Chapter 80 I love you

Chapter 80 I love you
~Kael~
The wheels of the royal cart rolled steadily over the stone road, each turn echoing through the quiet afternoon, yet I barely heard any of it. My thoughts were far louder than the sound of the horses.
I leaned back against the cushioned seat and closed my eyes, hoping that somehow everything Morwen had told me would begin to make sense if I gave it enough thought. It didn't.
The Crowned Moon. The title alone refused to leave my head.
For two thousand years, there had only ever been one. And now… Elira was the second.
A humorless laugh almost escaped me.
When I first found her, she had been nothing more than a frightened slave who barely looked me in the eye. Every instinct I possessed had urged me to protect her againt my own will, though I had never truly understood why. Now I did.
The Moon Goddess herself had chosen her. Every wolf alive was born to recognize her authority whether they wished to or not.
The realization should have comforted me. Instead, it terrified me. Because power like that never came without a price.
I rubbed a tired hand across my face. ‘What if she loses herself?’ 
The question settled heavily in my chest. ‘What if every Ascension takes another piece of the woman I know?’ 
Morwen had read enough for us to understand that Ascension was changing her, but the journal had been silent about what happened after the changes were complete. The missing page haunted me almost as much as the warning carved into the blacksmith's back.
Do not let her ascend.
I exhaled slowly. The more answers we uncovered, the more impossible the mystery became.
The cart gradually slowed. "We've arrived, Your Majesty," the driver called from outside.
I blinked, realizing I hadn't noticed the journey ending.
The curtain was pulled aside and sunlight spilled into the carriage. I stepped down onto the stone courtyard, but immediately something felt... different.
The palace grounds were unusually crowded.
Villagers stood beyond the outer walls in small groups, speaking over one another in hushed, frantic voices. Some were already beginning to leave while others kept looking back toward the palace with expressions I couldn't quite read.
Confusion, fear and disbelief was written on every face.
My stomach tightened. "What the hell happened this time?"
Nobody answered. The guards at the gate bowed as I passed, but even they looked shaken.
Whatever had happened… It had happened recently.
I quickened my pace. Servants moved quietly, whispering to one another until they noticed me approaching. The moment they saw me, every conversation stopped.
Their heads bowed and their bodies straightened. Yet the fear remained plainly visible. Even the palace guards standing at attention kept stealing uncertain glances toward one another.
Something was wrong. I abandoned any attempt to question them. If Elira was involved, I would hear the truth from her.
I turned the final corner and reached our chambers.
Without bothering to announce myself, I pushed the door open. The room was silent. Elira sat before the large mirror, her back partially turned toward me.
She held a damp cloth in one hand, gently wiping her face. She looked so lost in thought that she never heard me enter. For a brief moment I simply watched her reflection. Then my eyes fell to the cloth.
Dark crimson stained the white fabric. My heart stopped.
"Hey, baby." My voice came out much softer than I intended.
She startled violently. Her eyes met mine in the mirror before she immediately stood and hurried across the room. Before I could reach her, she wrapped both arms tightly around me and buried her face against my chest.
I held her without hesitation. The tension in her body was impossible to miss. She was trembling.
My hand slipped into her hair as I kissed the top of her head. "Are you alright?" I asked quietly.
She nodded against my chest. The movement was small and unconvincing.
I gently pulled back just enough to look at her. "Are you hurt?" My eyes drifted toward the cloth she had abandoned beside the mirror. "I saw blood."
She remained silent. Only then did I notice the faint reddish stains beneath her nostrils. Cold fear rushed through me and I cupped her face carefully.
"Elira..."
My thumb brushed lightly against her cheek. "Did you bleed?"
She hesitated, and then, she nodded.
A knot formed in my stomach. Morwen's voice echoed through my mind with unsettling clarity.
‘Her body shall reject the burden. Blood shall leave her before understanding arrives.’ 
The words hadn't made much sense when I first heard them. They had sounded like another cryptic warning buried among dozens of others.
Now I was looking directly at what they meant. I swallowed hard.
"Did you..." My voice caught before I forced the question out. "Did you ascend again?"
She looked away from me, her shoulders slumping. "I think I did."
There was no fear in her answer, only exhaustion.
I guided her toward the bed, refusing to let her remain standing. She didn't argue, allowing me to sit her down before I knelt in front of her.
"What happened?"
She stared at the floor for several moments before speaking. "I wanted to stop hiding."
I frowned.
"You were gone, and I kept thinking..." She rubbed her hands together absentmindedly. "I cannot keep sitting in this room feeling sorry for myself. You're still a king. You have a kingdom to rule while I've been doing nothing except crying over dreams I don't understand."
