Todos los capítulos de The Daughter They Thought Would Stay: Capítulo 1 - Capítulo 10

The next morning, I found my mother’s moon crown in the center of the breakfast table.It rested in its polished case, carrying no trace of Lillian.Darius sat at the head of the table with an untouched cup of black coffee before him.“Your succession ceremony has been rescheduled for midnight the day after tomorrow,” he said, pushing the crown toward me. “The guest list will remain unchanged. Marcus will arrange the priestess and the Council representatives. You do not need to concern yourself with the details.”Midnight the day after tomorrow was also when my four father-daughter bonds would be severed.I looked through the glass at the crown. “All right.”Julian seemed surprised by my calm response, then gave me a warm smile.“I knew our Sera wouldn’t stay angry over what happened last night.”He pulled out the chair beside him, where I had always sat as a child while he shared his berries and removed the vegetables I disliked.This morning, Lillian’s coat was draped across the chai

On the final day of the severance period, Darius brought my mother’s moon crown to the guest room.He opened the glass case himself and placed it before me.“The succession ceremony will be held again at midnight,” he said, his voice gentler than usual. “What happened before will not happen tonight. There will be only one heir in the sacred hall.”I looked at the wolf fang set into the crown. “All right.”Darius lifted his hand as though he meant to touch my hair, but stopped when the guardian mark around his wrist flickered.“The father-daughter bond is weakening.”I said nothing. Fourteen hours remained.He lowered his hand. “It must be reacting to the unfinished succession. Once you officially become Alpha tonight, the bond will stabilize.”After he left, I began preparing dinner.For eighteen years, the five of us had eaten together before every important ceremony. Darius liked his steak nearly rare, Julian preferred roasted pumpkin with honey, Marcus never touched dessert, and Ron

My first class at Crownfang Academy began before sunrise.Twenty-four senior students waited on the western field, several of them openly doubtful when Helena introduced me. I was younger than most royal instructors, and I had arrived carrying no pack title or military rank.One student glanced at the empty place where an Alpha insignia would normally rest on my coat.“We were told the new instructor was Moonridge’s heir.”“I am not,” I said. “If you need a title before you can learn, you are free to leave.”No one moved.I divided them into defensive formations and recreated the northern gorge exercise my mother had once designed. The students expected a lesson in strength. Instead, I taught them how to guide civilians through a narrow retreat while holding a line against a larger force.Halfway through the exercise, one trainee shifted too quickly. His wolf broke formation and slammed into a weakened section of the practice barrier. The protective runes shattered, sending a length of

Lillian arrived at Crownfang the following afternoon.She carried a wooden box containing the four protective tokens. The moonstone necklace was no longer around her neck, and Darius’s ring, Marcus’s seal, and Ronan’s silver knife had been cleaned and placed inside the box.My fathers met her in the visitors’ hall. I attended because the academy required my permission before accepting property connected to a severed family bond.Darius’s expression hardened when Lillian entered.“You should have remained in Moonridge.”“You left without speaking to me,” she replied. “I came to return what belongs to Serena.”Ronan pushed the box away. “Those tokens should never have been given to you.”Lillian flinched. “I didn’t take them. All four of you brought them into the shifting circle.”“Because you said you needed us,” Julian said.“I did need you.” Her voice trembled, but she did not cry. “I wanted the crown, her room, and the blessing because I wanted to know what it felt like to be chosen.

Three months later, the first four ward markers were installed around the junior training grounds.The silver had been reforged from the protective tokens my fathers once gave me. The moonstone was divided among their centers, allowing every marker to send an alarm directly to the instructors’ network. When the final rune lit, a pale barrier rose above the eastern wall and sealed the opening the rogues had used.The royal investigation had confirmed that winter damage weakened the old eastern runes, allowing a roaming group of rogues to exploit the breach.The youngest students cheered. They knew nothing about the objects’ history, and I preferred it that way. What had once been used to measure whether I belonged to a family now protected every student equally.My training program had also changed during those months. The royal council approved it for permanent use, and instructors from five packs came to observe our evacuation drills. Helena placed me in charge of selecting two additi