تسجيل الدخولLyra POVPower never announces itself. It does not arrive with raised voices or shattered stone. It does not demand attention.Power arrives quietly, like a thought you didn’t realize was already yours.I learned that long before Elara stepped into the Council chamber and fractured a ritual older than memory. Long before the Moon screamed. Long before the court tasted fear and mistook it for awakening.True power does not roar. It whispers. And it waits.The first omega arrived at dawn.She knelt where I told her to kneel, head bowed, hands folded neatly in her lap. Her breathing was shallow, controlled, as if she had practiced stillness long before today. Her name was Selene.I knew everything about her already.Her pack’s debts. The brother she hid in the southern provinces. The way she flinched when Alphas raised their voices. The quiet terror she carried like a second skin.She believed she had been summoned for mercy.That belief was useful.“You may rise,” I said.She hesitated
Elara POVI did not expect him to return. Not after the way he left.The palace had not settled since the Council shattered. Servants moved softly through the corridors, as if the walls themselves were listening. Guards doubled at every archway. Whispers followed me everywhere, no longer sharp with contempt, but edged with awe and fear.Some bowed too deeply. Some would not meet my eyes. I felt different too.Not powerful in the way stories promised. Not triumphant. There was no thrill in it, no rush.Just… clear.Like a wound that had finally closed. Tender, but no longer bleeding.I was standing in the lower garden when I felt it.A presence I knew too well.My steps slowed. I did not turn right away.“Elara.”His voice was exactly as I remembered it.Lower than most. Confident. Used to being obeyed.Once, hearing it had been enough to make my heart race. Enough to make me hopeful. Enough to make me foolish.Now it stirred something distant, muted, like pressing a finger to a scar t
Kael POVThe Moon did not forgive easily. I felt its backlash the instant the silver fire ripped through the council chamber, an invisible weight slamming into my chest, ancient and furious. Power surged wild and uncontained, scraping against the wards like claws dragged over bone.“Elara!”She was on her knees at the center of the fracture.Silver light lashed around her like a living storm, violent and beautiful, as if the Moon itself had chosen her body as a battlefield. The Council scattered in panic, robes flaring, voices breaking. Stone cracked beneath their feet. Sigils screamed as they failed. The chamber that had never bowed to any king was tearing itself apart.And Elara was still.Too still.I moved.There was no strategy. No calculation. No careful weighing of cost.I stepped between Elara and the Moon.The pressure hit me like a wall.My knees bent. My teeth ground together as the Moon pressed down with the authority of ages, demanding obedience, demanding balance, demand
Elara POVThey told me not to go. They said it softly, carefully, as if fear itself might be listening.The guards outside my chambers avoided my eyes. The servants bowed too deeply. Even the air felt wrong, tight, watchful, like the palace was holding its breath.“You are forbidden,” Maelis said, standing near the door. Her voice was calm, but her fingers were clenched at her sides. “By direct Moon Authority.”Forbidden.The word sat heavy in my chest."For my protection,” she added.I almost laughed.Protection had always been a cage with prettier words.I touched the mark at my collarbone. It was quiet now, warm instead of burning, like something alive and alert beneath my skin. Since the night Kael marked me, it hadn’t stopped changing. Sometimes it pulsed like a heartbeat. Sometimes it felt like it was listening.Sometime, like now, it felt impatient.“They summoned the King,” I said. “Not me.”Maelis’s gaze sharpened. “That was intentional.”“I know.”She hesitated. “Elara… what
Kael POVThe summons arrived before dawn.Not by messenger.Not by seal.By silence.I felt it the moment I opened my eyes, the subtle pressure in the air, the way the palace wards adjusted themselves without my command. The Moon Council never announced itself loudly.It preferred inevitability.I rose from the bed already prepared for war.The chamber was dark, the city beyond the windows still asleep. For a moment, I stood still and listened, not with my ears, but with instinct. The world was balanced too carefully, like a blade resting on its edge.Everything was too calm. That was how the Council worked.They didn’t rush.They didn’t threaten.They waited until the ground beneath you shifted, then asked you to step forward.A soft knock came at the door.“Enter.”Maelis stepped inside, her expression tight, her movements precise. She did not waste time with formality.“They’ve called for you,” she said.I nodded once. “Where?”“The upper council chamber.”Of course.Neutral ground
Elara POVThe court smelled different that morning.Not flowers. Not incense.Blood, fresh and impatient, hung beneath the polished stone and silk banners, like the palace itself was holding its breath.I felt it before anything happened. The mark on my wrist warmed sharply, not soothing, not curious, alert. Awake. Like it had lifted its head and was listening for danger.Something is about to break.I stood where Maelis had placed me, two steps behind the throne, slightly to the left. Close enough to be seen. Not close enough to be questioned.That position was deliberate. Visible, but not protected by distance.Kael sat above us all, unmoving. His crown caught the light, silver and severe, a reminder that power in this court was not symbolic.It was enforced.His presence pressed down on the hall like gravity. Alphas held themselves rigid. Omegas stayed silent. Even the air felt restrained.No one spoke unless spoken to.No one breathed too loudly.Except one man.Alpha Rhyse of the







