Mira’s POV“The Luna?” One of them with a ginger mustache immediately exclaims. I almost stop myself from moving forward when I remember Rowan’s words. Some of them would want to intimidate me. But in the end, I am the fated Luna. Plus, from their conversations, I could tell some of the members of the council had already pledged allegiance to Serena so of course getting a few opposition here and there was definitely not a bad thing. It would help me narrow out her supporters from mine. I put on a bright slight smile on my face and I continue walking slowly and steadily. I ignore the hushed whispers and the piercing gaze I feel on my back and I continue moving forward. “Alpha Lucian.” The man that ushered us in echoes his name. Lucian stands tall, he sweeps through the council with his eyes and sits down, his seat already drawn. I wonder the purpose for calling out all of their names when the Alphas are already familiar with the members of the council. I go over it in my head
Mira’s POV“Luna Mira.” They all stand and wait for me. I stand up from the seat as well. “He? He’s coming?” I quickly shut my mouth as I see the looks coming from Damian, Lucian, Rowan and Kai’s eye. “No, my Luna. I would be here waiting for the rest of the members of the council as I was just recently promoted.” He bows down. Now, I see the reason why they promoted him. His loyalty has been proven. “It’s fine.” I place my hands into Lucian’s hand and we walk back inside. “Ugh.” Lucian stumbles, nearly falling over. “Are you okay?” I ask him. I palm my head as I realize the nature of my question. “Does he look okay to you?” Damien scowls at me. “He’s not okay. We told him to rest here but he wouldn’t.” Rowan explains to me. “I wouldn’t or I can’t.” He places his hands on his knees. Beads of sweats drop furiously from his body. “We will explain the reason of your absence to the council.” Damien says again. “None of us can afford to be absent in the meeting with the council
Mira’s POV“Secondly, I’m sure you must have noticed. We have a new man in our midst. He was just recently promoted to the upper council. Any oppositions?” “None. It seems you were about to say something vital to the council, Alpha Rowan.” “Yes, very vital. Your queen Serene, a deserving punishment should be meted out to her. Being the Queen gives her no authority over the Luna. It does not make her supreme as well. Trying to take a person’s life due to jealousy, it is not an act we should merely overlook.” Lucian says. “What if we lock her up in the dungeon for three days?”“That is not suitable enough for someone that tried to take down a life here in the palace!” One of them says. Confused shouts echo all around the hall. “Silence.” Rowan says calmly. Despite how calm his call for silence is, they all respect his voice and command and keep shut. “She would appear before th council to commit to her crimes. To prevent such an uproar without further arguments, this is the punis
Mira’s POVSeveral gasps resonate around the hall. I ignore all of them and keep standing straight despite the pang of pain in my heart. “You can proceed.” He says all of this with a straight face and walks back. “Guards!” The man that welcomed us from earlier calls on them. They come out with a rope that has three tiny silver pieces. The other ones drag her and they tie her to a stand. Just as I was told, she keeps a straight face as royalty would. “Wim!” The rope lands her on her back successfully ripping a part of her dress. My heart drops to my stomach. I cannot imagine being in her shoes, I would be screaming for my life rather maintaining silence. She closes her eyes for a brief second and opens them again. Calmness back in her gaze. “Wim.” The second lash on her back. It splits her dress wider. Her pale milk skin is available for all of the members of the clan present here to see. Her eyes sparkle. I swallow hard still trying to keep a neutral face and act unbothered.
