Chapter 3 - The King’s Kneel

The sound of cracking joints and shifting sinew echoed sharply through the silent clearing. In a matter of seconds, the terrifying beast melted away, replaced by a towering human male of breathtaking, lethal perfection.
Stellan Bennett stood amidst the mud and blood, wearing dark leather armor adorned with northern pelts. His silver-white hair fell loosely past broad shoulders, framing a face carved from granite—sharp jawline, a straight, aristocratic nose, and eyes that burned like molten gold. He was half-naked from the waist up, scarred muscles rippling with suppressed fury as he scanned the wreckage.
Lord Sterling was whimpering in the dirt, clutching at Stellan’s heavy leather boots. "Spare me! Take the gold! Take the girl in the cage—she’s a rare beast, a freak, worth a king's ransom!"
Stellan did not even look down at the groveling nobleman. With a flick of his wrist, he backhanded Sterling across the clearing, sending the lord crashing into a pine trunk where he slumped unconscious.
Stellan’s golden gaze snapped back to the iron cage.
He walked forward with slow, predatory strides. The surviving Lycan warriors stood guard around the perimeter, their chests rumbling with low growls. But Stellan’s attention was entirely fixed on the corner of the cage where Giselle cowered, her snow-white hair tangling around her trembling shoulders.
As he drew closer, Stellan’s nostrils flared. A strange expression crossed his hardened face—shock, disbelief, and a sudden, violent surge of raw protectiveness that made his inner wolf howl within his mind.
Mine.
The word echoed in the quiet clearing.
Giselle squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the final blow. "Just kill me," she whispered, her voice trembling. "I’m already a monster. Do it quickly."
Stellan stopped directly in front of the iron door. He didn't speak. Instead, his powerful hands gripped the thick iron bars. Veins bulged along his forearms as he pulled. With a deafening shriek of tearing metal, the reinforced iron door was ripped completely off its hinges and tossed aside like brittle twigs.
Giselle gasped, scrambling further back.
Stellan stepped inside the cage. The confined space shrank instantly under his massive frame. He reached out slowly, his calloused fingers brushing gently against a stray lock of her snow-white hair.
Giselle flinched, expecting pain. But his touch was astonishingly gentle, like a leaf falling on water.
Then, to the utter shock of the surrounding Lycan warriors—who collectively gasped and lowered their heads to the dirt—the feared White Alpha King slowly bent his legs.
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He dropped to one knee in the straw and mud right before her.
"My Luna," Stellan murmured, his voice rich, deep, and trembling with a reverence that defied everything Giselle had ever known about the world.