The Lunar Queen Chapter 36

Cole POV

Saying these last 10 and a half months have been tough is an understatement. Between worrying about my Beta because he’s concerned about his mate, who is struggling much more than he realized. I don’t think he understood the deepness of the connection between her and Lyric.

As we’ve gotten closer to Lyric’s birthday, the rogue attacks are getting closer to Moonveil. I eventually had no choice but to call Alpha Liam and tell him to stay alert.

I’ve been burying myself in work, trying not to fixate on the fact that Lyric still hasn’t woken up. Every time I stop moving, stop signing papers, stop taking meetings, my mind goes straight back to her lying there, still and quiet, and I can’t do a damn thing with that except drown in it.

Their last mating ball for their ranked pups is in two weeks. Alpha Liam gave us permission to come early since Winter has already turned 18 and can scent her mate.

I can’t wait to see her; it’s been a struggle staying away from that pack. I’m in a constant battle with Zeus for control. He wants to go to his mate, but she still isn’t mine—at least not yet.

As much as it pains me to admit it, I know she’d want me there, but until she rejects Mason, I’m just a friend and potential second chance mate—and that hurts more than anything. Not because I don’t understand it, because I do. It hurts because understanding it doesn’t make it easier.

There’s been a constant tightness in my chest, and it hasn’t eased or loosened.

“We need to go to her now. It’s taking her longer because we’re not there,” Zeus whimpers in my mind.

He’s been stuck on that thought for weeks now, circling it over and over until it starts sounding like truth instead of fear.

I’m not sure if he’s right about that, but we were there every day last time. This time, I forced myself to stay away.

The council has been pressuring me even more about taking a chosen mate; it’s like they can sense something about to shift. We will all be heading to Moonveil pack tomorrow morning.

My parents insisted on coming, and of course, my little sister, who just returned from abroad and heard about Lyric, insists on coming too.

I’m counting down the seconds until I see her face. I miss her voice and her smile. I even miss her sassiness and smart mouth.

Ugh, those green eyes. I just need to see them once.

“Brother,” Aria says, walking into my office.

“Yes, cookie,” I reply.

“Can you tell me about your mate?” she asks.

My chest and throat tighten at the question. I stay silent for a moment, trying to gather myself.

Because saying her name out loud still feels like touching something I don’t fully have yet.

“She is perfect. She’s smart, great at fighting and weapons, confident, and has an attitude like nobody I’ve ever seen. She doesn’t take my shit and challenges me,” I say.

And somehow that still doesn’t explain her. Not even close.

“She sounds great,” she responds. “I can’t wait to meet her,” she adds.

“She is going to love you, and you her,” I say.

“I hope I meet my mate at this ball. It’s already been a year, and still nothing,” she says.

“Kira says our mate is close. She can feel we’re going to meet him soon,” she adds.

“Maybe it’s one of the heirs at Moonveil,” I suggest.

“Oh, maybe the future Alpha. I mean, I am a princess,” she states.

“Well, unless you are his second chance mate, their future alpha is mated to Lyric right now,” I reply.

“Omg, what?” she exclaims.

“Yes, I thought mom told you that” I say

“No, she did not,” she responds.

“Well, if she is going to reject him, wouldn’t that mean I should too if that’s the case?” she asks.

“No, Mason is actually a good wolf and a great alpha,” I say.

That’s the problem. He’s not someone I can hate to make this easier.

“So, why is she rejecting him?” she questions.

“Because he is the reason behind her being in a coma and all her previous abuse. Her twin sister was jealous of her getting his attention, and after his birthday, it got worse,” I explain.

“Whoa, that is insane. That must be hard,” she remarks.

“Yeah, for them, they were each other’s first loves, and they lost a lot of time because of her, so it’s a lot,” I say.

“You’re handling this really well, Coco Bear,” she comments.

If this is me handling it well, I don’t want to see what falling apart looks like.

“I mean, she had a life before me, and technically, he is her mate,” I add.

“So, what if she wakes up and finds out her sister has been taken into custody and she decides she wants to stay with him? Then what?” she asks.

I pause for a minute, truly thinking about the answer.

