LOGINSERAPHINAMonths had passed since our lives turned upside down. Spring had turned into summer, and now the leaves were starting to change color again. Little Caelan was growing so fast. He was a happy toddler with bright eyes, messy dark hair, and a laugh that could fill the whole palace. He loved running around the gardens with his wooden sword, pretending to be a brave knight.Caelum came to visit often. At first, it was just to see his nephew. He would arrive on his tall horse, wearing his simple traveling cloak, and Caelan would shout “Uncle!” and run straight into his arms. I watched them from the window with my heart feeling heavy and warm at the same time. But every visit made things more complicated between Caelum and me.We tried to keep our talks short and safe. We spoke about Caelan’s favorite foods, how he was learning new words, and his first riding lessons on a gentle pony. But our eyes always said more than our words. The old feelings between us had never really died. T
VAELARIONThe messenger’s words hit like a war drum: Caelum has entered the palace.My blood ignited before my mind could catch up. Seraphina. The image of that golden-haired bastard standing anywhere near her sent my wolf surging against my ribs and my claws scraping at the edges of my control. I was moving before I realized it. A guard called out something, but his voice was lost in the roar of instinct screaming one thing only: Protect what is mine.My heart hammered with the old fury. Caelum. The name itself tasted like ash and betrayal. How dare he walk these halls after everything? After the blood spilled between our peoples, after the fragile treaty still wet with ink? I could already picture his cold eyes on Seraphina, that calculated smile, the way he carried himself like a king who had never lost. My wolf wanted to tear him apart and paint the chamber walls with his blood. I slammed through the heavy oak doors without knocking. And then… nothing, the violence I expected si
CAELUM The wind carried the scent of decay across the empty fields. I sat alone in the great hall, staring at the cold hearth. Isolde was gone. The war I had waged just to get Seraphina and completely ignored Isolde while at it had turned to dust in my mouth. I no longer craved conquest or victory. Only silence remained.The estate felt like a tomb. My hands trembled around an untouched goblet. I had believed power could protect what I loved. Instead, it had poisoned everything I touched.Then the final blow came. Elias...my oldest friend, the man who had ridden beside me since boyhood was found dead near the eastern border. His throat had been torn open, his body abandoned for the crows. No message, no warning just another life lost to the wreckage of my choices. I rode out alone, knelt in the mud beside his remains, and wept like a child for the first time in years.Everyone around me had paid for my obsession. My wars. My need to dominate and possess, everyone except Seraphina.M
CAELUM The world was returning to me in fragments and shards that cut deeper with every breath. I woke in the dim glow of what remained of my chambers, my body was heavy from the recovery potions they'd forced down my throat. Weeks, maybe months, lost to whatever poison or curse had laid me low. My empire, the one I'd bled oceans for, was already crumbling.I stumbled to the war room, my legs still unsteady, and found the maps torn from the walls alongside messages scattered across the table like dead leaves.Alliances had withdrawn. The northern packs had pulled back under new alphas. Eastern lords cited "instability." My accounts had been frozen by cowards in the banking enclaves who once begged for my favor. And the packs... my own wolves abandoning the banner. Whispers of a better future, a stronger leader. Betrayal after betrayal, each one a knife between my ribs.But none of that mattered."Isolde."Her name tore from my throat like a prayer and a curse. I followed the ghost
VAELARIONI waited the entire day like a condemned man.Every hour that passed felt heavier. I expected Seraphina to storm in, scream at me, or demand answers about the curse, about how I had first seen her as a tool, but she said nothing.She moved through our chambers quietly. I watched her feed Caelan, her hands gentle as she held our son to her breast. The boy drank peacefully while she stroked his dark hair. Every few minutes her eyes would lift to me. I sat at the table pretending to read maps, but my hands shook. Three hundred years of ruling, and one small woman had undone me.She carried Caelan and left my chamber, probably heading to hers. I didn't say a word to stop her. When night came, the door opened and Seraphina stepped inside wearing a simple robe. She closed the door behind her with a soft click that sounded louder than any war drum.I stood up. My throat felt tight. “Seraphina…”She raised her hand, I stopped talking. For the first time in centuries, I obeyed wit
SERAPHINA I couldn’t explain the pain that was soaring inside my chest. It wasn't physical but I could feel something tearing physically like my heart was being ripped out. I could still smell Caelan on the blanket.I sat alone in my chambers long after Vaelarion left the palace, clutching the tiny cloth against my chest so tightly my fingers had gone numb hours ago. Nobody disturbed me anymore. The entire palace felt afraid of me, maybe they should have been.I had not cried since Vaelarion rode out. I kept thinking I should be screaming or collapsing or praying to every god I knew, but instead there was only this awful stillness sitting inside me. Every few minutes I caught myself listening for my son instinctively, waiting for a cry that never came. The silence hurt.I stood abruptly before I realized I had made the decision.My body moved before my thoughts fully caught up with it. I threw on a dark robe and left the chambers alone, ignoring the startled guards who straightene
CAELUM By the third abandoned village, even my soldiers stopped speaking.The first time we arrived to empty streets, I assumed it was fear. Word of the war had spread across every border by now, and most villagers fled the second they heard an army was approaching. That was normal.But the second
SERAPHINA I woke up unable to breathe properly. At first I thought it was another nightmare because my chest felt tight and my heartbeat was racing so hard it hurt, but then I realized I was fully awake. The room was dark except for the dying fire near the windows, and every breath I took felt wr
VAELARIONMy chamber was starting to smell of blood and herbs. I was beginning to hate the smell so much. The rain outside brought a bit of calm to the chaos. It hammered against the palace windows while the fire burned low beside my desk, throwing long shadows across the chamber walls. My armor
SERAPHINA That night when I got the message from a servant that Vaelarion had sent for me, the first thing I felt was fear. Why? I couldn’t explain. I had craved for his presence and his touch for weeks, now I was getting sought for, but I still had doubt that unsettled me deeply. The first thing







