Selene's POV
Power exploded from my hands before I could think.
Silver light blasted outward, throwing Marcus's wolves backward. They slammed into walls, crashed into each other, went down in heaps of fur and broken bones.
But Marcus just smiled.
There she is, he purred. My daughter. Finally showing her teeth.
I'm not your daughter. The words ripped from my throat, fueled by rage and the bond-magic still coursing through my veins. I never was.
Blood says otherwise. He stepped over the groaning wolves without a glance. Though I admit, I should have drowned you at birth. Would have saved everyone a lot of trouble.
Kael moved in front of me, claws extended. Touch her and die.
Bold words from a wolf who couldn't even shift properly an hour ago. Marcus's eyes flicked to where Kael's chains used to be. She broke your curse. How touching. Did she also tell you what completing that bond just cost her?
My stomach dropped. What are you talking about?
The mate bond anchors your power, yes. But it also makes you vulnerable. Marcus's smile widened. Hurt him, and you feel it. Kill him, and you die too. You didn't just tie your soul to his, little girl. You gave me the perfect weapon.
He gestured.
Morgana stepped forward, her hands glowing with sickly green light. She raised one finger—just one—and Kael doubled over, gasping.
Pain flooded through our bond. Not mine. His. Crushing, terrible pain that felt like being ripped apart from the inside.
Stop it! I screamed.
Make me. Morgana's voice was silk and poison. Oh wait—you can't. Because if you attack me with that pretty silver magic, you'll burn through your life force. And if you let me keep hurting him, you'll both die from the bond backlash. Quite the dilemma.
She was right. I could feel it through the bond—every second she tortured Kael, the connection between us strained. Like a rope being pulled too tight, ready to snap.
Leave him alone! I lunged forward.
Marcus caught me by the throat, lifting me off my feet with one hand. His grip was iron. Choking. You're going to watch him die, Selene. Watch your mate suffer. Then you're going to surrender your power to my changeling daughter—the real heir—and I'm going to finish what I should have done twenty-two years ago.
Black spots danced across my vision. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think.
Then Kael's voice cut through the panic, rough and desperate:
Selene. The bond. Use the bond.
What was he?
Then I understood.
The mate bond didn't just let us feel each other's pain. It let us share power.
I reached through the connection between us, grabbed onto Kael's strength—his wolf, his rage, his absolute refusal to submit—and pulled.
Energy flooded into me. Not my queenly magic. His Alpha dominance. Raw, primal, furious.
I grabbed Marcus's wrist and squeezed.
Bones cracked.
He screamed and dropped me. I hit the ground gasping, but I didn't stop. Couldn't stop. Kael's power was a wildfire in my veins, and I let it burn.
I grabbed Marcus by the throat the way he'd grabbed me.
You want to see what your failure can do? My voice came out layered—mine and my wolf's, doubled with bond-magic. Let me show you.
I threw him.
He flew across the throne room like he weighed nothing, crashed through one of the stone pillars, and slumped in the rubble.
The room went silent.
Even Morgana stopped her spell, staring at me with something that might have been fear.
Impossible, she whispered. You shouldn't be able to channel his power. The bond is too new—
Guess we're overachievers. I helped Kael to his feet. Through the bond, I felt his pride mixing with pain. You okay?
Better now. He straightened, and I watched in awe as his body changed.
For the first time in eight years, Kael shifted fully.
The massive silver wolf that emerged was breathtaking—bigger than any wolf I'd ever seen, with eyes that glowed like molten metal. The curse was really, truly gone.
He threw back his head and howled.
The sound shook the entire stronghold. And somewhere outside, I heard his pack answer. Three hundred voices raised in unity, in strength, in defiance.
We weren't alone.
Marcus pulled himself from the rubble, blood streaming from his mouth. You think you've won? You think breaking his curse changes anything? He laughed—actually laughed. I have three thousand wolves surrounding this place. You have three hundred. Do the math, daughter.
I'm not your
The throne room doors burst open again.
But this time, it wasn't enemies.
A man strode in—tall, broad-shouldered, with gray streaking his dark hair and scars covering his arms. His presence filled the room like a physical force. An Alpha. Another king.
Actually, Marcus, the stranger said casually, the math just changed.
He tossed something at Marcus's feet. A banner. The symbol of the Western Territory.
Tobias Ironclaw. Marcus's face went pale. What are you doing here?
Picking sides. Tobias's smile was sharp. And I'm not standing with the usurper king anymore.
You swore allegiance to the Continental Council!
