SYLRA’S POV
My hands were still shaking.
Even as I paced back and forth on the edge of the training field, the fury in my chest boiled so hot I thought it might tear me apart. I could barely remember the path I’d stormed down—only the echo of that councilman’s voice playing on a vicious loop in my mind.
“Even Caelen Rhys admits she’s unfit.”
I stopped and stared at the ground, as if the dirt might give me a better explanation than the man himself.
The same man who’d told me three days ago that my footwork was cleaner. That my reaction time had sharpened. That my form had become lethal, precise. That I was getting closer to being the kind of wolf who led armies, not just survived them.
Had all that praise been a lie?
I clenched my jaw and spun around when I heard boots approaching.
He was there.
Caelen.
Still rubbing his jaw where I’d punched him the day before. Still composed. Still too calm.
“Don’t,” I snapped, backing away before he even opened his mouth.
But he didn’t listen.
He walked straight up to me and grabbed my arm.
“Let go of me.”
“Not until you tell me what that was about,” he growled. “What did I do, Sylra?”
I yanked my arm free and took a step back. “You told the council I wasn’t ready.”
His brows knitted. “What?”
“Don’t act confused.”
“I’m not acting.”
“I heard it. With my own ears,” I said, voice rising. “One of the council members said you were the one who told them I was unfit to be Queen. That you questioned my ability. And you stood there with your smug little smirk and pretended like we were fine?”
Caelen stepped toward me again, slower this time.
“I never said that.”
“Liar,” I hissed.
“I’m not lying!” His voice was sharp now. “Why the hell would I put you through hours of training every day just to tear you down behind your back?”
“Exactly my question!”
He ran both hands through his hair, exhaling hard. “I submitted a report to the King yesterday, yes. You know what it said?”
I didn’t answer.
“I said you were improving at a rate I’ve never seen. That you were adapting, enduring, and beginning to think like a leader.”
“You expect me to believe that?” I asked.
“I expect you to ask him yourself,” Caelen snapped. “He has the report. Go read it.”
Silence pulsed between us.
He took another breath, slower now. “Maybe… maybe you misheard.”
I laughed once, bitter. “No. I didn’t. I heard it clearly. They named you.”
He shook his head. “Then someone’s trying to turn you against me.”
I stared at him. “Why?”
“I don’t know. But if someone’s planting lies, it means one thing—they don’t want you to become Queen.”
That stopped me cold.
I swallowed. “Why wouldn’t they?”
Caelen shrugged, but his jaw was tight. “Maybe because your existence means change. Threat. Power. You’re not controllable, Sylra. You never were.”
I looked away, the words striking something deep and dangerous inside me. “So what now?”
“Now,” he said, stepping beside me, “we train harder. We prepare. We get ahead of the whispers before the next full moon.”
My head snapped toward him. “Why then?”
“Because that’s the Pack Summit. Every Alpha, every council member, every ambitious traitor will be in one place. And that’s where you’ll have to prove yourself—not just as the King’s daughter, but as his successor.”
I felt my pulse spike.
He extended his hand toward me.
“Sylra,” he said, voice quiet but firm. “We do this together. Take my hand.”
I looked down at it. It was calloused, scarred and steady.
The moment I touched him, the world changed.
A shock of something hot and ancient ripped through my spine.
My knees buckled, and I dropped to the ground with a gasp.
“Sylra?” Caelen knelt beside me, reaching for my shoulder.
But I couldn’t see him anymore.
Because I saw them, women cloaked in gold and red, wolves howling under a rust-colored moon. A river made of blood. A mountain throne rising from fire. A voice, no, many voices, all whispering the same word:
Awaken.
Pain split through my chest, but it wasn’t pain—it was power. Every inch of me burned, as if my blood had decided it no longer belonged in human form.
My breath caught.
And then I screamed.
Flames licked my skin, but they didn’t scorch. My eyes blurred, my bones twisted, my fingers stretched into claws. My skin rippled, golden fur bursting through.
Caelen stumbled back, shielding his face from the light I didn’t even know I was casting.
I howled, and it wasn’t a sound, it was a statement.
My golden wolf stood where I had collapsed, radiant and massive, a creature of legends.
Caelen’s eyes widened as he fell to his knees.
His voice was a whisper, but it cut through the shock like thunder.
“She is… she is the Blood Princess.”
His blade dropped to the ground.
“With the golden wolf.”
