The Lunar Queen Chapter 82

Cole POV

I shift back because how the fuck does he know me. My skin is still too tight from the shift, Zeus not fully settling, claws still there under the surface, ready.

“Who the fuck are you?” I ask.

“I’m Jonathan, Seraphina’s mate” he says.

“Okay why are you here?” I say cold. No greeting. No acknowledgment. Just threat.

“I think it was time for us to have a conversation before things start playing out” he says sitting on the grass where he stands.

My eyes drop to that him sitting and something in my chest tightens. Too relaxed. Too sure. That’s not how wolves act in front of me. Not unless they think they belong here.

“You’re too comfortable” I snarl.

He smirks “I’m no threat to you big brother” he says.

I growl at him “you are not my brother” I growl out and this time I don’t hold it back power rolls off me hard enough that the trees around us shake, leaves trembling like they feel it too.

“But I am” he says.

“How?, neither of my parents had an affair” I state certainly. Immediate rejection. No space for it to be real.

He has to be lying, did he tell Lyric this and she believed him that has to be how he even got her to trust him and his mate. Fuck.

“How?” I say again putting more force in it. Alpha command bleeding through the word without me meaning to.

“Do you remember an Omega by the name of Freya” he says and the name hits me like a train. Not a slow realization—impact. Sharp. Immediate. She was my nanny until she just disappeared.

“Freya was my mother and she was pregnant by your father. She was in love with him but knew I would never be considered nothing but the illegitimate son of the King in the eyes of the council and she didn’t want to blow up your life” he says.

My jaw locks. I don’t move. Don’t speak. But everything in me shifts. Pieces lining up whether I want them to or not.

“How old are you?” I ask

“Nineteen” he says

The timing hits instantly. Not a guess. Not a maybe. Too clean. Too exact.

Meaning he was conceived around the same time as Xavier.

“My mother ran the moment she found out she was pregnant with me” he says

“So how did you end up with David as his Beta no less” I say now more wary of him. Not dismissing him anymore. Watching him. Weighing him.

“We found refuge in The White Mountain Pack” he says.

I freeze completely no movement, no breath for a second.

“White Mountain pack was destroyed by David’s father” I say more to myself than to him.

He nods aimlessly “It was. The Beta at the time took my mother as a breeder he wanted to leave me to fend for myself at the time but she agreed to go willingly and do whatever he asked if she got to take me. That’s how I met David we became friends, brothers even. But when his plans started changing from just the throne to his father’s plans I started feeling differently about what I was doing and what I really wanted” he says.

There’s no hesitation in it. No trying to clean it up. That part matters.

“What is it that you want then, that brings you here betraying the only brother you’ve known” I say more curious about this pup standing in front of me. But Zeus is still there—coiled. Not trusting. Not yet.

“I just want to know the family I was robbed of, the father who never even knew I existed, a pack a real one. I want to live with my mate freely not survive, not looking over my shoulder” he says voice rough with emotion that hits me in my chest.

That word mate lands different coming from him. Not possession. Not entitlement. Want.

“Why were you going to help him take the throne?” I ask and Zeus pushes forward wanting to know the answer too. He doesn’t like this. Doesn’t like not knowing if this is a threat or not.

I can sense the familial bond with him but trust is earned not handed out blindly because of a bond.

“I just wanted to be in that palace. I deserved to be there just as much as the rest of you, but none of you even knew I existed” he says voice cracking at the end.

There it is. Not power. Not greed. Placement.

“So you only wanted to be allowed in the place you should have been allowed to call home?” I ask.

“Yes, I didn’t want anyone to die, especially not pups and entire packs destroyed” he says low looking defeated.

My chest tightens at that. Because I believe him. And I don’t like that I believe him this fast.

“Do you think coming here tonight was wise?” I ask.

“It’s not and I’m honestly not sure I’m making it out of this alive but I need you to trust me the same way I needed her to trust me” he says.

Zeus bristles at her. My princess. That word, trust connected to her hits wrong. Possessive. Sharp. Immediate.

“He plans to attack The Howling Moon Pack tomorrow because he is upset about not being able to sleep with her” he says that last part lower than the rest but I catch it.

Everything in me goes still. Not calm, contained. Dangerous.

Zeus surges forward roaring “MINE” through me.

The word rips out of my chest before I can stop it raw, violent, territorial.

“How dare he try to take what is not his, he will die a painful death” He snarls.

Jonathan bares his neck. Smart. Immediate submission. He feels it.

“She put a plan in motion to stop that from happening but now he is reacting, he doesn’t know all the Alpha’s are here he is only attacking because they are the smallest of the remaining packs” he says.

I link Dominic immediately no hesitation, no pause, already moving.

“Dom wake Alpha Clayton and tell him he needs to get back to his pack and send guards with him as many as we can spare before our own attack on the bears. David is attacking his pack tomorrow” I say

“Yes Alpha” he links back.

“If your intel is right then trust earned, but for now. Now what?” I ask eyes still locked on him not relaxed, not open waiting for the next move.

“I haven’t been able to be near her much because he’s starting not to trust me” he says.

He runs his hands over his face and for the first time he looks his age, tired, worn, not composed.

