Draven's POV

The night Blackwood Pack was destroyed, I woke with blood on my hands. Fortunately, none of it was real. For a moment, I sat upright in bed, staring at my palms. I rubbed my face and exhaled slowly.

It was just a dream. I crossed the room and splashed cold water over my hands anyway.

The room still smelled like perfume and heat.

I lay back bare against the edge of the bed, one arm resting behind my head as silence settled where laughter had been only moments ago, and the other teasing the breast of a maid. The women were still there, I noticed two by the left sucking deep into the others pussy, others making eye contact as they moved towards me.

“Your highness needs tending to" one said, putting her mouth over my cock.

I didn’t stop her, I rarely did.

I signalled the other two to join us. I dug deep into her pussy, as the other sucked her breast.

"I see you love pussy, you whore”

This was funny to me, because I didn't feel anything for them, even as my release surged through my veins.

Suddenly, one threw up on me, and I felt disgusted by their presence.

“Leave at once!" I yelled.

They all scrambled out, some naked, some barely clothed.

My gaze drifted to the ceiling, to the carved stone patterns above my chamber. The palace was too quiet today. Even the air felt… expectant.

I never cared about having a mate, despite being 40. I never cared about anything but fucking and the kingdom. I didn't need a woman to distract me. I only needed my cock and my power to put women and men in place. My dad was no better in his days, a tyrant and a homosexual who married a woman.

I stepped into the bathroom to wash their filth off my body and noticed how dark my eyes were.

"Great,” I said.

I had just run soap all over my body, before I heard someone call me through the mind speech.

It was my army’s general— General Arthur.

"Your highness, we've got them moving towards the east just after the black ridge pack”

“Kill on site" I ordered.

I left the bathroom and was clothed by my servant. A knock came at the door. I exhaled slowly.

“Enter.”

The door opened at once.

A servant stepped in, head bowed so low it bordered on fear.

“My Alpha.”

I didn’t move.

“What is it?”

He hesitated. That alone told me enough.

“The seer has arrived,” he said carefully. “He insists it cannot wait.”

That finally pulled my attention fully into the room.

Slowly, I walked towards him.

“The seer,” I repeated.

“Yes, my Alpha.”

Good.

Fear was easier to manage than attachment. I reached for my coat and pulled it on, the fabric heavy against my shoulders.

As I passed the mirror, I caught my reflection. Calm face, and controlled eyes.

“The seer said… the signs have already begun.”

I paused just for a second. Then I continued walking.

“Prepare the throne room,” I said.

The throne room felt colder than usual as I walked in, though I could not tell if it was the stone itself or the shift in the air that followed me inside. The guards along the walls straightened immediately, but none of them met my eyes for more than a second before looking away again.

The Seer stood in the middle of the space with his hood drawn low over his face and an oak staff resting in one hand. He did not look at the guards, and he did not look around the room as most visitors did when they entered Ashen Ridge Palace. He simply stood there waiting, as if patience itself was something he controlled.

Men who carried themselves like that either had nothing to lose or knew something I had not yet been told. Neither option pleased me.

“You have taken your time coming to a place you were not invited into,” I said as I stepped closer.

The Seer lifted his head slightly at my voice, and even then there was no shift in his stance, no sign of concern or submission.

“You called for truth,” he replied, “and truth does not arrive on command.”

I stopped a few steps away from him, close enough now that the guards behind me shifted again, unsettled by the distance I was allowing between myself and an unknown presence. I did not look back at them. I kept my attention on him.

“I do not tolerate games,” I said. “If you are here, then speak plainly or leave.”

“There is something moving through your territory that should not be,” he said.

I did not react outwardly, but I felt the words settle anyway.

“Something,” I repeated.

“A girl,” he continued.

The word should not have meant anything to me, yet it did.

“I am not interested in stray problems crossing my borders,” I said.

“This is not a stray problem,” he replied. “This is ancient blood.”

I held my expression steady, because reactions were useful to other people, not to me.

“The Blackwood is gone,” I said.

The Seer did not argue immediately. Instead, he tightened his grip on the staff slightly, just enough for me to notice that even he was not entirely untouched by what he was saying.

“Not entirely,” he said. “One remains, and she does not yet understand what she is.”

“Alive?"

“Yes,” he said simply.

The certainty in that answer was more irritating than uncertainty would have been.

“Explain why this matters to me,” I said.

“Because she is not where she should be,” he said.

“She is inside your territory, and she is already being drawn toward the center of your power without knowing why. And you are already aware of her, even if you have not admitted it to yourself yet.”

That final part landed differently.

I did not respond immediately, because it would have been a lie to deny what I had begun to feel since my instincts started growing stronger.

“Why would I be drawn to a girl I have never seen?” I asked finally.

The Seer’s voice lowered slightly, not in secrecy but in certainty. “Because she is not simply a girl.”

“What is she?” I asked again.

“That is the question that will lead you to her,” he said. “And when you find her, your territory will not remain as it is now.”

“This changes nothing,” I said.

The Seer’s reply came without hesitation. “It will.”

“She is already waking,” he said quietly.

I held his gaze for a moment longer than necessary, then turned away from him as I spoke to the guards behind me.

“Prepare the outer patrols,” I said. “Double them along the eastern border.”

When I looked back again, the Seer had disappeared.

But I understood then that whatever had entered my territory was no longer something I could ignore.