INICIAR SESIÓNLyra's POVThe grand throne room faded into nonexistence.The armored guards standing at attention. The cold black stone walls. The towering pillars carved with snarling wolves. Even Kael standing before me on the obsidian dais.Everything blurred beneath the suffocating weight of a single sentence.Tell the Lycan King what you really are.My fingers curled tightly into fists at my sides, my nails biting into my palms.Varek smiled. He knew. He knew exactly what he was doing to me in this moment. He had always known precisely how to tear me apart."Lyra."Kael's voice cut through the heavy silence like a blade. I couldn't bring myself to look at him."What happened the night your village burned?"My throat instantly closed up tight. Nothing. I said absolutely nothing.Kael's crimson eyes narrowed. "Answer me, Lyra."Varek let out a weak, raspy laugh from the floor. "She won't."Kael's head turned slowly toward the bloody trader. "Why?""Because she knows what she is," V
Lyra's POVVarek's heavy boots kicked uselessly in the cold air, suspended three feet above the packed snow.Kael held him aloft by his bare throat with a single hand. One hand.The Black Fang leader's face had turned a deep, unnatural purple, his gnarled fingers clawing frantically and helplessly at the King's massive wrist."Put him down!" one of the remaining, terrified mercenaries suddenly shouted, raising a sword with trembling hands.Kael's crimson eyes slowly shifted toward the man. The raw, predatory promise in that look was so severe that the mercenary immediately took a forced step back, his blade lowering.Kael looked back at Varek, his voice dropping into a terrifyingly calm register. "Put you down?"Varek's bloodshot eyes twisted with pure, suffocating panic.Kael's grip tightened further. "No."The horrific sound of cartilage and bone grinding filled the quiet courtyard. Varek's eyes bulged in their sockets.I flinched, my whole body jerking back.Kael notice
Lyra's POVNight swallowed the mountain like an absolute, inescapable tide.A freezing wind howled violently against the thick stone walls of the fortress, rattling the narrow, iron-barred windows of my small cell. I sat curled on the cold floor, hugging my knees tightly against my chest to keep from shivering.No matter how hard I tried to clear my head, I couldn't stop thinking about Varek's parting words in the throne room.“You'll come home eventually, little bird. You always do.”The venomous words echoed over and over in my mind like a dark curse. No... that place was never my home. It had been a living hell. A brutal prison of chains, scars, and broken spirits.A loud, abrupt knock broke the silence of the corridor.The heavy cell door swung open with a slow, grinding groan. Beta Cassian stood outside, his tall frame illuminated by the flickering torchlight."Get up, Lyra."Fear instantly clenched my chest into a tight knot. "...Where are you taking me?" I asked, my v
Lyra's POVThe grand throne room felt even colder than the raging mountain blizzard outside.Its vaulted ceiling disappeared entirely into deep, shifting shadows, supported by towering black marble pillars carved with the likenesses of snarling, ancient wolves. At the far end of the hall, the Lycan King's throne stood on a raised dais of jagged obsidian, glinting dangerously under the dim torchlight.Everything about this room was explicitly designed to remind visitors of one absolute truth.Power. Absolute, terrifying power.I stood trembling at the foot of the dais, an iron chain clipped firmly to the heavy metal collar around my neck. It wasn't because Kael feared I would suddenly turn and run.It was because appearances mattered in the Northern Court. A slave remained a slave, no matter how well they fought in the snow.Beta Cassian stood as rigid as a statue to the King's right. Rows of heavily armored guards lined both sides of the vast hall, their expressions completely
Lyra's POVThe slow, echoing applause finally died away.The vast training grounds returned to that familiar, suffocating silence. I tightened my bleeding, trembling fingers around the rough hilt of the wooden sword, pouring every ounce of my remaining focus into stopping my hands from shaking.Every single breath felt like a knife twisting between my ribs. The flesh across my back throbbed beneath the layers of linen, and a hot, steady trickle of blood continued to run down from the cut above my eyebrow, painting the side of my face crimson.Kael stood only a few feet away, his towering frame cutting an imposing figure against the gray winter sky. His piercing crimson eyes swept over my broken posture, tracking the violent purple blooming across my skin."You can barely stand," he observed, his voice completely flat."I am standing," I whispered.The defiant words slipped past my bloody lips before my conscious mind could even think to stop them.Several of the nearby recrui
Lyra's POVThe next morning, the sun didn't bother showing its face.A thick, heavy blanket of fresh snow covered the training grounds, pristine and untouched until my dragging boots ruined the surface. My entire body screamed in agonizing protest with every single step I took. The deep bruises from yesterday's torment had matured into a violent shade of dark purple, and the raw whip marks slicing across my back burned like liquid fire beneath my fresh bandages.Yet, I forced myself to stand exactly where Beta Cassian had ordered me to.The new recruits were already waiting for me. There were twenty of them in total. Young, incredibly strong, and brimming with the arrogant, volatile energy of untamed wolves. Every single one of them towered over my slight frame.They looked at me with open, mocking amusement, their breath misting heavily in the freezing air."That's the King's prized slave?" one murmured."She won't last a single minute out here.""Honestly, I don't even want







