Chapter Three

Zeus’s POV

The Council Chamber was suffocatingly hot, filled with the loud, annoying voices of old men arguing over things they couldn't control.

I sat back on my stone throne, resting my jaw against my knuckles while listening to the Elders yell at each other for the third hour in a row.

"Our birth rates are at an all-time low!" Elder Vance shouted, slamming his hand onto the long wooden table. "Our bloodlines are weakening, our packs are dying, and we have zero heirs to protect the borders!"

"If your Majesty does not choose a Luna from this year's Candidates, the royal line will end with you," another council member added, looking over at me with desperate eyes.

"Just force multiple pregnancies," Elder Thomas suggested casually, like he was talking about cattle. "Assign ten Candidates to the royal quarters and let nature take its course until one of them survives."

I didn't say anything, but my jaw clenched tight. I despised every single one of these desperate politicians sitting around me.

They thought I was just being stubborn by rejecting every Candidate brought before me over the last two centuries.

What they didn't understand was that normal human and wolf blood couldn't withstand the strength of my Lycan line. Every woman who tried ended up dying in agonizing pain, and I refused to sentence innocent women to death just to satisfy their political panic.

The double doors of the chamber suddenly burst open, making every single lord snap their head around in shock.

The Head Physician scrambled into the room, gasping for air as he rushed straight toward my throne. He dropped something onto the polished wood before me with a loud, ringing clash.

I glanced down at the table, barely caring at first. I assumed he was just coming in to report another failed test.

Then my eyes locked onto the object, and my whole body went completely still.

It was a Blood Crystal, an ancient artifact that had existed in our kingdom for over five centuries without ever sustaining a single crack.

Right now, it was shattered into jagged, pitch-black pieces.

"What is the meaning of this?" I asked, my voice dropping low and cold.

"Your Majesty..." the physician gasped, bowing his head until it touched the floor. "During the routine examinations, three separate Blood Crystals reacted like this to a single girl's blood."

The whole chamber immediately exploded into loud, chaotic yelling.

"She is cursed!" Elder Vance shrieked, pointing a shaking finger at the broken stone. "She must be executed before her dark magic infects the palace!"

"No! We must lock her in the dungeon and dissect her!" another lord countered. "We need to study her blood before anyone outside these walls finds out!"

"Silence," I said softly.

My voice wasn't loud, but the terrifying authority behind it made every single man in the room instantly shut their mouth. The chamber went dead quiet.

I looked down at the trembling physician. "Who is she?"

He quickly handed me a parchment file. I unrolled it, skimming the basic details typed on the page.

Female. Lottery candidate. Twenty-two years old. Human. No registered wolf. No known Lycan ancestry.

I almost let out a dark, bitter laugh. None of this made any sense.

If she was just a basic human girl from a poor village, the Blood Crystal shouldn't have reacted at all. It should have stayed completely clear.

"This is impossible!" Elder Thomas spat, stepping forward. "The physicians are obviously forging results to gain favor with the Crown!"

"I swear upon the Moon Goddess!" the physician cried out, clutching his chest in terror. "Every word is true! The third crystal turned black and completely exploded!"

For the first time in years, a tiny spark of actual curiosity hit my chest.

"Bring the Candidate to me immediately," I commanded, leaning forward.

Before any of the guards could step out of the room, something utterly impossible happened inside my own body.

A burning sensation flared right in the center of my chest, and a voice I hadn't heard in decades suddenly echoed in my mind.

My wolf was waking up.

I froze in my seat, my fingers gripping the arms of the throne so hard the stone cracked under my gloves.

My beast had been completely dormant, silent as a corpse ever since the night my parents were killed.

I tried to force it back down, to ignore the sudden heat, but the wolf became violently restless inside my chest. It started pacing back and forth behind my ribs, snarling and clawing at my mind like it had just caught the scent of fresh prey nearby.

*What is wrong with you?* I growled silently at the beast, trying to force my control back over my body.

The wolf ignored every single command I threw at it. It kept pacing, its inner growl vibrating through my entire chest until I could barely hear the Elders speaking to me.

Then, a faint, unfamiliar scent drifted through the crack of the open chamber doors from the corridor outside.

It smelled like rain, wild lavender, and pine.

The second that scent hit my nose, everything inside my body went dead silent.

My wolf stopped pacing. It stood tall in my mind, lifted its head, and spoke a single word that shook my entire soul to its core.

*Mine.*

*No, be…have,* I instantly rejected the thought, my eyes narrowing. *You're being absurd.*

I could not have a mate. Not now, not after two hundred years of being alone, and definitely not among a group of terrified human lottery candidates.

Determined to prove my stupid beast wrong, I stood up from the throne, stepping right past the physician.

"Your Majesty?" Elder Vance asked, looking completely confused as the rest of the council scrambled to follow me out the door.

I didn't answer him. I personally walked straight down the long stone hallway toward the examination wing, the confused lords trailing silently behind me like ghosts.

The closer I got to the wing, the stronger that sweet scent became.

It was affecting me in crazy ways I hadn't felt in centuries. I could suddenly hear every single heartbeat of every guard in the building. I could hear their breathing, feeling my own instincts scream at me to run faster and find the source of the smell.

I reached the wooden doors of the examination room and slammed them open, fully expecting to find a terrified, crying human girl cowering in the corner, begging for her life.

Instead, the room was totally quiet.

A girl was standing next to the high examination table a flat look on her face. 

She wasn't crying.

She wasn't begging.

If anything, she looked more irritated than frightened. And that alone made her unlike every Candidate I'd ever seen.

She sighed for what seemed to be the umpteenth time, complaining to the terrified guard standing near the wall.

"Hey, you understand me, don't you?" she asked, frustration seeping into her tone as she frowned, "everyone in this palace seem to be bothered by my presence here and yet they refuse to tell me what's going on? Come on, tell me…"

She stopped when she noticed the guard wasn't looking at her anymore. He was looking behind her.

She turned, her bright eyes locking onto mine. Confusion flickered across her face for a brief moment.

She had no idea who I was, did she?

Clearing her throat, she stepped away from the guard and straightened, folding her hands neatly in front of her.

Inside my chest, my wolf went completely insane, slamming against my ribs and nearly tearing itself free just trying to get closer to her.

My breath caught right in my throat. Before my brain could even stop my mouth, I whispered, almost involuntarily.

"...Impossible."

The girl raised one dark eyebrow at me, confusion flickering across her face as her gaze swept over the silent room. Realization slowly settled into her expression.. 

“So….” She said after a beat, “you're the one everyone's so terrified of.”