Page 93 of His Lycan Luna Queen

“Abbie! No!” Her scream booms and cracks through the air like thunder, her agony doesn’t just scream, it erupts something from within her, knocking me on my ass. Sitting up, I find everyone shaken, sitting up like they too felt the agony through my bond with her.

Gannon’s howl rips through the sky, a sound of such profound loss that it mirrors the void opening inside me from Azalea. Tyson, his little face streaked with tears, breaks fromClarice’s grasp, his cries for his mother adding to the chorus of heartbreak.

Trey tackles the hunter just as another shot fires, a near miss that sends a shiver down my spine. But all I can focus on is Azalea, her voice ragged as she rocks back and forth, clutching Abbie to her chest.

“Abbie! Abbie!” she screams into the void, her voice nothing but raw agony. She pleads, begs, her words a mantra of despair. “You promised, you promised. More than my life, Abbie, more than my life!” she wails.

Her cries don’t just break the silence; they shatter it, sending shards scattering into the hearts of all who hear her. This isn’t just grief; it’s a soul being torn to pieces, a vivid, visceral loss so intense that it threatens to consume everything in its wake. It’s as if her soul is dying with her. Just then, I notice the Eclipsarian nestled between her cleavage blink, catching on the light, making me look up. But there is no sun. My brows furrow, goosebumps lacing my skin from the cold void eating away at my insides.

Hunters lay strewn across the ground, most of them dead as my guards and the Landeena guards take out the last of them on the hill. Yet I can see more are coming up from the river and from around the sides of the castle. We are severely outnumbered, and all I can think is I need to get to Azalea, yet she isn’t moving, and isn’t letting her go, she just stops as if a part of her has died along with Abbie.

Logan escapes from in between Azalea and Abbie, running to Clarice as Azalea rocks back and forth on the ground with Abbie clutched in her arms. “More than my life! More than my life!” she screams, her fingers tangling in Abbie’s hair, as if saying it loud enough will bring her back.

Gannon, reaching her, falls to his knees, clutching his dead mate in his arms, forgetting the war going on around us. I amlost in the tragedy when I feel a blade slice down my back, forcing my attention back to the fight. I am forced to fight my way to them as I spin to find a hunter has come at me from the side, his dagger embedded in my side. I pull it free, my claws sinking into the side of his neck as I slash at him.

Trey moves alongside me as hunters suddenly come from everywhere. From up over the hills, out of the forest, and spewing out from the castle, they just keep coming. Even those who had run for safety in the bunkers are now spewing back onto the battleground as hunters chase them back toward us.

The Landeena guards and my guards form a circle around our Queen. Clarice flees with the kids, and Peter barely makes it past our circle of defense that offers little safety as all the guards move to cover their Queen.

Guns are drawn and aimed at my body, my back becoming a target as they unleash on us. I groan as a bullet hits me in my side, then my stomach, making me clutch it. Pain ricochets through me, and I stagger as I keep fighting. Nothing else matters, only Azalea does.

Another bullet pierces through my shoulder when I hear her scream as she feels my pain. The ground shakes, and I am brought to my knees, my lungs wheezing for breath. Everyone pauses at the tremor in the ground, but I hear no explosion, which has me looking around nervously when Crux’s booming voice echoes through smoke and dust as they surround us. This day will always be remembered as the day the Valkyrie Kingdom fell. The day the hunters took the Lycania Kingdoms down.

We are circled entirely as Crux steps out of the shadows and smoke and onto the battlefield. His smug smile of triumph sears into me. He is a traitor to his own kind. A betrayer to all.

Chapter

Fifty

AZALEA

She is gone. And I watch in horror as Gannon steals her from me, clutching her to his chest. I feel dead. Like I took my last breath when she did, like all life has left me. She died for me, and I feel completely and utterly numb until I hear his voice slice through the air as it mocks me. But it is his slow, methodical clap that makes me see red as I lift my head to see I am circled by the Landeena and Valkyrie Guards, shielding me instead of fighting.

My eyes scan the destruction to find Kyson getting to his feet not far from me. The sight of my mate makes my heart beat faster when Crux’s voice brings me back to my surroundings.

Crux took Abbie from me. He won’t take my mate too. “I have waited for this day since I learned of your birth,” Crux laughs. My blood boils and sizzles, my skin warming with rage.

“The almighty Landeenas finally fall. The Landeena Kingdom should have been mine! He promised it to me! I took down my own mother’s Kingdom for it!” he yells as everyone halts under his voice. The hunters’ guns trained on us. They know we are cornered and there is no way out for us.

That fucking name! That fucking name everyone is obsessed with! The Landeena name means nothing to me. I know the sins that name carries. The heartache bestowed upon the Kingdoms from it, and the reign of terror it has caused.

Right now, I can feel the blood of that name burn through me along with my mothers, feel it in my toes as they tingle along with my rage. Yet, I am not just Landeena. My father’s name brings nothing but shame to me. I no longer want it. Crux can have it. That name has taken more from me than anything else.

Yet as I watch Gannon clutch my sister’s dead body in his arms and Liam tries to pry Abbie free of him, it angers me more. Gannon fights him, trying to draw her nearer, when Liam punches him and knocks him back, his hands replacing Gannon’s as he brings his hand down on her chest, pumping her heart as if he can save her and bring her back to us. Turning my head and seeing my mate on his knees makes pure, white-hot rage sliver through me. The ground vibrates beneath me, and I can feel its energy, breathing life into me like it is part of me.

“Your father lied to me, then took Tatiana as his Queen! His enemy! He took her as his Queen and birthed her spawn! It was never yours, Azalea. Your father promised it to me. The Landeena name was to be mine!” Crux roars in anger.

“You can have the fucking name!” I scream in anger as I rise to my feet. My guard tenses and takes protective stances, encircling me, but I want to see the face of the man who thinks he will be our downfall. I want to witness the life drain from his eyes when I take it from him.

“Stand down!” I scream at my guard when I see them move to protect me. My command rings out loud, my people drop to their knees, and Crux laughs, clapping his hands slowly as he strolls closer. Kyson’s fear bleeds into me, and I can feel his eyes on me, his heart beating in his chest in sync with mine as I stare down Crux, who smiles sadistically.

“Landeenas used to be Gods! The Landeenas were feared among the Lycania Kingdoms, and your father brought shame to the name! But not anymore. His reign ends here, today, with you, just like the Azures. You’re all that’s left,” Crux calls out to me.

He is right because I can feel their blood singing in my veins, feel the power that has awoken and now writhes through me, strong like a flexing muscle. He is right. I am Landeena and Azure by blood, but that is not all.

“You’re wrong. The Landeenas and Azures may be dead,” I tell him.

“Almost,” Crux sneers, pointing to me. I laugh, the sound wicked as the ground beneath my feet begins to shake, my aura pressing out, and I feel its strength as it wraps around my people like a shield.

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