The Vampire's Luna

Luna gave him a small smile, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes. She hesitated before she spoke again. "About last night, Damien." She still remembered the sharp pain he’d been in, how he’d tried to hide it from her, and what Lucivar had said.

Damien immediately shook his head, his eyes reassuring. "I promise, I am fine. It was nothing," he said. He ran a hand through his messy hair, looking away for a moment. "All I needed was a good sleep. And that was a damned good one. Because you were here..."

Luna’s heart skipped a beat at his words.

"Now eat," he added with a sudden lightness, breaking the moment with the gentle command, but there was an undeniable softness in the way he spoke, as if he were both teasing her and protecting her at the same time.

Luna laughed softly, trying to shake off the lingering tension. "Yes, sir." She gave him a playful wink, the motion coming as naturally as breathing. "But only if you promise to eat too."

"Deal," he agreed, his smile slowly returning to its usual playful warmth, the familiar mischievous glint in his eyes.

*****

Kyllian stood outside the castle doors longer than he needed to. His hands were jammed into the pockets of his coat, and his usually confident stride had deserted him somewhere on the journey. The guards recognized him and offered a respectful nod, which only made him feel more awkward. Great, he thought. Even my eyebrows feel guilty. Luna had asked him—no, insisted—that he come. And what Luna wanted, Kyllian found himself doing... even when it meant walking straight into the lion’s den.

He had expected the king to be in the throne room. But no. The steward had informed him that King Magnus was in his quarters, specifically in the grand parlour.

When the steward opened the grand parlour doors, Kyllian stepped inside and found Magnus seated in an armchair, reading. Magnus looked up and blinked, squinting as though he didn’t trust his own eyesight.

"Your Majesty," Kyllian said, bowing respectfully, straightening only when Magnus slowly stood, his face alight with affection.

"Alpha Kyllian! It’s good to see you, my boy!" Magnus crossed the room and clapped Kyllian on both shoulders.

"I just came in to check on you," Kyllian said awkwardly. "It’s been a while."

Magnus pulled back, his eyes glinting. "I thought you were mad at me."

"That would be treason, my lord," Kyllian said with a tight smile.

"I know you are, Kyllian," Magnus said. "And when you do take the throne, you’ll understand what it means to be caught between a rock and a hard place. Sometimes, both ends of a sword are pointed at you."

Kyllian blinked. "E...Excuse me, take the throne?" The words felt like they didn’t belong in his mouth.

Magnus gave a sheepish shrug. "Well, somebody has to. You were betrothed to Luna, remember? If you’d married her, you’d have been king already. But now..." He sighed and lowered himself back into the armchair. "The council requested a replacement heir. And you, my dear Alpha, are the replacement."

Kyllian stared at him in stunned silence, wondering if he was experiencing a stress-induced hallucination. The replacement?

"I’m honoured to even be considered, Your Highness," Kyllian said. His eyes, however, betrayed him—burning with a storm of conflicted loyalty and restrained emotion. "But this... this just means you’ve given up on the princess entirely."

Magnus exhaled slowly. "I haven’t given up on her as a daughter," he said. "She will always be my Luna. But as heir to the throne..." He trailed off. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"Prince Damien will make her happy. I know that," he continued. "And if happiness is all she ever gets from this world, I’ll be satisfied. But the crown? That’s another beast entirely. You don’t wear it with love—you wear it with duty."

Kyllian looked down at his hands, fists clenched unconsciously on his knees. "She says hi, by the way," he said, more gently than expected.

Magnus’s head jerked up. "You saw her? How is she?"

"She seems okay," Kyllian replied, giving a half-smile. "Still mouthy. Still stubborn. Still determined to punch fate in the face."

A slow grin crept across the king’s face. "That’s my girl."

"I hear she is to be Blood City’s Royal Envoy now?"

Kyllian let out a soft chuckle. "I don’t think they’ll be able to handle her."

Magnus laughed. "Yeah. The vampires are about to get a front row seat to the representative of werewolf hardhead."

"How is the queen?" Kyllian asked, letting the warmth linger a bit before shifting gears.

"She’s at the town square," Magnus replied. "They have an importers’ meeting."

Kyllian snorted. "Of course she did. I’ll hang around till she comes back. I promised Luna I’d look in on her."

Magnus studied him. "It’s time you let Luna go," he said at last. "And find a queen to sit on the throne with you."

"Your Majesty," Kyllian began. "Surely there’s another way—"

But Magnus cut him off. "Look. I am exhausted. I am tired."

He said it as a weary man finally admitting that the years had caught up with him—and found him standing still.

"I have done my best on the throne," Magnus continued, "and I need to rest, Kyllian. I am not young anymore."

There was something almost painful in hearing it. Kyllian had grown up looking at Magnus as a force of nature. And now here he was, a man asking for peace.

"Think about it, Kyllian," the king added, clasping his hands behind his back as he turned to the window. "I need to retire as king and spend the rest of my days being a father."

Kyllian inhaled deeply, trying to bury the panic clawing at his ribs. Him? On the throne?

"I... I will think about it, Your Highness," he said finally.

Magnus turned and gave him a warm, tired smile, one laced with relief. He clapped Kyllian on the shoulder once more, as if physically passing along a fraction of his royal burden.

"Good. That’s all I ask."