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
Serena’s POVI’m quite sure she must have been wondering how on Earth I guessed her emotions. She is as open as a book. It would not take me anything to be able to read her mind even in this obsolete darkness.“Serena,look,I, I’m not here to banter words with you on who is a werewolf and a human. I came here to apologize to you and see how well you are fairing. It seems you are fairing well enough and don’t need my apology visit. But still,I’d like to apologize.”“Rephrase the first word of your sentence before you proceed with whatever it is you want to say. And I hope,it is something that genuinely would make me happy.” Sje chuckles.At this point, I am sure she is starting to regret every decision she made to come down here. She should have just listened to the Alpha brothers when they were trying to convince her.“Queen Serena, accept my humble apologies.” She does a polite bow despite her furrowed eyebrows. I laugh because if I was not a werewolf with good vision particularly
Rowan’s POV“You should not have granted her the permission to go there. Serena could have said something to traumatize her for life. This is not good.” Lucian keeps complaining. “We have all spoken about this before. If you decide to not give her the permission, she would go ahead without our knowledge. I have no idea about the rest of you but me, I’m not ready to lose Mira anytime soon. Something near that would have happened if we had not given her the permission to go to the dungeon herself. You know and you have seen just how stubborn she is.” I massage my knuckles frustrated with the endless explanation. “Did you all feel that?” I rub my chest to ease the pain. “The sharp searing pain?” Kai raises one of his eyebrows. “The last time we felt this was this way, Serena was trying to kill her. Is she at it again?” Damien is the one asking this time around. “Hold on. Let’s leave Mira to see what she can do.”’ I say it to them. “Mira?” Kai asks. “Serena would finish her off in
Mira’s POV“And this time around, I will personally see to it that she gets what she deserves. I pardoned her the last time. And this is what she returns the favor with. She deserves to be punished! Severe ones!” I’m fuming with rage. “But we warned you about all of this,Mira. We tried to talk you that this, this is not a den of sympathetic people and child affairs. Here, you have ti stand your ground firmly else you would fail as the Luna undoubtedly.” Rowan tells me. I finally agree to everything they were saying to me earlier. If I am going to lead this pack as their Luna, I will have to ne strong. “Who are we asking for the evidence and when is the meeting holding? The earlier the better. We have to make sure we cut her tails before they start barking at us with no respect.” “Sadly,you are right. I would suggest the meeting to hold tomorrow. Right now, we are all tired and we still have a lot on our plates to attend to. Plus we cannot call for another council meeting to hold
Serena’s POV“Yesterday night. You tried to talk to me while I was sleepikg or maybe you got people. But that should be the end of it. Stop trying to manipulate features to get to me.” I narrow my eyes as I listen calmly to what she’s saying. “Were they ethereal?” I ask a question from my suspicion. “I just knew you would be a party of it. I’m here to warn you Serena. Stop being so childish. Let me be.” Sje warns me seriously. From the dungeon, I can see clear fear in her eyes. “Why? Why should I let you be?” I ask her chuckling. “Shouldn’t you be lucky I only presented you with a dream that has not rendered you immobile? Are you really that ungrateful? Tch. Maybe next time, I will bring memories that would shut you up for good. What do you say?” “The next time, I would make sure you are killed in that dream or whatsoever you call it. Stop daring me.” The audacity in her eyes. It itches me like I’ve been bitten by some bitter animal. “I would love to see what you can do the nex
Lucian’s POV I had just finished my meditation, my mind momentarily at peace, though the storm within me never truly settled. Afterward, I decided to take a shower before returning to my painting. The rhythmic sound of water cascading over me did little to wash away the weight I carried—memories, responsibilities, and the undeniable pull toward the one person I shouldn’t crave so desperately.When I stepped out of the bath, steam clung to my skin as I reached for a towel, running it over my damp hair before wrapping it loosely around my waist. My chambers were silent, just as I preferred them. Or so I thought.As I turned toward my bed, movement caught my eye.Mira.She was standing near the paintings, her back partially turned, but I could see the moment she froze—her entire body going rigid as her gaze locked onto mine. Or rather, onto the bare expanse of my chest, trailing lower until she abruptly looked away.I didn’t move. Neither did she.A tense silence filled the room,
Mira POVI couldn’t tell where the voice was coming from. It was a woman’s voice, which meant it couldn’t be the shadow guards. That should have reassured me, but it didn’t. A shiver crawled down my spine as I stood still, scanning my surroundings. The torches flickered against the stone walls, casting restless shadows that seemed to move on their own.I swallowed hard, tilting my head slightly. “Who’s there?” I whispered.Silence.I let out a slow breath, trying to convince myself that I had imagined it. Maybe I was exhausted. Maybe my thoughts were so tangled that I was starting to hear things that weren’t real.But then—“Mira.”The voice came again, clearer this time. A soft, almost melodic sound, as if the speaker was both close and far away at the same time. My heart pounded, and I took an involuntary step back.This wasn’t normal.I turned sharply, but before I could investigate further, another voice—louder, real—broke through the eerie stillness.“My lady!”I gasped,
