When The Moon Hides Her Crown novel Chapter 201

Wait! I Have Something to Say!

Chapter 201 It Was Them

SERAPHINA

My mother’s words echoed in my mind, just as they had the day I first stumbled into the Mist Forest: “Sometimes, the mist opens a path into forbidden lands, places we are never meant to cross. And if we do…we see things no one should ever see.”

I gasped, the memory of Dante tearing his own face apart flashed vividly, his voice howling my real name as he hunted me, just as Ryker did now. The truth clawed its way into my chest: that day, I had not simply wandered where I shouldn’t.

No. I had freed the devil unknowingly, foolishly.

Now he was coming for me. Furious. Insane.

Ryker’s shout split the night behind me, his predatory aura swallowing the air as it closed in.

“Run, Seraphina Nightbane,” he growled, and the memory of Dante’s voice overlapped the sound, chilling me to my marrow.

Dante had once given me a chance to run, but from what? From him? From myself? I had never understood. Only now, as Ryker thundered after me, it was terrifyingly clear. He wasn’t warning me. He wasn’t sparing me.

He was hunting me.

Just as my mother had said, if I crossed the mist I would be hunted.

My shoes slapped against stone as I tore across the balcony, lungs burning, but the instant his aura brushed mine, I felt it like claws raking through my very soul. My wolf convulsed inside me. Phina’s spirit was violently dragged into contact with Ryker’s wolf, shackled without consent.

Something deep within me snapped, something I hadn’t known existed. My vision wavered, the edges of the world dissolving into shadow.

The escape ahead of me melted into darkness. My heart thundered, each beat laced with terror. The sensation of his presence was unbearable, he was almost on me, I could feel it, taste it.

Just as I thought I was caught, I saw red.

The dark was torn apart by a sudden eruption of scarlet aura, searing and sharp. I sucked in a breath as it bled into the air like fire through smoke.

And I saw him.

“Ronan…”

Chapter 201 It Was Them

My heart skipped a beat.

The aura was his but unlike anything I had ever felt before deadly, immense, pouring into the night like poison meant to annihilate. It shredded Ryker’s darkness from me, tore away the suffocating grasp on my wolf, and wrapped around me like a shield.

My mind cleared. The haze, the fear, the violation it all shattered in an instant.

“Ronan…” I whispered again, my voice trembling. I wanted to scream for him to run, to get away from Ryker. But….

Before I could even say a word, he shifted into his wolf in the mid air and like a blaze ran past me.

My breath froze.

I spun, heart hammering, just in time to see Ronan and Ryker’s wolf collide midair, both in their monstrous wolf forms, fangs bared, claws tearing, their roars splitting the night as they crashed into each other on the balcony.

“No…” my eyes widened as they collided with a force that shook the balcony, stone splintering under their weight. Ronan’s black wolf slammed into Ryker’s black beast, fangs snapping for flesh as claws ripped at fur and skin. The sound was deafening bones rattling, jaws clashing, snarls vibrating the very air like thunder.

In a blink blood sprayed across the railings as Ryker’s jaws closed on Ronan’s shoulder, tearing into muscle. Ronan roared, not in pain but in fury, his paw slashing open Ryker’s ribcage in answer. Neither yielded, neither faltered, the fight was pure savagery, two forces of nature colliding in a storm of fur and blood.

I did not even realize when the balcony became a war zone. But I could not let that happen. “Stop all of this! Stop!!” I yelled but it was no use.

The balcony groaned under them, stone cracking as their bodies slammed into the railing, threatening to send them both plunging into the void below. I froze, breath caught in my throat, because I couldn’t tell if what I was seeing was even real.

Ronan moved like a silver phantom, every strike calculated, his aura burning like fire across the night. Ryker, darker and heavier, fought with raw brutality, his power radiating like a predator born to kill. Every clash of fang against fang shook the floor beneath me.

Ronan lunged, clamping his jaws around Ryker’s throat, the deadly kill hold of an Alpha. My heart leapt, only for Ryker to twist ripping free with a spray of his own blood and slam Ronan against the stone wall. The impact shattered part of the balcony, debris raining down into the darkness. But Ronan stood up the next second.

They were both bleeding now, both snarling through crimson–coated fangs. While I–I was losing my mind because the noise and damage they had already caused had reached the

Chapter 201 It Was Them

ears of the others in the Academy.

Ronan’s eyes blazed red, feral, as if his wolf had awakened something merciless inside. him. Ryker’s own gaze gleamed like black fire, madness and hunger pouring from him. They tore at each other with unrelenting savagery, ripping fur, clawing through muscle, every strike lethal enough to kill any other wolf.

But not them. Not Alphas.

