When The Moon Hides Her Crown novel Chapter 146

SERAPHINA

When my eyes fluttered open, the first thing I noticed was sunlight spilling through the curtains in golden ribbons.

Wait, sunlight? The sun was up?!

My gaze jerked to the clock without so much as moving a muscle, and the sight made my stomach lurch. Seven a.m.

“Oh no…” I groaned, burying my burning face into the softness beneath me. I’d overslept. Now the showers would be swarming with Alphas. Perfect. Just perfect. Cursing myself for sleeping like a lazy pig, I resigned myself to wiping down with a damp cloth when my thoughts froze.

The surface beneath me wasn’t hard. It was soft. Too soft.

Blinking, I realized with a start that I wasn’t curled on the cold floor at all. My cheek rested against a familiar pillow, my body wrapped snugly in a blanket, cocooned in warmth.

“Wasn’t I on the ground last night?” The whisper left my lips as my drowsy mind struggled to catch up. For a long, hazy second I just lay there, blinking, reluctant to move. My body was heavy with sleep, but confusion pushed me upright slowly.

My eyes darted to the door. The bolt gleamed in place locked, just as I’d left it. My heart gave a startled stutter. I hadn’t moved. I hadn’t crawled into bed. At least, I didn’t remember doing so.

Had I…sleepwalked?

The thought was absurd. I had never once done such a thing. Yet here I was, swaddled and safe, as though someone had lifted me from the cold floor and tucked me in.

That’s when Phina stirred.

A faint trace clung to the air around me manly, familiar, and impossibly distinct. My pulse spiked. My mind could summon only one name.

Ronan.

My eyes snapped to the door again. Still locked. It was impossible that he had entered. Unless…

A whisper of air brushed my cheek. I turned sharply toward the window. The curtains swayed gently, stirred by the breeze.

My stomach dropped. My dorm wasn’t on the ground floor.

No one in their right mind would climb this high. Not with the Academy guards prowling outside like wolves on a hunt. No sane person would dare.

“He would.”

Phina’s voice rose inside me, low and certain, threading through my veins like smoke. “He’s more than crazy…and you know it. He was here.”

I pressed a trembling hand to my chest, my heart thudding erratically against my palm. Images flickered unbidden him slipping through the window, his arms sliding beneath me, and lifting me as though I weighed nothing. Him laying me gently on the mattress, pulling the blanket up, perhaps even staying…right beside me. Watching over me through the night.

The thought made my breath falter, my skin prickle with something dangerous. Dread tangled with a warmth I shouldn’t feel, an ache that betrayed me.

“How am I ever going to handle this mess?” I whispered into the empty room.

Deep in my heart, I already knew. Whatever last night had ignited between us, it wasn’t going to fade. Things were going to get messy—messy beyond repair.

After collecting my thoughts and stabilizing my emotions, I wiped myself down and dressed quickly for morning training. I was already late.

As expected, the Alpha instructor in charge was livid. His sharp glare pinned me the second I stepped onto the grounds. I didn’t want trouble or punishment, so I blurted out the first excuse I could think of that I was in a rut.

Thankfully, Ronan wasn’t around. He was probably training elsewhere with the others. The lie rolled off my tongue more smoothly because of it. I wasn’t ready to face him, not so soon. No, if I was being honest, I wasn’t ready at all.

The excuse worked, but the instructor was ruthless.

“A hundred push-ups, no stopping. Then five laps around the Academy training ground!” he barked.

I chuckled at her bashful admission. “Come on then. I’ll see you off.”

“Thanks.” Her smile lit up her whole face as we walked out together, chatting about everything and nothing.

Alpha Jude waited beside a gleaming black car. Dressed casually, he looked nothing like a middle-aged Alpha, but a man carved from quiet authority.

“Take care,” I told Grace, stopping a little distance away.

“You too.” She beamed, then paused suddenly. “Oh, I almost forgot.” She turned back to me with a sly grin and held something out. A scroll. “Your prize. You earned it.”

I stared at it, my breath catching. I’d wanted it from the moment it was announced. Only now that it was in front of me, it felt less like parchment and ink and more like burning coal in my hands.

The problem wasn’t just a scroll. It wasn’t just Alpha Gideon’s signature on a blank check. It was a token of love from Ryker.

Refusing would be foolish. But accepting it…was like opening my arms to a storm.

“My hand’s going to fall off. Take it already!” Grace chirped impatiently.

I hesitated, then finally accepted it. The weight of it felt far heavier than it should have. I started to tuck it beneath my shirt, but before I could, Grace’s voice rang out.

“Alpha Ronan! You’re finally here.”

I froze. My breath hitched painfully. The scent of him crashed into me, masculine and overwhelming, dragging me back to the memory of our kiss. My body locked tight, heart battering against my ribs.

Grace grinned. “You’re here to see me off too?”

Ronan’s voice cut through the air, deep and unyielding. “No, I came to chase after him.”