MasukI 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
[Elian's POV]I stood in the courtyard and watched the guards drag Selene out of the castle.She looked nothing like the proud, cruel woman who had tortured me in the Royal Suite. Her expensive clothes were ruined and covered in mud. Her hair was a tangled mess. She was shaking violently in the cold wind, struggling to keep her balance as the guards pulled her forward through the snow.When she saw the wooden block in the center of the courtyard, her legs gave out completely. She collapsed. The guards did not stop walking. They carried her the rest of the way. They forced her down onto her knees in the wet snow right in front of Cillian.I did not feel sorry for her. I stood perfectly still. I did not hide behind Cillian's back. I did not look away. I looked directly at her face.She looked up at me. Her eyes were wide and full of absolute terror."Elian," Selene begged. Her voice cracked. Tears spilled over her dirty cheeks and dripped onto her chin. "Please. Tell him to stop. I kept
[Selene's POV]I lost track of time in the dark.There were no windows in the lowest cell of the dungeon. There was no candle, no torch, no crack in the stone to let the moonlight in. The only way I knew a day had passed was the small iron slide at the bottom of the door. Once a day, a silent guard pushed a wooden bowl of water and a hard piece of stale bread into the dirt.I counted the bowls. One. Two. Three.By the fourth bowl, I started screaming. I demanded to see Cillian. I reminded the empty hallway that I was a Princess of the East. I threatened them with war. I promised them heavy chests of gold. I told them my father would slaughter their families if they did not open the door. No one answered. The silence was absolute and suffocating.By the sixth bowl, my throat was completely raw. I stopped screaming. I pulled my knees to my chest and shivered violently on the freezing floor. My expensive leather riding clothes were soaked with damp mud. My hair was a tangled, filthy mess
Gaius kept his head bowed, accepting the praise quietly."For your bravery," Cillian declared loudly, making sure the entire hall heard him, "you are granted full access to the Royal Archives for the rest of your life. You will receive a permanent place on my high council, and a chest of solid gold to fund your medical research."The soldiers in the hall cheered loudly. Gaius smiled a weak, grateful smile. He bowed again and walked back to his seat.Cillian raised his hand again to quiet the room."Martha," Cillian called out.I smiled widely as I watched the old cook stand up from her chair. She smoothed down the front of her clean gray dress. She looked incredibly nervous as she walked up to the high table, wringing her hands together."You did not hold a sword in this fight," Cillian told her, his voice softening with deep respect. "But you showed more courage than an entire battalion of soldiers. You protected the innocent when no one else would. You discovered the Princess's esca
"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
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







