Claiming Her Ruthless King

Chapter 1

Emery.

The decanter of whiskey felt cool against her palms. She smiled, tracing the crystal stopper with her thumb. It was Gavin’s favorite, aged twenty years, smooth as silk with a bite of fire at the end. Just like him.

Beside it on the silver tray sat two perfect moonpetal tarts, their sugared tops glistening under the afternoon sun streaming through the hallway window. A small offering. A private celebration before the main event.

Tonight was the Lunar Ceremony. The night their three year courtship would be sealed, their mating bond finalized before the entire Silver Creek pack. She would officially become their Luna.

Her heart hammered against her ribs, a frantic, happy rhythm. Three years she had spent by his side, watching him transform a struggling pack into a prosperous one. Three years she had secretly poured her own royal vitality into the parched earth, making the crops flourish and the streams run clean.

He thought it was all his doing. His strength as an Alpha. She never corrected him. His pride was part of what she loved.

She reached his office, the heavy oak door slightly ajar. She could hear a low sound from within, a soft moan. He must be exhausted from the ceremony preparations.

She pushed the door open with her hip, a smile on her face. “Gavin, I brought you a surprise.”

The words died in her throat.

The silver tray slipped from her numb fingers. It hit the floor with a deafening crash of shattering crystal. Whiskey pooled on the polished wood, the sweet scent of the ruined tarts mixing with the cloying smell of sex that hung heavy in the air.

He was not alone. He was not tired.

Gavin, her Alpha, her mate, was pressed against his desk, his back to her. A woman was pinned beneath him, her hands clawing at his shoulders, her head thrown back in pleasure. Fiona.

His head snapped up at the sound of the crash. There was no shame in his eyes. No panic. Only cold, hard irritation.

“Emery. What are you doing here?”

Fiona laughed, a low, throaty sound. She lazily pulled up the bodice of her crimson dress. “You should have knocked, darling. You’ve ruined the mood.”

Emery’s voice was a ghost of a whisper. “Gavin?”

“I’m busy,” he said, not moving away from Fiona. He treated her like an interruption, a servant who had walked in at the wrong time.

“What is this?” Emery asked, her gaze fixed on the woman who was now smiling at her, a smug, triumphant light in her eyes.

“This,” Gavin said, finally stepping away from the desk and pulling Fiona possessively to his side, “is my true Luna.”

The words were a physical blow. They knocked the air from her lungs. “Your… true Luna? I’m your mate. The Moon Goddess chose me for you.”

Gavin scoffed, a cruel, ugly sound she had never heard from him before. “The Goddess makes mistakes. Do you really think she would pair an Alpha with a common stray? It was a test, Emery. A test to see if I was strong enough to find a worthy mate on my own.”

Fiona preened under his arm. “And he did.”

“Worthy?” The ice was beginning to form around Emery’s heart, numbing the initial agony. “You think I am unworthy?”

“Look at you,” Gavin sneered, his eyes sweeping over her simple cotton dress. “You have nothing. You brought nothing to this pack.”

“I brought you everything!” The words burst out of her. “This pack was rotting when I arrived. The harvests, the healthy wolves, the clean water. That was me! That was my magic!”

It was her secret, her most precious gift to him. And he was throwing it back in her face.

Fiona let out a theatrical gasp. “Oh, you poor, delusional thing. You actually believe that, don’t you?”

“She thinks her little hedge witch tricks are what saved Silver Creek,” Gavin said, his voice dripping with contempt. “It wasn’t you, Emery. It was never you. It was Fiona. Her radiant aura, her powerful life force. She is the reason we are thriving.”

“My aura is a very rare gift,” Fiona added, her voice sickly sweet. “It nurtures and purifies everything it touches. I could feel the land healing the moment I set foot in this territory.”

Emery stared at them, at the perfect, seamless lie they had constructed. The sheer audacity of it was breathtaking. “Her aura,” she repeated, the words tasting like poison.

