LOGINHer first real bath came three days after the transformation, warm water finally something to be trusted rather than feared.Victoria arrived with two attendants trailing behind her, a short, blue-eyed girl who couldn't have been more than eighteen, and a blonde girl the same age, both dropping into graceful, practiced curtsies."Your new personal maids, my lady," Victoria said warmly. "Rosalind and—""No." The word came out sharper than Elena intended. She caught herself, softened it. "No maids. Just you, Victoria."The girls straightened, confused, glancing toward Victoria for guidance. Victoria simply nodded them out of the room, closing the door gently behind them before turning back."You don't have to explain," Victoria said, settling beside the tub."I want to." Elena stared at the water. "The last maid who served me smiled at me every morning for three years. Then she stood beside the woman who replaced me and called me worthless while I bled on a stone floor." Her jaw tighten
Something inside her had shifted, and Elena could feel it in a way that was impossible to explain, like a breath she had been holding for years had finally been released. Her wolf was still there; she recognized its presence instantly, but it no longer felt the same. It was vast now, deeper and stronger, carrying a power that made no sense for the creature she had known since childhood, as though the word wolf had never been large enough to describe what lived inside her.Her connection to nature felt stronger too. She could sense the life around her with startling clarity—the trees beyond the chamber, the faint movement of leaves, the water flowing through the fountain, even the quiet pulse of the earth beneath the castle. It wasn't simply something she could hear or feel anymore; it was as though she had become connected to it, able to sense its presence in a way she never had before."Elena?" Issac's voice, close, careful. "Are you okay?"She barely heard him. Her eyes had already
She hung there, suspended above the water, silver-blue light pulsing through her like a second heartbeat, and Issac had never in his long life felt so utterly powerless watching something happen to someone he couldn't protect from it.He had seen powerful Lycans transform. Not just Lycans even he has watched a mate bond ceremony between a luna and Lycan before but they never had such transformation, this was beyond anything he has ever seen."Alfred." His voice came out rough. "What do you have on this Lycaris stuff? Anything. Now."Alfred was already moving. "The royal archive, my king, I will retrieve it. Give me a moment."He was gone before Issac could argue, sprinting for the castle, and Issac stood there in the shallow pool, Elena's body seized glowing and Issac picked her up, in a blink he had her on her bed, Victoria covering her before she went to prepare a hot anything just before Elena gets up.After she leaves, Alfred arrives with an old large book, the cover bore a symbol
"Alfred, what is happening to her!" Issac's voice was raw, hands still gripping Elena's shoulders as she convulsed against him in the shallow pool.Before the physician could answer, Elena's body began to glow.At first, it was little more than a faint shimmer beneath her skin, so subtle it could have been mistaken for a trick of the light. Then the radiance intensified, it spread from her chest, flowing through every vein until her entire body pulsed with a breathtaking silver-blue glow. The water surrounding her responded, rippling outward in luminous rings.The screaming stopped, the violent convulsions ceased slowly. Her body slowly rose from Issac's arms, suspended effortlessly above the water, inches from him. Her head tilted back, eyes remaining closed while ribbons of silver-blue light spiraled around her.Issac stared, confusion, shocked and amazed, he could feel the power growing from within her. Just then her short, uneven hair that had been so cruelly shorn began to grow,
Elena still didn't fully understand what she'd agreed to."Unlike wolves," Issac had told her gently, "Lycans don't need a crowd, a priest, an audience of a thousand strangers watching. Just those we trust. Just you, and me." He had taken her hand then, his thumb brushing slowly across her knuckles. "I promise you, Elena—nothing will happen that you don't want to happen."She had replayed those words in her mind countless times, turning them over from every angle, searching for the trap she had been conditioned to believe must exist.But she hadn't found one.That frightened her more than if she had.Why did I agree?The question had followed her ever since.Was it because... I trust him?The thought lingered for only a moment before she instinctively pushed it away.No... can I even trust someone? After Damian? After everything?Her chest tightened.Or am I only doing this because I'm grateful? Because he saved me... fed me... treated me like I was still human when everyone else look
Astus never slept easy when the council convened.The chamber sat at the heart of the capital, marble columns rising three stories into a domed ceiling painted with the founding of the three cities — Lyralla, Lypion, Lympus — bound together under a single crown. Seven elders sat in a half-circle beneath that painted history, and above them all, on a raised dais, sat the Grand Duke Alaric Thorne.The chamber had not settled since the news arrived."He killed one of ours!" Elder Corwin shrieked, short and thick-bearded, spit flying with every word. "Envoy Braxton — my sister's own son — crushed like an insect, and we're expected to simply accept it?""You forget yourself, Corwin," said Elder Priam, older with long grey hair, brown eyes, though no less furious beneath his composure. "We do not forget it. We remember exactly what he is.""A monster," Corwin snapped. "A monster wearing a crown.""Careful how loudly you say that," murmured Elder Yseult, fanning herself with practiced calm.







