An Imperial Affliction Novels & Stories

“Sixteen infected in our own walls! Elder Rowan’s daughter, a noble lady, struck down by a filthy plague from the marketplace!” More voices rose behind him. “Our empire is under attack!” “Pure bloods dying like dogs!” Alex growled, “You are in the presence of the Lycan—” “ENOUGH.” My voice rolled through the hall like thunder. Power bled from me. Thick, oppressive, and ancient. The shouting died instantly. Frederick’s face flushed crimson, but even he froze. I let the silence crush them. Seedy, bitter, disgruntled men. Half these bastards looked secretly pleased. They’d rather watch my empire rot than bow to me.

Wallace replied respectfully, “Good day, sir. It’s like this, I’ve encountered a weird case. It’s about my friend’s grandson. I wonder if sir could come and take a look?” “Oh? What kind of sickness that even an imperial doctor like you couldn’t handle?” “It’s like xenorexia. He has to eat about 0.7 pound of mud every two hours, or else he would harm himself.”

All of it coiled tight beneath her skin. We drove in silence. But my mind wasn’t still. The cracks Roman pointed out back then… they were everywhere now. And I’d missed them. Because I was in too deep. Because I was in love. But I wasn’t blind anymore. I’d never let love make me stupid again. The rot in this empire ran deep. Through the foundation, through old friendships, through people we still smiled at across dinner tables. It was all poison. And I’d started tracing it. I knew where to cut next.

she replied, “I can’t believe we are breaking history, a maid is marrying her boss.” “I don’t think anybody would believe that for you look nothing like a maid.” “But I was a maid.” “Was, but not anymore, you are my imperfect perfection,” he replied that she could only smile and wondered how can they be a perfection that is imperfect? Not getting her answer, she smiled more pronounced and listened to the priest, today is a very big day to her, a day she had looked forward to all her life with the man beside her. And she knew that just as his words ‘imperfect perfection’ confused her, so would their love confuse anyone who tries to ruin them.

How in the hell will I live in a house with her and not touch her or be with her every day? The damn Imperials are ruining my life and my pack. There has to be a way for us to be together. I just do not see it happening right now. Maybe in the future. Kate needs help to control her raging emotions and anger. I cannot help her. The only imperial we had that understood Kate, and that could have helped her, turned into a damn vampire and is on the loose doing things I can only imagine.

It bit to infect. ​"It’s a regression," I said, my medical brain fighting through the panic. "The Imperial magic was a filter. It refined the wolf-spirit. Without it, the spirit is reverting to its original, feral state. The 'First Wolf' is calling the beast back to the wild." ​All around us, the "civilized" world was dissolving. Warriors were losing their minds, turning on their mates. The order we had tried to build in the vacuum of Solas’s death was being shredded in minutes.

Empires do not fall in a single moment. --- They don’t collapse with one strike— --- One failure— --- One mistake. --- They fall slowly. --- From within. --- Cracks forming long before anyone sees them. --- And by the time it becomes visible— --- It is already too late. --- The system trembled. --- Not violently. --- Not completely. --- But enough. --- Enough for the first fracture to show. --- Elena felt it ripple beneath her feet— ---

They put me in a room on the twenty-eighth floor with one light and no windows and a lock that was built for humans, not for what I am. I sat down on the single chair and waited because waiting was the only move I had right now and I have never been bad at waiting. What I was bad at, it turned out, was the next two hours. The voices sounded through the walls the way they do in old buildings, not clearly, just enough to catch pieces of it. They were Scrolsal's voice mostly, but then a word I hadn't heard applied to anyone in eleven years sounded out. “Burn him.” The old law, the one that hasn't been enforced since before my father was an Alpha, says that any wolf who raises a hand against the

But it seemed that everything was slipping from my hands because of this new calamity. “Alpha Vincenzo!” Elder Marcus, a new member of the council, spoke up. His tone was clipped and grave. “This isn’t an ordinary illness. We have reasons to believe that it's spreading faster than anything we have seen before.” My jaw tightened as I ordered. “Explain!” He nodded. “The afflicted begin with small lesions on the skin. The wound burns and spreads on the entire body, causing immense pain. Then their mental state deteriorates and the wolves become erratic, as if losing their grip on reality completely.”