A knock jolt him off his dream.
"Enter," Lucian said, his voice hard as tempered steel.
The door opened and Darius stepped in, his cloak damp with fog, breath uneven. "Alpha, a messenger has arrived from the southern woods. He bears the king's seal."
Lucian turned, taking the parchment. The red wax gleamed faintly in the firelight, stamped with the crown of Valehart. He broke the seal with his thumb and unrolled the message. His eyes moved over the words, and the muscle in his jaw tightened.
"What is it?" Darius asked.
Lucian's gaze lifted slowly. "The king invites me to parley. He claims he seeks peace."
Darius's stomach twisted. "It is a trap."
"Perhaps."
"And walking into it could bring death faster."
Lucian folded the parchment and tucked it into his cloak. "Then we will find out which it is."
For a moment, neither spoke. The fire snapped and Darius caught a flicker of something rare in his Alpha's eyes, exhaustion. Beneath the calm and power, Lucian was fraying. The curse, the battles, the endless strain of leadership, all of it was eating away at him.
Yet even now, he stood tall.
That night, under the shroud of the half moon, Lucian and Darius slipped through the forest toward the human village. They moved like shadows, their scent masked by herbs and river water. When they reached the edge of Hollowshade, Lucian hesitated, his gaze fixed on the small candlelit shop at the end of the lane.
Selene's shop.
She stood by the window, her eyes distant, lost in thought. When the door creaked open, she turned sharply, her pulse leaping.
For a heartbeat, she thought she was dreaming again, but the sight of Lucian in her doorway shattered that illusion. The air between them crackled with something unspoken. The villagers could not know who he truly his and she could not reveal what she truly was either.
Her lips parted, but before she could speak, Lucian's voice filled the silence. "He wants to see the witch who can kill or tame the cursed Alpha."
Her breath caught. The words were quiet, yet heavy with meaning. Something fierce burned beneath them, anger, pride and something else she dared not name.
Darius looked away, pretending not to notice the tension that thickened the room.
Selene stepped closer. Her gaze locked with Lucian's and in that instant, the rest of the world faded. She no longer saw the beast who had haunted her nightmares, but the man struggling to hold his soul together.
"I should refuse," she whispered, almost to herself.
"But you will not," Lucian said softly.
And against every whisper of reason, she nodded.
Lucian inclined his head once, then turned to leave. "We leave before dawn. Tell no one."
When they were gone, Selene stood in the quiet shop,wondering how she agreed to go with him just like that, her hand pressed against her chest, her heart pounding like a drum of war.
Back at the stronghold, Lucian wasted no time. He began preparing for the journey to the king's court, ordering special warriors to accompany him, hidden among the trees and rooftops of the meeting ground. He knew better than to trust Aldred's words.
"Every path we take is shadowed," Darius warned. "Caius should lead the outer guard."
Lucian paused, his brow furrowing. "Caius is loyal. He will watch our flanks."
Darius hesitated but said nothing more. He had seen the way Caius's eyes lingered when Lucian spoke, how ambition gleamed behind the cousin's polite smile.
Far away, in the quiet of her shop, Selene sat at the patch of her window, staring up at the half moon. Its pale light pooled over her worktable, over the silver bowl that still shimmered faintly with visions.
She closed her eyes, but her thoughts drifted to Lucian, to his quiet strength, to the fire that stirred in her whenever she looked at him. She told herself it was only concern for the balance of things, for the curse that bound them both.
But deep down, she knew better.
Elara's voice echoed in her memory. The witch and the wolf are bound by more than fate. Beware what the moon awakens.
Selene exhaled slowly and rose. "Then let it awaken," she whispered.
Across the valley, another figure watched from the shadows.
Caius stood beneath the boughs of an ancient tree, his cloak blending with the night. At his feet lay the body of a messenger, throat cut clean. The parchment he held was still sealed with the royal crest.
He turned it over in his hand, smiling faintly. "So it begins."
He crouched beside the corpse, slipping the unbroken seal into a fresh letter, one written in his own hand.
To His Majesty, King Aldred of Valehart,
Your message has been received. The Alpha pretends loyalty, butit was all a facade, he will never make peace with you. It was he who slew your messenger. His rage grows beyond reason, which i can attestify to. He is planning to attack you with, special armed forced on the day of the peace meeting. Strike now while he weakens and his pack will crumble before you.
Caius sealed the letter with the same crimson wax and pressed the royal insignia against it. When he was done, he tied the letter to the dead messenger's arm and dragged the body to the riverbank. The current would carry it toward the human lands before dawn.
As the body vanished into the dark water, Caius whispered to the night, "Let them destroy each other. Then I will claim what remains."
He looked toward the distant torches of the fortress, where Lucian prepared for his so-called peace meeting.
The wind howled softly through the trees, carrying the scent of rain and death.
A storm was coming, one that would decide not only the fate of wolves and witches, but the balance of the entire realm.
And Caius, smiling in the shadows, planned to stand at the heart of it.