Masuk(Daciana POV)The red hollow opened beneath my feet, and Bardolph’s spirit wolf remained bowed before me like a vow the moon refused to bury.Every person inside the chamber stopped breathing, because Blackfang had never seen an Alpha’s wolf choose the woman its master once rejected.Bardolph lay on the stone behind the wolf, pale, hollow, and trembling like a man watching his own soul walk away from him.The altar screamed through the chained children, but the wolf did not move from its bow before my crown-lit feet.Otsana grabbed my arm before the red hollow could widen, her gold mark burning through the cloth wrapped around her wrist.“Do not accept anything too quickly,” she warned, because my sister had learned the cost of being chosen by old magic.Conri stepped beside me, sword raised toward the altar, though his eyes stayed on the wolf with wary respect instead of jealousy.Bardolph tried to crawl forward, one shaking hand stretching toward the spirit wolf that had protected h
(Bardolph POV)The red hollow opened beneath my shadow, and something colder than death reached into the place where my wolf had always lived.My body stayed on the stone, but my soul felt split down the middle, one half flesh and one half claws being dragged through the fire.I heard Daciana shout my name, heard Niall crying, and heard the chained children screaming with the altar’s old hunger inside their throats.But beneath every sound, I heard my wolf.Not growling.Not fighting.Howling like a living part of me had been caught by a trap built before Blackfang had a name.I fell forward, both hands slamming against the stone, while red light climbed from my shadow into my chest.The altar did not cut skin.It cut deeper.It pulled at memory, instinct, command, scent, rage, moon, and every wild thing that made me Alpha before any ring touched my hand.My wolf clawed inside me, trying to stay, and the pain of that struggle burned worse than every wound Lobo had given me.Daciana st
(Bardolph POV)The altar opened a red hollow beneath my knees, and every child in the chamber stared at me like my answer could become their breath.Niall’s small hand reached toward me through the blood circle, the cracked Alpha ring burning around his finger like a crown made for punishment.The children’s voices still echoed from the walls, asking for my heart as if the altar had learned mercy’s language only to corrupt it.Give Bardolph’s heart, and the children walk free.I looked at Niall first, because the boy deserved to be seen before I let guilt make another decision in his name.He was trembling, filthy, terrified, and too young to understand why old men’s sins had placed a ring on his hand.Then I looked at Daciana.She stood outside the red circle with Rudina’s crown burning above her, careful not to let one drop of blood betray her again.Her eyes held no soft memory of the riverbank, no warmth from the happiest moment the crown had burned to save Maelor.But she still w
(Daciana POV)The cracked Alpha ring slid onto Niall’s small finger, and the altar beneath Blackfang bowed like stone had recognized a child.Every chain around the trapped children loosened for one breath, then tightened again as if the altar remembered cruelty before mercy could move.Niall stared at the ring with wide brown eyes, no longer fully black, no longer fully free, and too young for every wolf watching him.Bardolph stood frozen beside me, one hand pressed against his bleeding ribs, while horror and wonder fought across his face.The ring had rejected Lobo.The ring had not returned to Bardolph.It had chosen the child Blackfang buried beneath servant blood and forgotten rooms.Farkas fell to one knee, not from command, but from the old recognition of a bloodline hidden too long.“Living heir,” he whispered, and the words moved through the chamber like a secret becoming dangerous after years of silence.Lobo staggered backward, clutching his torn palm, his face twisted wit
(Daciana POV)The cracked Alpha ring burned in Lobo’s palm, and Bardolph’s knees struck the stone as his hidden bloodline answered through Niall.Every loyal Blackfang warrior behind Bardolph stiffened at once, their eyes widening as red light crawled across the old Alpha marks beneath their skin.Farkas shouted for them to resist, but the ring’s command moved faster than loyalty, guilt, fear, or any elder’s warning.The first warrior turned his blade toward Bardolph with tears already spilling down his face before his arm fully obeyed.“Alpha,” the warrior choked, fighting his own wrist while the blade rose against the man he had followed through war and disgrace.Bardolph looked at him, and I saw the old Alpha inside him break again beneath the horror of being attacked by those who still loved him.“Do not kill them,” Bardolph said, forcing the words through clenched teeth while the ring held him kneeling before Lobo’s stolen claim.Lobo laughed from the other side of the blood circ
(Bardolph POV)The altar laughed through all twelve children, but I heard only one word cutting through the darkness beneath Blackfang’s old hall.Uncle.The smallest boy stood inside the red circle, clutching his broken wooden wolf while Blood Feather's blackness swallowed his frightened eyes.His face was thin, pale, and dirty from captivity, yet something in the shape of his jaw struck my chest like memory.I had seen that jaw in my father’s portrait.I had seen that same stubborn brow in my own mirror after nights without sleep.My wolf froze before my mind accepted the truth.Blackfang’s old Alpha blood stood chained inside a servant child.Lobo smiled behind him, holding the cracked Alpha ring like he had waited for this moment longer than he had waited for power.“Do you see him now?” Lobo asked, his voice soft with the cruelty of a man opening another family’s grave.I took one step forward, and every chain around the children tightened hard enough to make the smallest boy cry
(Daciana POV)The wooden box opened before me with a soft click, yet the sound struck my heart like a door breaking inside my chest.Tala stepped back as if the box had bitten her, while Conri moved closer with one hand already near his sword.Rieka stood beside the linen table, still pale from bei
(Daciana POV)Blackfang knelt before Ashina like fear had become a king, and every black feather above us glowed with stolen obedience.I stood in the courtyard wearing servant brown, watching the pack that once rejected me bow to the woman who had destroyed us all.Ashina’s hand rested on her stom
(Daciana POV)Otsana’s words hung over the garden like a curse, and for several breaths nobody moved, spoke, or even seemed alive.The moon would demand a choice before the next full moon, and if I refused, the bond, crown, and blood oath might choose for me.I looked at Conri’s closed fist, where
(Daciana POV)Otsana’s warning stayed in my chest long after she left, beating beside the mate mark like a second frightened heart.If Ashina learned how to command the wounded bond, she would not need chains to drag Bardolph or me into her hands.The thought made my skin crawl because I had spent







