The Luna He Cast Aside Claimed the Alpha ThroneChapter 1

The Moon did not howl for me anymore.

That was how I knew something was wrong.

Every Luna learned to feel it—the gentle pulse beneath the ribs, the invisible tether to the silver light that bound mate to mate, heir to pack. It had been there since the night Kael branded me with his mark beneath the High Moon, when I was still foolish enough to believe devotion could outlast ambition.

But tonight, the Moon was silent.

I knelt alone inside the birthing chamber, my hands braced against the cold obsidian altar. Silver runes burned faintly across its surface, yet the sacred warmth that should have flowed into my womb was absent, leaving only a creeping numbness behind my navel.

“Come on…” I whispered hoarsely, pressing my palm against my abdomen. “Please. You’re still there. I can feel you.”

Nothing answered.

The ritual circle flickered. The carved wolf sigils dulled from white to gray, as though something unseen was devouring the magic midair.

A sharp pain speared through my spine.

I gasped, clutching the edge of the altar as my knees nearly gave way. My wolf whimpered in terror inside me, pacing like a trapped shadow.

This wasn’t labor.