MasukI strode through the palace corridors, my footsteps echoing against marble as servants and guards flattened themselves against walls in my wake. The rage that had simmered since Amelia mentioned her public whipping threatened to boil over with each step. This Gamma Julian—this dog who had dared lay a whip to my Queen's back—would learn what it meant to touch what belonged to me. In my seventy-six years, in my three decades as King, I had perfected the art of retribution. This woul
I hadn’t noticed the small line of text at the bottom, written in characters that didn’t quite match any language I recognised, at least to start. The letters seemed to shift as I looked at them, refusing to settle into familiar patterns.Dominic finished his own examination of the remaining certificates, nodding as he joined us. “Nothing else matches your birthdate or initials. This appears to be our best lead.”Lukas took the document from Nico, studying the mysterious text. “What does this say?” he asked, brow furrowed in concentration.I leaned closer, looking over his arm. The strange characters suddenly seemed to vibrate with meaning, whispering to some part of me I hadn’t known existed. My finger traced the line as I read aloud: “’Tria Luna Sanguis oritur et argentea aquae aurum vertuntur, Cuprea Lupus inter greges ambulabit, nec nata nec facta, sed a stellis ipsa
The hallway to the royal archives stretched before us like a throat leading into the belly of truth, a truth I both craved and dreaded. Lukas’s hand rested at the small of my back, his palm radiating warmth through the thin fabric of my shirt, but even his touch couldn’t quiet the storm brewing inside me. Athena paced restlessly beneath my skin, her copper presence agitated by the possibility that lay ahead. A name. A history. An identity that had been stolen from me before I was old enough to claim it as my own.“Are you ready for this?” Lukas asked, his voice low enough that it wouldn’t carry to the guards stationed at intervals along the corridor.“I’ve been ready for eighteen years,” I replied, the words scraping against my throat. “I just didn’t know what I was waiting for.”We approached the heavy oak doors that marked the entrance to the private reading
I watched Amelia from across the room, sensing the exact moment when something shifted within her. She had been staring at the whiteboard, eyes fixed on that name, Amala Luna Velasco, when suddenly she stood, her body coiled with tension. The pen in her hand tapped against her palm in a nervous rhythm as her eyes took on that distant look I’d come to recognise. It wasn’t Athena surfacing; it was something deeper, more fundamental; the expression of someone recognising a truth they’d always known but never acknowledged.Ares stirred within me, his golden presence alert and watchful. ‘Mate troubled,’ he observed unnecessarily. ‘Something coming.’“Gentlemen,” I said, turning to Nico and Dominic, who were still reviewing their notes by the conference table. “Thank you for your reports. We’ll join you in the archives shortly.”They exchanged a brief glance b
The afternoon sun slanted through the office windows, marking the passage of hours since Ethan had called me by that name. Amala Luna Velasco. I rolled the syllables through my mind for the hundredth time as Lukas and I waited for Nico and Dominic to return. The name felt like a splinter beneath my skin; foreign yet somehow part of me, impossible to ignore now that it had embedded itself in my consciousness. Athena paced restlessly within me, copper fur rippling with agitation as we both wondered: was this truly who I was meant to be?Lukas sat across from me, ice-blue eyes tracking my movements as I circled the room. His outward calm couldn’t mask the tension radiating through our bond; Ares‘s presence was alert, watchful, like a sentinel preparing for an unseen attack.“They’re late,” I muttered, glancing at the antique clock on the wall. My fingers drummed against my thigh, a nervous habit I’d dev
I watched Amelia walk ahead of me down the corridor, her spine rigid, her copper hair swinging in an unnaturally perfect rhythm with each deliberate step. She hadn’t spoken a single word since we’d left the interrogation room.Hadn’t looked at me.Hadn’t reached for me through our bond.Ares whined within me, his golden presence stretching toward Athena’s copper warmth only to find it withdrawn, curled tight and defensive around whatever turmoil churned inside my mate. The name Ethan had called her; Amala Luna Velasco, echoed between us, unspoken but impossible to ignore. Three words that threatened to unravel everything we thought we knew about the woman I loved.Three decades as Alpha King had taught me to hide my thoughts behind a mask of calm authority, but inside, questions multiplied like cancer cells. What if there was truth behind the Voice’s claims? What if Amelia’s origins were somehow tied to a plot against me? The very thought felt like betrayal, yet I co
Three days had passed since Ethan delivered that haunting letter, and I still couldn’t shake the chill that had settled in my bones. Each night I’d lain awake beside Lukas, studying his sleeping face in the moonlight, trying to imagine a world where I could ever harm him.The very thought made Athena whine in distress, her copper presence curling protectively around the bond we shared with Ares. Whatever this “Voice” believed about me, about some destiny I supposedly had, they didn’t understand the most fundamental truth of my existence, Lukas wasn’t just my mate or my King, he was my choice. And no hidden past, no matter how mysterious, could change that. At least, that’s what I kept telling myself as we prepared to interrogate Ethan.Dr. Elara had worked tirelessly with him since his capture, her ancient knowledge of werewolf medicine pushed to its limits as she attempted to break through whatever chemical fog clouded his mind. I’d visited the secure medical wing each day,
I had barely reached the palace's ground floor when I heard the whispers. Two guards, heads bent together, voices hushed but not enough: "the King shifted right in the courtyard—tore off running into the forest like hellhounds were after him." The second guard nodded. "Five of the royal guard fol
I sat motionless upon the ancient throne, carved from the heartwood of the first tree that grew in these lands, if the legends were to be believed. My back never touched its support—a king does not rest during judgment. Below me, the throne room hummed with the barely restrained excitement of the a
Cold shocked me awake, water cascading over my head and down my body in an icy deluge. I gasped, choking as some found its way into my lungs, my body convulsing with the sudden, violent awakening. Through streaming eyes, I made out the blurry figures of guards outside the cell, one still holding th
I sat behind my desk, blood still drying beneath my fingernails, the metallic scent clinging to my skin like perfume. The throne room executions replayed in my mind—mechanical, efficient, predictable—until that final moment when green eyes met mine and Ares howled a truth I'd never expected to face







