Ayda's POV It was surprisingly easy slipping out of the castle through the stable hand's entrance in the undercroft. Likely, it was due to the door being ripped right off its hinges. Nicolette and I looked at each other, another sign of sabotage. This one, in particular, made four.There had been evidence of tampering with the lock on the male servants' side (a deadbolt of pure silver was fastening their double doors together, locking the men within their hall), scent dampeners placed in strategic locations, and the deaths of several stable hands.Nicolette had been quiet ever since we'd discovered the bodies. More friends left to the slaughter.The scent led us through the woods and ancient temple where I'd first transformed, over the ravine where I'd nearly fallen, and towards the river that bisected the king's hunting grounds from those of the rest of the village. I almost overlooked the wagon on the road, eyes so focused on a scrap of red or the scent of

Ayda's POV We couldn't go back to the castle; it was clear Narcissa knew, not just about August and his true parentage but about my feelings for Sebastian as well. She had to have seen the way I held his hand, the way we'd both walked into the throne room together. She knew Sebastian didn't love her, and the feeling was hostilely mutual; I'm sure she expected him to stray just like her previous fiancé had.For now, the castle was off limits, though my heart ached to have Sebastian so far from me, trapped in the belly of the beast. I did not think Narcissa would slay him until after the wedding if being the sole ruler was indeed her game and had been from the start. Pelham had suggested, after we buried his brother and fellow soldiers in shallow graves, that the coup was only just the beginning of Narcissa's plan.If the lad was to be believed, there was an entire cult at work over in the Northern territories that had slowly been gaining support ever since the War

Ayda's POV As a child, I'd always wondered why royal packs and their lands were always named after gemstones or precious metals. My mother, Luna Miray, used to bemoan my endless need to question things. Why was the sky blue? Why were women called Lunas and not Alphas? Why did the guardsmen wear their hair so short to their scalps compared to the hairstyle of the average man?If my father was prone to calling me his Shining Light, then my mother was keen on calling me her Chatterbox.The question still remained unanswered. Perhaps it would always remain so, but now I had a new query posed on my lips. How on earth had the Opal Hill pack, a pack which never sent dignitaries to court nor ever was talked about at large in lycanthrope society, managed to construct a metropolis of this caliber?It wasn't as though Opal Hill was as expansive as other Lycan settlements, such as Eventide City, which was the biggest settlement in Capitoline. Opal Hill was maybe a tenth of the

Ayda's POV "Did you not know I had been born an Omega? Surely I figured that bastard would have had my status ringing in his halls for all to hear. Goddess knows he was happy to let me know what a useless excuse of a mate I was to my husband." The Luna of Opal Hill drank her tea with the type of nonchalance one would have if they discussed trivial matters like the weather, not the illegitimacy of their heirs or their lack of fertility."I don't believe Kostas mentioned anything of the sort," I said while Nicolette looked at her like how a tree may grow towards the sun. Life-giving and confirming. "But then again, I was not really on speaking terms with the High Alpha.""I'm surprised; maybe old age has mellowed him out." So I was right then; Luna Kathrine didn't know of Kostas' death. Interesting. "Well, if there weren't jokes at my expense for my lack of fertility, then he always brought up my issues with holding a full shift. A 'poor excuse for a sh

Sebastian POV The office of a High Alpha was one of the most coveted positions in polite Lycan society.No one else in Court retained as much power as a High Alpha, for their word was the law that bound us all together. Without a High Alpha, there would be no order, as seen in the Age of Lawlessness before the War of Packs. When packs thought it best to fend for themselves, a barbaric time where the innocent were slaughtered under the guise of survival of the fittest.As a result of its substantial influence over all werewolf kind, and the horrors of the days of old, High Alpha was not a title given to those faint of heart. Thus, the abode of a High Alpha was known as the Lair of the King for a reason and reflected such gravitas.Father had kept the room styled in the same decorative trappings as all the Lykaios men did: with the pelts of his enemies. The tiled floor could barely be seen, so thick were the pelts of my family's fallen enemies—our legacy in blood.