I clenched my fists and screamed, “STOP OR EVERYONE WILL COME HERE!!”

Again, neither of them listened to me.

The air reeked of blood and smoke from their auras clashing, a suffocating pressure that made my knees buckle. This was not just a fight.

It was war.

Ronan sank his fangs deep into Ryker’s flank, twisting with savage force, and Ryker howled, the sound shaking the night. Instead of falling, Ryker’s massive paw crashed down on Ronan’s spine, nearly buckling him. Both wolves staggered, panting, bleeding, glaring, and then they launched again, two unstoppable storms colliding midair with a sound like thunder cracking the earth.

Blood spattered the walls, claws scraped stone, and every breath I took felt stolen, shallow, because the truth was terrifyingly clear.

No one could tell who would win.

The balcony quaked beneath their fury. Each collision splintered the stone further, sharp cracks echoing through the night as though the entire Academy trembled under their wrath.

Ryker slammed Ronan against the railing, the iron groaned before snapping clean in half. Ronan’s body teetered over the deadly drop below, claws digging deep into stone to keep from falling. Ryker lunged, snapping his jaws at Ronan’s exposed throat-

But Ronan twisted, dragging Ryker with him. They both went crashing into the railing, bodies colliding with such force the balcony wall crumbled outward, sending shards of stone plummeting into the abyss.

I screamed but my voice was drowned out in the chaos. Ronan’s fangs pierced Ryker’s shoulder, tearing through sinew until blood sprayed the night. Ryker’s answering snarl ripped the air as his claws raked down Ronan’s ribs, leaving deep, crimson gouges that glistened in the moonlight.

They rolled across the broken floor a storm of fur and claws until Ronan drove Ryker down pinning him hard enough to crater the stone beneath. His jaws closed again around Ryker’s

Chapter 201 It Was Them

neck, victory only a heartbeat away-

Until Ryker’s paw slammed into his chest, knocking him back. They both staggered up, blood dripping from torn flesh, their eyes blazing. Two Alphas. Two kings of death.

The pressure of their clashing auras was unbearable, like an ocean crashing down on my lungs. My vision blurred. Every instinct screamed at me to run. Run between them and make them stop under condition but my legs were rooted in what I was witnessing.

Then…Ryker charged.

They collided once more, bodies smashing into the last intact railing. The iron shrieked and gave way, and suddenly both wolves were half–dangling over the edge, claws scrabbling, jaws snapping in midair as the abyss yawned beneath them.

Gasps and shouts erupted behind me. My heart dropped. People were coming and my buttons were torn. I quickly reached out for my waist band where I always kept safety pins. With quick hands, I fixed them on my shirt and then I turned only to find dozens of figures appeared in the corridor. One by one, Alphas poured onto the scene, their heavy footsteps shaking the floor, their eyes wide with disbelief.

“What in the Goddess‘ name-” one snarled, but the words died as they took in the carnage.

The balcony was unrecognizable. Blood smeared the cracked stone, chunks of railing lay twisted and broken, claw marks shredded the walls. In the middle of it all, two black wolves, locked in a dance of death that no one could stop.

“Are those two monsters even real?” one of them gasped in horror at witnessing them fight.

My heart threatened to burst in my chest in horror. What I feared happened. Everyone saw them fighting.

The gathered Alphas froze. Their auras faltered under the sheer dominance radiating from Ronan and Ryker. This was not a fight. It was annihilation.

Ronan surged upward, slamming Ryker’s head against the broken wall. Ryker instantly retaliated dragging Ronan down, their jaws locking, fangs sinking so deep into flesh the sound was wet and sickening. Both bled freely, crimson soaking the balcony floor until it glistened dark as oil.

Still, neither yielded.

The onlookers held their breaths, powerless, watching as two monsters born of blood and fury tore each other apart.

I knew then…this fight would not end until one of them was dead.

Chapter 201 It Was Ther

That was when I saw something else.

The corridor echoed with the sound of many shoes.

A growl tore from Ronan’s chest as he dragged Ryker down again, their bodies a blur of silver and shadow, smashing into the cracked stone. The sound of flesh tearing and bones grinding filled the air, so raw and brutal that some Alphas flinched back.

Then I felt it. A presence heavier, darker, colder than anything in the fight.

I glanced toward the corridor, my chest tightening. Past the line of stunned Alphas who had gathered at the balcony, three towering figures were standing.

My face lost all the color. It was Alpha Gideon and Alpha Hugo.

That was when my eyes went past them only to find four tall figures cladded in black making their way through the crowd and then stopping to watch Ronan and Ryker fighting.

No…

It was them.

The Council.

The Alpha King’s Council.