LOGINHow was it for you? please if you can see this can you leave a review for me from the front page?
I let the insult sit in the air. None of them argued. They just stared at me, waiting for death."By the laws of my Kingdom, and the laws of yours, you should all join Varis on the floor," I stated.The lords flinched. Torin squeezed his eyes shut."But I am not going to kill you," I said.Torin opened his eyes. Kelan dropped his hands. They looked up at me, completely stunned. They didn't understand. They couldn't comprehend why they were still breathing."Do not mistake this for mercy," I warned them, stepping closer. "I am not sparing your lives because I forgive you. I am letting you live because the Eastern Kingdom is massive. It needs an administration. Taxes must be collected. Roads must be maintained. The harvest must be stored. If I kill the entire council today, the cities will fall into chaos, and my brother will have to spend the next five years rebuilding a broken government."I pointed at the spilled gold on the floor."You are going to pick up that gold. You are going t
[POV: King Cillian]I stepped down from the raised stone platform. My iron boots hit the floor with a heavy, dull sound.I held my sword in my right hand. I did not raise it. I let the blade hang by my side, the tip pointing toward the ground. I felt no anger. The rage I experienced yesterday in the meeting room was gone. Anger is for arguments. Anger is for men who still need to prove a point.I did not need to prove anything. I was just removing a threat.I walked toward Lord Varis.He saw my eyes. He saw that the debate was over. The arrogant nobleman who had stood tall and demanded his release a minute ago completely vanished. His knees gave out. He dropped to the floor, hitting the hard stone hard enough to tear his expensive trousers."Wait," Varis choked out. He held his hands up in front of his face, palms out, as if flesh and bone could stop Northern steel. "King Cillian, wait. Please."I kept walking. I did not rush. I covered the distance at a steady, measured pace."I have
The silence in the Great Hall broke. The Eastern lords behind me started muttering in panic. The Northern soldiers lining the walls gripped the hilts of their swords.I had to stop this. If I stayed quiet, I was dead. I had to destroy the witness."Lies!" I yelled. I threw my hand out, pointing back at the mercenary. I forced my voice to boom with righteous anger. "This is an absolute outrage! You bring a filthy criminal into this hall and allow him to insult a member of the Eastern Council?"I took a step forward, looking past Vane, aiming my words directly at King Cillian."Look at this man!" I shouted, acting completely insulted. "He is a murderer! Your guards caught him with stolen gold and your brother's sword, so he is trying to save his own neck! He knows I am a powerful man on the council. He is blaming me hoping you will spare his life in exchange for a political prisoner! It is a desperate lie from a man facing the executioner!"I breathed hard, my chest heaving. I looked ba
[POV: Lord Varis]The heavy wooden doors crashed against the stone walls with a deafening crack.I did not flinch. I kept my chin high and my shoulders pulled back. I turned around slowly, expecting to see guards or something entirely else.The smile died in my throat before it even reached my face.Commander Vane marched through the open doors.He was covered in dark, wet mud. Fresh blood smeared the front of his black iron armor and soaked the thick wolf pelt hanging from his shoulders. He did not look defeated. He looked like a butcher who had just finished his shift.Behind him, four massive Lycan soldiers walked into the Great Hall. They were carrying things.A cold, heavy rock dropped straight into my stomach.Vane did not stop walking until he reached the center of the empty room, stopping right between me and King Cillian. Vane turned his back to me and looked up at the dais."The hunt is finished, Your Majesty," Vane said. His rough voice echoed loudly in the quiet room.He s
[POV: Lord Varis]The morning sun cut through the tall glass window and hit the stone floor.I stood in the exact same spot I had been standing in for the last eight hours. I had not slept a single wink. My eyes burned, and my back was stiff, but my mind was completely sharp. I watched the dust float in the shafts of sunlight, doing the math in my head over and over again.The kitchen boy left the castle yesterday afternoon. The River Hounds rode light and fast. The mercenaries were weighed down by heavy iron armor, wagons, and sacks of gold.Pike would have reached their camp by midnight.The River Hounds did not fight fair. They would have hit the mercenaries in the dark while they were drunk. It would have been fast, and it would have been permanent. By now, the mercenary captain’s throat was cut, his body was buried deep in the Southern dirt, and Pike was already riding back to the lower city to collect his reward.The Warlord’s trackers were incredibly fast, but they were trackin
[POV: Commander Vane]I rode at the front of the column. My massive black warhorse chewed up the ground, its heavy hooves slamming into the mud in a relentless rhythm. Behind me, twenty of my best riders kept pace. We did not carry torches. We did not speak. We just rode hard.My chest was tight with a cold, focused anger.King Cillian gave me a direct order. Find the mercenaries. Bring back the gold. Bring back King Kaelen’s stolen broadsword. Bring back the mercenary captain breathing. Leave everyone else dead in the dirt.I was not going to fail him. I had fought beside Cillian for ten years. I watched him bleed in the snow to protect our borders. I watched him take the Northern throne and turn our people into the most feared army in the world. He was not just my King. He was my Warlord.The Eastern lords thought they could poison his brother, steal his gold, and hide behind their politics. They were fools. They did not understand how a wolf hunted.I leaned forward in the saddle.
I was not given food or water.A few hours after Cillian left me in the dark, the iron door shrieked open again. Two massive Beta guards dragged me out by the chains, my bare feet scraping against the freezing stone. The sudden influx of torchlight felt like daggers in my eyes. My head was pounding
The first thing I felt was cold. A heavy, damp chill seeped straight into my bones, sucking the life right out of me.Where was I? I tried to move, and a sharp, metallic clink echoed through the darkness. My breath caught. I pulled my arms toward my chest, stopping short as heavy iron chains bit
Several people screamed. I slapped both hands over my mouth to keep from making a sound, biting down on my own palm so hard I tasted blood. My heart was beating so fast against my sore ribs that I thought my chest was going to split open. Panic. Blind, total, animal panic. My body got hot fast.
My ribs ached before I opened my eyes. That was how every morning started. Pain. A dull, steady ache burned on my left side where Alpha Thorne had kicked me two days ago. My crime? I hadn't scrubbed the blood out of the training mats quick enough. It wasn't just that my ribs ached. The screaming