I swore to serve the rightful ruler of the Seven Territories. Tobias turned to me, and something shifted in his expression. Respect. Recognition. And she's standing right there.
He dropped to one knee.
Queen Selene of the Blood Moon line, he said formally. The Western Territory pledges its strength to your cause. My wolves are yours. My resources are yours. My loyalty is yours.
I couldn't speak. Couldn't process what was happening.
Another Alpha King was kneeling to me.
Get up, Marcus snarled at Tobias. You're making a fool of yourself! She's not a queen—she's a worthless half-breed who got lucky!
She broke a three-hundred-year-old curse in one night. Tobias stood, his voice calm but his eyes deadly. She froze fifty hunters with a thought. She survived her awakening when most queens die from the power surge. And she completed a mate bond that should have killed them both. He looked at Marcus with disgust. The only fool here is you. You had a true queen under your roof for twenty-two years, and you were too blind to see it.
I saw it! Marcus roared. Why do you think I tried to kill her? Why do you think I hid her, broke her, made her believe she was nothing? His face twisted with hatred. Because I knew. I always knew what she was. And I knew that if she ever awakened, everything I built would crumble!
The confession hung in the air.
You knew, I whispered. The betrayal cut deeper than any blade. All those years. All that abuse. You knew I was the queen, and you tortured me anyway.
I did what I had to do to protect my throne!
It was never your throne. Tobias's voice was ice. You murdered the last queen. Slaughtered her entire court. Rewrote history to make yourself look like a hero. He pulled out a folder, threw it on the ground. Documents spilled out—old, yellowed, damning. I've been investigating for years. I know what your family did. And I'm done pretending you have any right to rule.
Marcus stared at those documents like they were a death sentence.
Then his expression shifted. Calculation replaced rage.
Morgana, he said quietly. Plan B.
The witch smiled.
And that's when I felt it—a pulling sensation in my chest. Like something was trying to rip my power out through my ribs.
I gasped, stumbling. Kael caught me instantly, but the pulling didn't stop.
What's happening? I choked out.
The spell, Morgana said pleasantly. I'm not just here to kill you, little queen. I'm here to take everything you are and give it to someone who deserves it.
The throne room doors opened one more time.
Lyra walked in.
But not the terrified, dissolving Lyra from before. This Lyra was solid, powerful, and smiling.
Hello, sister, she purred. Miss me?
You're supposed to be gone! I gasped. You dissolved
A test run. Lyra's smile widened. Morgana wanted to see how much of your power I could hold before the real transfer. Turns out? Quite a lot. She held up her hands, and silver light—my silver light—danced across her fingers. Thanks for the preview, by the way. Royal magic feels amazing.
The pulling in my chest intensified. I felt my power draining, flowing out of me like water from a cracked vessel.
Stop it! Kael snarled at Morgana. Break the spell or I'll rip your throat out!
Can't break what's already complete. Morgana's eyes glowed. The moment Selene bit you, she opened herself completely. Lowered every defense. Made herself vulnerable. She laughed. The mate bond was supposed to protect her. Instead, it gave me the perfect opening.
I fell to my knees, the world spinning. Through the bond, I felt Kael's panic, his rage, his absolute terror as he watched me die.
There has to be a way to stop this, Tobias said urgently. Some way to break the spell—
There is. Eris's voice echoed through the throne room.
The ghost materialized beside me, her expression grim.
But you're not going to like it, she continued. To break a transfer spell, you need to sever the connection between caster and target.
How? I gasped.
Kill the changeling.
Everyone froze.
Kill Lyra, Eris repeated. She's the vessel. No vessel, no spell. Your power returns to you.
But she's my sister! The words ripped from my throat even though I knew they weren't true.
She's a construct made to steal your life, Eris corrected coldly. And right now, she's succeeding. So you have a choice, little queen: kill the fake, or die protecting her.
I looked at Lyra—my twin, my replacement, the girl who'd lived the life I should have had.
She smiled at me with my father's cruelty.
She won't do it, Lyra said confidently. She's too weak. Too soft. That's why I deserve the throne and she doesn't.
She was right. I was weak. I'd spent my whole life being weak.
But I wasn't that girl anymore.
I rose to my feet, power blazing in my hands despite the drain.
You want my throne? My voice was cold. Absolute. Queenly. Come take it.
Lyra's smile faltered.
Then Marcus screamed, KILL HER! KILL THEM ALL!
The throne room exploded into chaos.
And through it all, one thought burned in my mind:
I'm going to murder my sister.
And I'm going to make my father watch.