GRANDMOTHER

MAYA

Clara wanted to leave, and Maria was begging her.

The morning after the terrifying event i, the quiet halls of the palace were filled with the sound of hushed, panicked weeping. I stood near the top of the grand staircase, leaning against the cold stone railing, watching the drama unfold on the floor below.

Clara was holding a small leather travel bag, her hands shaking so violently that she could barely keep her grip on the handles. Her face was pale, sunken, and covered in a cold sweat. She looked like a girl who hadn't slept a single second, her eyes wide and bloodshot with absolute terror.

"The house is haunted!" Clara cried out, her voice cracking as tears streamed down her cheeks. "I see faces at every corner of the house! Whenever I turn around, there is a shadow staring at me! I can't take it anymore, Luna Maria! I am losing my mind!"

Maria was practically on her knees, clutching the hem of Clara’s dress, her own face pale and drawn from the dizzying attacks she had suffered.

"Please, Clara, stay!" Maria begged, her voice high and desperate. "You cannot leave me now! The Alpha needs a breeder, and the elders are watching us! If you leave, that wretched maid wins!"

"I don't care about the elders!" Clara sobbed, pulling her dress away from Maria's grip. "I don't care about the Alpha! I want my life!"

The moment I got closer, stepping softly down the marble stairs with my hands folded in front of my dress, Clara froze. She gasped, staggering back until her spine slammed against the heavy wooden front door.

She pointed at me with a trembling finger, her eyes filled with pure, hysterical dread.

"It's her!" Clara shrieked, her voice echoing off the high ceilings. "I see her in my dream attacking me in her wolf being! She comes to me in the dark with glowing golden eyes and sharp silver fangs, tearing my spirit into pieces! She is not real, Maria! She is a ghost!"

I stopped on the bottom step, looking at her with a calm, unbothered expression. A faint, cold smile touched my lips, but I didn't say a single word. Let them fear the shadow of my past life. Let them tremble at the very sight of my face.

Clara turned back to Maria, her chest heaving as she wiped her tears with the back of her hand.

"My grandmother is familiar with ghosts and jinxes and evil spirits," Clara said, her tone suddenly turning urgent as she leaned down toward Maria. "She knows the ancient ways. She knows how to cleanse a house of cursed souls and banish demons back to the underworld!"

Maria’s dark eyes lit up with a sudden, desperate hope. She grabbed Clara’s hands, pulling herself up from the floor. "Your grandmother? She has the old power?"

"Yes!" Clara whimpered, nodding her head frantically. "Let me go so I can go get my grandmother! She will come here and destroy whatever spirit is hovering over this palace!"

Maria nodded her head in approval.

"Go!" Maria ordered, her voice trembling with a mixture of fear and dark anticipation. "Go to your village and bring her at once! Tell her the Luna of the Nightshade Pack will reward her with gold and lands if she clears this plague from our home!"

Clara didn't wait for another word. She yanked the heavy front door open and ran out into the bright morning sun as if the very flames of hell were chasing her heels.

I stood there in the quiet entrance hall, watching Maria dust off her velvet robe. She turned her head, casting a deep, venomous glare in my direction, but I only held her gaze with steady, fearless eyes. She thought a village herbalist could wash away the reincarnated soul of Princess Philomena. She thought human tricks could fight divine justice.

Two days later.

The air around the territory had turned bitter cold, heavy clouds hanging low over the jagged mountain peaks. I was standing in the central courtyard, sweeping the fallen autumn leaves from the stone path, when the heavy iron gates of the palace slowly creaked open.

An old woman came.

She did not walk into the courtyard on two human feet. She came in her wolf being, her massive form stepping slowly and deliberately over the gravel. Her fur was a patchy, silver-gray color, thick around her neck like a mane, and her yellow eyes were milky, old, but filled with a strange, unnatural sharpness.

Four guards walked beside her, keeping a respectful distance, while Maria and Clara hurried out from the grand porch to meet her.

The gray wolf paused near the fountain, shaking her thick fur, letting out a low, raspy growl that sounded like stones grinding together underground. Instead of shifting back into her human form to greet the Luna, the massive beast remained on four legs, her head held high.