“I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of, but I never wanted any of this to happen, even less when I found my mate” he says.

“I just want to help her she doesn’t deserve what is happening to her” he says.

That hits again. Not defensive. Not performative. Real.

“So again why come here?, why risk your life and my mate’s life. Your mate’s life by coming here?” I ask.

“I want to help you kill him, I want to help you end this” he says.

No hesitation. No flinch. Straight to it. That matters.

“I’m killing the witch and the bear King” I say.

He nods “Good, killing them corners him, makes him get sloppy” he says.

That makes me smile slow, sharp, because he’s right. Because he thinks the same way I do.

“exactly, no wonder you’re his Beta, you’re quick” I say.

“You may be a Blackwood after all” I say and that makes him smile.

“I’m not your enemy Cole, we may not have grown up together but you are still my brother and my mother wanted me to know you if not any of the others” he says.

That word again—brother. This time it doesn’t get rejected immediately. That’s new. I don’t like how easy that shift was.

Zeus pushes forward more “He’s telling the truth” He says

“I know” I reply. And I do. That’s the problem.

“Killing the witch at the right time matters, unless you break the spell first killing her will drop the cloak instantly and the moment that happens you’re on a clock” he says.

“I like the way he thinks” Zeus says.

“Yeah he thinks like us” I say back. Too much like us. That should bother me more than it does.

And that should make him useful.

Instead, it makes him dangerous.

Because if he thinks like me… he knows exactly what I’m willing to do to win.

“help me trust you, is the bear king apart of the attack tomorrow?” I ask. I don’t break eye contact when I say it, watching for hesitation, for a slip, for anything that tells me I’m wrong about him.

He shakes his head. “he never is, he sends his warriors wherever David requests. He said he will only show his face for the final battle” he says.

I smile. Slow. Controlled. The kind that doesn’t reach anything soft.

That works that means I can attack him while David is at Howling Moon. Split the head from the body. Leave David exposed.

“Will David be there?” I ask.

“Yes. He never misses attacks he likes to see the look on the Alpha’s face when they realize they lost everything” he says.

My fingers twitch at my side. Not nerves—restraint.

That makes Zeus growl low.

“He just makes me want to kill him even more now” He snarls.

Not just kill. Break. Slowly. Make him feel it.

“Where will you be?” I question.

“I will be there trying to get as many of them out as I attempted to do at the other packs” he says.

That again—he doesn’t say survive. He says save. There’s a difference. I note it.

“I couldn’t save anyone at Ironclaw it all happened too fast and the Beta, he wanted to die” he says.

Ironclaw. The failure sits between us for half a second too long. He carries it. I recognize that weight.

“yeah I know Lyric set him free and sent him back to be with his mate and pup” I say.

Her choices ripple through everything. Even here. Even now.

He smiles “She is a good Queen” he says.

Not flattery. Not trying to earn anything. Just fact. That lands heavier than anything else he’s said.

“Oh and those two warriors you’re looking for is hiding out in the rogue settlement, that’s why you haven’t been able to find them” he says.

I smirk —sharp, decisive. No hesitation behind it.

“Good now they all can die together, I killed Caleb and Serena is next” I say.

Names, targets. Nothing more. That’s all they are now.

He nods “I have to go David is on his way back to the settlement by now” he says.

“How are you going to explain this?” I say gesturing to the bodies of the rogues.

Blood still wet. The smell thick. It hasn’t even settled into the ground yet.

He shrugs “He told me to send them and he told me to tell them to attack whoever they saw by the runes” he says smiling.

“who would have thought it would be the King” he says smile spreading wider across his face.

That smile isn’t careless. It’s precise. He knew exactly how this would play out.

“You planned this?” I ask smiling.

Matching him. Measuring him. Seeing how far he’ll go with it.

“I did what my Alpha told me to do” he says looking over his shoulder.

Deflection. Clean. Not a lie, but not the full truth either. He’s learning how to move in gray. Fast.

“You have company coming, I have to go” he says standing and running back into the darkness of the forest.

Gone quick. No hesitation. No second look. Like he trusts I won’t follow. That sticks with me more than anything he said.

Dom and Hunter run up to me.

“Everything good Alpha?” Dom asks.

“Yeah, I just ran into an unexpected visitor, conversation for tomorrow, it’s going to be a long day” I say shifting into Zeus and running back to the palace.

Long doesn’t even cover it. Everything just shifted, and there’s no room to misstep now.

“Meeting in the conference room before breakfast inform the Alpha’s” I say to Dom.

“Hunter we still need to talk about Mason, so find me after breakfast” I say heading up to my room.

Jonathan showing up tonight gave me a lot to think about. Too much, too fast—and I don’t have time to sit with any of it. I just have to be right.

He may have been the missing piece I needed to get my mate and pups home safely.

Or the one variable that gets her killed if I trust him wrong.

Also the missing piece to destroying David for good and putting all of this Eloise bullshit behind us.

Tomorrow the bear King falls and then the witch dies.

No delays. No second chances. Everything moves or everything breaks.

David is going to wish death comes too quick, because when I’m done he will be begging for death.

And I won’t give it to him.