“A power a commoner like you could never comprehend,” Gavin said. “A power fit for a queen. It is Fiona who will stand by my side at the ceremony tonight.”

“Tonight?” Emery’s world tilted on its axis. “You would stand before the Goddess and your entire pack and claim this… this liar?”

“I would,” Gavin said, his face a mask of certainty. “I will. The pack needs a real source of power. Not a parasite who has been clinging to me for status.”

“A parasite.” Emery whispered the word. The pain was distant now, a faint echo. It was being replaced by something else. Something cold and hard and ancient.

“I poured my soul into this pack. I gave you three years of my life.”

“You gave me three years of warming my bed,” Gavin corrected her brutally. “You were grateful for the attention. Now, the charity is over.”

He finally looked her in the eye. “Pack your things. I want you gone within the hour. Fiona will be needing your rooms.”

His gaze was utterly devoid of warmth. This was not the man she loved. This was a stranger, a monster wearing his face.

“Gavin, please,” she said, one last, futile appeal to a memory.

“It’s done,” he said, cutting her off. He turned his back on her, pulling Fiona into a deep, passionate kiss right in front of her. A final act of desecration on the grave of their love.

Over his shoulder, Fiona’s eyes met hers. They gleamed with victory. She mouthed a single, silent word.

*Weak.*

Something inside Emery snapped.

The tears she thought would come never did. The screams she thought would tear from her throat died before they were born.

All she felt was a sudden, terrifying calm. A clarity so sharp it cut through all the pain, all the love, all the regret.

She looked at the man she had given everything to. She looked at the woman who had stolen it all.

And she laughed.

It wasn’t a happy sound. It was low, and bitter, and held the promise of winter.

They broke their kiss, startled by the noise. They looked at her as if she had gone mad.

“You’re right,” Emery said, her voice clear and steady, ringing with an authority Gavin had never heard before. “It is done.”

She took one last look at the shattered remnants of her life on his floor.

“You have absolutely no idea what you’ve just lost.”

Without another word, she turned her back on them and walked out of the office, her spine straight, her head held high.

Her wolf, which had sung his name for three long years, was finally silent. Her heart, once so full of love for him, was now a cold, empty void. And in that void, something ancient and powerful began to stir.

Chapter 2

Emery.

She didn't get far down the hall before she heard the office door slam open behind her. Heavy, angry footsteps followed. Gavin’s footsteps.

“What did you say?” he snarled, grabbing her arm and spinning her around. His grip was hard, bruising.

She looked down at his fingers on her skin, then back up to his furious face. She felt nothing. No fear. No pain. Just a profound sense of distance.

“Let go of me, Gavin.” Her voice was quiet, but it held a new kind of steel.

He faltered for a second, surprised by her tone. Fiona caught up, clinging to his other arm, a concerned frown plastered on her face that didn't reach her triumphant eyes.

“Gavin, darling, don’t let her upset you,” Fiona cooed. “She’s just lashing out. It’s understandable when one is being replaced.”

“Replaced?” Emery repeated, a small, humorless smile touching her lips. “You can’t replace what you never understood in the first place.”

“I understood that you were a leech,” Gavin shot back, his anger returning. “You claimed my pack was rotting. It was thriving long before you, and it will thrive long after. Because of her.”

He gestured to Fiona, whose chin lifted with pride.

“Her aura,” Emery said, the words flat. “You truly believe that lie?”

“It’s not a lie!” Fiona insisted, her voice rising. “My power is a gift from the Goddess. The moment I crossed into Silver Creek territory, I felt the land sigh in relief. It was starved for true, noble energy.”

“Noble energy,” Emery murmured, looking from one to the other. “Is that what you call it? This cheap, tawdry affair?”

“It is not an affair!” Gavin’s voice boomed in the narrow hallway. “It is a correction. The Goddess put you in my path to test my resolve, to see if I would settle for mediocrity or strive for greatness. I chose greatness.”

