Chapter 9 – The Long Game

Menelik’s Point Of View

I stood in the mud and watched shifted and run into the woods until she was nothing more than a memory against the dark trunks of the trees. The silence of the forest rushed back in to fill the space she’d left, but it felt hollow now.

Thirteen years.

I’d spent more than a decade searching for the girl who had pulled a broken, wolf-less boy out of the dirt and told him that if he didn't fight, he deserved to die. I could still feel the scar on my ribs where the rogues had tried to gut me when I was eight, I was too young to have Farkas, wolf, leaving me defenseless. I could still hear her voice, small, fierce, and utterly confident, telling me she wouldn't let them take me. She’d fought them off with nothing but a silver pocketknife and a stubbornness that shouldn't have existed in a pup.

She’d forgotten me.

To her, I was just another stray, an unknown entity she’d excised from her mind to make room for a life with a man who didn't deserve to breathe her air. But a Royal Lycan doesn't forget a life-debt. We don't forget the scent of the wolf who owns our soul. And Amani had owned mine since the moment she’d wiped the blood off my face and told me to run.

“Prince,” a voice muttered from the shadows behind me.

Torin stepped out, dropping to one knee in the mud without a second thought. He was followed by the rest of my guards, their armor making them look like tears in the fabric of the woods. These were the most lethal men in the Lycan kingdom, and right now, they were standing in the middle of a dying pack’s territory like they were the ones who owned the dirt.

“Rise,” I said, the ‘weary traveler’ persona vanishing instantly. My voice turned cold, hard as the throne I’d walked away from to find her. “Did you see her? Did you see how she handled that scavenger?”

“We did, Sire. She is… exactly as you described. Perhaps more.”

“She is a Queen being treated like a servant,” I snapped, my aura flaring out.

I felt my wolf pace behind my ribs, a tectonic growl vibrating in my chest. The trees around us seemed to lean away from the pressure.

“She’s keeping that entire pack together with her bare hands while that fool, Vance, chases a rogue girl around the packhouse. She’s wasting her life, her beauty, and her brilliance on a man who wouldn't know a Queen if she sat on his chest and told him he was a failure.”

I thought of Vance.

I’d spent the last few days watching him from the shadows of his own home. He was weak, not in body, but in spirit. He was led by his scent, governed by his instincts rather than his head. He was exactly the kind of man who would lose a kingdom because he liked the way a girl smelled.

“I want a full report by dawn,” I ordered, turning to Torin. “I want to know every word Vance has said to her since she returned. I want to know who in that packhouse has been loyal to her and who has been a snake. If anyone has made her life difficult, if any of those Elders have looked at her with anything less than absolute respect, I want their heads on a list.”

“And the rogue girl he brought in, Sire? The ‘mate’?”

I let out a dry, mirthless laugh that didn't reach my eyes.

“A toy. A piece of bait. It doesn't matter. What matters is that Amani is finally biting back. She’s moving the silver, she’s talking to the guards, and she’s building a fortress around her heart. She thinks she’s doing it alone. She thinks she has to be the one to carry the burden of that pack’s survival.”

I looked toward the distant lights of the Eclipse Star packhouse, a dark, possessive smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. Amani thought she was scraping for survival in a world that had forgotten her. She had no idea that the boy she’d saved, the one who was the Prince of the Lycans, was standing right behind her, waiting for the perfect moment to hand her the world.

“Let her finish her work,” I whispered to the dark. “Let her tear Vance apart. Let her see exactly how little he is worth. And when she’s standing in the wreckage of that pathetic pack, wondering what comes next… I’ll be there to show her that a Luna was always too small a title for her.”

“Torin,” I called out as I turned to head back to our hidden camp. “Make sure our supplies are moved closer to their southern border. If she needs resources, if she needs silver, make sure it ‘happens’ to be found by her scouts. But keep out of sight. I want her to remember me on her own terms, not because I forced my way into her life.”

“Yes, Prince.”

I walked into the dark, my mind already on the next time I’d see her.

She wasn't just a Luna. She was the she-wolf who had saved a Prince, and it was about time the world started treating her like one.

And yes, I knew her game, she was reclaiming her power and taking revenge on a cheating mate. But holy goodness, what had possessed her to accept such a loser in the first place!

Vance was just hiding behind her skirt, she did the heavy lifting while he claimed the glory. The pack knew it, but stayed silent for the sake of peace.

My scouts reported that she was beloved by her people, yet one dark shadow lingered over her, one point of failure Vance could exploit.

Amani hadn’t produced an heir.

No future Alpha for Eclipse Star.

Every pack needed the assurance of a guaranteed lineage to feel secure. I could bet my life that Vance would use this void to strike back, attempting to cast that rogue girl as the pack's only hope for a future.

But in doing so, he would make his final, fatal miscalculation.