His Abandoned Luna Chapter 176

|| Lilac’s POV ||

The morning light filtered through the sheer curtains of Alaric's study, painting golden stripes across the hardwood floor. I stood by the window, watching the distant figures of warriors training in the courtyard below, their shouts muffled through the glass. My fingers traced idle patterns on the sill, my mind racing with questions that had haunted me for the entire night. Alaric came back late and was gone when I woke up. Finally I found him here.

Alaric leaned against his desk, his massive frame silhouetted by the sunlight at his back. He'd been quiet since the alpha king visited us. Too quiet.

I turned to face him.

"Alaric," I said, my voice steady despite the storm in my chest. "Be truthful. Why don't you want to be king?"

He didn't look up from the papers he was pretending to read. "Because I want to live in peace with my Luna."

A practiced answer. Too smooth. Too easy.

“Is that all?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he didn't even look up.

I crossed the room in three strides, snatching the papers from his hands.

"What if I want it?" The words spilled out, sharp and desperate. "The Goddess asked me to rise to the throne. She must have a reason."

Alaric's stormy grey eyes finally met mine. "Maybe. But I can't."

"Not even if I want it?" My voice cracked. "Not even for me? You aren't even trying."

Something flickered in his gaze— pain, longing, fear. "I would do anything for you, dove. But not this."

The finality in his tone made my stomach twist.

"You're hiding something." It wasn't a question.

Alaric stilled. "Why would you say that?"

"Because I can feel it!" I stepped closer, my hands fisting in the fabric of his shirt. "What is it, Alaric? What aren't you telling me?"

A muscle feathered in his throat. He sat down abruptly, running a hand through his disheveled hair. "Lilac—"

"I know there's some burden you are hiding. I can feel it. Tell me." I reached for him, my fingers brushing his wrist. I took his hand to my cheek as I asked again, "Please, Alaric."

For a heartbeat, I thought he'd pull away. Then his shoulders slumped, defeating his frame.

"If I tell you," he said slowly, "you can't repeat it. Not to your father. Not to Elara. No one."

I nodded, my pulse roaring in my ears.

Alaric exhaled sharply.

"Also... it makes sense that I tell you. Since you'll be my Luna. You will know one way or another." He mumbled the last part more to himself than to me.

Then he turned his wrist, revealing the underside of his forearm— where a series of intricate, swirling marks curled like vines. But as I watched, they shifted, the ink shimmering faintly under the morning sun.

My breath caught.

"They're sigils," he said quietly. "Ancient ones. The kind only one bloodline carries."

"Okay..." I frowned, unsure what this had to do with him refusing the throne.

Alaric's jaw tightened. "They're the markings every Alpha of my pack receives. A blessing from the Moon Goddess... entangled with a curse."

The air left my lungs in a rush.

"The alpha of the Nightshades," he finally admitted.

"You're a Nightshade?" The words tore from me, too loud in the quiet room.

"Yes." His gaze never wavered. "So was my mother."

Luna Aria. Suddenly, her ability to vote in the Alpha King election made sense.

"You're their Alpha," I breathed, the realization crashing over me like a wave.

"Yes." He smiled.

I sank into the nearest chair, my legs suddenly weak. "So the free clothes, the meals... the scandal cleanup…. all of that was—"

"Of course I couldn't let my Luna pay, and I wanted to spoil you," he said simply, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

A hysterical laugh bubbled up in my throat. How should I feel about it? I didn’t know. Should I be happy that I found the hidden Nightshades and could try to find a way to help them with the curse? Should I be sad that the man I loved the most lied to me! Where did my trust lie in all these?

A pang of pain rose in my heart as I asked, “and you never thought of telling me this?"

Alaric knelt before me, his large hands cradling mine. "I couldn't. Not until you were ready to be part of this pack. You were running after a mate, Lilac. And this is our secret. No outsider should ever know."

I stayed quiet, torn between happiness and betrayal. The man I loved with my whole heart was one of the strongest creatures in this world. Not just by strength. By wealth, by power, by every way!

"It's the curse, dove," he murmured, his thumb brushing my knuckles. "I couldn't tell you everything beforehand because it's forbidden."

"I see," I mumbled, my mind reeling.

The silence stretched between us, thick with unspoken questions.

And for the first time since I'd met him, Alaric looked... vulnerable.

Alaric walked around the desk and stopped before an old chest. The ancient chest creaked as he opened it, releasing the scent of dried herbs and old blood. Sunlight streamed through the study windows, illuminating a haunting illustration: a beautiful witch with emerald eyes and silver hair, her hands raised over a kneeling Alpha whose veins blackened where her magic touched him.

"Three hundred years ago," Alaric's voice was gravel, "Alpha Erebus Nightshade was entangled with a witch for practicing dark magic. With her dying breath, she cursed our bloodline." His finger traced the witch's snarling face. "No Nightshades Alpha will be able to find their mates. Any Nightshade who takes the throne without their true mate will wither within a year."

I knew the story already but it felt different to hear it from him.

I shivered. "Your mother—"

"Lasted eleven months as queen, after my father took the throne." His knuckles whitened on the page. "I don't even remember her voice."

The fire crackled as he turned to another page, a portrait of Luna Aria in her coronation gown, vibrant and smiling. Opposite it, a sketch of her on her deathbed, the same cursed vines from the first painting now twisting up her arms.

"She knew the risk," Alaric said softly. "But she did it anyway."

“My uncle took me away not just to protect me from Cassandra, but also to keep me away from the throne. I am a royal by blood, Lilac. The connection between the throne and I are different.” Alaric's shirt hit the floor as he turned, revealing the full extent of his markings, the vines now pulsing faintly black near his spine. "They've darkened since I met you," he admitted. "The throne's call grows stronger every day. And now even my father wants me there ironically. The curse is getting stronger. I can feel it, as if it wants to strangle Hunter."

The curse! Right. Runa called out mate and he was there too.

Was he the one? My mate! Then shouldn’t the curse be lifted? Why was it getting stronger? My heart dropped.

Probably I wasn't the fated one for him afterall. Maybe because he chose the wrong luna and the curse was triggered! If that was the case… he needed his mate. To be free. To be alive.