white-hot.
"Malia?" Rowan was at my side in a heartbeat, his hand steadying my elbow. His eyes, usually so calm and analytical, were darting toward the ceiling. "The perimeter wards... they’re down. Not just tripped. Dissolved."
"That’s impossible," Cian said, his voice like a blade being unsheathed. He stepped in front of me, his posture shifting into a combat stance I’d only seen in the training pits. "Mooncrest wards are tied to the ley lines. You can't dissolve them without an internal bypass code."
"Someone opened the door," Aiden growled. His eyes were already bleeding into that terrifying Alpha pitch, his scent turning to pure, aggressive smoke. "Stay behind us, Malia. Don't leave the center."
Then, the shadows moved.
They didn't come from the doors. They came from the vents, the rafters, and the darkened alcoves. A dozen wolves, masked in matte-black ceramic that dampened their scents, dropped from the ceiling with terrifying precision. They weren't just feral attackers; they were a tactical unit. They moved in a phalanx, their movements synchronized, their eyes glowing a clinical, cold blue through the slits of their masks.
"Hunters," Cian spat, recognizing the style. "Professional mercenaries. But they’re wearing Council-grade silver-weave."
"I don't care what they're wearing," Aiden roared.
He didn't wait for them to strike. He lunged, a blur of golden-brown fur and raw fury. The first attacker was slammed into the stone wall with enough force to crack the masonry. Rowan was a whirlwind of calculated motion, his staff—a heavy piece of enchanted ash—cracking against ribs and skulls. He fought with the grace of a dancer and the brutality of a woodsman, clearing a path for us to move toward the central hall.
I felt my wolf screaming. She didn't want to hide anymore. She didn't want to be the "protected asset." The Sovereign in me wanted to tear the masks off these invaders and make them kneel.
"Malia, get down!" Rowan shouted as a masked wolf lunged at me with a silver-tipped blade.
I didn't get down.
Instead, I reached out. I didn't think about the mechanics of it; I just felt the air in the corridor as an extension of my own lungs. I pushed. A wave of pure, lunar kinetic energy erupted from my palms—not the flickering spark of a hybrid, but a solid wall of force. The attacker was thrown back thirty feet, sliding across the polished floor like a puck on ice.
For a second, the corridor went still. The mercenaries hesitated, their cold blue eyes fixed on me.
"The girl," one of them rasped, his voice distorted by a modulator. "Focus on the girl. Ignore the Alphas."
"Try it," Aiden challenged, stepping over a fallen body, his claws dripping. "See how many of you die before you get within ten feet of her."
The fight became a blur of teeth, silver, and blood. We were winning—or so it seemed. Between Aiden’s brute strength, Cian’s surgical strikes, and Rowan’s battlefield control, the mercenaries were being systematically dismantled. My power acted as a shield, a shimmering dome of white light that pulsed every time a blade came too close.
We fought our way to the Great Hall, thinking it would be a stronghold. We thought the faculty would be there, the other Alphas, the resistance.
Instead, we found a graveyard of silence.
The Great Hall was empty, bathed in the eerie glow of the moon through the skylights. And standing in the center of the room, her back to the high altar of the Mooncrest founders, was a figure I knew as well as my own reflection.
"Madame Vesper?" I called out, my voice cracking with shock.
She was dressed in her usual charcoal robes, her silver hair pinned back with elegant precision.
"Madame?" I took a step forward, ignoring the warning growl vibrating in Aiden’s throat.
Vesper turned. Her face was calm—too calm. There was no fear in her eyes, no shock at the blood on my clothes or the chaos behind us.
"The students are already dealt with, Malia," she said. Her voice was as smooth as silk. "They are sleeping. Safe. For now."
Aiden moved to my side, his hackles raised. "Vesper, what is this? Where is the security team?"
"I am the security team, Aiden," she said softly. She looked at me, and for a fleeting second, I saw a flicker of something—regret? Pity? "You were a beautiful project, Malia. Truly. Watching you wake up today... it was like watching a star being born. It’s a shame the Council prefers the night."
The air in my lungs turned to ice. "You?" I whispered. "You let them in?"
"I didn't just let them in, dear. I coordinated the drop," she said, stepping aside to reveal the men standing in the shadows behind the altar. They weren't mercenaries. They were high-ranking Council Enforcers. "The Mooncrest line was supposed to stay dead. Your mother was a disruption to the order of things. She thought she could hide you, but blood like yours... it hums. It’s been humming in my ears for three years, Malia. I was the one who suggested you be brought here. To keep you close. To watch the seal."
The betrayal cut deeper than any silver blade. Every kind word, every piece of advice, every "I believe in you"—it was all a lie. She wasn't nurturing a student; she was monitoring a prisoner.
"You bitch," Aiden roared, charging forward.
But Vesper was faster. She didn't shift. She didn't need to. She raised a hand, and a ripple of ancient, forbidden sorcery—the kind only the High Elders are supposed to know—hit Aiden like a physical weight, pinning him to the floor.
"Aiden!" I screamed.
Cian and Rowan moved simultaneously, but the Enforcers were ready. They didn't use claws; they used tech. High-frequency emitters that shattered the Alphas' focus, dragging them to their knees as their sensitive hearing was bombarded by ultrasonic agony.
"Don't hurt them!" I cried out, stepping toward Vesper. "It’s me you want! Leave them alone!"
Vesper looked at me, her expression hardening. "Always the martyr. Just like Aurora. She bargained for your life, too. She gave herself up thinking it would buy you a lifetime of obscurity. She was wrong. You are too much like her, Malia. You’re a beacon. And beacons have to be extinguished before they start a fire."
"I'll kill you," I hissed, my eyes glowing with a feral, white light. I felt the Sovereign power gathering in my chest, a supernova of rage. "I will tear this school down around your ears!"
Vesper smiled sadly. "I know you would. That’s why we aren't going to have a fair fight."
She didn't reach for a sword. She didn't reach for a spell.
She reached for a small, pressurized wrist-launcher hidden beneath her sleeve.
I saw the movement. I tried to throw up a shield. But my focus was split—half of me was trying to reach the bond to pull Aiden, Cian, and Rowan back from the brink of the sonic attack.
Thwip.
A tiny, silver-tipped dart buried itself in the side of my neck.
I reached up, my fingers brushing the cold metal. My vision blurred instantly. The world tilted. The white light in my chest didn't go out; it was smothered, like a blanket being thrown over a fire.
"Malia..." I heard Aiden’s voice, a broken, strangled sound. He was fighting the sonic emitters, his hands clawing at the stone floor, trying to reach me.
I fell. My knees hit the floor, but I didn't feel the impact. The cold was spreading from my neck, numbing my limbs, turning my thoughts to lead.
Vesper walked over to me. She knelt down, her hand stroking my hair with a motherly tenderness that made me want to scream.
"Sleep now, little Moon," she whispered. "The next time you wake, the world will be much quieter. There will be no Alphas. No Sovereign. Just a throne that needs to stay empty."
"Vesper... why..." I tried to say, but my tongue wouldn't move.
I looked past her. I saw my three Alphas. Aiden, his eyes weeping blood from the strain. Rowan, reaching out a hand that was inches from my own. Cian, his face a mask of pure, cold heartbreak.
The bond—the beautiful, golden cord that held us together—felt like it was being stretched thin, vibrating with a high, mournful note.
And then, the darkness took me. It wasn't the warm darkness of sleep. It was the heavy, suffocating dark of a grave.
The last thing I felt was the cold stone of the Great Hall against my cheek, and the distant, fading sound of Aiden’s howl of despair...