Soul-Extraction: Reborn as the Luna Queen Chapter 09

Soul-Extraction: Reborn as the Luna Queen Chapter 09

Three years passed.

The capital’s business world was unrecognizable.

Under my control, the Ashford pack had absorbed what remained of the Grey pack’s holdings and

merged them with the Moonveil pack’s assets. We had become the largest commercial power in the

capital, and no one came close.

In the mooncraft world, the name Nova had become almost mythic.

I was no longer the girl hiding in a basement, bleeding herself dry so everyone else could sleep.

I was the person standing in the sunlight, making the rules.

One afternoon, I visited the pack prison on the outskirts of the city, a rehabilitation initiative I’d

been overseeing.

In the prison yard, I spotted a familiar shape. Adrian.

A filthy prison uniform, gray hair, a spine that seemed to have forgotten how to straighten. He was

hauling concrete blocks, struggling under the weight.

Every trace of the arrogant alpha heir had been stripped out of him.

He must have felt me watching. He looked up.

The second he saw my face, the block slipped from his hands and cracked against his foot. He didn’t

even flinch.

He just stared, his eyes full of disbelief and desperate, drowning regret.

“Selene…”

“You’re Selene, aren’t you!”

He shoved past the enforcers and threw himself at the chain-link fence, fingers locking through the

mesh.

“Selene!”

“I know I was wrong!”

“I messed up so badly!”

“I was blind. I had a diamond in my hands, and I threw it away for a cheap imitation!”

“Mira isn’t worth a fraction of what you are!”

“Please. We were going to be mates once. Doesn’t that mean anything?”

“I can’t rot in here for the rest of my life!”

He was crying, snotty, raw, ugly sobs shaking through him. There was nothing left of his pride.

I watched him from the other side of the fence. My face gave nothing away.

“Adrian.”

“You’ve got the wrong person.”

My voice didn’t waver.

“Selene died outside the royal wolf keep three years ago.”

“I’m Nova.”

I turned and walked away. I didn’t look back.

Behind me, Adrian’s voice broke apart, screaming, sobbing, begging.

He understood now. The woman he’d thrown away had been willing to give him everything, and he’d been the one who destroyed her.

But that understanding had come years too late.

A black SUV was waiting outside the prison gates.

Lucien leaned against the door, a bouquet of red roses in his arms.

When he saw me, he pushed off the car and met me halfway, pressed the roses into my hands and slid an arm around my waist before I could object.

“You took your time in there.”

“I was starting to think you still had feelings for that pathetic excuse for an Alpha.”

He said it lightly, but the jealousy underneath wasn’t as hidden as he thought.

I glanced at him in amusement.

“My King.”

“You’re going to have to work harder than that if you want anyone to believe you’re jealous.”

Lucien laughed, low and warm, and pressed his lips to my forehead.

“Can’t help it.”

“My mate is far too impressive. I have to keep an eye on her at all times.”

He opened the passenger door and guided me in, one hand on the small of my back.

“Let’s go.”

“Everyone at the Ashford pack house and the wolf keep is waiting for us for dinner.”

I held the roses against my chest and watched the prison shrink in the side mirror.

Adrian’s regret stayed locked behind those walls. So was every piece of pain Selene had ever

carried.

And I had already stopped looking back.

From here on, I was just Nova. Head of the Ashford pack. High Magister of the capital’s Mooncraft

Council. And the one woman Lucien held like something priceless.

This time, I belonged to no one but myself.

The car sped down the highway, the world outside the windows blurring past.

I caught my own reflection in the mirror, clear-eyed, steady, alive. And I let the last three years

unspool in my mind.

Mira had wasted away in that wheelchair, tormented every night. She died on a cold winter evening,

alone in a basement that smelled like rot.

The curse wraiths had shredded her soul until there was nothing left to reincarnate. The Moon

Goddess would never take her back.

100.00%

My mom and dad had gone mad behind bars, muttering the same confession over and over, after day. The other prisoners made their lives a living hell.

day

The Grey pack had gone under entirely. Mr. and Mrs. Grey survived by digging through street tra invisible to everyone who walked by.

Everyone who had ever hurt me got exactly what was coming to them.

And I hadn’t just survived. I’d risen to the top.

“What are you thinking about?”

Lucien took my hand, lacing his fingers through mine.

“I was thinking… if I hadn’t gone through with the soul-extraction seal that day,”

“What would I be now?”

Lucien’s grip on my hand tightened.

“There are no ifs.”

“Selene or Nova, it doesn’t matter.”

“The fire in you was never going to let fate beat you.”

“You never needed anyone to save you.”

“You’re my Queen.”

I turned and met his gaze. A quiet, settled smile found my lips.

Yes. I didn’t need anyone.

Mira had tried to hold a stolen life in hands that were never strong enough. The curse ate her alive.

And I had clawed my way out of hell with nothing but my own mind and my own two hands.

I would never bend again for someone else’s idea of love, not family, not romance. Not anyone.

My life, every joy, every sorrow, every choice, was mine.

The car pulled through the keep gates. Fireworks burst across the night sky, washing the whole capital in light.

“Nova.”

“Welcome home.”

Lucien took my hand, and we walked toward the keep, every window bright with warm light

1 tipped my head back and watched the fireworks scatter across the dark. The air tasted like

freedom.

Goodbye, Selene.

Hello, Nova.

This new life was only just beginning.