Chapter 22

*Kael*

I am breaking. Broken.

The throne room is too quiet, too polished, and too heavy with expectation. The council sits in a half-moon of carved obsidian chairs, their expressions carved from colder stone. I stand at the center like prey, not the predator.

The pressure is constant now. Ever since the bond fractured—no, since I shattered it.

But it never really broke. Not fully. I still feel her.

I haven’t slept. I haven’t eaten more than a few bites of food in days. My wolf paces in circles inside me, claws scraping the walls of my mind, snapping and snarling every time someone mentions me taking another.

And they always do.

"Your Majesty," Elder Corval begins, his voice sandpaper smooth. "As we near the Moonlight Ball, it is time you presented your chosen Luna to the kingdom."

I say nothing.

"Tradition demands a queen. The kingdom is watching. The other packs are whispering."

Still, I don't speak.

"Do you have a name? A candidate?"

I raise my head slowly, eyes burning. How dare he.

"No."

A sharp intake of breath from one of the female Elders, Isolda, a silver-haired hawk of a woman who has never liked me. "Then may I remind you that without a Luna, you will not only lose standing… lose support—you may be deemed unfit to rule."

I clench my fists.

My wolf growls.

"You presume to question my right to this throne? My right to rule?" I ask, voice low and dangerous.

Corval tries to mediate. "Of course not, Your Majesty. But your rejection of the mate bond has caused significant—"

I don't hear the rest.

The word "rejection" echoes through my skull like a gunshot.

Pain flares behind my eyes. My wolf slams against the cage of my skin. The torches along the wall flicker, the air tightening with my rage. Something cracks in me.

I step forward, and my power pulses outward, dark and furious.

"Do not speak of what you do not understand," I snarl.

Several Elders flinch. One falls backward in his chair.

And then, through the haze, a hand on my shoulder. Not commanding. Grounding.

Dax.

He steps forward beside me, voice calm but firm.

"The king has not chosen a Luna yet," he says evenly. "Because he is in the process of repairing a sacred bond."

All eyes turn to him. Weather to see what comes next.

"The mate he rejected was not a mistake. It was a moment of fear. Misjudgment. One he is working to undo."

I stare at him, jaw locked. 

"We are searching for her now," he continues. "And when she returns, he will take her as his Luna. As the Goddess intended."

The room stills.

The council murmurs among themselves, sharing sidelong glances. Then Corval straightens, nodding once.

"If that is true, then we will delay the announcement until the Moonlight Ball. But be aware—if she does not appear, and you do not name a Luna..."

He doesn't finish the threat. He doesn’t have to.

I nod curtly. "Dismissed."

The Elders file out slowly. A few glance over their shoulders at me, their expressions ranging from worry to distrust.

Only when the door closes behind the last of them do I exhale.

Dax doesn’t speak right away. He waits, as he always does until I sit heavily on the bench behind the throne.

My chest heaves. My skin feels too tight. Why is it so hot in here?

I rake a hand through my hair. "You lied to them."

He lifts a brow. "Was it a lie?"

I glare at him. "We haven’t found her."

"We will."

I shake my head, burying my face in my hands.

The silence stretches. Then I whisper, "What if she never forgives me?"

Dax doesn’t answer right away. He sits beside me and leans forward on his knees, staring at the floor.

"Then you'll deserve it."

The words hit hard. I feel like I can’t breathe.

He doesn’t say them with anger. Just truth. Brutal, unflinching truth.

"But," he adds, his voice softer, “you have to try, you have to apologize, you have to make her see you. See why you belong together. It won’t be easy. But if you try, truly try, that will matter."

I look at him, searching for something in his expression. But he guards it well.

"You believe she’ll come back?"

"I believe she's stronger than any of us realized. And I believe she still feels the bond, even if she hates you for it."

I laugh bitterly. "She should."

Dax sighs. "This isn't just about feelings, Kael. If what we suspect is true—if she is who we think she is—then this is about the future of the kingdom. If she stands before the council with proof of her bloodline..."

"She could take it all."

He doesn't disagree.

I lean back against the wall, my thoughts spiralling.

My father. The battlefield. The vision I can't escape. The woman who screamed in the shadows, who looked like Aria, who I watched fall. And now, the girl I left broken under the moonlight...

I don't deserve her.

But I need her.

We need her.

A knock at the door.

A young soldier enters, head bowed. "Forgive the interruption, Majesty. Two scouts have returned."

I rise instantly. "News?"

The soldier hesitates. "No sign of her. They say the forest... shifted. They followed tracks, scents. And then the paths changed. Redirected them."

My stomach turns.

"What about Talon?"

"No word yet."

I nod once. The soldier leaves.

I turn to Dax. "They were pushed out."

"Like the forest is hiding her."

I pace the room, fists clenched. "Then she's alive. And the land protects her. The land has chosen her?"

"You need to keep it together," Dax says quietly. "Because if we lose control now, we lose everything."

I close my eyes.

I see her again. That moment. The rejection. The way she broke.

And I know I have to fix it.

Or I will lose not just my throne.

But the only thing that ever mattered. The thing I was too blind to see.

Her.

Aria.

And I may have already lost her forever.