Chapter2

"You'll take the storage room and scrub the palace floors. Remember your place."

Selina's voice was ice, but I didn't miss the turbulent storm flashing in her eyes.

I embraced this humiliation willingly.

Every morning at 4:00 AM, I rose to scrub the vast halls of the Moonshadow Palace. My hands grew rough and calloused from the grueling labor, yet I relished every blister. It meant I could see her every day. It meant I could guard her.

More importantly, this lowly position granted me access to every shadowed corner of the Moonshadow territory.

I was hunting for the ancient suppression runes—the key to shattering my bloodline seal. The Moonshadow Sanctuary reeked of ancient history; its underground depths had to harbor forgotten secrets.

In secret, I would leave a bouquet of Moonblooms on her windowsill—the sacred flower exclusively used by royalty for courtship. She would never know its true meaning. But every time I laid those petals against the stone, the phantom warmth of her body trembling in my arms that snowy night would ignite my blood.

My own heart was betraying me.

What started as cold, calculated exploitation had mutated into a raw, desperate yearning. Every fleeting glance, every "accidental" brush of her skin sent a feral pulse crashing through my veins.

Late at night, I paced the corridors outside her bedchamber. Officially, I was the night watch; covertly, I was deciphering the ancient runes etched into her walls—but if I were honest? I just craved to breathe the air near her.

One midnight, exhaustion claimed me against the cold stone pillar outside her door. Through a fog of sleep, a subtle shift in the air jolted me. I cracked my eyes open to see Selina crouching right in front of me. Her hand hovered mere inches from my cheek, a perfect echo of that snowy night. I could feel the radiant heat of her fingertips. I could see the suffocating, suppressed hunger burning in her eyes.

"My Queen..." I breathed.

She bolted upright, a violent flush staining her cheeks. "Who gave you permission to sleep here? Crawl back to your kennel!"

She viciously kicked over the Moonblooms resting on the floor, but the sheer panic in her eyes betrayed her. I knew it. She was thinking about that night, too. The terrifying gravity between us was mutual; she was simply too terrified to surrender to it.

I crouched down, meticulously gathering the bruised petals, and tilted my head to look up at her. "Tomorrow... I will pick fresh ones."

She spun on her heel and fled, but the subtle tremor in her footsteps echoed in the silent hall. She was drowning in the same agonizing struggle I was. But she was the Luna. She couldn't afford to fall for a man she believed was nothing but dirt beneath her boots.

"Worthless mutt," she spat without looking back, though the violent quiver in her voice stripped the insult of its venom.

Right at that moment, Darian materialized at the end of the corridor.

The Council's proxy—nominally the Captain of the Guard, practically the warden monitoring Selina's every breath. His eyes darted between us, gleaming with lethal suspicion.

"Selina. Fraternizing with a servant in the dead of night? Hardly appropriate, is it?"

Her spine went rigid instantly. "I was merely... reprimanding him for neglecting his post."

Darian closed the distance, his gaze dropping to the scattered petals. "Moonblooms? How fascinating." He drove his heavy boot directly into the petals, grinding them into paste against the stone. "Do not let me see this trash ever again."

My knuckles cracked as I clenched my fists, but I anchored my feet to the floor. Now was not the time. I hadn't shattered the seal. I hadn't reclaimed my alpha power.

Selina lowered her gaze. "I... I ordered him to throw them away."

Darian smirked in satisfaction. He leaned in, his lips brushing her ear as he whispered something venomous. All color drained from Selina's face, her slender frame shaking like a leaf in a storm.

"Remember what I said," Darian sneered, turning on his heel.

Only when his shadow was entirely swallowed by the corridor did Selina dare to look at me. Her eyes were a tragic canvas of sheer terror, utter helplessness, and a suffocating, silent apology.

She didn't utter a single syllable. She just fled.

The truth hit me like a physical blow.

It wasn't that she didn't love me—she was terrified. Darian was holding a blade to both our throats. If she showed even a fraction of care for me, the consequences would be fatal.

Driven by that revelation, I infiltrated the subterranean vaults of the Moonshadow Sanctuary that very night. The ancient stone walls were scarred with thousands of runes—some familiar, others entirely alien. I traced every jagged symbol, desperate for a thread that would unravel the bloodline seal.

Deep in a shadowed corner, my eyes locked onto it: the crest of the Bloodfang Clan.

My heart hammered against my ribs. I was right. This place was a crypt for my ancestors' darkest secrets.

The moment my fingertips brushed the crest, a violent static shocked my system. My suppressed bloodline shrieked in recognition, vibrating in tune with the stone.

But before I could dig deeper, the heavy thud of footsteps echoed down the stairwell.

I melted into the shadows instantly. A hunched figure shuffled into the vault. It was the Moonshadow head butler, clutching a crumbling, leather-bound grimoire to his chest.

"The Bloodfang suppression matrix..." he muttered to the empty room. "How much longer can it hold?"

My lungs froze.

The suppression matrix? The complete matrix was here?

The old man paused before a seemingly blank wall and rasped out a string of guttural, ancient syllables. The solid stone ground open, revealing a hidden chamber. I held my breath, waiting for him to finish his inspection and leave, before slipping inside like a ghost.

A colossal formation dominated the hidden floor, its silver runes pulsating with a sickly, ethereal light under a shaft of moonlight. This was it. The very cage binding my alpha blood.

I had found it.

But the devastating truth hit me as I read the core runes. To shatter this cage, I needed the blood of Moonshadow Royalty.

And Selina was my only key.

Staring at that pulsating array, a chaotic war tore through my chest. She was the bloodline of my sworn enemy, yet she was the only woman I loved. She was my weapon for vengeance, yet she was the one soul I would die to protect.

The paradox was agonizing, ripping me apart from the inside, but I had no choice.

I had to use her, even if it meant shredding the fragile bond growing between us.

I had to reclaim my power to avenge my massacred clan.

But I would also shield her from the fallout, no matter the cost.

This was my twisted destiny now—a razor's edge between vengeance and love, between absolute hatred and eternal devotion.