The silence after my outburst was deafening. Thirteen of the most powerful beings in Noctis Vhaelor sat frozen in their seats. Every eye turned toward me—and none of them looked amused. And yet, I didn’t regret it. I’d do it again. Every word, every threat, every warning that had slipped past my lips, I meant. No one would feed from her. No one would touch her. I could still feel Lyric’s pulse under my tongue. Still smell her sweat. Her blood. Her pleasure. It coated me. It marked me. And the thought of someone else experiencing that is making me and Tai murderous. “What did you say?” Councilman Yai asked, breaking the silence. “I believe the words were clear, councilman.” “Your mate,” someone repeated. “He said she’s his mate.” “You can’t bind yourself to a wolf,” another councilman snapped. “It’s not possible.” “That’s unnatural,” one of the healers muttered. “Wrong.” More voices rose. “Madness—” “Sacrilege—” I didn’t move. I didn’t flinch. I just kept staring at m
[[The Northern Kingdom of Velmira. Home of Wolf Shifters]]***~~PRINCESS LYRIC VAELGOR~~***The happiest day of my life was supposed to be my wedding day.Or so I thought.I was glowing with joy, counting down the minutes until I became Jorath Dainvale's wife—the Beta's son, my perfect match. I couldn't wait one more second, couldn't wait to stand before the world and vow myself to him forever.What I didn't know, however, was that I’d be walking into a trap, that I’d be betrayed by everyone I loved that day."Where are we going, Uncle?" I asked.My uncle, Alpha Tiberan Vaelgor, the Alpha Regent of our pack, was leading me away from the castle gates and into the woods. “To meet your groom, Lyric,” he replied."Do we have to walk this far? I'm tired, and these shoes are killing me.”"Be patient, Lyric. You'll be with him soon enough."I'd been awake since dawn, enduring hours of preparation—servants scrubbing my skin until it gleamed, arranging my hair with moonstone beads, paintin
Jorath stared at me as if I were a stranger, his eyes cold and distant. "Don't beg," Mae sneered. "It makes you look pathetic." Tears burned in my eyes. "You're my blood. How could you do this to me? How could you betray me like this? I trusted you all." No one answered. At that moment, the clearing began to grow colder. Much colder. A sound filled the air—like the beating of a thousand wings. "They're here, Alpha," one of the guards announced, his voice tight with fear. I forced my head up, looking to the sky, and what I saw made my blood freeze in my veins. Descending through the canopy were about ten winged figures, their massive wings blotting out the moonlight. Everyone around me was backing away. Of course they were. You'd be a fool not to fear the Khra'gixx, tribrid creatures born from the unholy union of vampires, shadow wraiths, and demons. They ruled over all four kingdoms of the world. They'd built their kingdom, Noctis Vhaelor, offshore on the
*** ~~PRINCE CALIX MALZARETH~~ *** I thought werewolves were supposed to be a lot tougher than this. The red-haired princess lay sprawled in the dirt, her wedding gown torn and filthy, begging me to take her life. “Please, Lord Calix. Kill me.” My men stood in a loose formation behind me, silent, waiting. I stared at her. I could smell her. It wasn’t just the usual earthy, musky scent of wolves. No, this was different. Warmer. Spiced. Like smoked honey and crushed oranges. A scent that shouldn’t exist. I knew what it was, but I’d be damned if I admitted it to myself. It was impossible. Khra'gixxes didn't mate with werewolves. I should probably just snap her neck, leave her in this forest to rot. It was kinder. Better than whatever awaited her in my court. But I wasn’t kind. And I was weirdly fascinated by her. I sighed, standing up. “Bring the wolf to her feet and take off her collar,” I commanded. Two of my men stepped forward, gripping her arms,
***~~LYRIC VAELGOR~~***Prince Calix wasn't kidding when he said I couldn't escape from this place.I’d wondered why none of his guards moved a muscle to stop me when I took off a few minutes after he left.But I got it now.They'd enchanted the place. I’d been running around in circles and getting nowhere. Every time I reached a certain distance, it was like I hit a wall. Until I finally found the river.Calix was staring in my direction, naked from the waist up. His bottom half was submerged in the water. His wings were nowhere in sight.“Come out, little wolf,” he said.Oryx, my wolf, let out a deep growl inside my head. ‘Mate.’Not this again. ‘Shut up, Oryx.’It had to be the aftereffects of the wolfsbane messing with Oryx’s head. There was no other explanation. No way was this creature my mate. My kind had legends about the Khra’gixx, and not a single one ended well for a wolf.I stepped out from behind the tree, my bare feet making no sound against the damp earth.“You foll
*** ~~CALIX MALZARETH~~ *** The little wolf's blood ignited something inside me that had been dead for years now, my ability to fully shift into Tai, my inner demon. A lot of people in the other kingdoms didn't know this, but the Khra'gixxes were getting weaker. Our shadow magic, our shifting ability, they were no longer what they used to be. And then there was the infertility issue. Pregnant Khra'gixxian women were becoming a rarity. I hadn't had an erection in months. But now, just one taste of Lyric's blood, and Tai was seconds away from ripping my skin apart just to get more of the wolf. ‘Let me out,’ he said. ‘No. You'll tear her apart.’ ‘Let me have her, Calix. Let me mark her.’ ‘No way.’ The words I said to Tai were more for myself than for Tai. After all, I was the one feeding him my emotions, my hunger, my lust. If I let myself go, I’d not stop feeding from her until I drained her. “What do you mean I’m not just a wolf?” Lyric said. “I grew up in Velmira
*** ~~LYRIC VAELGOR~~ *** “Aren’t you supposed to know everything your inner self does?” I said to Prince Calix, watching him through narrowed eyes. “You’re one, aren’t you? You and Tai. Same soul, same body.” He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he unfolded those ridiculous wings from around us, and the second they slipped off my body, I hated how cold I felt. My traitorous body missed the warmth. The security. The illusion of something safe even though I knew damn well there was nothing safe about Calix Malzareth. He rose from the bed, and only then did I get a good look at what had been poking into my thighs for the better part of the day. Oh. Well. My gaze was locked on the prominent organ hanging stiffly in between his legs. Calix caught me looking and immediately turned away, muttering something profane under his breath as he stomped toward a leather bag in the corner. I didn’t look away. Not immediately. He dug through the bag, pulling out fresh clothes. Tai had abso
[[The Southern Kingdom of Noctis Vhaelor. Home of Khra'gixxes]] *** ~~CALIX MALZARETH~~ *** After landing in the palace and finding the little wolf a room, I finally made my way to the throne room to face the one creature in the realm more dangerous than Tai when he was angry: my father. Emperor Draekor Malzareth. There he was. Sitting on his throne, face squeezed in anger. News travelled fast around here. Of course he'd heard. “Father,” I said, stepping past the guards who lined the perimeter like lifeless statues. My boots echoed as I walked toward the throne. He didn’t even blink. “What is this nonsense I hear?” he said. “You brought a wolf into Noctis Vhaelor?” “I did.” “Your reason being?” “I brought her in as a pet.” “A pet.” He spat the word like it was poison. “You have three other pets. I’ve tolerated those awful creatures crawling around this palace like rats. But I draw the line at a wolf. She’s not staying here.” “I expected that reaction,” I said, steppin
The silence after my outburst was deafening. Thirteen of the most powerful beings in Noctis Vhaelor sat frozen in their seats. Every eye turned toward me—and none of them looked amused. And yet, I didn’t regret it. I’d do it again. Every word, every threat, every warning that had slipped past my lips, I meant. No one would feed from her. No one would touch her. I could still feel Lyric’s pulse under my tongue. Still smell her sweat. Her blood. Her pleasure. It coated me. It marked me. And the thought of someone else experiencing that is making me and Tai murderous. “What did you say?” Councilman Yai asked, breaking the silence. “I believe the words were clear, councilman.” “Your mate,” someone repeated. “He said she’s his mate.” “You can’t bind yourself to a wolf,” another councilman snapped. “It’s not possible.” “That’s unnatural,” one of the healers muttered. “Wrong.” More voices rose. “Madness—” “Sacrilege—” I didn’t move. I didn’t flinch. I just kept staring at m
*** ~~CALIX MALZARETH~~ *** I watched Revka’s apprentices clean Lyric up in a makeshift tub. She didn’t speak. Didn’t move. Her eyes were closed, her breathing shallow. The bruises and bite marks covering her neck and chest were already fading, but the toll it took on her body wasn’t. I should’ve been weak, too. But instead, I felt... more alive than I had in decades. Magic surged in my blood, stretching through every vessel. Tai was purring somewhere in my mind, basking in the aftermath like a cat stretched in sunlight. So this was it. The mating high. The euphoria all the old ballads sang about. When poets wrote that no being could make a better choice than the gods themselves—this was what they meant. I never believed in it. Not really. Fated mates were rare. So rare that most thought it a myth. My father and my mother were fated and had been hopelessly in love with themselves—more than they ever loved their children, in my opinion. And somehow I understood it now. The pull
*** ~~LYRIC VAELGOR~~ *** I felt everything. The moment his fangs sank into my neck, it was as though the world shattered inside me. Pain. Heat. Need. My back arched off the stone table so hard I nearly threw him off me. But he held me down. His weight was crushing in the best way, pinning me, claiming me, moving inside me with maddening precision. Calix—or Tai—I couldn’t tell which one of them was more present now. Maybe both. Maybe neither. It didn’t matter. I was burning. My blood rushed to every limb, every nerve raw and alive. His bite wasn’t clean. It was feral. Messy. He wasn’t feeding with restraint. He was gorging. And gods, I liked it. A groan tore from deep within him, his hips jerking harder into mine, and I cried out as his cock hit some part of me that shouldn’t exist. The chanting around us was no longer background noise—it was inside me now, crawling through my bones like insects, a chorus of ancient words I didn’t understand but somehow still felt. My hands
“Yes,” I said, never looking away from Lyric. Revka began chanting. The other witches joined her, one after the other. The air thickened, growing darker with the gathering of shadow magic. “That song…” Lyric whispered. “I know it.” “You heard it from Tai,” I said, shrugging off my shirt and tossing it aside. “It’s the mating song.” Her eyes trailed over my runes, as they did on both occasions she saw me topless. Every one of those runes was earned over decades of bloodshed, pain, power. She always looked at them like she was reading a secret language only she could decode. When I dropped my pants, her gaze dropped too. And stayed there. Her lips parted, and I knew—if I didn’t start controlling myself, I’d shift before I got inside her. Tai’s voice was already echoing in my head. ‘I’ve waited too long for this. I’ll put a baby in her.’ ‘Tai,’ I warned. ‘Do your thing, Calix. Leave me be.’ “Prince Calix,” Revka said firmly. “Right now.” Lyric was on her back, knees raised,
