THE SHADOWS OF THE PAST

The guard's words hung in the icy air of the medical room like a death sentence.

The royal bastard child will never take its first breath.

My hand instinctively moved down to my stomach, clutching the thin fabric of my hospital gown. A cold, fierce fire flared inside my chest. In my past life, I was weak, helpless, and let people step all over me. But now? I was the true heir of the Crestwood royal bloodline. I had powerful wolf magic sleeping in my veins, and I was holding the future of two mighty bloodlines inside me. Nobody was going to touch my child. Nobody.

"Who is this Blood Sovereign?" Brandon demanded, his voice dropping into a deadly, low rumble. "Holt Lockford was crushed in the elevator shaft. We confirmed his body was trapped under three tons of steel!"

"It was not Holt, Alpha Brandon," the guard replied, trembling under the combined pressure of two furious Alphas. "The rogues carried banners marked with an ancient crest. A crest featuring a black snake wrapped around a silver moon."

Julian's face went deadly pale, all the color instantly draining from his features. "The Darkmoon Syndicate..." he whispered.

"The who?" I asked, looking between Julian and my brother.

Brandon's jaw clenched so hard I thought his teeth might crack. "An ancient, forbidden sect of dark rogue wolves. They practice taboo blood magic. Thirty years ago, our father, King Alistair, fought a brutal war to wipe them off the map. Their leader back then was a wicked Alpha named Silas Vance."

My eyes widened in shock. "Vance? Like my adoptive family?"

"Silas Vance was the father of the man who abducted you," Julian explained, taking a step closer to my bed, his gray eyes burning with pure hatred. "When King Alistair defeated Silas, the remaining Vance family members hid their dark magic, pretended to be peaceful commoners, and waited for their revenge. They didn't just steal you as an infant for your trust fund, Serena... they stole you to keep the royal Crestwood line weak!"

Everything was coming together into a terrifying picture. The torture I endured as a child, the mistreatment by my adoptive parents, Chloe's sudden appearance in my past life, Holt's rogue uprising—it wasn't just random bad luck. It was a massive, decades-long conspiracy designed to erase my family from existence!

"If they are attacking now," I said, my voice cold as steel, "it means they know my royal blood has awakened. They know my baby carries both the royal Crestwood magic and the Alpha Lockford bloodline."

"They view your child as the ultimate threat," Julian said, his fists clenched tight, blood slowly dripping from his healing knuckles onto the floor. "A child born of your royal power and my Alpha line would unify the entire northern and southern wolf territories forever. The Darkmoon Syndicate wants to tear down the territories while we are divided."

"Well, they picked the wrong time to poke the bear," Brandon growled. He turned to his head guard. "Sound the horn. Mobilize the royal crestwood guards. Lock down the entire perimeter of the manor. No one enters or leaves without my direct seal!"

"Yes, Alpha!" The guard bowed quickly and sprinted out of the room.

Brandon turned to me, his amber eyes softening with protective care. "Serena, you stay here. You need rest. The baby is still fragile. I will handle the border skirmish myself."

"No," Julian interrupted firmly, stepping forward. "You stay here and protect the manor, Brandon. Your presence is needed to keep the inner royal territory secure. The attack was on Lockford land. My packhouse was burned. This is my fight."

"You are exhausted and injured from the Northern Trial!" Brandon argued fiercely. "You will be walking into an ambush!"

"I don't care," Julian snarled, his wolf clawing at his chest. "I lost everything in my past life because I stayed behind and played it safe. I won't let these dark scum step anywhere near Serena or my child. I will tear them to pieces."

I looked at Julian. The arrogant, cold Alpha who used to dismiss me with a wave of his hand was gone. Standing before me was a warrior fueled by sheer desperation and unconditional devotion. He was willing to march into a burning hell just to keep the nightmare away from my door.

"Julian," I called out softly.

He paused, stopping right near the threshold of the door. He turned back, his dark eyes filled with a mixture of hope and intense fear.

"Don't die," I said, my voice steady, eyes locked onto his. "If you really want to earn your atonement, you don't get off easy by dying on the battlefield. You survive, and you come back."

A faint, bitter smile touched Julian's lips, a rare spark of warmth illuminating his tired face. "I hear and obey, my Queen."

Without another word, he turned and sprinted down the hallway, his body transforming mid-stride into a massive, jet-black wolf. The black wolf leaped through the glass window at the end of the hall, roaring a fierce battle cry that shook the very foundations of the manor, before plunging down into the dark forest below.

Brandon watched him leave with a heavy sigh. He walked over, sitting beside my bed, and gently stroked my hair. "Do you truly think you can ever forgive him, Serena?"

I looked down at my hands, feeling the faint, warm pulse of life beneath my stomach.

"I don't know, Brandon," I confessed honestly. "The wounds from my past life are deep. The pain of dying alone doesn't just fade away because he apologized. But... he is the father of my child. And right now, he is fighting for our survival."

Suddenly, the lights in the medical room flickered violently.

BZZZZT.

The heavy emergency generators hummed, but then instantly died, plunging the entire medical wing into absolute, pitch-black darkness.

The loud blare of emergency alarms cut off abruptly. Outside the window, distant screams of pain began to echo through the night air.

Brandon snapped up instantly, drawing a long silver blade from his belt. "They are already inside the manor," he whispered in lethal fury.

Before he could step toward the door, the shadows in the corner of my medical room began to twist and stretch unnaturally. The air temperature dropped to absolute zero, frosting over the glass windows.

Out of the deep shadows, a high-pitched, mocking laughter echoed—a voice I recognized all too well.

"Did you really think Julian leaving was an accident, dear little sister?"

The darkness parted, revealing a woman dressed in black leather armor, her eyes glowing a sickening crimson red.

It was Chloe. But she wasn't the pathetic, discarded mistress anymore. Her skin was covered in dark, glowing blood runes, and she was holding a jagged obsidian dagger that hummed with dark magic.

"Hello, Serena," Chloe sneered, raising the black blade. "It is time to finish what we started in your past life."