The Lunar Queen Chapter 46

Lyric POV — PART 1

As we are driving down the road the feeling increases , tightening in my chest with every second, like something is getting closer instead of fading. Cole reaches over and grabs my hand.

“what’s going on princess, I can feel your worry and fear through the—”

He never gets to finish.

Our SUV is hit from the side and our car starts flipping , metal screeching and glass shattering around us as my stomach drops violently.

Cole pins me to the seat until the SUV stops moving , his grip crushing against me like he’s making sure nothing takes me from him.

My ears are ringing and I hear screaming and growling , everything sounding distant but too loud at the same time.

“Lyric baby are you okay?” Cole asks but it sounds muffled.

“Lyric talk to me,” Cole says, voice urgent , panic slipping into his tone in a way I’ve never heard before.

“I’m fine—we have to help them,” I say, burning my seat belt off , my hands shaking for half a second before I force them steady.

We climb out of the car and the smell of rogues is strong in the air , thick and suffocating like it’s coating my lungs.

There is chaos everywhere—cars on fire. Wolves shifted. Fighting.

Cole and I shift into Zeus and Nova instantly after Nova changes our appearance first and we jump right into the fight without hesitation, like our bodies already know what to do.

Our guards are taking out a lot of the rogues.

A scrawny brown rogue tries to attack me from the back while I was breaking the neck of another , his presence barely registering before pain hits.

He bites at my flank and I whimper in pain , the sharp sting pulling a breath out of me before I can stop it.

I fling him into a tree and move onto the next rogue , not giving myself time to feel it.

Fighting with my powers is easier than I thought it would be—almost natural , like something inside me has been waiting for this moment.

When we finally seem to have the upper hand, I feel something off , a shift in the air that doesn’t belong to the fight.

Then I hear Eli.

“Iris—where is Iris?”

My blood runs cold , fear hitting instantly and harder than anything else.

“calm yourself and you can sense her before they get too far,” Nova says.

I close my eyes and focus on Iris. The moment I feel it, I am off—and I hear Zeus behind me , my body moving faster than my thoughts.

We see the rogues have shifted and are trying to get her into a truck—but she is fighting , struggling hard but outnumbered.

Then a man with a face similar to Cole and his sibling steps from behind the truck and something about him feels wrong immediately.

Zeus growls low and menacing.

“take it easy cousin, I just want to make a trade,” he says.

“I know this black wolf next to you is actually your mate, I learned all about your little tricks bitch,” he snarls , his voice dripping with something dark and calculated.

“now shift back or I will kill her right now.”

He presses a silver knife to Iris’s neck—she’s also wearing silver cuffs , the metal digging into her skin making her flinch.

I shift back instantly.

His eyes rake over my body slow and deliberate, making my skin crawl in a way I have to fight not to react to.

“you are definitely the hotter one of the two no wonder it’s you,” he says.

My body shivers in disgust , a wave of cold running down my spine that I force myself to lock down.

“what do you want,” I growl out.

“I want you so that I can take what belongs to me, the throne,” he says.

“the throne was never yours,” Cole growls out , his voice low and dangerous beside me, vibrating with restrained violence.

“oh but it was cousin, your father is the second born son our grandfather felt my father wasn’t fit to wear the crown so he gave it to your father and now I want it back,” he growls.

“and now that our first Luna Queen has been reborn I can finally take back what is rightfully mine.”

“I will never help you,” I snarl , my power starting to rise under my skin, unstable and reacting to my anger.

“you will if you want to save your precious long lost sister,” he says.

I can feel my powers coursing through me stronger, sharper, barely contained, and he feels it too because his eyes widen.

He presses the knife harder against her neck and she hisses in pain , her body going still in a way that makes my chest tighten painfully.

“if you hurt me she dies too,” he says.

We hear a twig snap—

Elias’s wolf comes barreling out.

Time slows down , everything stretching just enough for me to know exactly what’s about to happen—and that I’m too late.

And he pushes the knife into her throat.

“NO!”

I shout, releasing a powerful blast of energy that throws everybody back , the force ripping out of me like something breaking loose.

I run to her side, dropping hard to my knees.

I place my hand over her neck, trying to heal her—but she won’t heal , and that’s when real panic sets in, sharp and suffocating.

“Nova why can’t I heal her,” I say, tears spilling fast , my hands starting to shake against her skin.

“something was wrong with the knife, I think it was spelled,” she says.