*** ~~CALIX MALZARETH~~ *** Lyric spun to face me, her eyes wide with disbelief. “This is barbaric. Deranged. You’re asking me to lie naked on a table as though I’m about to be sacrificed and have sex? Right here? With witches singing in my ears?” I sighed in frustration. “Don’t you think you’re being too dramatic?” “Dramatic? Gods forbid I actually have reservations about being railed in front of an audience.” “It’s just sex. You have had sex before, haven’t you?” “Of course I have. This is not how it’s done. It’s intimate. It’s pleasant. It’s between people who love each other.” Revka let out a long, amused hum from where she stood. Of course she was enjoying this. The three other witches stood still, their faces not betraying any emotion. I wished—for once—that Lyric would shut up and behave like them. Just once. “Lyric,” I said, stepping toward her. “Get on the table.” She folded her arms. “No.” “Do it. Now.” “Or what? You’re going to use your princely command on me?”
I couldn’t tell how it happened, but as soon as Calix’s fangs grazed my neck, something inside me came awake. I tore myself free from the demon prince’s grip and dropped, falling to the ground fast. “Calix!” I called, seeing my life flashing before my eyes. He chased after me. I barely had time to scream again before he caught me, arms wrapping around my middle just seconds before I would have hit the ground. “You broke free,” he said. “How did you do that?” I’d never been more relieved to be in anyone’s arms as I was at that moment. His eyes were no longer glowing, which was another relief. “You were about to kill me,” I said. “What was I supposed to do?” “Werewolves don’t have magic. It’s not possible for you to break free from a shadow bond.” “I don’t know what happened, Calix. One moment I was scared, the other I was falling.” He didn’t say anything else, just beat his wings once, twice, and then we were rising again—slowly. He adjusted me back into that all-too-familiar
This had to be Prince Calix's first-ever attempt at humor—because there was no way, in this realm or the next, that I was sealing a mate bond with him. Not willingly. Not sober. Not without throwing myself into a pit first. “You want to mark me as your mate?” I asked. “Was I unclear?” “Werewolves have never mated with Khra'gixxes before—and for good reason. What comes next? I stay with you forever? I have your babies, if that’s even possible?” “Sealing a bond doesn’t mean we have to get married and reproduce.” “Oh, so I become your mistress?” “A lot of people would do anything to be in your position. Try to sound more excited. And no, we’ll only have sex one time to consummate the bond, or else it becomes invalid.” “I’m not doing it.” “You’d rather die feeding twelve men?” “I’m not doing that either.” “Pick a side, little wolf. Do you want to die or not? Because every time you speak, I feel less and less willing to help you.” So my choices were mate or die? “If you want t
"That's the first thing you ask me?” Prince Calix said, eyes narrowing on me. “You just found out you’re about to die, and that's the first thing you ask?" "What else should I say? I know my fate. I’ve accepted it. What I need to know is why you kissed me when you are promised to someone else." He stared at me like I’d grown two heads. "You're crazy. It will honestly be a relief to have you dead." I sprang up from the floor, facing him. "Of course,” I said. “You men are such cheating, heartbreaking monsters. You promise someone forever and then sleep with their cousin, putting a baby in them. You join forces with their backstabbing uncle to steal their throne from them. You gift them to a monster whose entire kingdom wants them dead.” My throat tightened, and my eyes burned. “Gods, he won. My uncle fucking won. He knew this would happen if you brought me here. I bet you’ll send my head back to him as a trophy. You were right after all. I’m weak. A crown princess outsmarted by
That didn't sound good. Was there another werewolf residing in Noctis Vhaelor, or did Zephira have me in mind when talking about a wolf's execution? One could only hope. “Where did you get that information, Zephira?” Calix asked, his voice lowering into an octave that made the room feel smaller. “I’m surprised you’re asking me. Aren’t you among the people who matter in this kingdom? You should have access to classified information.” "Cut the bullshit, Zephira. Spit it out. Who told you?" She crossed her arms. "You won’t even allow me to gloat. Fine. I met your lover, Syva Vocarnis, earlier today, and she seemed... gleeful. Naturally, whenever Syva is happy, it often involves you. So I was curious. I asked, and Syva’s reply was that you were rough with her last night, which she believes has something to do with the wolf. So she told her father that your pet had to die. You know Councilman Yai Vorcanis. He loves his daughter.” I was finding it a bit difficult to follow Zephira’s mo