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 r
{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
{Ragna's POV}I was panting. I was panting really heavily but I didn’t seem to know why. But then that wasn’t my focus. Voices pooled all around me and the ground seemed to be trembling, but none of that was my concern. My mother was, so I threw my gaze to her. I hadn’t realized yet…I rushed
{Ragna's POV}Okay, so I was standing in the red sand, surrounded by thousands of people who definitely hated— not that I cared, and then I had a six-foot-three beast storming at me. The Arena master was huge in his werewolf form, and, in my stance, I couldn’t tell if my heart was beating out of r
{Ragna’s POV}The crowd’s noise multiplied in response to me dislocating Selene’s jaw.She didn’t rise immediately now so they started the countdown. “ONE.”“TWO…”"THREE."It was supposed to be a relief hearing the countdown, but I wasn’t satisfied or convinced— not until Selene started convulsing
{Ragna’s POV}The Arena roared before I even stepped onto the sand.Another fight had just ended— two bodies separating, one dragged and one standing. Above it all, the King’s voice rang on cue.Deep and commanding.“Here is your victor.” He announced and the crowd roared, sounding unreal as usual.