The guards give me a grateful look. Serena’s eyes are still closed. I force myself to keep my eyes on only her face and not trail them down to her back.“Alphas?” The rope is shaking in his hands. I understand he doesn’t want to be punished by any of the Alpha brothers.“The Luna has the same authority as us. If she says stop,it means we already consented it.” Lucian says.They loose the ropes and untie her. The first thing she does after her hands are free is to wipe her tears. She goes back to her passive face burying all of her emotions at once.“Her other punishments will still be executed and is not to be evacuated by anyone. Take her back to where she’s coming from, straight to the dungeon.” Rowan tells the guards assisting her.My jaw hardens. I know fully well that the last statement was made particularly for me. Even a completely stupid person would see it. I click my tongue and I decide to address it later.“The Luna I’m correspondence with the Alphas have called off the cer
I ignore him and I continue with my letter.“Father, this is Mira. I know you may probably not be happy to see a letter from me. But I desperately need to let it out. The Alpha Brothers are typically monsters. They are as wicked as you described them and even worse. They are used to gruesome sight amd are even encouraging me to do so. I wish I can come back home but I know that I am doing this for the family. I have sworn not to let any feelings harbor between me and this wicked brothers. Do well to send your regards.” I hold my tears tight careful not to stain the paper and start writing everything all afresh.I turn over to the next page and I sign my signature. I place the stamp on the signature and I let the letter to dry.“Mira? No matter what it is, you can always turn it around. And the best option is obviously not silence.” Lucian keeps knocking on the door.“If you do not open the door Mira, Lucian would keep knocking here. You know the both of you badly need to rest and he p
“We will talk about it later okay? Are you fine now?” Lucian asks me. I know he’s asking me to sincerely ascertain if everything is fine but I am still irritated. Serene is still at the back of my head.“I remember I told all of you that I was opening the door so you could grant me something.” I say it again. I have no idea how I’m going to address this with the kind of fierce personality they have,but I’m not one to die in silence.“Is going to see your father not enough? Now what? You’re going to ask us to go with Lucian? Is that it little one?” Damien is asking.To be sincere, I would have been super excited if whatever it is that is draining Lucian would have taken Damien instead.“Damien.” Rowan calls his name but they are all staring at him sharply.“I was basically stating a mere suspicion. Isn’t it my right to say what I want to and where?” He refuses to drop the conversation and is actively steering towards an argument.“That’s enough. What’s the second one Mira? You want to
Mira’s POVI try over and over again to summon my wolf. Nothing surfaces. “If I have my wolf, I should be able to face Serena on my own.” I say to nobody in particular. I try different things just to wake her, to get her to react or something. Nothing at all seems to be working. I inhale and I exhale through my mouth convincing myself that she’s there. I just have to find myself. I take turns calming myself down. I want to hear her, feel her, just be sure that she’s there. If I have no wolf, there is no way I would have felt the bond. Or am I just cursed?I shake my head and I take my mind off it. I wear all of my clothes back again. And I go to see her. I tuck a small pocket knife in my gown just for the purpose of safety. “Luna Mira.” One of the palace maids bows to me. I almost jump in fright with her sudden greeting. She still lays low waiting for me to ask her to rise. I wear a neutral poker face as expected and it hides my fright. “You May rise.” I am taking a proper loo
Mira’s POVI couldn’t believe what I’d just seen.Lucian. My mate. Lying unconscious on a bed hidden in the shrine. All this time, they’d kept it from me—every single one of them. Even Damien, who I’d come to trust more than I thought I would. The sight of Lucian’s motionless body sent something cold and aching straight through my chest. And then to hear them… Damien and the disciple, talking like I was never supposed to know. Like I wasn’t even part of this.The betrayal tasted like ash in my mouth.I stormed out of the room, my vision blurring with tears. I could hear Damien calling after me, his boots slapping the stone floors of the shrine, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. If I turned back, if I let him catch up to me, I might break completely.“Mira! Please, just listen!”“Don’t!” I snapped, spinning on my heel just as I reached the carriage. “Don’t you dare speak to me!”He stopped short, his chest rising and falling with effort. The look in his eyes was soft—regretful. But
Mira POV I stood in the courtyard, surrounded by the soft murmurs of the guards and the quiet tension that buzzed in the air like a taut string waiting to snap. Everyone was waiting for Adela to return. The amulet swap needed to happen perfectly, silently. One wrong move and Councilman Baylor would vanish into the shadows like smoke. We had one chance to use his connection to the witches to find them, and I couldn’t shake the anxiety tightening around my chest.Adela was brave, no doubt, but this was different. Dangerous. I tried to keep a calm expression as I stood beside Kai, Damien, and Rowan, but my thoughts were far from steady. My mind kept drifting back to the voice I heard last night. The moon goddess. Her words still echoed in my head like a steady drumbeat.You were born for this.The weight of her voice still lingered in my chest. Heavier than armor. More binding than any promise.If I was truly the bridge between the three factions, then I had to start walking that
