LOGIN{Ragna’s POV}For a moment, nobody moved.The corridor seemed to shrink around us as the King’s gaze settled on our little group, drifting from my father to me and then back again. The shock on his face lasted only a second, but it was enough. It was enough for me to understand that he had recognized something he was never supposed to recognize.Beside me, Milena had gone rigid.I couldn’t blame her.If there was a worse person to be discovered by, I had yet to meet them.The King’s presence had never frightened me before. Even now, standing in the center of a corridor surrounded by councilmen and armed guards, he still looked more like a man carrying an overfed cub beneath his robes than the ruler of an entire kingdom. But fear had very little to do with appearances. Fear had everything to do with consequences, and the consequences standing before us now were enormous.My heart had only just begun to quicken when I felt fingers close suddenly around my wrist.The movement was so unex
{Ragna's POV}“This is my revelation.” My father had just spoken— pouring out a lot and I was dazed and considering it when something cut me off. A scream ripped through the air.Not the startled shout of someone reacting to bad news or the angry yell of a man demanding answers. This was different. There was something primal inside it, something that made the hairs on my arms rise before the sound had even finished echoing across the road. Another scream followed from somewhere farther away, then another after that, until the distant world seemed to awaken all at once.People were shouting.People were running.The attack was no longer something approaching.It had arrived.My father’s expression changed immediately. The man who had spent the last several minutes reopening old wounds and dismantling everything I thought I knew about myself seemed to disappear, and in his place stood a councilman, a survivor, a man who had apparently spent years expecting this exact day.“We need to
{Ragna's POV}“But not all of them died… and not all the cubs were killed.”The words settled heavily between us.For a moment, nobody spoke.I simply stared at him while my mind struggled to keep pace with everything he had already said. The story was absurd. It sounded like something an old drunk Blood would mutter after too much fermented root wine and too little sleep. Yet the more my father spoke, the less it felt like a story and the more it felt like a memory.A terrible memory.One he had spent years carrying alone.Milena swallowed.“So some of them survived?”My father nodded slowly.“Yes.”His gaze never left mine.“Some of the mothers escaped the slaughter. Injured. Broken. Hunted. But alive. And despite the King’s efforts, a cub survived also.” He said it again and something went heavy inside my chest.The feeling arrived before the understanding did.My father took another breath.“The King believed he had ended the bloodline. He believed he had prevented the future the
{Ragna’s POV}“You are the forbidden child of one of them.”The words lingered in the air long after my father finished speaking.For a moment, I genuinely wondered if I had heard him correctly.Then I decided I had.Which somehow made things worse.I stared at him while silence stretched between us, and the more I thought about what he had just said, the more ridiculous it sounded.Finally, I shook my head.“I knew it.”My voice came out flatter than I intended.“I knew this was bullshit.”My father didn’t react.“This just confirms it.”I pointed toward the distant direction of the Palace.“I need to get there before you start telling me dragons raised me in the woods.”With that, I turned and resumed walking.Or at least I intended to.Because before I had taken more than two steps, my father’s voice cut through the air behind me.“Your mother was once an Arena Blood.”My feet stopped. Everything stopped, and slowly, I turned around.“What did you just say?”His expression remained
{Ragna’s POV}“Is that your father?”Milena’s question hung between us, but I didn’t answer it. My attention remained fixed on the man standing a short distance away while a dozen unwanted thoughts crashed into each other inside my head. Some were angry. Some were confused. Most were things I had spent years refusing to think about.Unfortunately, he looked exactly the same as I remembered.Which was annoying.Time should have at least had the decency to make him uglier.“Ragna,” he said quietly. “This was the only way I could get to see you.”I stared at him for a moment before asking the only question that mattered.“Why am I here?”There was no point pretending we were about to have some emotional family reunion. If he had dragged me away from the Palace and brought me into the middle of nowhere, then he could start by explaining why.Milena finally recovered from her shock.“Good day master.” She turned to me. “A councilman is your father?”Her gaze moved between us several times
{Ragna’s POV}The carriage rolled steadily away from the Arena while silence settled between Milena and me.For a while, neither of us spoke. The only sounds came from the horses pulling us forward, the rhythmic turning of the wheels beneath us, and the occasional creak of wood whenever the carriage hit an uneven stretch of road. After everything that had happened inside the Arena, the quiet should have been comforting.Instead, it felt strange.Almost suspicious.Then again, perhaps that was because my day had involved being publicly abandoned by my mother, nearly eaten alive by beasts, accidentally discovering that I apparently possessed enough strength to dismantle living creatures, and now being summoned.At that point, suspicious had become my normal.Milena eventually broke the silence.“I still can’t believe this is happening.”I glanced at her.“What part?”“All of it.”She shifted in her seat and looked toward the small carriage window.“I’m going to the Palace.”The way she s
Chapter 21 ~{Ragna’s POV}“Uh…”Nobody answered.I stood there for another second while dozens of horrified faces continued staring at me like I had just arrived carrying a plague.“Did I interrupt something?” I asked.There was no response and the silence was beginning to feel personal.I pointed
{Ragna’s POV}It was honestly impressive.The amount of hatred people could develop simply because you refused to die.Yes, I had shifted Selene’s jaw.Yes, I had broken Paige’s fingers.And yes, both females had since disappeared into whatever dark corner the Arena stored people while they recover
{Ragna’s POV}Apparently surviving an Arena fight did not qualify you for medical care.Who knew?I sat on the edge of my kennel cot while the Fresh Blood girl crouched beside me, carefully wrapping fresh cloth around my stomach. The wound Paige had left behind throbbed with every heartbeat, and I w
{Ragna’s POV}Lying there on the ground with my vision hazy and my focus twitching, I told myself I was fucked. Paige apparently agreed.Because before I could properly recover, several pounds of angry woman landed on top of me.The air rushed from my lungs in a painful burst as her weight slammed