Not the easy answer. The real one I’ve been avoiding.

“I’m not sure. There’s never been anything else. It’s always been her. All my life, I was told it would be her, so I never thought about a second chance for me,” I say.

She walks over, climbs into my lap, and lays her head on my chest.

“Well, the moon goddess wouldn’t tell you something was going to happen if it wasn’t right,” she says.

“I’m not sure, cookie, honestly,” I reply, leaning my head back in the chair.

Because fate might be clear, but living through it isn’t.

Tomorrow, I see my princess.

Lyric POV

“Lyric wake up, wake up,” Nova says.

I feel something wet touch my cheek, and I move it. It’s fur, the softest fur I’ve ever felt in my life. I jump up.

I’m not in the woods by the border.

I’m in a garden with the most vibrantly colored flowers I have ever seen; they all look alive. It is beautiful.

Not just pretty—alive in a way that makes my chest feel too full, like the air itself is watching me.

I turn and see the biggest, most beautiful white wolf. It looks like her fur shimmers, or the ends are iridescent, and her eyes are the most gorgeous purple I’ve ever seen.

“Nova,” I say, and she walks up to me, nuzzling her head into my neck. I run my fingers through her fur.

“Where are we, Nova?” I ask.

“You are in my realm, child,” I hear a serene, magical voice say behind me.

I turn and see a beautiful woman with pale white skin, long white-blonde hair, and a flowing white gown.

“Selene?” I ask.

“Yes, my daughter,” she replies.

“Wait, I died?” I ask, tears filling my eyes.

Because if that’s true… then everything I survived didn’t matter in the end.

“No, my dear. Your body is very much alive; your spirit is here with me,” she says.

“How long?” I ask.

“Almost 11 months,” she answers.

My eyes widen in shock.

“Almost a year,” I say.

The words don’t land right. They just sit there, too heavy to make sense of.

“They all probably think I’m dead and are celebrating, except Winter,” I say.

“Actually, child, your family and pack really miss you. Most of them haven’t left your side, aside from Hunter. Your mother is a shell of herself, riddled with guilt, and your father has only been in two places—your room and the cells of your pack,” she says softly.

I wipe my tears.

“They have?” I whisper.

That hits somewhere deep, somewhere I didn’t think I had left.

“Yes, they all feel a tremendous amount of guilt for everything you endured at your sister’s hands,” she says gently.

“Your sister and those who helped her have all been put in your pack’s cells. They are waiting for you to wake up to decide their fates,” she adds.

“Why me?” I ask, voice choking.

“Because, my child, you are special,” she replies.

“You’ve always wondered why you don’t look like your parents or siblings,” she says.

“Yes, every day of my life,” I respond.

“Your mother’s bloodline descends from mine,” she explains.

“How did I not know, or she not know?” I ask.

“That’s because it was buried under centuries of lies,” she says.

“For you to understand, I have to tell you my story and then my daughter’s,” she continues.

I sit on the grass next to Nova, her head in my lap.

I don’t even realize I’m bracing myself until I feel my fingers tighten in her fur.

“Long ago, before werewolves existed, I had the power to travel between my realm and yours. I fell in love with a human, and I would sneak down as often as I could to see him,” she finishes.

After years of being in love, he was attacked by a wolf,” she says pausing.

“I couldn’t save him, so I went to my mother to ask her to save him and she did, but my mother was a very conniving woman when she wanted to be, so she saved my love’s life but at the cost of his humanity. She turned him and his entire village into wolves, and when I begged her to undo it, she said it could not be undone,” she says, tears in her eyes.

“I then went to my father asking for his help, because my mother cursed them. He couldn’t undo it but he was able to allow the beast to shift from human to wolf, and because my father used some of my magic to create them, I became their goddess, their mother moon. My love and I had a child after that, Eloise,” she says.

“She was a werewolf and a goddess by blood; we didn’t know how powerful she would be. After I gave birth to my daughter, my mother bound me to this realm, leaving my mate to raise our daughter alone. I was only able to speak to her once a year when my mother allowed me to see her,” she adds.

