A Luna for Alpha Kieran-Chapter 37: Surprise

Autumn woke up with a violent jolt, her breath caught in her throat. Darkness. Utter darkness.

Not the soft, comforting dark of twilight...but a thick, suffocating blackness that clung to her skin like tar. Her head pounded, her thoughts sluggish, as if swimming through molasses.

Such a cold, complete darkness that swallowed every whisper of sound, every flicker of light.

Her heart thudded against her ribcage like it was trying to claw its way out.

She blinked hard.

Still nothing.

"Dax?" she croaked.

No answer.

Her voice echoed, bouncing back with a hollow emptiness that made her blood run cold.

"Where...did he go?" She sat up...or tried to. Her body protested, trembling, weak. Her fingers scraped across stone...and only then did she realize she was still on the altar.

"Alpha Malrick?" she tried again, louder this time. "Hello?Anybody? Where did you all go? "

Silence.

A kind of silence that did not just feel empty...it felt abandoned.

She blinked, straining her eyes harder. The altar beneath her was cold, the runes now dull and lifeless. No flicker of blue torchlight. No Alpha Malrick. No Dax.

All gone. All of it.

She forced herself to sit up fully. As soon as she did,her limbs started to get shaky. They felt foreign.

Her hands ran instinctively over her wrists, arms, neck...searching for signs of a cut, an incision, something. But there was nothing. Nothing except...

Her breath hitched as she pushed herself further up, wincing as a sharp pain lanced through her abdomen. "What the hell did they do to me?"

Her fingers flew to the spot, probing...and there it was. A thin, tender line beneath her shirt. A cut. Clean. Precise." What the hell..." she whispered. "Why here? Why not my arm, or wrist?"

What kind of a twisted ritual was this?

Autumn finally stood up, swaying on her feet. The room had changed.The air was...different. Heavier. Lifeless!

Like the room itself had died.

The air smelled stale, like old parchment and damp stone.

Autumn took one step out after another till she reached the corridors like a blind person...feeling her way through, arms stretched, feet measuring the distance.

The walls were cracked, the portraits peeling. Autumn paused. Even in that darkness she could make out that their watchful eyes were now hollow sockets. The silence was absolute.

This was concerning. It felt wrong.

"How long was I out?"

Her pulse thundered in her ears as she stumbled forward, her boots kicking up dust.

More corridors yawned before her. Endless but not confusing at all , unlike previously.No mazes. No voices. Just the distant, mournful hoot of an owl.

"This is not right."

She burst through the fortress gates, gasping as the cold night air hit her face...and froze.

It wasn’t the fact that she apparently so easily could come outside this time. It was how the fortress looked from the outside.

The walls were ruined.

Like literally crumbling. Vines strangled the stone, and the once jagged towers now slumped like broken teeth of a fallen giant.

It looked like a ruin centuries old, not the imposing structure she had entered hours...or was it days...ago?

"Oh my god," she breathed. "How long... was I gone?Shit! "

All around her was silence and just... decay.

But then in the distance,she heard some sound.

Another hoot. Another owl. And probably a lone wolf howling somewhere.

It wasn’t much but it grounded her.

Reminded her she was not trapped in a void like that nightmare. She turned back towards the direction of the Blackmoon pack and started walking.No car. No worries. But what she missed were tire marks.

With all that urgency bubbling inside her, she wanted to run.

And she did run.

"Something is wrong... something is very wrong. But if I can make it back...back to Kieran...then everything will make sense again.He might know what happened! "

She clutched her abdomen as she sprinted. The dull ache pulsed with every step, but she did not stop...Or slow down!

"Please let him be safe. Please let Kieran be okay. Please let them have won."

She was having palpitations about the war.

And after walking for hours, exhausted and drenched, she finally reached the Blackmoon borders.

To her surprise the Blackmoon borders were alive.

Music. Laughter. Golden lanterns swaying between trees, their light painting the night in warm hues. The scent of roasted meat and sweet wine curled through the air.

Autumn skidded to a halt, chest heaving.

Victory? Did Kieran really taste victory? Already?...without her!

Relief crashed over her like a wave. They had won. Kieran was safe. Alive.And with that grew the urgency to meet him.

A grin split her face as she sprinted towards the heart of the celebration, her earlier dread dissolving like mist under the sun.

