THE ALPHA’S DAUGHTER 62_When The Moon Hides Her Crown

Chapter 62 Never The Trial

 SERAPHINA

 “Don’t get hurt unless you want me to lose my damn mind.”

 His voice was low but thunderous, the kind that didn’t just echo–it carved itself into your bones.

 I was trapped in the violet storm of his eyes, just as he was lost in the amber of mine. But beneath his gaze fierce and devastating, I felt dread coil in my chest.

 He was going to kill the imposter.

 But that was Finn’s body.

 Killing the imposter meant killing Finn.

 “No,

 don’t…” I tried to reach out, but it was toote.

 Ronan had alreadyunched forward like divine vengeance. He hit the imposter mid–rise, mming him into the earth so hard the ground cracked beneath them.

 ws. Fists. Teeth.

 Ronan fought like a wolf possessed–merciless, unrelenting.

 But the imposter…was using Finn’s body. His strength. His fighting instincts. Every move mirrored the ones I knew fromte- night training sessions, quiet sparring beneath moonlight, and the gentle strength that had always been around me.

 The air split with the sound of ws tearing through bone and flesh. Every brutal sh between them shredded what was left of myposure.

 The trees trembled, the wind scattered ashes and blood through the clearing–but I couldn’t move. My heart splintered. My soul screamed.

 This was wrong. Finn was still in there. 

 I’d seen it. I felt it.

 He’d heard me.

 But Ronan all he saw was the imposter. Fury had consumed him, and I couldn’t me him. But I couldn’t let this end in

 death

 I had to stop them. I had to save Finn.

 My gaze mapped to Asher. He was finishing off the <bst of the wolves. There wasn’t much time.

 Then my eyesnded of the scroll, the cursed one the imposter had forced on me. It still hung at my waist. Fake. Useless. No runes, no hum of magic just lifeless parchment.

 A inck A decoy A trap

 Hied wanted me to touch it. That’s why I could never go blind touching it. He wanted me to dig in that ground.

 My mind raced Inned sharply toward the two tig trees–the ce where it had all started. Where Finn had been bound. blinded varand

 With tasking Lean My hear thundered in my ears as I threw myself at the taller of the two trees and began to climb The board scraped my pals I did’s care

 Ha needed to ser

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 Chapter 62 Never The Trial

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 Branches groaned under my weight as I pulled myself up. Just high enough to see the ground between the twin trunks. The clearing where the wooden pyre had once stood.

 And then–I saw it.

 A faint, pulsing light beneath the soil. Subtle. Like the glow of a buried ember. Flickering red, Breathing

 My breath caught. “There’s something there”

 It was a circr mark. Faintly glowing. Surrounded by a ssh of red–blood, maybe. ck wildflowers twisted around the ring, with objects I couldn’t even name ced in its corners. The glow pulsed like a heartbeat.

 Something powerful. Something buried.

 “Isn’t that where the imposter sat earlier?” Phina’s voice echoed inside

 I narrowed my eyes. “Yes that’s where he made us dig.”

 “He wanted us to dig there because he couldn’t,” Phina growled.

 Which means whatever’s down there… he can’t touch it himself.”

 I didn’t need more than that.

 I leapt from the tree,nding with a thud that jolted up my legs. I didn’t even pause–1 sprinted toward Asher, who now stood at the far end of the clearing, w raised over the final wolf.

 “Don’t kill hirn, Asher!” I yelled.

 He froze mid–strike, confusion shing across his face. But he obeyed. Instead of a killing blow, he smashed his ws into the wolf’s legs, snapping the bones with a sickening crack.

 The creature howled in agony, rolling on the ground, shifting back into a broken human form, Asher shifted, too, blood staining his skin as he turned to me.

 “Why did you stop me?”

 “He’s alive for a reason. He’s going to talk.”

 “What are you talking about?”

 “This..I panted, “this isn’t a trial.”

 Asher’s brows furrowed. “What?”

 I nodded grimly. “Our real trial ended at the vampire den,”

 “Then what about the pen and the note that asked us to choose a leader?” 

 I believe it was fake to confuse us Make us believe that we were still into the trial. And this this ce was never meant for

 We were pulled into someone else’s game Someone else’s ritual”

 “Who he asked, voice low, guarded.

 1 pointed to the glowing patch of earth between the big trees That Whatever’s buried there is belumal this.”

