Bled By My Alpha Parents Adopted By The Lycan King Chapter 12
The Silvermoon Daughter
Prince Lyle Silvermoon was standing beside me.
The foot-warmer he had gone to fetch was in his left hand. His right hand had just come down on Rowan Ashborne’s forearm and broken it clean through.
His eyes were on Rowan’s dragging left leg.
“How’s the knee healing, young heir Ashborne?”
I understood then.
The limp. The way Rowan flinched when he took a step. That had been Lyle. Some quiet winter afternoon, some errand no one had told me about.
Rowan gasped through the pain. “This is a matter for the Ashborne Pack. My sister comes home with us.”
“Your sister,” Lyle said. “I don’t recall the Ashborne Pack producing a princess this year.”
“Trying to take our daughter, are you? Without asking her parents?”
The Lycan King and Queen came down the walkway side by side.
The Queen’s voice was not the soft one I knew. It was the one she used at court. Cool. High. Every syllable carved out of stone.
I ran to her.
“Mom.”
Luna Marissa’s face crumpled at the word. “Nova. What did you call her—”
“Watch your tongue, Luna Ashborne,” the Queen said lightly. “This is my daughter. Princess Nova of Silvermoon, sealed by the Lycan King’s own hand. Not something any stray she-wolf can walk up to and claim in a hallway.”
The Alpha’s forehead had gone damp with sweat.
He understood, finally.
He understood why he had been called before the court six times this year on charges he could not answer. Why two of his estates had been quietly reassigned. Why his allies had stopped returning his letters.
Silvermoon had been patient.
Silvermoon had been thorough.
The King’s voice was low. Not raised. It did not need to be.
“I did not know the Ashborne Pack was so poorly trained that its wolves would lay hands on the Lycan King’s daughter. Do you not have your own she-wolves to attend to?”
I tugged softly at Lyle’s sleeve. “Leave it. The Gala is being seated.”
Lyle broke into a grin that was almost boyish. He pushed the fresh foot-warmer into my hands and refused to hear no about it.
We turned and walked away.
Behind us, the three of them stood on the walkway.
We did not look back.
I had a family now. Given to me by the moon herself. Given to me by a mother who had cried on my neck in a ditch on a mountain road.
…
The whole hall turned to look when I entered on my brother’s arm.
Whispers rose and fell.
I felt eyes on my throat, my sleeves, the crescent birthmark on my wrist visible above my glove.
I didn’t hear any of it for long.
My mother told me twice to eat more, that my body still had years of healing to catch up on. My brother tried to sneak fruit wine into my cup and got scolded for it. My father laughed under his breath at both of them.
At the end of the evening, the Luna and Rowan followed us out to the palace carriages.
“Nova. Won’t you give your mother a chance to make it right?”
“Nova. Please. Give me a chance to atone.”
Lyle stepped in front of me. His shoulder was warm at my back.
I did not have to say much.
“The kindest thing you could give me,” I said, “is to never appear before me again.”
I did not know if they heard it.
But a few days later, word ran through the capital.
Rowan Ashborne had left for the Rogue border wars.
Luna Marissa had gone to the Moon Sanctuary and would not return.
Alpha Cassius, terrified of what Silvermoon might do next, had fallen ill inside the pack house.
But I did not think about any of it for long.
“Nova! Look what I brought back for you!”
Lyle’s voice came ringing down the palace hall, some small useless treasure already in his hands.
I turned toward him.
I was home.
Forever.
[END.]