When The Moon Hides Her Crown novel Chapter 176

THIRD PERSON POINT OF VIEW

“RUN! RUN!! RUN!!!” Alpha Gideon’s voice still thundered through the mind–link, commanding the Alphas to run, to escape before the curses consumed them. When suddenly, the connection shattered.

The mind–link that he could finally connect after so much struggle shredded like a frayed rope, leaving Alpha Gideon with silence where dozens of minds should have been.

“Fuck!!!” His teeth ground together, fury flashing in his eyes. They had not heard the final command. The one instruction that could have saved them from their own ignorance.

‘They don’t know they must never return through those doors once they enter‘

Rage and panic surged through him at once. Earlier Hugo came to him with the news that someone killed their curse but once they ran their quick investigation they found everyone bloodline and pack members were safe and alive. So it was impossible to tell who killed their curse. But killing the cruse meant they all had only a couple of minutes in the forest before they all consumed by the curses.

He bolted out of the room, his body moving in a blur of speed, tearing down the sacred hallway until he burst into the chamber where Aran worked his ritual.

The dark room glowed faintly, pale silk curtains suspended in mid–air like holy relics, each embroidered with the unique bloodline mark of all the Alphas. They swayed gently, luminous the magic pulsing as if alive. These were the “white–feather doors” the passage Aran had created for the Alphas to return.

Alpha Gideon stormed in, his voice a roar that shook the chamber. “Aran! Tell me, did they make it? Did they reach the white–feather doors?”

Before Aran could answer, the air shuddered. One by one, the curtains collapsed. The first fell, then another, then another like lifeless bodies dropping to the ground. The weight of the ritual vanished with each thud.

Aran staggered. His knees hit the stone floor as blood spattered from his lips. The last few curtains fell around him, their glow extinguished.

“Aran!” Alpha Gideon’s panic burst through his authority as he lunged forward, seizing the healer’s shoulders. “What happened? Did they all make it back? Answer me!”

Aran coughed, trembling, his fingers curling over his chest. Slowly, he shook his head. “One…did not make it.” The words sliced through Alpha Gideon like a blade. His eyes narrowed, sharp and furious. “Who?!” His voice cracked through the air like thunder. “Who was left behind?!”

Before the ritual began, Aran had said they did not have time to bring the Alphas back one by one. They had to be quick so he would have to perform a ritual to provide each of them their own white feather door wherever they were in the Ghost Forest. However, doing this also tied their return together. If one of them did not return then it meant-

“Fuck!” Aran growled furiously and stood up. “The other Alphas will be stuck in time and space because one did not get their door open!”

His red gaze lifted up to the curtain. Alpha Gideon followed his line of sight, dread flooding his gut. Above them, a single curtain still hovered in the air untouched, unfallen. Upon it burned the unmistakable bloodline mark of Volkstane.

Alpha Gideon’s heart turned to ice. “No,” his voice rasped, “Not him. Not Ronan Volkstane.”

Panic seized him. Before Alpha Gideon could react, Aran surged back to his feet with startling speed, “I have to fucking open the door for him!!” his hands glowing with magic as he hurled spell after spell toward the suspended curtain. The Volkstane mark shone faintly, pulsing under the pressure of his power.

Chapter 176 Ligholy

For a brief moment, hope flickered.

Until-

The curtain burnt. Fire bloomed in its center, spreading upward like a ravenous beast. Both men froze, the light painting horror across their faces.

Alpha Gideon snarled, rounding on him. “Why did it burn?! What happened, Aran?!”

Aran’s eyes were wide, haunted, his voice full of disbelief. “The ritual…it broke. Something sudden, something unpredicted happened when I tried to open the door for him earlier too. That’s why the door never appeared for him.”

Alpha Gideon’s fury burned hot. “What kind of sudden, unpredicted thing?!”

Aran’s mind raced. His lips moved, half–whispering, half–praying. “The records…. show me Ronan Volkstane’s records!”

Without hesitation, Alpha Gideon dragged him down the corridor. Together they burst into the Archive Chamber, scrolls and stone tablets glowing faintly in the candlelight. Aran’s cold hands pulled Ronan’s record free, his eyes scanning it. That was when he froze.

His face was drained of color.

Slowly, he turned toward the clock mounted on the wall. Its hand ticked past twelve, ringing a hollow chime that echoed through the chamber.

Aran’s breath caught. “He is in rut…”

Alpha Gideon blinked, stunned. “What does his rut have to do with the doors not opening?”

Aran violently shook his head, desperation in his eyes. “Heat and rut are the wild desire of a wolf’s part. More like something unholy in the face of the ritual I performed. We cannot bring him back. The path is closed!”

“What?” Alpha Gideon’s face paled. “There has to be a way, Aran! If you don’t open the door for him, the other Alphas will die trapped in those doors. All of this will have no value then. Open the door for Ronan Volksate!”

“He went into rut in the worst place in this world, Alpha Gideon,” Aran clenched his teeth, “The rut attracts unholiness. Each curse would want to devour his flash and drink his blood. There is no way they will let me open the doors for him…”

Before he could speak further, the ground trembled under them. A deafening thud rattled the stones beneath their feet, echoing through the Academy halls.

Both men stiffened. “What was that?”

They spun and raced back into Aran’s ritual chamber. A soft wind was swaying in the room and none of them knew where it was coming. The curtains were still spread around the room but when they lifted their eyes up, air left their lungs.

On the Volkstane bloodline mark curtain that had been burned earlier, now curled a soft golden light circled the curtain with a motion icon. And the sound was coming from the curtain.

Louder that time. Then another.

Alpha Gideon’s face hardened at the sight of golden soft light. “What in the Goddess‘ name is that?”

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