Hope Is Not Optional — Manuel Flores 108
Chapter 108
Adrian
“I, Adrian Blackthorn, Alpha of the Mooncrest Pack, reject you, Selene Bloodrose, as my mate.”
1.(91)
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The words echoed endlessly in my mind, over and over again, as if they had been carved into my soul long before I ever spoke them. They felt painfully familiar, like something I had already done once in a life I didn’t fully understand, a life I couldn’t remember no matter how hard I tried to grasp it.
I knew this wasn’t real, that it was only a dream, but no matter how desperately I fought against it, I couldn’t stop myself. My body moved on its own, my voice delivering the rejection without my consent. I stood there, hollow and detached, holding Sienna at my side as if she belonged there.
My wolf was screaming inside me, furious, and desperate, clawing at my consciousness like it wanted to rip me apart from the inside. It hated every word that left my mouth, hated the way I was hurting her, hated me for allowing it to happen. But I ignored it. I ignored everything, even the way Selene looked at me, confused, wounded, and betrayed, like she couldn’t understand why I was doing this to her, like she was silently begging
me to stop.
I wanted to stop. gods, I wanted to stop so badly. Yet my lips kept moving, urging her to reject me back, urging her to accept the pain I was forcing onto her.
She looked like she had already been through a war, and I was the final blade twisting deeper into her chest. When I thought it was finally over, when I thought the damage had already been done and nothing more could hurt her, she lifted her gaze to mine. Her eyes were no longer pleading. They were empty, cold, and frighteningly determined.
“If I were ever given another chance, Adrian, and Sienna,” she said calmly, her voice steady in a way that made my blood run cold, “I would make sure to become your worst nightmare. I’d take everything from you. I’d make your lives as miserable as you’ve made mine. I’d strip you bare until you had nothing left. And most of all, I’d make sure you never have the one thing you truly crave.”
A chill crawled down my spine, dread blooming violently in my chest as she continued, her gaze never leaving mine.
“I, Selene Bloodrose, promise you this. If I must make a deal with the devil himself, I will haunt you for the rest of your lives.”
Before I could react, she raised the sword to herself. Time slowed, and my heart lurched painfully in my chest.
“No!” I screamed, my voice tearing from my throat as she struck herself down before I could reach her.
Blood soaked into the ground beneath her, and my knees nearly gave out. I watched helplessly as life left her eyes, my chest burning as if something essential had been torn out of me forever.
“Prince Adrian.”
Someone called my name.
11:05 Wed, Jan 21 d
Chapter 108
911
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I jolted awake violently, my eyes snapping open as I sucked in a sharp breath. My heart was pounding so hard it felt like it might burst out of my chest, my breaths coming fast and uneven while sweat drenched my body. For a moment, I didn’t know where I was.
I tried to move, but a sharp, searing pain tore through my body and I let out a strained groan. My limbs refused to obey me, my chest aching unbearably as if several of my ribs were broken. My head throbbed painfully, each pulse sending a wave of nausea through me. I lifted a trembling hand to my temple, frowning deeply.
What the hell happened? Why was I like this?
I searched my memory, trying to piece together what led me here, when a deep, lazy voice cut through my thoughts.
“You’re finally awake, Your Highness,” the voice said calmly. “I was starting to think about waking you myself, but I’m glad you did it on your own. I wouldn’t want to hurt you any more than you already are.”
I froze the moment the words registered in my mind, my snapped to the side of the room.
Sitting there, as if he had always belonged, was a man I never expected to see. He was seated on a chair, leaning forward slightly, one gloved hand resting on the hilt of his sword, the tip planted firmly on the floor as if it were an extension of his body rather than a weapon.
His black hair was disheveled, strands falling loosely around a sharp face, and his black armor, once pristine, was stained with dried blood. A heavy black cape draped over his shoulders, and when his piercing, calculating blue eyes lifted to meet mine, I felt as though he was already predicting every move I might make before I even thought of it.
My gaze dropped unwillingly to the golden crest of a wolf emblazoned on his chest plate. There was no mistaking who he was. No one else in this world carried that crest with such authority.
Ian Bloodrose.
Commander of the Mooncrest army. The most powerful man in the pack. And Selene’s eldest brother.
If people spoke of monsters they feared, aside from the Demon of the West and Alpha Tristain, then this man was always mentioned in the same way.
Warriors feared him. Enemies dreaded him. Even allies tread carefully around him. He was the kind of man who didn’t need to raise his voice to command a battlefield, the kind who once stood with barely a hundred soldiers against two thousand enemies and emerged victorious, not through brute force alone, but through strategy and an unyielding mind that turned the battlefield itself into a weapon.
He was rarely in the capital, always stationed on the front lines as the commander of the army, which made his presence here even more unsettling. I had not expected to wake up injured, disoriented, and certainly not to find Ian Bloodrose watching me as though he was only one wrong word away from striking me down.
I frowned deeply.
Why was he here? And why did it feel like I was standing on the edge of something dangerous?
Ian observed me in silence for a moment, his gaze steady and devoid of emotion, before he finally spoke, his
11:05 Wed, Jan 21 d.
Chapter 108
:
voice calm in a way that was far more threatening than anger.
“Prince Adrian,” he said evenly, “what was the last thing you remember?”
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I raised an eyebrow despite the pain coursing through my body, irritation flickering beneath my confusion.
“The last thing I remember?” I repeated. “Is there a reason I must answer that question, Commander lan?”
His eyes didn’t change. There was no anger, or impatience, just a cold, assessing stare that made the air in the room feel heavier, as if his aura alone was pressing down on my chest and making it harder to breathe.
“If you want a reason,” he replied slowly, “then know this, the answer to that question will decide what becomes of you, and what becomes of this pack.”
My frown deepened. “What?”
“I may be loyal to the pack and to the alpha,” Ian continued, his voice unwavering, “but my loyalty to the Bloodrose Temple and my family comes first. I protect those who share my blood above all else.”
His gaze sharpened, locking onto mine. “So I will ask you again, Prince Adrian. What happened last night? Why were you found unconscious, and where is Selene, the Moonborn?”
The words hit me like a blade to the chest.
I was about to demand what he meant about Selene, about why he was speaking as if she were missing, when memories came crashing back into my mind all at once.
The dance with Alpha Tristain. My anger. Dragging Selene away from the hall…..
Shit.
Someone had thrown me, not shoved, or struck. Thrown. As if my body weighed nothing at all. I had flown across the garden and hit the ground hard enough to knock the air from my lungs.
My heart dropped as the realization settled in. If Ian was asking where Selene was, then she wasn’t here.
Which meant whoever attacked me, whoever possessed that terrifying strength, had taken her.
AD
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