CHAPTER 2

Draegon sat still, the letter open in his hand, its sharp words like knives in his chest. His face was unreadable, but his eyes had darkened, and his lips had thinned into a flat line. Valen stood at a distance, watching his father's eyes scan the same line repeatedly.

Immediately after getting Gray's letter, they went in search of him again, as Seraphim urgently requested.

Seraphim's voice broke through the tense silence. "No... No! This can't be! Draegon, you know too well that we can not do this! We can not allow it. This is a disaster, a huge one at that."

She grabbed the letter from Draegon with trembling hands, reading its hateful message to herself.

'To all Alphas and Leaders of neighboring territories under the rule of the Crown, prepare. The Lycanis will be arriving within three days. One male child from each household will be chosen. Resistance will not be tolerated.'

Her hand flew to her mouth. "They're taking children... they're taking our sons... Don't they have shame?"

She turned to Draegon. "We can't allow this. We can't let them touch Valen. Not our daugh... son. I won't allow him to leave. You know how these people are, don't you? You know how devilish they are. No mother would open their eyes and let their child get eaten by those monsters."

Tears streamed down her cheeks as she sank to the floor, rocking slightly. "They think she is a man. They'll take her to that devilish place. If they find out that she isn't who we are presenting her to be, we are dead! They might kill her! I know what it took me to get this child, Draegon. Why now?" She cried bitterly.

Draegon knelt beside her, pulling her into his arms. His own heart was weighed down, but he kept his voice steady. "They won't take her. I won’t let them."

"But what if they find out? What if they know she’s not..."

"They won’t," Draegon interrupted gently. "She is stronger than them all. No one will question it. And even if they did, Valen is not going anywhere."

Seraphim clung to him, her tears soaking into his shirt. Her sobs grew softer until, eventually exhausted, she fell asleep in his arms. Draegon carried her gently to their bed and covered her. Then he returned to the room, only to find Valen waiting silently by the fireplace.

"She’s asleep," he said softly.

Valen nodded, his face unreadable. "What are you going to do now, Father? You promised her I wouldn’t go."

Draegon ran a tired hand over his face. "I honestly don’t know yet. But I’ll find something. I always do."

"Why don’t you let me go? You’ve trained me for this. You made me strong. I’m not afraid," Valen said, studying his father closely.

Draegon turned sharply toward her.

"No. I didn’t train you for this. I didn’t raise you so you could fall into the hands of the Lycanis."

"Then what did you raise me for? I am no less than a man now, Father." Valen remarked.

"It still doesn't mean you are not a woman. I raised you to protect yourself," he replied, stepping closer. "To protect your mother. To protect this pack. I trained you so that the world would never be able to use your true identity against you. I never meant for you to walk straight into the fire."

Valen’s throat tightened. He turned away before he could see the flicker of conflict in his eyes. The fire crackled quietly between them.

"You think I can’t survive them, don't you? You think I'm not strong enough." she said finally.

"Valen, please don't twist this around. I know you can survive, but that’s not the point. I won’t let you live in a place where your life no longer belongs to you. That’s not survival, Valen. That’s surrender, and these people, just like your mother said, are monsters, and I would be so wicked to let go of your hand."

The room grew still again.

"You don't have to worry about anything or anyone, okay? I will have it sorted out. You can go to bed and sleep." Draegon said, and Valen gave a short nod, then walked toward his chamber. The weight of his father’s words pressed down on his chest.

Inside his room, Valen lit a small lantern and pulled out the scrolls and notes he had hidden away under his bed. She began to scan through them. Tales of the Lycanis, legends, old stories whispered among elders, and ancient writings passed through the pack’s oral history.

He jotted things down.

Ever since he stumbled across the real reason why he was brought up like a man and not the way he had seen an ordinary girl being brought up, he had started to dig deep into these people and why they terrified people so much.

The Lycanis were not just a group of rogue wolves. They were different. Their strength was tied to something older and darker. Something that had been passed through bloodlines. There were stories about how they took male children to indoctrinate them, break them, and turn them into soldiers who obeyed without thought, and how they took female children to defile them and feed on their blood.

He shivered.

He leaned back, thinking. His mind drifted to his father. He didn’t have a plan this time around like he always had. He had seen it in his eyes. He was lost in thought, running in circles.

Valen knew that his father's only real solution would be to surrender himself.

Now he understood why he had said that the real reason he had trained him was because he wanted him to protect his mother and everyone else, and this was because he would be gone. His father had planned it out already. He would offer himself to the Lycanis in his place. He would claim he had no son, only himself, a male of the house, fit to be taken. It was a noble plan. Brave, but foolish.

Valen stood and paced.

He can't let her father go.

He stopped and looked at himself in the mirror. His face, her stance—everything about him screamed warrior. The world saw a man. His body carried the strength of his father, the focus of his mother, and the fury of the truth buried within her.

“I can’t let him go,” he whispered. “I can’t let anyone else go.”

"I have to do something,” he added, making a fist and hitting the desk before her angrily.