Chapter 120
Chapter 120
Lila
The air smelled like pine needles and smoke.
The ceremonial clearing at the edge of the royal forest pulsed with sound and shadow–soft drims in the distance, voices murmuring low, the occasional sharp crack of a torch being lit.
Lanterns hung from curved iron hooks planted in the earth, casting wide golden rings that danced in the clearing The full moon hung high above it all massive and luminous, washing everything in silver.
It made the gowns shimmer. It made some present shift fully into their wolves,
It definitely felt and looked different with so many people, from when Asher had brought me here alone. For whatever reason, Damon decided the Equinox this year would be celebrated here, returning to tradition.
I arrived alone.
Not late. But not early enough to be noticed either. My cloak was deep midnight blue, unadorned, the hood pushed back to let the moonlight catch my
hair.
Others had come in ceremonial silks, polished metals, and tokens from their home territories. I wore no crest. No Pack pin. I wasn’t part of Nightfall anymore, nor was I officially Luna of Stormfang either.
No one approached me. Some looked my way. Most didn’t, and I couldn’t blame them.
I walked the perimeter of the gathering, just inside the line of torches and just outside the line of conversation. My boots crunched lightly as I passed small clusters of nobles murmuring in formal tones–discussing land treaties, pack alliances, border tension.
None of it felt real. It was all so far from the fire coiling beneath my skin.
The forest beyond the clearing was dark and dense. The trees stood tall and solemn, limbs coated with an early frost. I kept close to them, the smell of sap and earth more comforting than perfume.
I could feel Ruby moving inside me.
Not gently like she used to. This wasn’t a nudge. This was a pacing, caged kind of movement. Restless. Tight. Like something inside me had grown too big for the walls I’d built around it.
The chanting began low, a call from the Elders, their voices threaded together in a language I didn’t fully understand. It rolled through the clearing like
fog.
The crowd shifted subtly, forming an imperfect circle near the central fire pit. The ceremonial bell rang once, solemn and vibrating in my chest.
I didn’t step forward. I hung back, my arms folded tightly beneath my cloak, breath catching against the cold.
There was a bite in the air tonight. Not just frost–but the pressure of magic.
It settled at the base of my skull. Prickled across my collarbones. Made every inch of me feel like
I pressed my palm against the nearest tree, grounding myself. The bark was rough, cold.
a wick waiting for flame.
My heart was beating too fast. My hearing sharpened until the world narrowed to just the crackle of the fire, the rustle of robes, the distant howl of a lone
wolf on the wind.
The chant grew louder. The fire at the center flared higher.
Chapter 120
And that’s when Ruby moved.
Not just a whisper this time. Not a suggestion like usual.
She surged.
My breath hitched. My knees buckled slightly, and I gripped the tree harder. My vision pulsed–silver around the edges. My chest burned. My skin tais wrong, like it was struggling to contain something that had outgrown it.
My mouth parted, but no sound came.
Just her. Alive, Awake.
Mark him, she whispered.
The words weren’t a thought. They weren’t even mine.
They came from the deepest part of me–not Ruby’s usual whisper in the back of my mind, but a voice raw and fierce and here, clawing up from within like it would tear its way through my chest if I ignored it again.
My hand braced against the tree trembled. My breath turned ragged, every inhale scraping across my ribs like knives. The firelight blurred, then sharpened again into brutal clarity.
I could hear everything: the flutter of a moth’s wings near the torch, the low sigh of wind shifting between trees, the fluttering heartbeat of my own body trying to decide if it still belonged to me.
Then… her presence slammed into mine. Not pacing. Not waiting.
Demanding.
My knees bent slightly, grounding instinctively into a crouch, muscles coiling tight as the world tilted around me. I blinked–and the clearing stretched. The trees leaned closer. The sounds grew louder, sharper, like someone had torn a veil between worlds.
I felt her claws beneath my skin. I could smell everything–every breath of fur and ash and old magic on the wind.
The shift didn’t take me, but I screamed inside to surrender to it.
And in that moment, I knew if I reached out, if I took even one step toward Damon I would mark him. Claim him, as he had claimed me in that Rogue
territory.
Not for ceremony. Not for dominance. For my own.
My head snapped up. And he was already watching me.
Damon stood near the edge of the inner ring, still as a statue, surrounded by nobles and foreign dignitaries who had turned their eyes politely away. But not him. He hadn’t blinked.
He saw it all. His expression wasn’t curious. It wasn’t cautious. It was reverent.
Like he’d been waiting for this moment. Like part of him knew.
But held my gaze, a new wave of heat and desire snapping between us.
Damon’s eyes held mine as my vision flickered again. And when my eyes burned and the silver surged forward–something ancient and luminous pushing through my irises like a second soul breaking the surface.
The forest pulsed around us.
Mark him, Ruby said again with certainty. Like it was already decided.
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Chapter 120
But I couldn’t. Not here. Not like this. Not when I didn’t even know who I would become when it happened.
I closed my eyes and forted my breath steady, Inhale. Exhale. One hand still against the bark, the other curled into a fist against my thigh to keep fo reaching for him across the open clearing.
My wolf growled in protest, a low, internal snarl of frustration–but she didn’t fight me. She withdrew, Slowly. Unwillingly
The world returned in pieces.
The fire crackled. The wind stirred the hem of my cloak. Voices resumed in the distance, reverent and unaware.
Except him.
I opened my eyes again, and Damon was still watching. Still there. He inclined his head, a gesture of acknowledgment.
Not as King to subject. As wolf to wolf. As Mate to mate. And for a heartbeat, it was enough.
The ache in my chest didn’t fade, but it settled. My skin still felt too tight. My hands still shook. But I stood tall.
And for the first time in days, I couldn’t hear from rooms away, couldn’t scent the hidden things in the woods.
It was as if nothing had happened. But my body felt the long–familiar putt of exhaustion.
I turned from the edge of the trees and walked back toward the palace before I collapsed and showed weakness in front of everyone. In front of Damon.
No one spoke to me as I passed or asked why I was leaving.
But Damon never once looked away.
