Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Royal Scent

Nadia's POV

I was soaked to the bone, bruised, and bleeding from a dozen shallow cuts. My hands immediately flew to the pack strapped tight across my chest, unzipping the oilcloth wrapping with trembling fingers as I released a shuddering breath of relief.

My father's journal was dry. My grandmother's map was safe.

Sitting alone in the damp darkness of the rock alcove, I pulled my knees to my chest. The silence of the wild borderlands pressed in on me, heavy and suffocating. No cave. No grandmother to guide me. No friend to laugh with behind the market carts.

Mara's tear-stained face flashed in my mind: her terrified green eyes, her broken apology right before the guards swarmed out of the trees.

I'm so sorry, Nadia... they forced me.

A fresh wave of pain sliced through my heart, but I forced my jaw to clench, blinking away the heat in my eyes as I reached down and grabbed a handful of coarse sand from the riverbank, scrubbing the remaining trace of dark, iridescent Blackblood blood from my forehead until the skin burned raw.

No more tears. No more foolish dreams of belonging.

I wrapped my father's journal tight, tied the leather straps around my waist and stepped out from the ledge into the vast, unforgiving wilderness of the western territory. I had a long way to travel to find the ancestral clan, and this time, I wouldn't trust a single soul along the way.

Lyra's POV

The heavy iron doors of the regional Alpha's keep slammed open, hitting the stone walls with a deafening crash.

I stepped into the courtyard, my heavy dark cloak sweeping behind me as General Valerius kept a silent, watchful stride at my flank. Behind us, six elite guards of the Lycan Vanguard stood in rigid formation, their silver-trimmed armour gleaming beneath the dark rain clouds gathering over the mountain peaks.

"Your Majesty!" Alpha Aaron hurried down the stone steps, bowing so low his forehead nearly brushed the gravel. "We were not expecting the High Court in our border territory so soon. Had I known the True Lycan King was visiting our outposts today, I would have prepared a proper welcome-"

"Save your grovelling, Aaron," I cut him off, my voice flat and cold, free of patience. "I am here to inspect the western garrison's readiness, not to drink your low-grade wine."

"Of course, Sire," Aaron stammered, wiping sweat from his thick neck. "We... We have a minor situation along the perimeter fence today. Nothing for the High Monarch to concern himself with just a rogue incident, quickly handled."

"A minor situation?" Valerius stepped forward, and his scarred face was impassive as he casually rested his hand on the hilt of his broadsword. "Reports reaching the road claimed a mountain cavern collapsed, four of your guards were crushed, and alarm horns were sounded across three districts."

Aaron turned pale and opened his mouth to fabricate another lie, but I ignored him completely.

I didn't care about his weak pack or his clumsy guards. I had spent twenty-nine years navigating the filthy, deceitful political games of noble Alphas. Every smile was fake. Every promise was a transaction. I ruled an empire of wolves who feared my strength and coveted my crown, but none of them saw the male behind the title. I was accustomed to cold solitude.

Then the mountain wind shifted.

A breeze swept down from the high cliffs, carrying the sharp, metallic scent of ozone, rain... and something else.

I froze mid-stride.

It hit my senses like a physical blow. A rare, breathtaking fragrance lingered faintly in the damp mountain air. It smelled of deep earth, crushed pine, ancient magic, and the sharp, intoxicating copper of freshly spilt pureblood.

Inside my chest, something ancient and violent snapped awake.

My inner Lycan beast, a dark, dormant monster that had remained silent and unresponsive for over a decade despite every noble lady paraded before my throne, roared to life. It slammed against my ribs with a possessive, terrifying fury, making my breath hitch in my throat.

MATE.

The word echoed through my skull, burning through my veins like liquid fire as my golden Lycan eyes flared brightly, the royal iris bleeding into pure, glowing gold as my fangs lengthened against my lips.

"Sire?" Valerius asked instantly, his hand tightening on his hilt as he felt the sudden, crushing shift in my aura. "What is it?"

I turned slowly, my gaze locking onto the blood-stained grass near the edge of the wooden perimeter fence twenty paces away.

I walked towards it, every instinct in my body screaming, driving me towards that lingering scent. I knelt on one knee, dipping my gloved fingers into the damp soil where dark, iridescent drops of crimson had soaked into the earth.

Blackblood.

"Who bled here?" I growled, my voice dropping an octave as a low, vibrating rumble made the surrounding guards drop to their knees in instinctive terror.

"Sire... it was... it was the fugitive," Aaron stammered, trembling uncontrollably. "A girl. An illegal Blackblood who had been hiding in the upper caves. She attacked my trackers and plunged into the border rapids. My hunters are preparing to scour the riverbanks to eliminate her-"

Before he could finish, I was on my feet. In a fraction of a second, I closed the distance between us, grabbing Aaron by the throat and lifting his heavy form two feet off the ground.

"You hunted her?" I hissed, my golden eyes burning into his soul as my claws dug into his neck armour. "You dared draw her blood on my land?"

"Your... Your Majesty!" Aaron gasped, choking, his eyes wild with terror. "She is... a forbidden lineage! The law-"

"I am the law," I snarled, slamming him back down onto the stone floor with enough force to crack the paving stones.

I turned my back on the coward, looking out across the roaring river towards the misty, dark mountains of the western wilderness. She was out there. Wounded. Cold. Running for her life from a world that wanted her in chains.

"Valerius," I commanded, my voice cold as iron.

"Sire," Valerius answered, stepping forward instantly. "Issue a royal decree to every pack from here to the western borders," I said, watching the rain begin to fall over the distant trees. "The hunt for the Blackblood is stripped from local authority. The Lycan Citadel takes full jurisdiction."

I gripped the hilt of my blade, my beast howling inside my chest, demanding that I tear down every mountain in this realm until I held her in my arms.

"If anyone touches a single hair on her head", I whispered, my voice carrying a promise of

total annihilation, "I will burn their pack to ashes. We ride west.”