When The Moon Hides Her Crown novel Chapter 154

My chest seized. My eyes, blurred with tears, widened as my wolf stirred with recognition. His scent reached me before my vision cleared.

Ronan.

He stood mere steps away, his powerful frame drenched, dark hair plastered to his sharp features. His gaze burned, unyielding, locked on me, on my body flushed with heat and stripped bare under the storm.

I froze, breath trapped in my throat, my heart pounding in helpless surrender as his presence consumed everything around me.

How did he find me? Panic clawed up my throat. I was completely naked, trembling, too weak even to crawl away.

When Ronan stepped closer, the rain dripping from his hair and shoulders, I choked out a scream. “D–Don’t come any closer to me!”

He halted, just for a breath. But then his boot splashed against the soaked earth, closing the distance.

“Stay back!” I slid away in a frenzy, claws snapping out as my wolf threatened to take over. My vision swam with fear and heat. “I said stay back, Ronan! I swear, I’ll kill you if you-”

Before I could finish, his hand shot forward, catching my wrist in a firm grip. With one sharp tug, I was wrenched against the hard wall of his chest. My claws pressed against him, trembling, ready to pierce flesh.

“Then kill me,” he whispered, his voice a low growl in the storm. His eyes locked with mine, steady despite the storm raging inside them. “Only after we get out of this rain.”

Just like that, his arms swept beneath me, lifting me off the ground as though I weighed nothing.

A gasp tore from my throat. Instinctively, I clutched at his neck to keep from slipping. “What–what are you doing?” My voice cracked, horrified, though my body betrayed me by curling closer against his warmth.

He didn’t answer. His jaw was tight, lips pressed thin, eyes forward as he carried me into the night. The silence between us was deafening, broken only by the rain hammering against his shoulders and the pounding of his heartbeat, fierce, wild, and dangerously fast.

Chapter 154 Crown And Love

I dared to look at him, then away, then back again. Every time, his expression was the same: controlled, but barely. His flushed skin betrayed the truth. My heat was consuming him too.

His nails lengthened, grazing my thigh before retreating, trembling as though he fought his wolf tooth and claw. His chest heaved under my palms, each breath deeper, harsher, as though restraining himself took more from him than the storm.

I shook violently in his arms, not only from the gnawing pain of my heat but from the knowledge that at any moment, he could lose control. One slip, and the thing simmering between us would ignite into something neither of us could undo.

Yet still…he carried me.

Shortly after, he carried me into a small carved–out hollow in the rock and set me down gently. The moment my feet touched the ground, I scrambled back, pressing myself against the damp wall of the cave. My knees drew tightly to my chest, my arms wrapping around them in a desperate attempt to shield my bare skin from his gaze.

Ronan didn’t move. He only stared, his chest rising and falling with uneven breaths, his wolf straining under the heavy pull of my heat. His eyes burned, wild, and for the first time in my life I feared a wolf. Not because he was a threat to my life, but because of the way he looked at me…like he could lose control and take me in the next heartbeat.

Another brutal wave of heat tore through me, sharper than before. I clamped my thighs together, trembling, terrified that if I faltered even for a second, disaster would follow.

Until, suddenly, his wolf pulled back. His eyes softened, shifting away from me as if he forced his beast into submission.

I sat gasping, my body on fire, when he reached into his pocket. My heart stuttered as he pulled out a small green orb, round and smooth, faintly fragrant with herbs.

“Eat this.” His hand extended toward me, steady despite the storm raging inside him.

“What is it?”

“It will calm your heat. Bring it under control, until it vanishes.”

Chapter 154 Crown And Love

The herbal scent tickled my senses, grounding me just enough to form words. “How do you know that?”

He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he watched me. So intently it felt as though he were peeling back every layer of me, seeing every thought, every fear I was trying to hide.

Then, without breaking eye contact, Ronan lifted the orb to his lips. He bit into it, chewed, and swallowed. My breath caught, frozen by his reckless proof.

“If I wanted to take advantage of you,” he said quietly, his voice a rumble that echoed in the cave, “I wouldn’t need you unconscious or weak, Seraphina.”

He shifted closer. I shrank back, but he only leaned in until our breaths mingled, hot against each other’s skin.

“To make love to you,” he continued, his gaze piercing mine, “I don’t need your heat. Or my rut. My love for you goes beyond such things.”

Slowly, he brought the orb to my lips, his fingers brushing the corner of my mouth. His eyes held mine with a raw honesty that made it impossible to look

away.

“It’s okay if you love only yourself,” he murmured, sliding the orb between my parted lips before I could protest, “I will always love you.”

The taste of herbs coated my tongue as his thumb lingered at my chin. His voice dropped lower, intimate, unyielding.

“It’s okay if you can’t return my love. I have enough love for both of us.”

My chest ached, torn between resisting and trembling under the weight of his

VOW.

He leaned closer, lips hovering over mine, his whisper burning me more than the fever raging in my veins.“You once said that a crown and love can’t be held together then I’ll prove you wrong…”

Before I could take a breath, his lips pressed against mine, tender yet claiming.

“…you can have both, a crown and love.”

My heart skipped a beat.

Chapter 155 Only You

SERAPHINA

No one knew the truth, that before being an Alpha’s daughter, I was nothing more than the unwanted, unloved blood of my father.

Once, he had been the best father in the world. He used to smile at me as if I were his entire universe. But everything changed the day my mother refused to have another child. A son. An heir, what my father truly desired. From then on, he never smiled at me again.

When my mother died, the last warmth in my life was stolen from me. What remained was a cold, gilded cage where I became nothing more than a bargaining chip. My father paraded me before every Alpha who visited, their lust–filled gazes stripping me bare, their vulgar remarks piercing me, their filthy proposals trampling my dignity. I was never allowed to refuse them. If I offended even one, my father would have gladly tied me to someone worse.

That fear, that endless humiliation, carved itself deep into me until it grew into loathing. I began to hate men, all of them, because to them I was nothing but a body, a beauty, a figure to covet. Living in hatred, growing up without warmth, I forgot what it felt like to be cherished.

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What it felt like when someone cared. When someone respected you. When someone…loved you unconditionally.

But this man, the one who had just spoken words no other had ever dared to even whisper, was different.

With my knees tucked close to my chest, I leaned against the cool stone wall, my eyes slowly lifting to Ronan. He knelt before me, holding my hand gently as if it were fragile crystal. Dipping a handkerchief into a coconut shell filled with water, he began to wipe my skin with careful strokes.

His touch was feather–light, reverent, as though I might break beneath the smallest roughness.

“Are you all right?” he asked softly, his voice brushing against my heart as his eyes met mine.

When was the last time anyone had asked me that? His gaze held no hunger, no greed, only worry. Even though the cave was still saturated with the heady scent of my heat, his restraint was unshakable,

I nodded faintly. “It’s not as painful as before,” I whispered.