Masuk[POV: Lord Varis]The wind howled through the broken wooden shutters of the old mountain watchtower.It was a freezing, miserable stone building located miles away from the capital. There was no fire in the hearth. There were no servants to bring hot wine. There were no expensive red rugs on the floor.I sat at a rotting wooden table in the center of the dark room. My hands were freezing. I pulled my thin coat tighter around my shoulders, shivering violently.The other banished lords sat around the table with me. They looked awful. Their faces were dirty. Their hair was a mess. They looked like the exact peasants we used to rule."I cannot sleep on this floor another night," Lord Kelan complained bitterly. He rubbed his shaking hands together. "We are nobles. We should be sleeping in feather beds. That rogue beast humiliated us.""Complaining will not get our castle back," I snapped at him.I reached into my coat pocket. I pulled out a heavy, dark leather pouch. I dropped it onto the
Kaelen PovI stood in the mud at the center of the border village.The heavy wooden wagons behind me were loaded entirely with thick sacks of grain from the castle reserves. I did not send a lower guard or a politician to do this job. I came myself. The dirt road was completely quiet. The villagers stood in a wide circle around my horses, keeping a very safe distance.I looked at their faces. I saw mothers pulling their children behind their skirts. I saw thin, starving men holding farming tools with shaking hands. They stared at my scarred face, my massive size, and the heavy broadsword strapped across my back. They knew exactly who I was. They knew I was the feral rogue who took the throne by force. They expected me to demand taxes. They expected me to take their last winter supplies. They expected violence.I stepped up to the back of the first wagon. I reached down and drew the sharp hunting knife from my belt.Several villagers flinched violently. A few men took a step backward,
I left the terrified courtyard behind. I did not look back at the civilians shrinking away from my horse. My heavy boots hit the wide stone steps leading to the main keep. The Northern guards stayed outside in the dirt to secure the gates. I walked entirely alone. I did not want an armed escort to hold my hand as I walked back into my own house.The massive oak doors stood at the top of the stairs. They were thick, heavy, and bound in dark iron. I remembered these doors. I remembered them slamming shut twenty years ago when the now lycan father's men marched into the castle and dragged my parents out of their beds. I remembered hiding behind a wooden barrel in the hallway, pressing my small hands over my mouth to keep from crying out while the guards searched for me. I remembered when my mother tried to hide me and me running into the freezing night with nothing but the clothes on my back.I lifted my boot. I kicked the heavy wood right near the iron latch.The doors blew open. They b
I snapped the reins. My horse lunged forward. The sound of dozens of heavy hooves hitting the frozen cobblestones echoed through the courtyard. I rode straight toward the massive iron gates. The wall guards pulled the heavy chains, opening the way.I rode out of the Blackwood stronghold. I did not look back over my shoulder. I kept my eyes fixed straight ahead.The journey East took exactly five days.I rode at the very front of the column. For the first two days, the road was buried under thick, freezing snow. The wind bit hard at our faces, and the sky was a heavy, solid gray. We slept in simple camps, keeping the fires low. The Northern guards followed my orders without question. They moved efficiently when I told them to make camp, and they slept soundly when I took the first watch in the dead of night. They trusted me to guard their lives.That trust felt entirely foreign, but I did not reject it. I sat by the dying embers of the fire on the second night, watching the snow fall,
I walked down the heavy stone stairs from the balcony. The sun was just starting to break over the high walls of the Blackwood stronghold, casting long, sharp shadows across the packed snow. The main courtyard was no longer quiet.Fifty elite Northern guards sat on their horses. They were dressed in thick winter leathers and dark iron armor. They sat in perfect, disciplined lines, waiting for my command. My massive black warhorse was saddled and ready at the front of the column.Standing right next to my horse were Cillian, Elian, and Martha.I walked across the courtyard. The Northern guards did not look at me with suspicion. They did not see a feral rogue. They looked straight ahead, treating me as a seasoned commander ready to lead them on the road.I stopped in front of Cillian.The Warlord King was standing like a conqueror looking down on a rival. He stood with his shoulders relaxed, his hands resting naturally at his sides. Cillian stepped forward. He reached out his right arm
[Kaelen's POV]It was four in the morning. The very early eyes of the day.The Blackwood castle was completely dead and silent. The sun was still hours away from coming over the high stone walls. The deep winter darkness covered the stronghold.I rested my elbows on the flat stone wall. In my hands, I held the Eastern crown. It was a thick, heavy ring of solid iron. I turned it slowly in my fingers. I spent the last twenty years of my life running through the mud. I fought stray wolves for raw meat just to survive the freezing winters. I had hidden in caves and ditches, letting a fierce, burning anger keep me alive in the dark when I had absolutely nothing else. I wanted revenge. I wanted to tear King Garrick apart for stealing this piece of metal from my family.But as I stood alone in the dark, the anger was gone.My chest felt steady. The wild instinct that always told me to fight and hide had vanished. I looked at the iron crown, but I was not thinking about revenge anymore. I was
The solid rock cracked under his fist, sending a shower of dust to the floor. The force of it snapped something back into place inside my head. Raw, pure fear cut through the fever haze. I pulled my hand back, pressing it tightly against my chest. What am I doing? I thought, panic cutting throug
"Alpha."The word hung in the hot, heavy air of the room, heavy and completely damning. I couldn't believe I had said it. My brain screamed in horror, but my body didn't care. My inner Omega, starved and beaten down into the dark for nineteen years, clawed its way to the surface, demanding I give i
I didn't know if I was dying, but the world burned down around me.The castle became a dizzy, spinning blur of grey stone and flickering torchlight. I was held tight against a chest so broad and hard it felt like being pressed against a boulder. The heat coming off Cillian's body felt like pure hea
I couldn't look up, but I felt it. The whole feeling of the training yard disappeared. The air emptied out, replaced by a heavy, scary force that made every single Alpha in the yard fall to their knees without meaning to.Every Alpha except Torin. He was too busy wanting to hurt someone."Lick my b