Mira POV I couldn’t sleep.No matter how much I tossed and turned, the thoughts refused to leave me alone. They kept coming in waves, pressing down on me harder with each passing minute. I had come to Blackwood Castle to destroy the lycan kings. That had been my mission. I was supposed to tear them apart from within, make them hate each other, make them weak—and when the time came, avenge my mother’s death.But now… I was helping them.How had it come to this?I sat on the edge of my bed, hugging my knees as the memories of my childhood came flooding back. My father’s cold eyes. His harsh words. The way the villagers looked at me like I was a mistake. Even as Chief, he had never acknowledged me as his daughter the way he did with the other children in the village. I had always been treated like an outsider because I was human. Because my mother… was a human and not werewolf.He used to say she tricked him into marriage. Claimed she never told him what she was. That she cursed
Damien POV I returned to my chambers with heavy steps, my mind still clouded with irritation. I hated the way Kai thought about our mother. It gnawed at my insides like a slow poison. He always kept himself distant from her, treating her like she was some stranger who had dared to give birth to him. Even as children, while Rowan, Lucian and I clung to her skirts, Kai stood apart, his arms folded, his face emotionless. Like he had already decided he didn’t need her.I clenched my fists as I entered the secret passage that led to my private archives. Only I knew about it, and I intended to keep it that way. It was the place where I had gathered every piece of classified parchment, scrolls, and forbidden books over the years. A treasury of knowledge that even the regular castle archives couldn’t boast of.I needed answers. I needed to know why Councilman Benard Sawyer had once been part of Blackwood clan and now existed in Darkfire clan like he belonged there. If there was any c
Kai POV (Flash back)It was dark and quiet. The torches along the courtyard walls barely lit the stones beneath my small feet. I remembered standing there years ago, my young hands gripping the folds of my tunic as I watched my father speaking with important visitors. I didn’t know it then, but those moments would be some of the last happy memories I would ever have of our family together.I stood beside him proudly, listening as he discussed matters of the clan’s future. The way the visitors nodded at his words, the admiration in their eyes, I wanted that too. I wanted to rule Blackwood one day and have everyone look at me with the same respect they gave my father.I remembered how the captain of the guards had arrived mid-meeting, dragging along a younger Rowan by the shoulder. He announced Rowan’s latest victory in sword combat, boasting about how quickly he was mastering the art. My father and his guests praised him openly, offering him kind words and applause. Rowan had g
Kai POVI stood with my arms crossed as Adela fidgeted under the scrutiny of my gaze. We were gathered in the courtyard now, everyone waiting as she prepared to spill every detail she had about Councilman Baylor.“Start from the beginning,” I ordered her, my voice sharp.Adela swallowed hard. “On the first day I approached him, I was carrying a tray of tea. I pretended to stumble and spilled it all over him. He got angry at first, but I insisted I could help him clean it up. He tried to dismiss me, said he had his maid to attend to him, but I… I pushed.”Rowan scoffed from beside me, but I raised a hand to silence him.Adela continued, wringing her fingers nervously. “He eventually agreed. I followed him to his chambers and while we were there, I, as Lady Mira instructed, tried to… seduce him.”Mira stood to the side, her face stoic, giving no indication of any guilt. I admired that about her.Adela’s cheeks flushed. “He grabbed me almost immediately, but I scolded him, made a sce
Damien PovI stood between my brothers, facing the large oak door that led into my private archive room. They didn’t know about this place — no one did.I pulled open the heavy door and led them inside. The scent of old parchment and ink filled the air immediately, a smell I had grown fond of over the years. The room was dimly lit by lanterns placed carefully around the walls. Scrolls, books, and ancient parchments were stacked neatly on countless shelves, towering all the way up to the ceiling.Both Rowan and Kai froze just inside the doorway, their mouths slightly agape.“You had this all along?” Kai asked, his voice a mix of amazement and suspicion.I shrugged as I moved further inside. “Every leader needs his secrets. This is mine.”Rowan grunted, clearly unimpressed. “Looks boring.”I rolled my eyes. “This is where knowledge lives. Copies of every important document from the main archives, along with other scrolls the public isn’t even aware exist. I’ve been building it for
Mira POVI sat curled up by the window of my chamber, my mind spinning with the weight of what I had just heard. The evening sun poured into the room, casting long shadows across the floor, but I barely noticed. My thoughts were far away.The Blackwood lycans’ mother.The witches.The strange connection between them.I hugged my knees to my chest and stared blankly at the sky. What could it possibly mean? Why would their mother, a royal lycan Queen, have anything to do with the last witches that once terrorized the world? What reason could she have to risk everything by going to the place where the witches were executed?I tried to build a scenario in my mind, tried to make sense of something that felt so impossible. Maybe… just maybe… the high priestess’ words had some truth to them.She had told me that I was destined to be the bridge between the three factions—humans, witches, and werewolves.What if… the Blackwood lycans’ mother had the same destiny before me?It was the only
Kai POV I stood with my brothers under the shade of the large oak tree at the corner of the courtyard, my arms folded tightly across my chest as my mind ran in a thousand directions at once. Rowan paced back and forth like a caged animal, growling low under his breath while Damien leaned casually against the stone wall, deep in thought. The information from Ryker was still heavy on all our minds. I could feel it pressing on me like a mountain. Rowan finally broke the silence. “How is any of this even possible?” he snapped, stopping mid-pace to face us. “Mother and witches? That makes no sense.” Damien pushed off the wall, folding his arms too. “We don’t know the full story yet. For all we know, she could have been trying to destroy them, not help them.” His tone was calm but laced with frustration. I shook my head. “If she was trying to destroy them, why would she be sneaking off at night, leading someone to the witches’ graves?” “Maybe she was investigating?” D