FAZER LOGIN(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 stomach, and her smile carried the cruel peace of someone who had found the perfect shield.A child.Nothing divided wolves faster than a child claimed beneath pack law, especially when the mother stood wounded, beautiful, and publicly wronged.Bardolph stood beside me, pale and silent, and the living bond between us trembled with shame I did not want to feel.His shame entered me anyway, hot and ugly, reminding me that his mistake had grown teeth inside another woman’s mouth.I wanted to hate him cleanly.I wanted the sight of Ashina’s hand on her stomach to kill every memory of loving him.But hatred was not clear when the bond still breathed, when his pain still found me, and when a pack’s fu
(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 the regent’s token rested like a quiet promise waiting to become a chain.Then I looked at Bardolph’s hand, where my baby bracelet and the old marriage contract carried the weight of a dead Alpha’s plan.One man offered me a future I had not asked for, and another brought proof that my past had been stolen before I could speak.The old mate mark on my shoulder still burned faintly, reminding me that even my body had become a battlefield for other people’s claims.“I will not choose tonight,” I said, and my voice sounded calmer than the storm breaking behind my ribs.Conri lowered his head once, accepting the answer with the control of a king who understood waiting could also be loyalty.Bard
(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 so much strength trying to become free from Bardolph’s mistake.Now the moon itself had left a thread between us, not soft enough to comfort me but strong enough to be used against us.Conri dismissed the servants from the lower hall, but his eyes never left my shoulder where Bardolph’s old mark still pulsed faintly.Tala wanted me to rest, Rieka wanted me to eat, and Otsana wanted to bind the mark with silver herbs before midnight.I wanted all of them to stop looking at me like I was a wound walking upright in burnt brown.“I need air,” I said, stepping away from the opened box and the letter my mother had left behind.Conri moved before anyone else could answer, but he did not touch me or
(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 being accused, but brave enough to remain when every servant had fled the room.I stared at the glowing red line across the lid, knowing Bardolph had opened his father’s sealed room somewhere inside Blackfang.The box trembled once more, then the lid rose by itself, releasing the scent of old roses, dried blood, and moonlit rain.Inside lay a folded cloth, a small silver moon pendant, and a letter sealed with my mother’s royal mark.My fingers shook before I touched the letter, because every truth about my mother had arrived with another knife hidden beneath it.Conri reached toward the box, but I lifted one hand, stopping him before protection could become another soft cage around me.“I open
(Daciana POV)The black feather in Tala’s palm looked small enough to blow away, yet it carried enough poison to split the lower house in two.Rieka stood between two guards with her wrists held tight, her face pale with anger, fear, and the terrible pain of being doubted.Every servant in the corridor watched me, waiting to see whether the queen in servant brown would protect one of their own.I looked at the feather, then at Rieka, and remembered Ashina crying in Blackfang with the same kind of perfect timing.Trust had nearly killed me before.But suspicion could kill the innocent just as easily.“Take the chains off her,” I said, and the corridor filled with shocked whispers before the guards could move.Conri stepped forward, his face unreadable, but he did not stop me, which told everyone the choice was mine to carry.Tala’s eyes widened with worry, yet she remained silent because she knew this was about Rieka anymore.It was about whether I would rule through fear or whether As
(Daciana POV)The masked man’s words struck the moon cell like a blade thrown into still water, and every hidden truth began moving beneath us.I stared at the golden eye behind his black feather mask, unable to breathe because the color belonged to Bardolph’s bloodline.Bardolph stood outside the bars, frozen in a way I had never seen before, as if his own shadow had reached for his throat.Ashina knelt inside the silver circle with real tears on her face, and those tears frightened me more than all her false ones.She had called his father.He had called me one of his children.Every wolf in that corridor stood trapped between impossible truths, while the moonlight above us flickered like a dying witness.“Take off your mask,” I said, forcing my voice to stay steady though my heart was beating like trapped wings.The man laughed softly, and the sound carried age, power, and cruel amusement wrapped inside perfect control.“Your mother once gave the same command with a dagger pressed







