Soul-Extraction: Reborn as the Luna Queen Chapter 05

Soul-Extraction: Reborn as the Luna Queen Chapter 05

The next morning, I sat in the Ashford pack house dining hall, cutting into a steak like I’d belonged

there my whole life.

Alpha Theodore set a file beside my plate.

“Nova, the Blackwood pack had a rough night.”

I sipped my coffee and motioned for him to continue.

“Curse wraiths broke into the Blackwood estate last night.”

“Mira barely survived. They rushed her to the pack hospital this morning.”

“Blackwood Industries’ stock plunged the second the market opened.”

“And those border territory scandals they’d been covering up? The media exposed all of it today.”

“As for the Grey pack, the foundation on Adrian’s south district project collapsed last night. Three

workers died.”

“The pack enforcers brought him in for questioning.”

I let a slow smile pull at my lips.

This was just the beginning.

Twenty years I’d spent shielding the Blackwood pack from ruin. Three years I’d spent rewriting

Adrian’s fate.

Now I’d pulled it all back.

Everything I’d held down was finally erupting, and it was going to swallow them whole.

“Leave them to it.”

I set down my silverware and dabbed my lips with a napkin.

“Is everything ready for tonight’s Capital Pack Alliance banquet?”

Alpha Theodore nodded. “Everything’s in place.”

“Tonight is your first public appearance as Nova.”

“And Alpha King Lucien will be there.”

My knife stopped mid-cut.

Lucien. The man who’d drenched me in ice water and watched me bleed on his stone.

I had a score to settle with him.

“Good.”

“Get me the best dress in the pack house. Something no one can ignore.”

I stood, and the look in my eyes was sharp enough to cut glass.

“Tonight, the entire capital is going to learn one thing.”

“Nova is back.”

Nightfall. A line of luxury cars stretched along the hotel entrance.

I walked into the banquet hall on Alpha Theodore’s arm, draped in a crimson couture gown that moved like it had a pulse of its own.

Every head in the room turned.

“Oh my God, is that the Ashford girl? The one who just woke from the coma?”

“She’s stunning.”

“That’s someone who was in a coma? She carries herself like royalty.”

I let the whispers wash past me and swept my gaze across the room.

It didn’t take long to spot them. Mira and Adrian.

So they’d gotten out. From the look of them, it had cost a fortune and bought them nothing but a few

hours of freedom.

Mira was lost inside a white chiffon dress that didn’t fit right. Her face was chalk-white.

Dark circles hollowed out the skin under her eyes. She clung to Adrian’s arm, and even from across

the room, I could see the tremor running through her.

Adrian looked wrecked, hollowed out, eyes bloodshot. The south district collapse had gutted him.

Guests parted around them like they were contagious.

“Adrian, who is that?”

“Why is everyone fawning over her?”

Mira’s voice came out sharp, her eyes fixed on me like I had personally offended her.

Adrian followed her stare. The second he saw me, he went completely still.

His mouth opened. Nothing came out.

I smiled, just barely, and walked straight toward them.

“Adrian.”

“Mira.”

“You two look… well.”

I stopped right in front of them, close enough to see their pupils widen. The smile on my lips didn’t reach my eyes.

Mira stared at this face, a face she’d never seen before, one that made hers look faded by comparison. The jealousy in her eyes was almost feral.

“Who are you?”

“Do we know each other?”

I leaned in, close enough that only they could hear me.

“What’s the matter?”

“Without me mind-linking the right words in your head, you can’t even manage a hello?”

The words hit them like a jolt of electricity. Every drop of color drained from their faces.

“You… you’re…”

Mira’s hand shot up, pointing at me, her finger shaking so badly she could barely hold it steady.

“That’s impossible!”

“Your soul… it was severed! You can’t be here!”

Adrian’s voice broke across the room before he could stop it. Heads turned.

I straightened up and blinked innocently.

“I have no idea what he’s talking about.”

“I’m Nova. Heir to the Ashford pack.”

“You must have me confused with someone else.”

Adrian lunged.

But a voice, low and unhurried, carrying the weight of a throne, cut through the room behind us.

“Nova is right.”

“Adrian, what exactly is your problem tonight?”

“Causing a scene at an Ashford pack banquet? Are you out of your mind?”

The crowd parted without being told.

Lucien strolled through the opening, rolling a new strand of obsidian beads around his fingers, and

stopped beside me.

His dark, heavy-lidded eyes moved over me like he was cataloging every detail.

“Nova.”

“I don’t believe we’ve met.”

He offered his hand. But something moved behind his gaze, dark, knowing, and dangerous.

I looked at those long, elegant fingers. Then I took his hand without a trace of hesitation.

“My King.”

“Your reputation precedes you.”

The second our hands met, I threaded a pulse of mooncraft through his palm.

Lucien’s pupils contracted. His grip shifted in an instant, fingers locking around my wrist like a

shackle.