 Asier jemed “Buried

 the ugured wolf fury burning in my chest. I kicked him in the ribs. “From the beginning. I wondered–why Finn was kept alive when the rest of you were ughtering each other? At first, I thought maybe it was punishment. But now I Low, you were keeping him alive for a reason

 lu

 *Finn wasn’t rajatutest i was chuchy to drag smao this territory”

 гарной

 Ivrouched low, marling. “I saw the blood. The ck towers the cursed symbol. You used Finn’s blood to fuel that circle. To ford whatever’s beneath it You let that thing take over bis body.

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 Chapter 62 Never The Trial

 The wolf trembled, but stayed silent.

 “Speak!” I snapped. “I know you understand me.”

 Asher’s eyes narrowed. “How do you know that?”

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 “Because that imposter, that thing in Finn’s body, speaks ournguage fluently. I am guessing he learnt from the Finn when he took him over. Which means these wolves understand it as well”

 I leaned closer. “Now tell me, what’s buried under there? Who’s controlling Finn’s mind?!”

 Asher growled, crouching beside me. “Speak. Or die.”

 The wolf whimpered, his broken body shuddering. Then, finally, he gasped.

 “It’s…it’s our Alpha.”

 Asher and I froze

 “Alpha?” We echoed together.

 He nodded shakily. “Decades ago…our Alpha died while performing a dark ritual. He wanted immortality, for all of us. But the magic…it devoured him. His body died, but not his soul. It lingered–trapped, restless.” The wolf coughed blood. “We buried him beneath the cursed tree to bind him. We waited years…decades, for the sign to return him. But when the time came, none of us could dig. We tried. But the ritual required outsiders. Someone different. Someone unbound by our blood outh.

 “And that’s when we arrived,” I whispered.

 “Yes,” he nodded. “We saw your group outside the vampire den. And among you was Alpha Finn–strong, noble, the opposite of our Alpha in every way. That’s what the ritual needed. A body with the opposite essence, but strong enough to house the Alpha’s soul”

 “Wait a fucking minute. You people saw us outside the vampire den?” Asher growled, his eyes turning red. “That means the exit off this damn mountain was around the vampire den. We could have left, ending our trial but thanks to you people we got caught in this mess?”

 The wolf hesitated, “We…we used a ck magic to cover the exit so that you people would not see the exit off of the mountain. To trap you all. Then we captured Alpha Finn. Our Alpha took over his body, learned his voice…hisnguage in.mediately. And we, creatures of mimicry, learned it too.”

 “But Finn fought back and ruined your n, huh?” Asher gritted his Jeeth.

 The wolf nodded. “Hip will was… stronger than we expected. Even unconscidus, he resisted. So we performed the final ritual, sacrificed a few drops of his blood to the grave. It gave our Alpha partial control. But not full possession.

 –“He’s still fighting.” I whispered. “Still alive.”

 The woll looked away

 Toplete the rebirth,” he said bitterly. “our Alpha needed you outsiders. He needed your outsider’s blood. Your hands to dig Only then would the soul be fully unbound from the grave and take Finn overpletely. Then our Alpha will be reborn ins body”

 Asher clenched his fists and furiously punched the wolf. “Fuck this tucker!!!

 My blood boiled hstening to how these people yed with us all. I reached out to grab his neck. “Tell me how to stop it?” I

 boiled–hstening

 He grained evilly and sust. “Yosi will never find outughing like crazy, be suddenly opened his mouth and shoved

 thing inside his mouths.”

 “star” 1 immediately let go of the sheat and forced his mouth open. “Don’t you dare swallow it!”

 Mon Tucker!” Ashes ripped us out of my hands and yanked his

 hopen

 thought I would let you fucking swallow

 OB

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 Chapter 62 Never The Trial

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 The blood sshed onto me when he went absolutely crazy. He really ripped it out of the man through his mouth, pulling out what he had swallowed.

 He dropped the dead man on the ground, breathing hard as he nced down at the object that was actually a thin piece of leather with written on it

 i

 “What the hell! I can’t read it,” Asher groaned, frustrated.

 He irritatedly tossed it away. As itnded by my feet, I looked at the letters written on it that looked foreign to my eyes but I could read it?

 My hands turned cold. Why could I read it but not Asher?

 But what I read was the way to break Finn’s curse and get off of this mountain. A sacrifice.

 I silently nce at Ronan fighting with Finn. 

 “Alpha Asher.” I called without tearing my eyes from Ronan. “I have a way to break the curse and get off of this mountain. But you have to promise me, no matter what happens, take Finn and Ronan with you and leave the mountain.”

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THE ALPHA’S DAUGHTER 62