“You chose a parasite of your own,” Emery said calmly. “She will drain you, and this pack, of everything you have. She will take and take, and when there is nothing left, she will leave you in the ruins.”

“Jealousy is such an ugly color on you, Emery,” Fiona said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “My only desire is to support my Alpha and help his people prosper.”

“You don’t have the first clue how to do that,” Emery told her. “Do you know the right phase of the moon to plant moonpetal? Do you know the ancient words to soothe a sick wolf pup? Do you know how to draw the toxins from the river water after a black rain?”

Fiona’s smile tightened. “Those are peasant tricks. My abilities are far more potent. They work on a spiritual level. I heal the land's soul.”

Emery finally laughed again. It was a raw, broken sound, but it was genuine. The absurdity was just too much.

“The land doesn’t have a soul for you to heal. It has roots. It has water. It has lifeblood. A lifeblood I have personally been feeding for three years.”

“Enough of your delusions!” Gavin commanded. “I don’t know what little game you’ve been playing, but it’s over. You have been a placeholder. A warm body in my bed until my true mate arrived.”

“Your true mate,” Emery said, her eyes boring into his. “Then you will have no problem renouncing our bond before the Goddess tonight.”

A flicker of something, maybe uncertainty, crossed his face before it was gone. “I will. I will tell the Goddess I reject her mistake.”

“Good,” Emery said. “I want you to. I want the entire world to see what happens when you choose a lie over the truth.”

“The only thing they will see is me with my beautiful, powerful Luna,” he sneered, pulling Fiona closer. She melted against him, her victory complete.

“Don’t take too long packing,” Fiona said, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. “I have some wonderful ideas for redecorating your, well, my rooms. I’m thinking something in gold and crimson. Much more fitting for a Luna’s suite, don’t you think?”

Emery stared at them for one long, final moment. She saw them not as the man she loved and his mistress, but as two fools standing on the edge of a cliff, arguing about the view.

“You are making a fatal mistake,” she said, her voice soft but carrying more weight than any of his shouts. “And you will not realize it until you are starving. Until the ground turns to dust beneath your feet and the water turns to poison in your wells. By then, it will be too late.”

“Is that a threat?” Gavin asked, his eyes narrowing.

“No,” Emery replied, turning away from them. “It’s a prophecy.”

She walked away, and this time, they didn’t follow. Their insults and their laughter echoed behind her, but they sounded distant, like voices from another world.

She reached the small suite of rooms she had called home. It was simple, furnished with practical, sturdy furniture. A stark contrast to the opulence of the Alpha’s main wing.

She opened the worn wooden wardrobe and pulled out a simple leather satchel. Her movements were methodical, precise. There was no grief in her actions. The shock had burned away the pain, leaving behind a cold, hard purpose.

Her wolf, the wild and joyful creature that had sung for Gavin since the day they met, was silent. It was as if a fire had gone out, leaving behind nothing but cold ash.

She packed her few belongings. A spare set of clothes, a well-worn book of fairy tales her mother used to read to her, a small, hand-carved wolf that her father had given her as a child. Simple things. Things that were hers alone.

She left everything he had given her. The silk nightgown draped over a chair. The silver locket on the nightstand. The expensive leather boots he’d insisted on buying her for the winter festival. They meant nothing now. They were props from a life that was no longer hers.

Her fingers brushed against a small, pressed moonpetal tucked inside her book. The first one he had ever given her. A symbol of his promise. A promise of a shared future, of pups, of a lifetime together.

Without a second thought, she let the dried, fragile petals crumble to dust between her fingers. She blew the dust from her palm and watched it scatter on the floor.

She felt no sadness. No regret. Just a vast, chilling emptiness where her love used to be.

She was done.

She zipped the satchel, the sound echoing in the quiet room. It was all she had come with, and it was all she would leave with.

The door opened without a knock. Gavin stood there, leaning against the frame, his arms crossed over his chest. His arrogance was a physical presence in the room.

