The Alpha’s Rejected Luna: Crown of Thorns Chapter 11

The Alpha’s Rejected Luna: Crown of Thorns Chapter 11

A picture hit my phone screen: bandaged hands, a shadowy pile of bodies. My stomach clenched, but not with fear With calculation. “You didn’t even kill that Lily,” I said, playing innocent outrage. “And now you try to extort me? How dare you!”

He laughed, ugly. “Extort? Don’t make me go to Kael and tell him it was you who hired us to snatch his true daughter You think he won’t believe me? Find the gold or I’m at his door with proof.”

I dropped the cloth from my shoulders and sat up. “Stop. Okay. I’ll send what you want. But tell me this-who saved

that pup? Who cleaned up your mess? Who killed your wolves?”

On the other end, he hissed, “We don’t know his face. He doesn’t show himself. He’s only a name. Shadow Wolf. He

cleaned my wolves up and took them away. You owe blood debt.”

Shadow Wolf. The name landed like ice. For a second my mind went blank, and then a slow, sharp panic started to

chew at my throat. “Shadow Wolf?” I repeated.

The thug sounded small on the line for the first time. “He brought death with him. We thought we were paid, and then he came and everything turned to ash. If you cross him, Ravenna, you’ll be next.”

I closed my eyes and pictured Sera wrapped in Shadow Wolf’s protection, safe because some monster with a whispered name had decided to shield her. My fingers tightened around the phone until my nails pressed white into my

palm.

“All right,” I said slowly, each word a coal. “You get your gold. But if you so much as breathe one word to Kael, I will bury you alive and make sure you die a slow, public death.” I sounded brave. I needed to sound brave.

He promised to send an account and hung up. I sat there in water gone cold, the steam vanished, and thought of

Shadow Wolf. A name only. Death in whispers.

Down the hall, Asher turned in his sleep and smiled, as if he knew the world was bending to our plan. He would play

his part, as always.

I whispered into the dark, more to myself than anyone, “Shadow Wolf. We will find you. I will find you. And I will make

you wish you never chose her.”

Kael’s POV

Joey woke me before dawn. His voice was flat and edged with panic. “Alpha! The trackers came back empty. Sera and the pup are nowhere. I swear! We put her scent markers at every checkpoint, hired trackers, hit every safe house and border crossing. Nothing.”

I let the phone clatter against my palm for a second, then picked it back up and snarled, “Find them. If she is not back

in my pack house by tomorrow I will ruin every wolf who failed me. I will burn every trail until one of you crawls back

with her body on your knees”

He tried to protest, voice getting louder. “Alpha, we broadened the search. We’ve roped in allied packs, private hunters,

wolves in three territories-”

“Then double the reward,” I cut him off. “Double everyone on my payroll. I don’t want excuses I want results A

hundred million to the wolf who brings my mate and that pup to me alive. Two hundred million if you bring me proof

they’re dead. Understand?”

Joey swallowed on the line, then said, “Understood, Alpha. We’ll widen the net.”

I hung up and called my propaganda lead before I even left the study. “Listen,” I told Lyle, “put out a controlled leak.

Make her look feral. Say she abducted the child herself. Feed the story to the pack networks that love scandal. Get the

narrative circulating. Make the public demand she be handed over.”

Lyle cleared his throat. “We have angles. ‘Former Luna Unstable’ bites hard. We can add the custody rumor and a hint

she staged her own pup’s kidnapping. It’ll make wolves angry at her, not you. They’ll turn her in.”

“Do it,” I said. “Make it loud. Make it mean.” I heard him working, making the engine run.

My phone buzzed-my mother. Her voice came thin and sharp. “Is it true your mate left and took our granddaughter?”

“Yes,” I said, calm and cold. “And that child is not ours. She’s a bastard.”

There was a long pause. I could hear her breath hitch. “What do you mean she’s not ours?”

“She’s not mine,” I said. “I already ordered five blood tests at different healer dens. The pup isn’t mine. But don’t worry,

Mother-I have Ravenna-”

My mother’s voice turned venomous. “Ravenna again? That she-wolf who abandoned you before? Do not bring her to

my doorstep.”

“I will mate Ravenna after I find Sera,” I said, more to assert dominance than to explain. “Make no mistake. I will fix this bond the correct way.”

My father jumped in, angry and practical. “Kael, this has been an embarrassment to the bloodline. Get her back. Do

not tarnish the Thornwood name.”

“I will take care of it,” I lied smoothly. “Leave the worrying to me. I’ll bring home a new Luna, and then we’ll have the anniversary you wanted.” Their voices were sharp at the edges, but I felt nothing but the thrill of control. I hung up and stared at my reflection until my jaw ached.

Joey came in with the morning brief, looking like a wolf who’d already chewed a week of stress. “Alpha, the team ran the leak. Two networks picked it up as the top story. The pack channels are on fire.”

I poured a glass of whiskey and took a slow sip. “Good. Let the hounds bark. They will hunt her