The Hallow Crown

The wind howled like a restless spirit as I stepped through the gates of Veyra, my cloak draped from my broad shoulders like a shadow given form, its long, tattered hem whispering across the earth with every step she took. Woven from dark, heavy fabric but light enough to catch the breeze, it billowed behind me in wild, dramatic arcs, mimicking the motion of wings or smoke caught in a storm. The wind tugged at it fiercely, lifting it away from my tall, slender, and muscular lupine body as if trying to carry it into the night. It flared wide as I stood atop the ridge, looking over Veyra. Silhouetted against the moon, a spectral banner that marked my passage and hinted at the primal force beneath the folds. The hood, thrown back, danced with the gusts, revealing my sharp profile and glinting eyes, both human and not. The city lay cradled between stone cliffs and frozen pines, cloaked in mist and moonlight a neutral ground carved from old treaties and older blood.Even here, I could fee

The moon had risen, low and gold in the sky, by the time I was able to slip from the Hall of Accord. I told her father that she was going to head home and rest. But that is not where I was heading, I needed answers and there was only one person I could get them from. The mark on my wrist still pulsed faintly beneath my cuff, a heartbeat that didn’t belong to me or my wolf. I could feel the tether, not just to Aeryn, but to something larger. Something ancient. Something watching. I followed the pull, and I found him where I expected, not in the city, but at its edge, near the ruins of the old watchtower that once marked the border of Lunari lands. Wolves always returned to familiar paths, even in exile.He didn’t look surprised to see her. Just... tired. There was something deeper in his eyes, as hard as I tried, I couldn’t read it, but it felt so sad and lonely. "You're not very subtle," he said."And you're not very hidden." I replied. Aeryn glanced over his shoulder, then lea

The Hall of accord echoed with too much silence. Everyone was gone except for my father, his two enforcers, Erdan, and myself. I stood beneath the high arched ceiling, cold light dripping from the glass dome above. The council had dispersed hours ago, but her father remained seated, flanked by two Frostfang enforcers, both watching her as if she were a blade that might swing without warning. Like I was a threat to him. As cold as my father was, I did not hate him I just wanted him to love and except me.“You didn’t tell me,” Alpha Myras said, voice level, but edged in steel. “About the bond.”I didn’t flinch. “Because I didn’t choose it.”“No one does.” He rose slowly; steps precise. “But only fools pretend it isn’t real.”I kept her hands at her sides, fingers twitching to shield the mark beneath my sleeve. “It changes nothing.”Myras’s eyes narrowed. “It changes everything.”He crossed the floor in a few strides, stopping just before me. “Do you think the other clans will allow

The Frostfang blade still lay where I had found it, half-buried in moss near the old watchtower. But now a second object rested beside it, a stone disk etched with a sigil older than either of their clans. The moment my fingers brushed it, it hummed with a heat that traveled through my veins, settling behind his ribs like a pulse out of time. I didn’t know what it was. Only had a feeling that Kaela would. She met me in the shrine again, summoned by the tug of the bond and the scent of my magic on the wind. When she came through the clearing my eyes locked onto her immediately. I walked towards her with the disk in my hand. “What is this?” said asked.Kaela turned the disk over in her hand, her voice barely above a whisper. “I saw this in the restricted records once before. It predates Frostfang. Predates Lunari. This wasn’t a bond meant for love or war. It’s... a call. A lock. And we’re the key.”I stood there and my gaze didn’t waver not once. “Then what are we opening?”

(Aeryn)I landed in silence.No wind. No sky. Just a cold, deeper than winter, bone-deep and sterile. The stone beneath my boots was familiar: Frostfang marble, cracked and rimed with ice. The training yard. Only... wrong.The compound was in ruins, buried beneath snow and broken columns. Red flags snapped in the wind, but no sigil marked them — only a burn, as if clan identity had been stripped by fire.“Aeryn.”The voice froze me. Low. Icy. Etched into my memory like old wounds.My father.I turned slowly.Alpha Cael, my father stood beneath the remains of the main hall arch, whole and hale, armor gleaming with frost-forged steel. But his eyes were hollow. Lifeless. Judging.“You were never meant to lead,” my father said.“You're dead,” I answered. “And I didn’t come back for your legacy.”“No,” his father replied. “You came back for her.”Kaela’s voice echoed behind him, distant “Aeryn” but when I turned, she wasn’t there. Only shadow.“She weakens you,” Cael said again, stepping c