Chapter 129 Love Can Break a Kingdom

Chapter 129 Love Can Break a Kingdom
~ Duno's POV ~

The news of my arrival at Caelen's cabin could no longer change anything. By the time I walked away from that meeting, he had already reclaimed Dravik Territory and Elder Magnus was dead.

Everything I had spent years building had collapsed around me. The victory I believed was within reach disappeared before I could touch it.

The traditional council no longer stood united behind me. Elder Magnus had controlled more of it than I had ever realized.

Without him, the council split into smaller factions. Every territory suddenly wanted to protect its own interests instead of following one leader.

Messages arrived almost every day. None of them brought good news.

Several Alphas who had once promised their support withdrew it completely. Others simply stopped replying to my letters.

The wolves who had once stood proudly beside me began asking difficult questions. I noticed the change every time they looked at me.

Some wanted to know why I had worked with Elder Magnus for so long. Others wondered whether I had been using them from the beginning.

I answered every question the same way. I told them Magnus had deceived all of us.

Very few believed me anymore. Doubt had spread faster than any rumor.

For the first time in years, I admitted something I had refused to accept before. I no longer had enough influence to challenge Caelen openly.

If I gathered warriors now, half of them would leave before the battle even began. The rest would question every order I gave.

I sat alone inside the abandoned hunting lodge that had become my temporary headquarters. The silence inside the building reminded me how quickly power could disappear.

I could surrender. The thought crossed my mind more than once.

The idea disappeared just as quickly. I had sacrificed too much to walk away with nothing.

If I could not become Alpha, then Caelen would never enjoy ruling peacefully. I still had enough people willing to follow quiet orders.

I called my remaining supporters together after sunset. Only a fraction of the wolves I once commanded entered the room.

"We can't fight Dravik Territory directly anymore," I told them. "That isn't our path now."

They waited for me to continue. Every face carried uncertainty.

"We're going to make ruling impossible," I said. "We won't attack the territory itself."

One wolf frowned at me. He clearly did not understand.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"We strike everything around it," I answered. "We make every ordinary day become another problem Caelen has to solve."

The room became silent again. Then several wolves slowly nodded.

"Burn farms after the harvest," I ordered. "Destroy supplies before they reach the villages."

Another wolf leaned forward. He understood the plan immediately.

"What about the travelers?" he asked.

"Attack them," I replied. "Leave no sign connecting those attacks to us."

I watched their reactions carefully. None of them looked comfortable.

"We're not starting another war," I continued. "We're making sure peace never feels safe."

Several wolves exchanged uneasy looks. Even those still loyal to me understood innocent people would suffer.

"They chose Caelen," I said before anyone could object. "Now they can live with the consequences."

Nobody argued after that. They quietly accepted their assignments before leaving one group at a time.

Once I was alone again, I locked the lodge door behind me. There was one task I trusted no one else to handle.

Everything I had stolen from the old archives before fleeing remained hidden beneath the floorboards. Elder Magnus had never known I copied several records for myself.

I spread the documents across the table. Some were damaged while others remained perfectly preserved.

For days, I searched through faded handwriting and forgotten laws. Most of what I found no longer mattered.

Late one evening, I discovered a section mentioning Moonbound women. The title alone caught my attention.

I sat down and began reading every line carefully. The law had not been referenced for generations.

According to the record, Moonbound women possessed authority older than Alpha traditions. Their choices could reshape the bond itself.

I continued reading without looking away from the page. Every sentence became more interesting than the last.

One passage stopped me completely. I read it three times before accepting what it said.

A Moonbound woman who willingly rejected her Alpha could permanently sever the Alpha's strongest instincts. The damage weakened both the Alpha's wolf and the authority connected to his position.

I slowly leaned back in my chair. Elder Magnus had searched for control in the wrong place.

He wanted to possess Moonbound blood. I no longer cared about controlling it.

Allene herself had become the greatest weapon against Caelen. She did not even need to fight him.

If she willingly rejected their bond, Caelen could lose far more than the woman he loved. He could lose the strength that held his territory together.

That realization changed everything. I no longer needed armies large enough to defeat him.

I only needed circumstances that forced impossible choices. Love could become more dangerous than war.

Caelen would always choose Allene first. I had already watched him surrender power once because of her.

If leadership demanded one path while love demanded another, eventually one of them would break. I intended to make sure that moment came.

Several days later, another surprise arrived. One of my remaining messengers entered the lodge carrying a sealed envelope.

"It was left outside," he explained. "Nobody saw who delivered it."

I accepted the envelope and dismissed him immediately. Something about it felt different from the usual reports.

There was no official seal on the paper. Only a single symbol had been drawn in dark ink.

I broke the seal and unfolded the letter. The handwriting was unfamiliar.

The first sentence immediately caught my attention. Whoever wrote it already knew about my search through the archives.

The writer claimed to have once served the ancient Moonbound guardians. That should have been impossible because every record insisted they had disappeared long ago.

I kept reading. The letter offered an alliance instead of a threat.

The writer claimed there were secrets about Allene that even her own mother had never discovered. Every instinct told me to question those words.

It could easily be another trap designed to expose my location. After everything that had happened with Elder Magnus, trusting strangers would be foolish.

I folded the letter slowly and placed it back on the table. My mind refused to settle on a single decision.

If the message was genuine, it could change everything I believed about the Moonbound bloodline. If it was false, answering it could destroy whatever remained of my future.

I looked down at the final line one more time. Those five words stayed fixed in my mind.

"You are hunting the wrong enemy."