The Wolves' Empress.

Sierralya

“Throw her in the dungeons.”

“Father, please.”

But what came out wasn’t a howl. Not really. Something between a whine and a howl. My wolf form, gigantic, white, and terrifying even to myself, had just awakened on the night of the blood moon.

An hour ago I’d been in the courtyard. Birthday lights, music, people smiling… My eighteenth birthday. That felt like a lifetime ago. The same ceremony every wolf goes through when they are of age. Except now what should have been like a night of celebration had turned into my greatest nightmare.

Eighteen years of whispers and hypocritical mockery aimed at the powerless princess all climaxing this single night. Tonight was supposed to prove them all right, but when the light of the blood moon caressed my skin, something ancient woke inside me.

White fur sprouted along my arm, sweeping through like wildfire, my hands carved into claws. When this change was complete, I was massively larger than any wolf they'd seen.

“The chains. Now!”

Silver burned through my fur. Guards surrounded me, men whom I had known my whole life, who smiled at me in the hall, who bowed when I walked past.

“Father,” my brother Keholts stepped forward.

“No one.” His voice was low. Heavy enough that it sat in my chest for a second.

“She stays there.”

They dragged me towards the dungeons. Behind me were whispers:

“Princess Sierralya is the prophecy.”

My father’s jaw tightened. He’d been grinding his teeth long enough that it had to hurt by now.

They sent me down the stairs. Lower than I’d ever gone.

The palace no longer felt like a palace.

Cold first. Then wet. Then thick, like it was pressing down on me. I’d never seen the dungeons before. Never needed to. A princess isn't meant for places like this.

But was I still considered a princess?

I was whatever scared my father enough to lock me away.

“This cell,” Captain Roran said. They threw me inside, and I hit the stone-cold floor hard.

The cell door slammed. The lock clicked. Their footsteps retreated up the stairs.

I had to shift back.

I tried to remember how it was supposed to feel—hands, fingers, and skin. My voice, the way it sounded when it came out of my chest. I breathed slowly. Too slow. Then faster. I told myself to calm down, but I knew that never worked.

It didn't.

What if this didn't end?

Just breathe.

I tried. I tried.

The panic… it eased. Not away, just emptiness. I dropped my head onto my paw. Couldn't hold it up anymore. Exhaustion crushed over me like a tide of waves. The awakening had drained something essential from me. Dark. Cold. Trapped in a body that wouldn't listen to me no matter how hard I tried to make it change.

Happy birthday to me.

Chains scraped somewhere nearby. Metal on stone. Something moved in the dark across from my cell. My wolf sense suddenly went on alert. I thought I was alone down here, but now I caught a scent I'd missed before. Old, faded but definitely a wolf.

There was someone else in the dungeons.

“Who's there?”

I tried shifting back to my human self. I concentrated harder, even on the shape of my bones. Slowly and painfully, the transformation began to reverse. I collapsed onto the floor, gasping, shaking, human, and naked.

A moment later, fabric hit the bars of the cell. I looked up and saw a guard retreating back as he hurried up the stairs. He had thrown a ragged dress through the bars. I dragged it over myself with shaking hands, not really caring how it looked just something between me and the air.

The silver chains were still there. Wrists. Ankles. Heavy.

“I know you’re there.”

Silence followed the movement.

Someone shifted in the cell across from mine. I could barely see him, just a man sitting against the far wall, his face hidden in the shadow.

"Name… what's your name?" I asked.

A pause. "I was called Darius Shadowmane."

"Was called." He blinked. For a second, it was like even that—his name—had been taken from him down here.

"How long have you been here?"

"Long enough that I stopped counting years. Long enough to be forgotten."

"Hmmm!" I paused. "What was your crime?"

"I witnessed." The bitterness in those two words was profound.

"Witnessed what?" I asked quietly.

"The truth your family's been burying for twenty years."

He leaned forward a little. I caught a quick look at his face. Thin. Scarred. Eyes… I didn't know. They'd seen too much.

"Uh…" What did they say about the Black Wolves?"

I hesitated. "That they... That there was a conflict. That they attacked, and my father had to defend”

"Lies." A dry, humorless sound. "Fabrications designed to bury what really happened."

"Tell me the truth."

He studied me for a long moment, those ancient eyes searching. Finally, he spoke.

"Twenty years ago, the Black Wolves were the strongest pack in the empire. Stronger than the White Wolves. But we were divided, too busy fighting each other to see what was coming. We were our own worst enemy." He paused. "Your family saw an opportunity. They knew that if we were ever truly united, their rule would crumble. So they moved first. They decided to wipe us out before it could happen."

"How?"

"They called everyone together. Said it was for peace."

His voice thinned out when he said it, like the word didn't belong there anymore. "Hundreds of us came. Alphas, elders, warriors, families. We came in good faith. And your father's guards locked the doors and set the place on fire." The words were flat, like he'd already told this story too many times. Still, I heard the agony beneath them. "Anyone who tried to get out was killed. It wasn't meant to leave survivors."

"But you survived."

His smile was bitter. "Your father kept me alive to validate his lies. To tell the world that the Black Wolves had attacked first, the massacre was justified self-defense." He met my eyes. "I refused. So I've been left to rot down here ever since."

My thoughts stumbled over each other. "Why?" I asked. "Why would they?”

"Because of what we represented. What we could become." The prisoner looked at me then. There was a sharp glint in his eyes, brief and unsettling, before it faded back into the dark. "Your family feared something, Princess. Something powerful enough to threaten their entire rule. And when your power awakened…" He tilted his head. "They recognized the signs. Hence, here you are." He said it with a smile of hope, as if he had been expecting me.

I frowned. "I don't understand what you're saying."

"There are things I can't explain," he said. "Not yet. Not down here."

His gaze flicked toward the dungeon stairs.

"But you should know this. You weren't chained up by chance. Your family imprisoned you for the same reason they slaughtered mine."

"Which is?"

"Fear," he said simply. "Fear of what you might become."