The Howling Throne

My name is Elior. By the standards of the packs, I’m nobody special. I don’t hail from a powerful bloodline, nor do I carry the weight of a prestigious family name. I’m a lone wolf, unaligned to any pack and free of the endless power struggles that define their lives. At least, that’s what I tell myself.For as long as I can remember, I’ve lived on the edges of their world—watching, listening, learning. I was born into a minor pack, one so small it barely registered in the grand hierarchy of our kind. When our territory was claimed by stronger wolves, I learned the hard way that survival didn’t favor the noble-hearted. Strength ruled, and anyone who couldn’t keep up was left to fade into obscurity.I’ve spent most of my life avoiding the packs’ games, but Alaric changed everything.He was different from the others—an alpha who ruled not with brute strength, but with cunning and vision. Under his reign, the packs had known something resembling peace. And while I stayed far from his cou

The cabin was small and unassuming, nestled deep within the forest. It wasn’t much, but it was safe—a sanctuary that Sienna and I had used in the past when we needed to disappear from prying eyes. Sienna led me inside, her grip firm but careful. I slumped into a chair near the hearth, the scent of ash and aged wood filling my senses as she lit the fire. “You’re lucky I found you,” she said, her tone clipped as she rummaged through a nearby cabinet. “Another minute, and they would’ve torn you apart.” “Luck had nothing to do with it,” I muttered, wincing as I adjusted my arm. The bite wound on my shoulder throbbed, and my body ached from the skirmish. “What were you even doing out there?” Sienna glanced at me, her silver hair catching the firelight. “I could ask you the same question, Elior. But since you look half-dead, I’ll save the interrogation for later.” She pulled out a small vial of herbal salve and a roll of bandages, then crouched in front of me. Her touch was gentle

The road to the Shadowlands was fraught with dangers. Every step closer felt like diving deeper into the unknown, where the air grew heavier and the shadows seemed to stretch endlessly. Sienna and I moved swiftly, keeping our pace brisk but cautious. The map was our lifeline now, the cryptic markings our only guide to the Crown. We had barely covered half the distance when the faint scent of smoke reached my nose. I halted, holding up a hand to stop Sienna. “You smell that?” I asked. She nodded, her senses as sharp as mine. “Someone’s nearby.” We crept forward, staying low and hidden within the thick brush. As we rounded a bend, the source of the smoke became clear—a small campfire flickering amidst the trees. Two figures sat near the fire, their voices low but distinct. One was a burly man with a thick beard and a scar running down the side of his face. The other was a lean woman with fiery red hair and a mischievous glint in her eyes. ---Sienna nudged me, her voice bare

The silence after our escape was almost worse than the whispers.We sat in the cold dirt, catching our breath. The Phantoms hadn’t pursued us past the tree line, but their presence still clung to the air like a curse. My pulse was still erratic, my mind replaying the vision over and over. My mother. Her silver eyes. The sorrow in her voice.It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be.Freya let out a dry laugh, breaking the silence. “Well, that was horrifying.”Bram grunted, running a hand through his sweat-drenched hair. “You don’t say.” He wiped his sword against the ground. “If those things wanted us dead, they could’ve done it already.”Sienna was still watching me. “What did you see, Elior?”I met her gaze but didn’t answer immediately. How could I? Admitting it out loud felt dangerous, like acknowledging it would make it real. But Sienna’s stare was unwavering. She already knew it was something that had shaken me.“My mother.” My voice came out rougher than I intended. “She spoke to me.”Fre

The silence stretched between us, thick with unspoken fears. My breath came in uneven gasps as my body struggled to recover from the surge of raw energy that had ripped through me inside the ruins. It wasn’t just exhaustion—I felt different, like something deep within me had shifted, altered.Sienna was the first to break the silence. “Elior?” Her voice was sharp, wary.I lifted my gaze to meet hers, but before I could speak, another sensation gripped me. A pulse—no, a heartbeat—throbbed against my skull. My vision blurred, distorting the world around me. One moment I stood in the moonlit clearing outside the ruins; the next, I was somewhere else.A barren wasteland. The sky bled with an eerie red hue, and in the distance, an obsidian throne loomed. Shadows flickered like living creatures, whispering in a language I didn’t understand but felt in my bones.Then, the pain came.My body convulsed as fire licked through my veins, cold and searing at once. I tried to move, to resist, but t