Chapter 4

The silence on the other end of the mind-link snapped like dry tinder.

Lucian’s fury rushed back through the tether, hot and suffocating. ‘Sunken Valley?! Are you out of your mind, Lyla? You blew off your own coronation—the crown I fought the elders to grant you—for a damn field trip?’

I could hear the background roar of the pack courtyard through the link: the murmur of confused guests, the rustle of fine silk, the impatient shuffling of the elders.

‘You bring her back right now,’ Lucian ordered, his voice echoing with the full, crushing weight of his Alpha aura. ‘I don't care if you have to drag her. You are humiliating me in front of the entire high council! This petty silent treatment ends today. If you aren't at the altar in twenty minutes, I swear to God, Lyla, I will strip you of the Luna title permanently!’

I didn't flinch. The Luna’s title he was threatening me for, I had abandoned it days ago. I simply severed the link, severing the psychic wire between us after dropping one cold sentence to the Alpha who thought he owned our lives.

“If you want Jenna so badly, then go and drag her back from her grave. I’ll become your slave for seven lives if you could just bring my daughter back!”

Lucian's whole body trembled in shock and fury. He muttered in disbelief, ‘Wh-What did you say?’

I did not answer. Our mindlink was already blocked by me. He could only stomp his feet in irritation.

“Lyla!” He yelled, “How dare you joke around our daughter’s life just to get more attention?”

"Alpha," his right-hand man, Mark, stepped forward cautiously. "No one in the pack has seen Lady Jenna for two weeks, and Luna was seen leaving the pack alone. What if… what if she—"

“Shut up!” Lucian barked, "She's playing games."

He snarled, his jaw clenching so hard his teeth groaned. His chest heaved with unchecked rage. "She thinks she can leverage her absence and make lies about our daughter to make me beg. She wants me to chase her."

He threw a look of bitter disgust toward the empty staircase. Five years of her quiet compliance, five years of her meekly accepting whatever scraps of time he spared her, and now she chose the most important day of his leadership to throw a childish fit.

"Take a squad," Lucian barked at Mark, his eyes flashing dangerous golden hues. "Trace her location. She must be hiding somewhere close. Find her. Bring her and Jenna back in cuffs if you have to. I will teach her what happens when she tries to humiliate her Alpha."

"Alpha, wait," an old voice interrupted. It was Elder Victor’s voice, the one responsible for the Pack’s Alpha family ancestral rituals.

“Two weeks ago, Lady Lyla asked my permission to visit the Alpha family funeral ground. She wore a black gown and—”

“Alpha Lucian…” Someone barged in from the main door. His breathing was hitched. “My daughter, who is your daughter’s friend, just told me Lady Jenna… she died? Is this true?”

Just then, Pack’s high witch, who was the keeper of the Alpha family’s life who was out of the pack for two weeks, happened to return.

“Alpha…” she screamed, “The life source of Lady Luna… It’s finished. I tried to lighten her candle again and again. But it's not lighting. Is she alright?”

Lucian’s breath hitched in his throat. He looked at the witch, his gold-flecked eyes shrinking into tiny, terrified pinpricks.

"What did you just say?" Lucian’s voice dropped, stripped of all its commanding roar, reduced to a dry, raspy whisper. "Repeatedly lighten her candle? You... you are mistaken. Lyla was just on the mind-link. She spoke to me seconds ago."

"I am not talking about Lady Lyla, Alpha!" The witch’s voice trembled violently as she held up a small, cracked silver sconce. The wax inside was completely cold, black, and sunken. "The bloodline candle. Lady Jenna’s soul light... it went out fourteen days ago!"

A violent gasp echoed through the crowd. Elders staggered back. Mark froze, his jaw dropping as he turned his terrified gaze toward his Alpha.

"No," Lucian wheezed, shaking his head in a slow, frantic denial. He took a step backward, nearly tripping over the hem of his own ceremonial robes. "No! That's impossible! She’s taking her to the Sunken Valley! Lyla said... Lyla said she was taking her to the ruins!"

Then, like a physical blow, my final words crashed through his memory, burning through his skull with agonizing clarity.

‘If you want Jenna so badly, then go and drag her back from her grave.’

"Alpha..." Elder Victor spoke softly, his weathered face pale as bone. "Two weeks ago... Lady Lyla carried a tiny, white wooden box to the ancestral grave site. She wouldn't let anyone touch it. She stayed there in the rain all night... alone."

Lucian’s knees buckled. He grabbed the oak altar to keep from collapsing, his knuckles turning stark white as his chest heaved in violent, shallow gasps. The sickening puzzle pieces slammed together in his mind—the two weeks of silence, the empty room, the cold bed, the dark clothes, and the complete, chilling absence of his daughter’s soft, timid laughter from the manor halls.

"No, no, no, NO!”