“I created mate bonds so my mate wouldn’t be alone raising our child, but the wolf I mated him to used him to get to our daughter. As the werewolf species grew, other wolves saw how special my little Eloise was. Even as a pup, her powers were unmatched,” she says.

“When she turned 18, she found her mate, and her father, who was the alpha of their pack, tried to hide her and their bond because other wolves wanted to use her to rise to power. When she was 21, she and her mate had a baby boy. Before she could raise that child, she was kidnapped by Lucian Blackwood,” she says, pausing a moment.

“Wait, as in our current Alpha Kina Cole Blackwood?” I ask, throat dry.

“Yes, Lucian was a very wicked man and only wanted power. He used my Eloise to become king and made her his queen, but he slaughtered her whole pack before taking her, my mate, and hers. They were able to hide my grandson; hence your bloodline. Lucian and Eloise had four pups of their own. After their fourth pup, my Eloise killed herself. Before she died, she told him that when she returned, she would destroy his whole line,” she says.

“That is me?” I ask.

“Yes and no,” she says.

“After Eloise killed herself, their oldest pup killed Lucian, and he was like my Eloise. He cared about his kind and wanted all wolves to be free of his father’s tyranny. When he became king, things got better, but every few centuries, one of the Blackwood children would try to take the throne from their older brother. That is when my Eloise would be reborn, but each time, she was killed before she could do as she promised and wipe out the Blackwood line,” she says.

“Okay, so let me get this straight, because I think I get it now,” I say, standing and pacing as I process all the information she just gave me.

“I am her. Eloise—well, not really, but her spirit is reborn as me, and I’m now the most powerful wolf alive. I need to kill Cole and all his brothers?” I ask.

The thought feels wrong the second I say it out loud, like my body rejects it before my mind can even catch up.

“No, my child, although Eloise vowed to wipe the line, all the men in the Blackwood line are not like Lucian and do not share his views, one being Cole and his brothers,” she says.

“Cole’s uncle was the former rogue king, and he shared Lucian’s views. He tried to kill Cole as a pup because he was told by a seer that Cole and his mate would stop the war that he was planning to rule over the entire supernatural world—shifters, vampires, fae, witches,” she says.

“I saved him because I am the one who created the prophecy, my siblings and I, because Eloise wasn’t hateful. She loved her pups and loved being Queen, and she tried to help her pack as much as she could. But Theo wanted to kill Cole and find you so he could use you the way Lucian used Eloise,” she says.

“But if she had powers, why didn’t she use them against Lucian and kill him?” I ask.

“Her pup,” she says.

“Lucian told her he knew where he was and was waiting for her to slip up so he could kill him. All he had to do was make a call,” she says.

“But I’m mated to Mason—how can I stop a war with Cole?” I ask, scared.

Because this is where everything splits—and I don’t know which side of it I’m supposed to stand on.

“I needed Mason to be your mate so your family could see what was happening to you because you’d have suffered in silence until you died. You are meant for so much more, my child,” she says, cupping my cheeks and wiping my tears.

“She had them take something that was for my mate,” I say, the sobs tearing through me.

“I know, my child, and your father and uncle have been punishing her for it, as well as your brother and Mason. You will finish it for all of them,” she says.

“Your true mate and true sister are waiting for you,” she says.

“Winter,” I whisper.

“But what if I can’t stop this war? What if I can’t reject Mason?” I ask, scared.

“Then the entire supernatural world will suffer at the hands of the rogue king and his allies,” she says.

“He has been attacking packs, waiting for your shift. Beware, because the moment you shift, Nova’s iridescent white fur will be known to those who know Eloise’s wolf. Your powers are unlimited, my child. You have my blessing for all punishments in your pack and moving forward. Just save my children,” she says.

“It’s time to go back,” she says.

“Wait, I have more questions,” I say.

“In time, my child, but right now our time is up,” she says.

She kisses my forehead, and then I feel as if I’m falling through time before I’m sitting up, gasping for that first breath.

“Lyric,” Cole’s voice hits me instantly.

Of course it’s him.

Of course the second I wake up, it’s Cole.

And that should make me feel better—

but all it does is remind me I don’t get to pretend none of this is real.