“no, no, no,” I cry.

“Iris please, I just got you—I can’t lose you,” I sob , my voice breaking completely now, the words barely coming out right.

Elias runs over.

“no Iris baby, I’m so sorry this is all my fault I shouldn’t have tried to sneak up on him,” he cries , his voice raw and cracked in a way that makes everything worse.

Then—

I gasp.

And I’m back in the SUV.

Getting ready to pull out of the pack gates.

My heart is racing , like it never stopped, like I’m still in it.

My hand tightens around Cole’s and the fear running through me is intense , sharp and suffocating like I’m still watching her die in front of me.

“Stop the car,” I say low at first.

Then panic takes over.

“STOP THE CAR!” I scream this time , my voice breaking as the fear spikes higher.

The guard stomps hard on the brakes.

“princess what’s wrong?” he asks.

“We are going to be ambushed 30 minutes out, rogues. They kill Iris,” I choke out , the words tasting wrong even as I force them out.

That was the most intense vision I have ever had because I lived it and felt it , every second of it still clinging to me like it hasn’t let go yet.

Cole links everybody in the other cars and we all get out just inside the gate.

“what’s going on?” Dom asks walking up.

“I had a vision we were going to be ambushed as we leave the territory, which means two things,” I say , forcing my voice steady even though my chest is still tight.

“either there is a traitor amongst us from the palace or a traitor in Moonveil,” I say.

“because they knew we were leaving today which we just decided today so how would they know to be waiting for us at that exact moment we leave,” I say , my mind racing through it again, trying to make it make sense.

“but who could the traitor be,” Winter says.

“I don’t know but we need to find out, after we get back to the palace,” I say.

“but if they ambush us, how do we do that?” Iris asks.

“we fight and protect you,” I say looking at her , my chest tightening again at the memory of her dying.

“why me?” she asks.

“they want to use you as bait to get me and you died,” I say, voice cracking despite trying to keep it together.

“but I will not let that happen, now that we know it is coming we will be prepared,” I say.

“I’m going to hide our scents and we will send the cars without us and run in our wolves to the ambush point and we will have the upper hand,” I say.

“I knew you would make a wonderful Queen,” Cole says smiling, kissing my cheek , grounding me just enough to keep me focused.

“hello imminent danger here people,” Winter says.

“we will be fine, that is why I saw it first, now lets go,” I say , pushing past the fear and locking in.

We shift into our wolves.

Nova and I keep our appearance the same since he knows.

The SUVs leave and we run a few feet behind in the trees on the opposite side of where we were attacked from , the ground moving fast under my paws as adrenaline floods through me.

The moment we hear the crash we stop.

“Iris stay close to me,” I link her.

“got it,” she links back.

As the rogues go for the trucks we attack.

We kill every rogue in sight , fast, efficient, not letting them get close enough to repeat what I already saw.

As I catch one run off—

“Elias watch her,” I link him as I take off after the rogue with Cole , not even thinking twice.

When we catch him he is stopped at a truck smiling as if he won , something about it instantly wrong.

“you walked right to him,” he says.

I snap his neck before he can say anything else , not giving him the chance to finish whatever trap he thinks he set.

His body crumbles to the floor.

Silence.

Then we hear clapping coming from behind the truck.

“David,” Cole growls , his body going rigid beside me.

“hello cousin it’s been a while, this must be your mate,” he says.

“what’s her name something musical, note, tune. Ah Lyric it is nice to finally meet you,” he says , his tone too calm for everything happening around us.

“you look just like her even down to the height, kind of freaky to see in person,” he says.

“you two obviously have the upper hand as you killed all my rogues, so I will leave you with a warning a war is coming and I will take back what is mine and you all will fall in the process,” he snarls.

“I could kill you right where you stand,” I snarl stepping forward , my power rising again, reacting to him instantly.

“you could except I’m not really here,” he says smiling.

I throw a fireball at him and it goes right through him hitting the truck instead , flames bursting on impact behind him.

“astral projection,” I growl , anger flaring hotter now.

“oh you are a smart one, see you soon cousin,” he says before he vanishes.

“we need to get back to the palace now,” Cole growls , already turning like he knows this isn’t over.

I don’t move right away.

Because something in my chest tightens again—not fear this time… something worse.

Because the vision didn’t end with Iris dying.

It ended with him.

And now that I’ve stopped one future—

I don’t know what just replaced it.