Ancient Prophecy

Rhea POV

My heart pounded against my ribcage. "This is how you powerful wolves behave. You take advantage of the weak female wolves, use them as toys for your satisfaction, and send them away like a disdain—disrespecting the bond entirely." My tone rose, carrying years of pain and humiliation. "Not that I even feel any bond after what Damon did to me." I muttered bitterly, my hands curling into fists. 

I heard the cricking sound of the door slam open after he had left seconds ago.

"What did you just say?" he said, closing the door behind him. "We both know you are a failure. A rejection of a past that can't be fixed. Just be thankful to the Moon goddess you met someone like me." the distance closing between us.

The fragments of my heart being dumped away at a site that felt like me taking my own life.

"I am not attending any training of yours." I said, my tone stern with the ounce of confidence I couldn't yet fathom.

"Would you keep quiet? Shut those gutters you call a mouth and not contend with my orders?" His growl was menacing and low. "One more word from you, and you will regret the day you were born."

"Kill me. I think that is….." My words interrupted. A sharp, stinging force hit my face. 

I cringed, gasping. My cheek throbbed at the site where his thick palm had glued my skin seconds ago. The force wasn't enough to bring me down to my knees, but it left me reeling the nightmare I called a life.

Not out of pain. 

Not out of fear. 

But because of that very moment, I saw the exhibition of Damon in his facade, unyielding gaze.

I refused to satisfy him with his reaction. Rather, I turned away, my breath running in uneven gasps, refusing to meet his eyes that clenched my jaw. I refuse to give in to pain. Not again.

"You will be joining the gamma warriors for training. You fool." His authoritative voice resonated in the tense room.

********

Days turned into weeks. 

Weeks blurred into a cycle of grueling training, isolation, and silent suffering. 

Feeding had turned into a one in a daily routine—barley, oats, and a single cup of coffee. Sustenance meant to just maintain my livelihood, nothing more. I was assigned to the guards quarters, a place where the training of the warriors were relentless, their gazes always wary of outsiders like me.

The bond between I and Kael became more intoxicating and intense, more evident, an invisible bond that tethered us together but no matter how hard I decided it. I felt in the manner my pulse raced whenever he was near. In the way his presence stirred something primal deep inside of me, something I never wanted to acknowledge. 

But Kael remained as far as possible, his face an irreparable mask of indifference.

His only concern was training. 

For most of the warriors, training was a refinement—a way to increase their inner strength and abilities. Gammas and Betas honed their strengths, preparing themselves for higher ranking.

For me, training was a necessity for survival. 

I have always been weak, never trained as a fighter. I have always been an outcast, a slave, a discarded mate. And Kael made sure I felt it with every ounce of his being from the grueling, merciless sessions.

I was forced to endure the rigorous combat drills, endurance tests that sent my body trembling with pain and exhaustion. Every failure was marked with a colder stare from Kael. Every stumble, every delay, was a recall of my weakness, of where I was coming from.

But I saw him watching me. 

Always. 

His uncanny eyes would always reston me during the training sessions, his gaze filled with something he wasn't letting on.

I despised it. 

Hated that I could feel the bond clawing at him just as it clawed at me. 

I stormed into his office, my aching body mixed with the shattered patience in me.

"My king, I can't continue with this," I said, my voice unwavering despite the storm that ravaged deep inside of me.

Kael's eyes snapped up to me sharply, a flicker of something that looked raw, flashing in depths.

"How dare you come to me and say that rubbish." His voice primaly low. "Do you know who you really are?"

I grinned in bitterness. "I don't care. What I care about is my well being. Am not some sort of trash. I would have prefer the two square meal at the dungeon than have you treat me like air. Tired of your cold attitude. Tired of you ignoring the feeling that tugged deep inside of us!" 

My voice cracked, but I didn't care. Tears welled in my eyes, threatening to spill, but I refused to let them. 

Kael's sharp jaw tightened, his grip on his desk tightened causing his knuckles to turn white. "When a person decides to be foolish…ignorant of their true identity.." His voice dropped in an explosion of whispers, but I heard it.

"A Lunar Q…"

I froze. 

A Lunar what?

But then his voice grew its usually coldness again, cruel. "A Lunar whore, I mean."

Something inside me shattered. 

My breath hitched. The room blurred. 

"You call me a whore?" My wavering voice barely above what is known to be a whisper. The first tear cascaded its way through my pale cheeks as my knees threatened to give out beneath me.

Kael didn't flinch. He didn't even blink.

"Yes," he said, his tone detached. "That's exactly what you are." 

The silence that followed was deafening. 

I should have shrieked at him. Confronted him. Demanded an explanation for his actions.

But I had nothing left to say. 

"Now leave my office this minute," Kael continued, his voice cold like ice. "And get back to the training field.

He turned away, as if I were already dismissed. 

As if I was air.

I didn't remember walking out of his office. 

But all I could recall was my heels moving in fast motions, the breeze swaying in fast passes, the only sound that muffled through my ear were the parched leaves I was stepping on as I tried to hold the tears from streaming down my eyes. 

I made my way deep into the forest.

The ache in my chest intensified, the unbearable weight of something I couldn't yet name. 

The moon's soft reflection bathed the clearing, its light stretching over the forest floor like a covering embrace. It was quite and peaceful here. What I needed at this moment.

For the first time in weeks, I could find good air passing through my lungs.

And then— 

I fell into a vision.

A mysterious woman stood before me, her long white robe flowing like mist, her presence radiating an ethereal glow. She sat astride a majestic white unicorn, its silver mane shimmering under the moonlight. In her right hand, she wielded a staff adorned with ancient symbols that pulsed with power. 

To her left, a battlefield of horrors. Rogues, witches, wolves, and Lycans—all lifeless. Their bodies were strewn across blood-soaked earth, the stench of death thick in the air. 

To her right, wolves and Lycans stood victorious.

Their eyes gleamed with reverence, their voices lifted in triumphant cries. Their queen had risen.

Slowly, the woman turned to me, her piercing gaze locking onto mine. A knowing smirk curled her lips, both warm and foreboding. 

"Be ready for what is to come, my Lunar Queen." 

"It is closer than you think." 

My breathe caugth in my throat as I jolted awake. My heart racing in fast skips violently against my ribcage, my entire body rippled in sweats and trembles from the force of the vision.

Kael's words reverberated in my mind. 

Lunar Q…

What did he mean?

A nausea suddenly ravaged me, sharp and sudden. I bent, my stomach churning violently as I emptied what little was in it onto the ground. The vision. The prophecy. The strange words spoken by Kael. It all reeled in my mind, trying to fix the puzzle all together.

As I tried to balance myself, a warm hand pressed my back, making me jump in shock.

"Is everything okay, Rhea?" the familiar voice cut through the silent forest.