A pang of guilt struck me. She looked up at me.
"So I got dressed and decided to take a walk." I nodded, silently encouraging her to continue.
"When I stepped into the hallway..." she whispered, "...everything felt strange."
"Strange how?"
"There wasn't a sound." Her eyes drifted toward the chamber doors as though she were seeing it all over again. "No guards talking. No servants walking. Nothing."
She inhaled slowly. "Then I saw one of the palace guards. He looked at me." She paused. "Then he dropped onto all fours. He bowed."
The room became painfully quiet.
"I thought he was joking at first." A bitter smile crossed her lips before disappearing. "I told him he didn't have to do that."
Her breathing became uneven. "But before I knew it... more people started coming."
"Who?"
"Everyone." The single word sent another chill through me. "They all kept walking toward me." She wrapped her arms around herself. "They weren't themselves, Kael."
"What do you mean?"
"It was like..." She searched for the right words. "Like they were asleep. As though something else was moving them."
Her fingers tightened against her sleeves.
"They reached the first guard...and every single one of them knelt."
I closed my eyes briefly. ‘The Crowned Moon animal magnetism.’ 
"They all bowed?" I asked quietly.
She nodded. "The hallway was completely full. Nobody spoke. They just..." She swallowed. "...worshipped."
It was exactly what the journal had described. Kings feared her, priests worshipped her and wolves crossed mountains simply to kneel in her presence.
"I was terrified," she admitted. "I kept asking them what they were doing, but nobody answered."
She shook her head. "They just kept crawling toward me."
My jaw tightened. "Crawling?"
She nodded again. "I thought they were going to hurt me."
Her voice trembled slightly.
"But then… Drex. He came out of nowhere. He didn't kneel. Instead, he walked straight toward us, and drew his sword."
I frowned deeply.
"He stood between me and everyone else." Her voice softened. "He was ready to kill them."
My heart skipped. "He honestly believed they were trying to hurt me."
"What stopped him?"
"I shouted." She looked almost as confused now as she must have been then. "I yelled for him to stand down."
"And?"
"The sword slipped out of his hand. He looked completely horrified." She lowered her eyes again. "It was as though he had just woken from a nightmare."
I immediately thought back to the journal.
‘Her first loyal servant shall survive her first Ascension.’
Drex hadn't chosen to protect her. His very existence compelled him to.
A strange sadness settled over me. How terrifying it must be to lose your own will.
"What happened after that?" I asked gently.
She took another slow breath. "The others woke up too. They all looked confused and nobody remembered why they were there."
I nodded slowly. Exactly like the men in the forest after her first Ascension.
Except this time… It had happened inside my palace.
"No one was hurt?" I asked.
She shook her head. "No."
Relief washed through me for only a heartbeat before she continued.
"But then… my vision blurred and the hallway disappeared. I wasn't in the palace anymore."
"Where were you?" I asked.
"I don't know." She frowned. "It looked ancient. There were ruins everywhere. Broken pillars and collapsed temples. The stones were older than anything I've ever seen."
Her voice had become almost hypnotic.
"And there… I saw her. She was standing with her back to me. Thousands of wolves surrounded her. She simply raised one hand..."
She slowly lifted her own hand as though unconsciously mimicking the memory. "...and every wolf bowed."
She lowered her hand again. "It looked exactly like what had just happened in the hallway."
My heart sank.
"Then she turned." Her eyes met mine. "Kael… It was my face."
She swallowed. "But it wasn't me. I knew that somehow. She looked older and stronger."
Her breathing hitched. "She looked straight at me."
"What did she say?" I asked.
Elira's expression paled. "Only three words. ‘They are waking.’" She whispered the words so quietly I almost missed them.
I let out a slow breath, though it did nothing to ease the weight pressing against my chest.
For a long moment, I simply looked at her.
I wished I had better news to give her. I wished I could tell her that Morwen had found a way to stop all of this before it spiraled any further. Instead, every answer we uncovered seemed to birth another question, and every truth was somehow more terrifying than the last.
My fingers found hers, gently intertwining with them. "The woman you've been seeing," I began quietly. "The one from your dreams... the one you saw standing before all those wolves..."
I swallowed. "Morwen believes she knows who she is."
Elira frowned. "Who?"
I held her gaze. "She was the First Crowned Moon."
For several seconds, she simply stared at me. "...What does that mean?"
I sighed and walked toward the window, needing a moment to gather my thoughts. Even now, I was still trying to make sense of everything Morwen had shown me. It all sounded like the kind of story old men told children around campfires, yet every strange thing happening around Elira proved it was real.
