Chapter Two

Kelsey’s POV

The palace guards escorted us through massive iron doors, but instead of being thrown into dark prison cells like I expected, we were led straight into an absurdly extravagant residence.

It looked more like an elite royal academy than a place of captivity. Gorgeous crystal chandeliers hung from high ceilings, soft velvet rugs covered the stone floors, and the smell of fresh food filled the halls.

It threw my expectations off completely. But then I noticed the servants and guards stationed at every single corner, all smiling a little too much, and I knew the truth.

This luxury was just a gilded cage.

A warm-looking older woman stepped forward, smoothing down her black dress as she smiled at us.

"Welcome, young ladies," she said, her voice smooth and maternal. "I am the Head Matron. From today onward, you are no longer lottery victims. You are Candidates, chosen to help secure the future of our great Lycan race."

Nobody said anything back. We were led to our individual rooms, given ridiculously expensive silk clothes, and told to bathe before our medical examinations began.

As soon as the Matron locked my door from the outside, I started testing every window. I checked the glass, inspected the iron bars outside, and searched for hidden exits, quickly confirming that every single escape route had already been anticipated by whoever built this place.

An hour later, we were brought to a lavish dining room for breakfast, giving me a chance to observe the other girls.

"I heard the King gives his favorites actual diamonds," an overly optimistic girl named Bella gasped, buttering her roll. "I bet one of us is going to end up as Queen."

"Keep dreaming," a bitter noblewoman named Clara snapped, rolling her eyes. "You are common dirt, Bella. Some of us actually volunteered for the status."

In the corner, a terrified omega girl sat sobbing into her napkin, while a quiet woman with dark eyes just ate her food in complete silence, looking like she knew way more than she was letting on.

"They say King Zeus is over two centuries old," Bella whispered, leaning over the table. "He has rejected hundreds of candidates, and the Elders are losing their minds because he refuses to take a Luna."

"He hasn't smiled or laughed in living memory either," Clara added, though her voice dropped low.

I brushed off most of it as silly gossip, but I couldn't help noticing that nobody dared to speak the King's actual name above a quiet whisper.

Later that afternoon, the guards gathered us one by one for physical examinations.

Physicians checked everything from our heart rates to our scent compatibility, calmly explaining that these tests were necessary to see if our bodies could handle a Lycan pregnancy.

I found the whole thing completely degrading, but I kept my mouth shut and endured it because I just needed to survive long enough to find a way back home to my sister.

Finally, it was my turn.

I sat on the wooden table as the old Head Physician checked my pulse and wrote down notes on a scroll. Everything was proceeding normally until he took a small needle, drew a drop of my blood, and placed it onto an ancient red crystal used to identify wolf bloodlines.

The moment my blood touched the surface, the crystal didn't just glow like it was supposed to.

It fractured violently with a deafening crack that rang through the quiet room.

The physicians instantly froze in place, staring at the shattered crystal and then up at my face like they had just seen a monster.

"Equipment malfunction," the Head Physician suddenly barked, his voice loud and fake as he turned to the assistants. "Everyone leave the room. Now!"

I saw the terror flashing in his eyes, and I knew instantly that he was lying through his teeth.

Once the room cleared out, he pulled out a second crystal with shaking hands and dropped my blood onto it.

*CRACK.*

It shattered even faster than the first one.

He pulled out a third crystal, his breathing and panicked. My blood touched it, and the stone turned pitch black before completely exploding into tiny dust particles across the table.

"What is wrong with my blood?" I demanded, sitting up on the table. "Answer me!"

Nobody answered. Instead, the Head Physician rushed over to the wooden doors, shoved the remaining servants out into the hallway, and locked the doors from the inside.

He turned back around, staring at me for several long, suffocating seconds as if he were looking at a ghost.

Then, right in front of my eyes, he dropped straight onto his knees before me.

"Stop acting insane and get up!" I snapped, getting really irritated. "Explain what is happening!"

"You must not leave this room," he whispered, his hands trembling so hard he could barely hold his breath. "Do not move from that spot, child."

Before I could grab him and force an answer out of his mouth, he scrambled up from the floor and rushed out the side door, clutching the broken crystal pieces like they were priceless evidence.

Left completely alone, I immediately hopped off the table and started searching the room for answers.

I pushed open a few drawers and found a stack of old medical files hidden right beneath a low wooden cabinet. I grabbed the papers and quickly skimmed through them before I heard footsteps echoing outside.

My eyes caught only fragments of the text—dozens of previous candidates, endless reports of failed compatibility, and one strange sentence near the bottom: *Subject survived first contact with the Blood Stone.*

I barely had time to shove the files back into the cabinet before two guards shoved the doors open and escorted me away without saying a single word.

As I was being led back through the long palace corridors, everything felt distinctly different.

Servants stopped sweeping the floors to stare at me with wide eyes, whispering hushed words behind their hands as I walked past. Even the other candidates in the hallway backed away from me, avoiding my eyes without even understanding why.

††

(Meanwhile, inside the palace’s private council chamber….)

The doors were suddenly thrown open as the Head Physician burst straight into the room, interrupting the high-ranking alpha lords and royal advisors seated around the long table.

He didn't care about protocol. He rushed straight toward the head of the table, where a tall, dark-haired man sat in a grand stone throne.

With shaking hands, the physician dropped the shattered, blackened pieces of the Blood Crystal directly onto the polished wood before the King.

The entire council room fell into a dead silence.

The physician bowed his head to the floor, his voice trembling so hard it echoed off the high walls.

"Your Majesty..." he whispered. "We found her.”