She even forgot the pain in her abdomen... though it was still there.

Nobody stopped her at the border. Nobody noticed actually.

She pushed further and further inside. The more she saw the more she marvelled. The victory must have been grand. The celebration was majestic.

The pack square was a riot of color and sound. Wolves danced, their voices raised in raucous song. Children darted between legs, sticky with honey cakes. And at the center of it all... somewhere was Kieran!

Autumn’s heart swelled.

She shoved through the crowd, her voice lost in the noise, but it didn’t matter. She had reach him. She was home.

A hand caught her arm from the back, yanking her to the side.

"Autumn?"

She turned. A woman...older, her face lined with scars.She stared at her, eyes wide. "You are...back?"

Autumn blinked. "Of course I am back. Where else would I be?"

" I don’t know. They were saying all sorts of things about you. You were gone for an entire week! Where were you? "

The music faded to a dull roar in Autumn’s ears.

" An entire week? "

Autumn grabbed the woman’s arms, her grip desperate. "What happened in the war? Did we win? Were there any casualties?I mean too many? What happened to the Curzons?"

The woman’s expression morphed into one of confusion. "War? What war?"

Autumn froze. "The war with the Council,damn it. Because of the uprising. The betrayal...what do you mean what war?Did Kieran put me to sleep to sacrifice the Curzons? No way!!! He wouldn’t do that...he promised..."

The woman gently tried to pull away, brows furrowed in concern. "There... there was no war, child. No uprising. Nothing happened like that. Things have been peaceful this past week.And mind your words around your Alpha if you want to live. I know your history with him...but he is going to..."

"No," Autumn gasped, shaking her head violently. "No, that’s not possible. I was there! On the altar. And you are telling me things were peaceful...then he definitely betrayed me. He must have sold the Curzons to the council to buy peace. That’s why! That asshole! That asshole looked so apologetic! Damn him! No!!!Fuck!!"

"Betrayal?Sold the Curzons?" the woman echoed, her voice rising with bewilderment. "What’s wrong with your head? Who? Autumn, you must have hit your head or something..."

Panic shot through Autumn like a spear. Her breath caught. "He... he put me to sleep. Kieran...he must have put me to sleep. To sacrifice the Curzons...he wanted to keep me away while he did that dirty job knowing that I would stop him..damn fuck! "

The woman jerked back, looking deeply offended now. "Excuse me? Why would our Alpha do that?Alpha Kieran is wise. He got things sorted with the council. No bloodshed. No war. He saved us all, not doomed us."

Autumn’s voice quivered, but she pushed forward, refusing to believe it. "But the Curzons... you don’t understand, they were..."

The woman rolled her eyes. "He and the Curzons are about to become family, dear. Why would he throw them out?"

Something cracked open inside Autumn. A slow, warm surge of joy and relief rose up.

" He is marrying into the Curzons! "

"He is... marrying into the Curzons?" she asked, her voice a whisper.

The woman nodded, already distracted. "That’s what the whole celebration is for. It’s official. They are uniting the packs.Its going to be grand."

Autumn’s mind reeled. " He is marrying me without telling me?! Asshole! Definitely an asshole... he is going to announce it tonight... he kept me away on purpose...for a surprise.Screw you! " Autumn bit down a sly chuckle... Joy... She hadn’t known this kind of joy in ages... Her heart was over flowing.

Her eyes frantically scanned the crowd for Kieran.

Then the woman yanked her hands free. "You really do look like you have been through hell. Get something to eat, change into something clean. There’s plenty for everyone tonight.Free food and wine. "

Autumn did not even hear her.

Her eyes were still looking for him. She knew he was somewhere close. She could smell him. Feel him.

She could already feel the jitters!

Then the woman said casually, as if mentioning the weather, "Big day, after all. The Alpha’s marrying Beta Roanoke Curzon’s long lost daughter."

Autumn absent mindedly nodded! " Hhmm.. Yeah! "

The woman turned slightly, frowning at her blank expression. "Yeah, his daughter had been missing for years, poor thing. Everyone thought she was dead. But our Alpha brought her back. What was her name again... Lyla. Lyla Curzon."

Autumn’s vision blurred.

The world froze and then it detonated!!!

The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr(e)𝒆novelkiss