“Are you finished with your tantrum?” he asked.

She slung the satchel over her shoulder and walked towards him. She didn’t look at the room, didn’t give it a final glance. It was already part of her past.

She stopped in front of him, close enough to see the flecks of gold in his brown eyes. They were the eyes of a stranger.

“I am,” she said, her voice even and clear. “Are you?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he demanded.

“It means, are you finished destroying yourself?” she asked. “Because you have a long way to fall, Gavin. And I will not be there to catch you.”

She pushed past him, her shoulder deliberately brushing against his chest. He didn't try to stop her.

She walked out of the pack house without looking back, her head held high, each step taking her further from the ashes of her old life and closer to the fire of her new one.

Chapter 3

Emery.

The air at the edge of the territory felt different. Fresher. It was the last breath of freedom before she stepped into the unknown lands between packs. She stood before the ancient border stone, a waist high monolith of grey granite covered in moss and faded pack markings. Behind her, the Silver Creek forest was lush and vibrant. The leaves on the trees were a deep, healthy green. The air hummed with the life she had poured into it.

Her small leather satchel was the only weight on her shoulder. The pain in her chest was a cold, solid thing, no longer the sharp agony of betrayal but the dull ache of a wound that would never fully heal.

“Emery, stop!”

The voice was desperate. She turned to see Marcus, Gavin’s Beta, running towards her down the path. He was a good wolf, kind and steady, with a mate he adored and three pups. He was everything Gavin pretended to be.

“Please,” he said, breathing hard as he reached her. “Don’t do this.”

“It’s already done, Marcus,” she said, her voice quiet. “He made his choice.”

“He’s an idiot,” Marcus said, not even trying to defend his Alpha. “He’s blinded by her. By… whatever she is. But this is your home. These are your people.”

“Are they?” she asked, a genuine question. “They will stand by him tonight at the ceremony. They will accept Fiona. Not one of them will speak for me.”

“They don’t know the truth,” he argued. “They don’t know what you’ve done for us. For the land.”

“And he will never tell them,” she replied. “He will let them believe her ridiculous lie about a healing aura. He has stolen my work, my magic, and claimed it for his whore.”

Marcus flinched at her harsh words. “Emery, your anger is justified. But leaving… this is not the answer. Let him have his fling. He will see the truth of her eventually. He will come back to you.”

She gave a short, bitter laugh. “I am not a toy to be put on a shelf until he is done playing with a new one. The bond is a sacred thing, Marcus. He desecrated it. He desecrated me.”

“Then fight for it. Fight for him.”

“No,” she said, the word final. “I am done fighting for a man who would not fight for me. I am here to end it.”

He looked confused. “What do you mean? You just walk away, and the bond fades over time.”

“Time?” Emery’s voice was cold. “I will not give him another second of my life. I will not be tethered to his soul while he is with her. I will not feel their bond through my own.”

From a small pocket inside her tunic, she pulled a knife. It was not a weapon of war. It was small, ceremonial, the blade carved from a single piece of obsidian. Its edge was sharper than steel.

Marcus’s eyes went wide with horror. He knew what it was. “No. Emery, you can’t. That’s a rite of severance. It’s forbidden magic. It will scar your soul.”

“My soul is already scarred,” she said calmly, testing the edge with her thumb. “This is just a cleansing. A way to cut out the poison before it kills me.”

“Gavin doesn’t deserve this mercy,” he pleaded. “Let him feel the ache of the bond. Let it torment him every time he touches her.”

“You think this is for him?” She met his gaze, and for the first time, he saw the ice in her eyes. The cold fury of a queen. “This is for me. I am reclaiming what is mine.”

Before he could move to stop her, she turned to the border stone. She held her left hand, the hand that wore an invisible mating band, over the granite surface.

“I call upon the Old Magic,” she whispered, her voice gaining an eerie resonance that made the air grow still. The birds in the trees fell silent.