Mira POV I wiped the sweat from my forehead, smudging soot onto my skin as I handed Damien another tool. The air in the workshop was thick with heat, the scent of burning metal mixing with oil and dust. My muscles ached from bending and lifting, but I didn’t mind. Strangely enough, I enjoyed this—watching Damien work, seeing how his hands moved with precise intent, as if he were shaping something far greater than just a tool. He was brilliant, there was no denying that.“You don’t usually have someone helping you with all this, do you?” I asked, glancing around at the organized chaos of blueprints, gears, and half-finished contraptions scattered across the workbenches.Damien barely glanced up as he adjusted a clamp on the metal piece he was working on. “No. I work alone.”I arched an eyebrow. “Why?”He shrugged, tightening the clamp before reaching for a hammer. “People can be distracting.”I placed a hand over my chest in mock offense. “Are you saying I’m distracting?”Damie
Mira POV Kai didn’t answer me. His expression remained calm, unreadable, as he said, “That’s not my story to tell.”His words made my frustration bubble even more. I hated when people kept secrets from me, especially when I knew they were about something important. But I also knew pushing Kai wouldn’t get me anywhere. He wasn’t the type to give in easily. So, instead, I let out a sharp exhale and crossed my arms.“Fine,” I muttered. “But I didn’t learn anything today.”Kai arched an eyebrow, his lips curving into an amused smirk. “That’s not true. You ran a few successful laps and stretched properly. That’s progress.”I scowled, kicking a loose pebble near my foot. “That’s not real training. Rowan just wanted to punish me.”Kai chuckled. “Rowan believes strength starts with endurance.” He paused before adding, “And patience.”I shot him a glare, already knowing what he meant. He was hinting that I needed to be more patient, that I had to trust the process. But patience wasn’t
Mira’s POVA shrill note from a flute shattered the silence of my sleep, jolting me awake. My eyes flew open, and for a moment, I was too disoriented to react. Then the realization hit me—I was being woken up. And not in a gentle manner. My body tensed as anger flooded through me. Who dared disturb my rest?I shot up from my bed, my heart pounding in irritation, and my gaze landed on a guard standing stiffly near the doorway, the wooden flute still in his hands. My glare could have burned a hole through him.“What in the gods’ names do you think you’re doing?” I snapped, throwing my blanket off me.The guard bowed slightly, clearly sensing my fury but not deterred by it. “I was ordered to wake you, Lady Mira,” he said firmly. “Lord Rowan instructed me to ensure you were awake and ready for training.”Rowan. Of course, it was him. Only someone as insufferable and overbearing as Rowan would have the audacity to drag me from sleep in such a ridiculous way. My hands clenched into fists
Mira’s POVThe council hall remained silent as everyone absorbed the weight of Lucian’s question.“If witches are behind this, how do we find them?”No one had an answer.Then, finally, a councilman spoke.“We should send an emissary to Darkfire Clan,” he suggested. “Their kingdom had the last known witch executions in history. If there is any place that might still have traces of witches, it’s there.”A murmur of agreement passed through the room.It was a reasonable plan.But now, the real question was—who would go?“We need someone skilled in negotiation,” another councilman added. “Someone who can get information without drawing too much suspicion.”“I nominate Alpha Lucian,” Councilman Baylor declared.I turned to look at Lucian, expecting him to either accept or decline the nomination.But before he could say anything, his brothers immediately refused.“No,” Kai said firmly.“Absolutely not,” Rowan added.Damien didn’t even hesitate. “He’s not going.”The council members looked
Mira’s POVFor the first few moments, Councilman Baylor was speechless.The weight of my question hung in the air, suffocating, as every eye in the room turned to him.Even the other councilmen stared at him expectantly.I knew it.They were thinking the same thing I was—that Baylor had been subtly pushing them to ignore the prisoners’ deaths. That he was trying too hard to make them focus on something else.Finally, he cleared his throat, adjusting his robes as if shaking off the tension. “I am simply suggesting what is best for all of us,” he said smoothly. “If we pursue this investigation and it somehow leads to other Lycan Kings, it could result in war. And I think we can all agree—Blackwood does not need a war right now.”A few murmurs rippled through the hall.He was trying to appeal to their fears—to make them believe that continuing this investigation would only bring disaster.But he wasn’t fooling me.I leaned forward. “If what you’re saying is true, then we should be even m
Mira’s POVI embraced them for what seemed like ages.For the first time in days, I let go of all the weight in my chest and just held them. Rowan’s scent, Damien’s warmth—it was real. They were back. Safe. Alive.I didn’t realize my eyes were stinging until I felt the first hint of a tear threatening to fall.I quickly pulled back, wiping my face before anyone could see.I had lost myself in the moment, forgetting that we were standing in front of too many people. The warriors, the councilmen, even some castle servants were all watching. I straightened my back, regaining my composure.Rowan smirked at me. “Did you miss us that much, Mira?”Damien chuckled, folding his arms. “She couldn’t have. She still hasn’t succumbed to the mate bond yet.”I frowned at him, ready to argue, but before I could open my mouth, Kai scoffed.“You two have been kidnapped for days, and the first thing you care about is whether the Luna missed you or not?” he mocked, shaking his head. “Pathetic.”Rowan smi
Mira POV I woke up late.The sunlight filtering through the window was brighter than usual, meaning the morning had long passed. I groaned, rubbing my temples as I sat up. My sleep had been deep, but not exactly restful.My thoughts from last night still lingered—the conversation with Lucian, my decision to investigate the council, and my growing suspicions about the prisoners’ mysterious deaths.The sound of soft footsteps pulled me from my thoughts.“My Lady,” one of my handmaids greeted me with a bow. “We have prepared your bath.”I nodded, pushing my thoughts aside for now.Two of my handmaids assisted me into the large bathtub, the warm water soothing my tense muscles. As they washed my hair, I found my mind drifting again—to the dead prisoners, to Serena’s disappearance, to Kai’s search for Rowan and Damien.So many unanswered questions.By the time I was dressed and prepared for the day, I realized that the castle was too quiet.I frowned as I made my way to the royal dining