When The Moon Hides Her Crown novel Chapter 164

Chapter 164 Bound To Monsters

SERAPHINA

I knew I should have been afraid, ashamed even, but instead I was smiling.

“Goddess…” I groaned, burying my burning face against my knees, “am I losing my mind?”

“Losing it?” A familiar deep voice slid into my ears.

Startled, I jerked my head up and found Ryker crouched in front of me. His silent blue eyes were fixed on mine.

My eyes widened. “Why are you here?”

He reached out, brushing his fingers against my cheek. “Why is your face so red?” he murmured.

My heartbeat stumbled, Ronan’s touch still fresh in my memory, the bold squeeze, the sinful grip. Shame and guilt crashed over me, and I tore my gaze away from Ryker. “It’s just…too hot.”

He looked at me blankly, as though he saw through every word of my lie. Straightening my back, I pushed to my feet, forcing a change of subject. “Why aren’t you with the others?”

“Why should I be anywhere you’re not?” he replied smoothly.

My wolf stilled, my heart racing with a different kind of urgency at his words. His piercing blue eyes locked onto mine, too intense, too knowing, too hard to bear.

“Why does it matter where I am, Ryker, when you should be heading to the trial?” I countered, raising an eyebrow.

He stepped closer, towering over me, his voice dropping to a husky murmur. “If only you knew what really matters to me…” His finger brushed my cheek again, setting fire beneath my skin.

My heart stumbled under the weight of his gaze, the unspoken truth pressing between us. I wasn’t naïve–l understood his intentions. He had made them clear when he declared he was chasing my heart, when he gave me a token of love. His intentions for me were very clear. He did not bother to hide it.

“I’m afraid I don’t have the luxury of dwelling on what matters to you, Alpha Ryker.” I slipped free from the cage of his body and the wall. “Because what matters to me is the trial…and the crown,” my voice was steady, defiant, as I held his gaze one last time before turning away.

My steps were quick, unyielding, as I left without looking back.

Unseen by me, Ryker’s expressions were unreadable as he watched me vanish down the corridor. His aura darkened, shadows curling around him as his wolf growled low in his chest.

“If the trial and the crown are all that matter to you…then why do you smell like that Volkstane?”

Following Alpha Jude’s orders, I ran until I caught up with the other Alphas. Falling to the back of the group, relief washed through me, no one seemed to notice I’d been missing. We were led down winding corridors, the very halls that had always been forbidden to us.

After some time, the dim and endless corridor stretched before us, every step echoing louder than the last. My pulse hammered as the heavy doors of the Sacred Room loomed ahead, doors we were never meant to cross. Yet here we were, a crowd of Alphas treading forbidden ground. The air thickened, charged, crawling across my skin like fire and ice. Possessive energy pulsed from the walls, seeping straight into my bones.

Finn drew up next to me.

“I never felt such energy before,” he whispered beside us as we stared at the door.

Chapter 164 Bound To Monsters

“Me too,” I admitted.

Phina stirred violently, claws scraping at the inside of me, as if she recognized something primal, something that demanded something from her. Around me, every Alpha stiffened their wolves restless, unnervingly alive.

My eyes flicker to Ronan who looked at me at the same time. I knew he would make it on time. But then my eyes went past him to Ryker. His eyes were only fixed on me and for some reason I felt as if he was angry.

Ronan caught our eye contact and his facial expression also twisted. That was when they both glared at each other. My heart grew unsettled by both of their actions and I looked away from the two of them.

That’s when the sacred doors creaked open. Out stepped Alpha Hugo, his towering frame cloaked in shadows until he came fully into the light. His presence alone demanded silence, and silence was what he got.

He faced us, his eyes sharp, unreadable, and his voice carried through the corridor with the weight of law. “Welcome to the Sacred Room,” he declared, and the words vibrated against my skin like a spell. “I know you are all curious what this place is,” everyone looked at the large door again and then back to Alpha Hugo as he continued, “This is the place where, thousands of years ago, the first Alpha King was blessed by the Goddess herself and entrusted with the moonstone.”

A ripple passed through the Alphas, their wolves reacting to the name. I felt it too, my chest tightening as if my very blood responded to the legend.

Hugo’s gaze swept across us, unblinking.

“The Alpha King did not take the moonstone to his palace, for he believed its blessing should not end with him. Instead, he built this academy for the generations to come and left the moonstone here… in this very room.”

The corridor fell utterly still, reverence and thrill woven into the air. Alpha Hugo paused, letting the history sink its claws into us before continuing.

“Now,” his voice cut sharp as a blade, “the thirty of you will be divided into ten groups. Three Alphas per group. Each group will enter the room, one group at a time.”

Before Alphas even had the chance to form groups with their own friends Alpha Hugo called out. “Alpha Asher, Alpha Cassius, and Alpha Ethan,”

Everyone froze, including me.

“Wait, are the groups chosen by alphabet orders?” I murmured to myself.

Asher glanced at me as he stood on the side with other two Alphas. That unsettled feeling returned to my heart. Also the worry that he might know my secret. I casually looked away from him only to lock eyes with Cassius who was actually staring right at me. What was his deal? Since the day Reed was expelled, he had been avoiding me but now he was giving me a strange look.

As the second group was called, my doubt cleared. “Alpha Finn, Alpha Gunner, and Alpha Javier.”

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