"When Morwen opened the journal she found beneath the old oak tree," I said, turning back toward her, "she discovered that history isn't what we've always believed it to be."
I folded my arms across my chest.
"Over two thousand years ago, before our kingdoms existed, before wolves were divided under different Alphas and Kings, there lived a woman who was born from the First Bloodline."
"The First Bloodline?" she asked softly.
I nodded. "The oldest bloodline among wolves. The one believed to descend directly from the First Wolf the Moon Goddess ever created."
I paused before continuing.
"Everyone expected that woman to grow into an extraordinary Alpha." A faint smile crossed my face. "They were wrong."
Elira remained silent, allowing me to continue.
"On the night she came of age, the Moon Goddess chose her. Not because she was the strongest or because she came from royalty."
I slowly shook my head. "She chose her because she was worthy."
"Worthy of what?" Elira asked.
"A crown." She blinked. "Not one made of gold or jewels," I continued. "A crown placed upon her soul. The journal says that from that moment onward, she stopped being merely a Dire Wolf."
I took another slow breath.
"She became something the world had never seen before. The Crowned Moon."
I watched her carefully as she tried to process it. "The journal described her as someone every wolf recognized the moment they stood before her. They didn't obey because they feared her. They obeyed because something buried deep inside their blood recognized her authority before their minds ever could."
I remembered Morwen reading those lines aloud.
Her shoulders slowly dropped. "So..." She hesitated. "...that's what happened today."
I nodded.
"Yes."
Silence settled between us. She slowly lowered herself onto the edge of the bed, her hands twisting together.
"But..." She looked back at me. "...why me?"
Her voice was barely above a whisper.
"I don't understand any of this. I've never wanted any of it. I don't even know who I am anymore."
The pain in her voice cut deeper than any blade. I crossed the room and sat beside her.
For a moment, I simply held her hands. "I don't know why you." It was the only honest answer I had.
"And I won't lie to you by pretending I do." I gently squeezed her fingers.
"But I know one thing." I waited until she looked at me again. "You're still Elira. The woman I married. The woman who would risk her own life to save someone else's. The woman who still apologizes for things that aren't her fault."
A small smile appeared on my face. "This power hasn't changed who you are."
"Not yet." She muttered. 
"And I won't let it." I answered almost immediately. 
She blinked back tears.
"We're going to find answers. I don't care how many kingdoms I have to search. I don't care how old these secrets are. I'll uncover every single one of them."
She nodded slowly.
Then my expression hardened. "But there's something else."
Her eyes searched mine. "What is it?"
"The blacksmith."
I saw recognition flicker across her face. "The one who..."
I nodded. "When Morwen examined his body, she found words written across his back. They were written in Ancient Greek."
I inhaled deeply.
"When Morwen translated them..." I struggled to force the words out. "...they said, 'Do not let her ascend.'"
The colour drained from her face. "...Ascend?"
I nodded.
"The journal explained that every time more of your power awakens… you ascend." My eyes drifted toward the bloodstained cloth resting beside the mirror.
"It also said something else. 'Her body shall reject the burden. Blood shall leave her before understanding arrives.'"
I looked back at her. "The moment I saw the blood… I knew." My jaw clenched. "This was your second Ascension."
She lowered her gaze. "If those words warned people not to let me ascend..." She looked back at me, fear filling her eyes. "...what happens if I do?"
I wished I had an answer. Instead, I slowly shook my head.
"I don't know. And that's exactly what terrifies me."
I reached up and gently cupped her face. My thumbs brushed away the tears gathering beneath her eyes.
"I've stood on battlefields and I've faced enemies stronger than me. But none of those moments have ever made me feel this helpless. It hurts watching you go through this, knowing I can't carry even a fraction of your burden."
A hollow laugh escaped me. "I can't even protect the woman standing in front of me."
The realization hit me with unexpected clarity. Maybe that was why I couldn't keep the words inside any longer.
"I love you, Elira." 
Her eyes widened.
"I know I've never said it before. I kept telling myself there would always be another day." I smiled weakly. "But after everything that's happened… I don't want another day to pass without you knowing. I love you. And if fate expects me to stand against the Moon Goddess herself to protect you… I will."
Tears spilled freely down her cheeks. She threw her arms around me so suddenly that I nearly lost my balance. "I love you too." 
Her voice cracked against my chest. "So much. I don't know when it happened. I only know..." She held me tighter. "...I can't imagine surviving any of this without you."
I wrapped my arms around her and closed my eyes.
“We are in this together. I promise.”