“Emery, think of the pack,” Marcus begged, his voice a low growl of desperation. “Think of the pups, the elders. Whatever you are, whatever you do for this land, they need it. They are innocent.”

“His pack, his responsibility,” she said, her focus entirely on the stone. “Innocence is not a shield against the consequences of a weak Alpha.”

She sliced the obsidian blade across her palm. The cut was deep, precise. Blood, shockingly red, welled up instantly. It did not drip. It seemed to cling to her skin, glowing with a faint, silver light.

“What are you?” Marcus whispered, his wolf instincts telling him he was in the presence of a power he could not comprehend.

She ignored him. She pressed her bleeding palm flat against the cold granite of the border stone. The silver light in her blood flared, sinking into the rock and spreading through it like veins of lightning.

“I, Emery Vance,” she declared, her voice ringing with ancient authority. The name felt strange and powerful on her tongue after three years of being just Emery.

“By the blood of my ancestors and the magic in my soul,” she continued, her eyes closing. She felt the bond, a thick, corrupted cord of energy connecting her heart to Gavin’s. It writhed like a dying snake.

“I reject the claim of Gavin, Alpha of Silver Creek. He has broken his vow. He has forsaken his mate. He is unworthy.”

She pushed harder against the stone, channeling all her pain, all her rage, all her grief into one single, violent act of will.

“I sever this tie. I reclaim my heart. I reclaim my spirit. I reclaim my magic. He is nothing to me now. By my blood, I am free!”

The cord snapped.

The pain was excruciating. A raw, tearing sensation ripped through her chest, stealing her breath. It was a thousand times worse than she had imagined. It felt like dying. She cried out, stumbling back from the stone, clutching her chest as her knees buckled.

Marcus caught her, his face a mask of fear and awe. “Emery!”

She pushed him away, forcing herself to stand. The pain was already receding, leaving behind a vast, hollow emptiness. A clean wound. Her bleeding hand had already stopped, the skin knitting itself back together with a faint silver shimmer.

Her connection to Gavin was gone. Utterly and completely gone. She was alone in her own soul for the first time in three years. The silence was deafening.

She took a shaky breath and straightened her spine. She turned her back on the border stone and on Marcus. She took one step, crossing the invisible line that separated Silver Creek from the rest of the world.

The moment her foot touched the neutral ground, it began.

A wave of visible decay pulsed outwards from the border stone, spreading back into the forest she had just left. It moved like a sickness, silent and horrifyingly fast.

The lush green leaves on the nearest tree instantly curled, turning a sickly brown before crumbling to dust. The vibrant grass at Marcus’s feet withered, turning the color of straw. The rich, dark soil seemed to lighten, becoming pale and sandy.

A flower, a beautiful moonpetal she had personally nurtured, wilted on its stem, its petals drooping and turning black as if touched by frost.

Marcus stared, his mouth hanging open. He looked from the spreading rot to her, his eyes filled with a dawning, terrible understanding.

“The land,” he breathed. “It’s… dying.”

“I told you,” Emery said, her voice devoid of emotion. “I gave this pack everything.”

“Your magic,” he whispered, the pieces clicking into place. “The harvests. The clean water. The healthy pups. It was all you. It was always you.”

“Yes,” she confirmed.

He looked back at the tide of decay that was now sweeping deeper into his home, a silent plague consuming everything it touched. The air, once so sweet and full of life, now smelled of dust and rot.

“Oh, Goddess,” he groaned, running a hand through his hair. “What has he done?”

Emery looked at him, at the good man who would suffer for the sins of his Alpha. She felt a pang of sorrow, not for Gavin, but for Marcus and his family. For all the innocents.

“He made his choice,” she said, her voice softening slightly. “He chose a new Luna. He will have to learn to live with her gifts, instead of mine.”

She turned and began to walk away, her steps steady and sure. She did not look back at the dying forest or the horrified man she left behind.

The prophecy was fulfilled. The rot had begun.