"In this wolf being, the evil one cannot have an effect on me," she said, her voice projecting directly through a rough mind-link that echoed clearly in the minds of everyone standing in the courtyard.

Her voice sounded ancient, dry, and hollow, like wind blowing through dry bones.

"Human skin is soft," the old wolf continued, her dark nose twitching as she sniffed the heavy air of the palace. "Human blood is easily poisoned by jinxes and dark visions. But the skin of the wolf is protected by the primal earth. No spirit can spin my head while I stand in my fur."

While speaking, she had her eyes on me.

Her milky yellow gaze locked onto my face, ignoring Maria, ignoring Clara, and ignoring the guards entirely. She stared directly at me, her ears pinning back slightly against her head as if she could smell the thick, heavy scent of ancestral blood radiating from my skin.

I stopped sweeping. I leaned gently against the wooden handle of my broom, returning her intense stare without flinching an inch. I felt the ancestral book in my room hum softly in response to her presence, a gentle, protective warmth spreading through my chest.

The old wolf took two slow, heavy steps toward me.

"Bless the Goddess of the Moon for me tonight," she directed to me, her low voice echoing in my head.

I raised my eyebrows in quiet surprise.

I smiled, knowing that she was invited to fight me, but now she is asking I greet the Great Goddess for her.

She had been brought to this palace to curse me, to banish my spirit, and to destroy the shadow scaring her granddaughter. But the moment her ancient wolf spirit stepped into my presence, she recognized what I truly was. She felt the mark of the Moon Goddess resting on my soul. She felt the divine authority of Princess Philomena flowing through my veins. She knew she wasn't looking at an evil demon or a bitter jinx, she was looking at a royal soul chosen by the heavens themselves!

"I will pass your blessings to the Goddess, Elder," I said aloud, my voice smooth, calm, and carrying an unnatural, regal weight that made the guards look at me in confusion.

Maria’s face twisted into an expression of pure rage and frustration.

"What are you doing?!" Maria barked at the old wolf, taking a sharp step forward. "I brought you here to cleanse this maid! She is the one using dark magic to torment Clara and spin my head! Why are you asking her for blessings?!"

The massive gray wolf didn't even turn her head to look at Maria. She simply let out a low, warning huff through her snout, her dark tail flicking against the dirt.

"Be silent, girl," the wolf mind-linked sharply to Maria, making the Luna flinch back in shock. "You brought me into a house where the spirits of the dead walk alongside the living. You do not understand the fire you are playing with."

Clara whimpered, stepping behind her grandmother's massive gray body, her small hands clutching the wolf's thick silver fur. "Grandmother... please! Fix the house! Fix the picture on the wall!"

The old wolf lowered her head, taking a deep, long sniff of the cold air coming from the main palace doors.

"The picture on the wall is not broken," the wolf growled softly. "It is awake."

She turned her yellow eyes back to me one last time, giving a slow, respectful dip of her large head before turning toward the palace steps. "Take me to the Alpha's hall. I must smell the foundation of this throne before I speak another word."

Maria glared at me with pure, burning hatred, her jaw clenched tight enough to break her teeth, before she turned and led the gray wolf up the stairs into the palace.

I stood alone in the quiet courtyard, holding my broom, listening to the heavy sound of their footsteps fading into the grand entrance.

A quiet, confident laughter bubbled up in my throat. Maria was growing more desperate by the day. She had brought Clara to replace me, and that failed. She had tried to use sex and deceit to break my spirit, and that failed. Now, she had brought an ancient witch wolf into our home, only for the old beast to bow her head in reverence to my divine mark.

Well, I am ready to see what this new phase will look like.

They could bring village elders, dark witches, or forest monsters to my doorstep. It didn't matter. The Moon Goddess was on my side, the ancestral book was in my hands, and the royal spirit of Princess Philomena was fully awake within my chest. Every trap Maria laid only revealed her own weakness, and every enemy she brought into this house was turning into another witness to my ultimate rise.

I picked up my broom and continued sweeping the fallen leaves, even though I didn’t have to do it, but I did it anyways, now I am waiting patiently for the night to fall. The storm was coming, and this time, I was going to be the one leading the thunder.