Snow fell like silent ash as they led Lyra down to the frozen gates.
The moon hung low and heavy, casting a ghostly glow across the courtyard. Guards rushed back and forth, shouting orders, tracking scents, scanning shadows for the assassin. But Lyra barely heard any of it.
Her heartbeat was a drum of dread.
Rylan walked beside her, keeping pace with every shaky step. He didn't touch her—but she felt him as if he did. The Moonbound mark pulsed faintly, responding to his presence, syncing with his breath.
Kade followed behind them, expression carved from cold marble, every step rigid with control.
Queen Isolde moved like an apparition, her ice-silver cloak dragging across the snow, leaving a long trail.
Lyra forced herself to inhale.
The scent hit her like a punch—smoke, blood, grief.
Her knees nearly gave out.
Rylan saw. With a low growl, he stepped closer.
"You don't have to see this."
Lyra tore her gaze from the ground. Her voice cracked.
"I do."
He swallowed but didn't argue.
They reached the gate.
The bodies of her pack were laid out in silence. Three wolves, each killed quickly. No torture. No struggle. They hadn't even shifted.
Lyra fell to her knees in the snow.
Her breath shook out of her in a broken sob. "No—no, no, please—"
Rylan knelt beside her instantly, hand hovering near her back—close, but waiting for her to accept him.
She leaned toward him, the grief too heavy to carry alone.
He placed his hand gently on her shoulder, grounding her, as her tears soaked the snow.
"They came here because of me," she whispered. "They shouldn't have… they shouldn't have…"
"They came because they loved you," Rylan murmured. "Not because you're cursed."
Kade's voice cut through the moment, quiet but sharp.
"This wasn't the work of a rogue. These were clean executions."
Lyra looked up, cheeks streaked with tears. "Then who?"
Queen Isolde nudged the charred leather strip with her boot.
"The message is clear. Someone doesn't want her past uncovered."
"But why?" Lyra demanded, voice raw. "I'm no one. I grew up with a tiny pack in the Ironwood. My mother was human, my father a wolf who died when I was a baby. There's nothing special about me."
Silence fell.
Isolde and Kade exchanged a look.
Rylan's expression hardened.
"You believe that?"
"It's the truth."
Rylan shook his head slowly. "Lyra… no wolf carries a mark like yours unless they come from a bloodline tied to the old magic."
She blinked at him. "What magic?"
"The ancient houses," Kade answered, his tone grave. "Bloodlines blessed—or cursed—by the Moon Goddess herself. Most are gone. But some whispers survived."
Lyra stared at them, numb.
"That's impossible."
Kade met her gaze.
"Your wolf… the silver halo around your fur. That trait doesn't exist in any known pack except—"
"Stop," Isolde interrupted sharply.
Kade's jaw clenched. "…Mother."
Isolde stepped forward, kneeling beside Lyra. Her gloved fingers brushed Lyra's cheek, surprisingly gentle.
"My dear," she said quietly, "there are truths better revealed in safety, not in bloodshed."
Lyra pulled away. "My pack is dead. Safety is already gone."
A crack formed in Isolde's icy composure.
"You must trust that we are trying to protect you."
"Protect me?" Lyra whispered bitterly. "You arranged for me to marry a prince I've never met."
"It was for your survival," the queen said.
Rylan scoffed. "If you knew who she really was, why not tell her the truth earlier?"
The queen straightened, eyes narrowing.
"Because the truth will ignite a war the moment it leaves her lips."
A shiver ran down Lyra's spine.
"What truth?" she demanded.
Isolde inhaled slowly, then exhaled.
"Lyra… your mother was not human."
Lyra froze.
Her breath fogged in the air, hanging between them like a held scream.
"She was a wolf," the queen continued softly. "One of the last descendants of the Lunar Ascendants."
Lyra stared. "I don't… I don't know what that means."
Rylan answered for her.
"It means your blood carries old power. Lunar power. The kind that can awaken curses. Break alliances. Destroy kingdoms."
Lyra shook her head violently.
"No. That's a myth. A story."
But even as she said it, memories flickered—her mother's fear of full moons, her constant warnings, her refusal to let Lyra train with wolves.
"Your mother hid you among humans for a reason," Kade said. "To keep you from anyone who might discover what you are."
Rylan's eyes softened as he looked at her. "But the curse recognized you anyway."
Lyra pressed her hands to her temples.
"This can't be real. It can't—"
A low snarl echoed from the treeline.
Everyone stilled.
Guards raised weapons. Wolves shifted in flashes of fur and claws.
Isolde hissed, "Form a perimeter!"
Lyra stood slowly, wiping her face. The grief in her chest twisted into something sharper.
A rustle of snow.
A shadow moved.
Then—
A lone wolf stepped out of the darkness.
Massive. Black fur. Eyes glowing silver.
Rylan stiffened instantly.
"Not possible."
Kade swore. "That can't be—"
Lyra's heartbeat tripped.
The wolf lowered its head… in a bow.
"What is that?" she whispered.
Rylan's voice was barely human.
"A sentinel."
Lyra's breath caught.
Sentinels were ancient wolves said to serve only one bloodline—one house. A house believed extinct.
The sentinel lifted its gaze.
And Lyra felt something hit her soul, like a bolt of cold lightning.
Recognition.
Rylan moved in front of her defensively. "Why is it bowing to her?"
The sentinel turned its head.
And in the frost at its paws, it dropped something.
A pendant.
A silver crescent moon carved from bone—Lyra's family symbol.
Her mother's.
Lyra's knees buckled.
Rylan caught her again, arms firm around her waist.
"Lyra," he whispered urgently, "what does that mean?"
Her lips trembled.
"It means… my mother didn't just hide me."
She lifted the pendant with shaking fingers.
"She ran."
The sentinel growled low, as if confirming it.
Kade stepped closer, voice tight.
"If she ran, then she ran from someone powerful enough to hunt an Ascendant."
Lyra's fingers curled around the pendant.
Because suddenly, she remembered something—
a memory she had buried as a child.
A night of fire.
Her mother's terrified screams.
A shadowy wolf with burning silver eyes.
A voice whispering:
"We will find her."
Lyra's breath shattered into the cold air.
"My mother wasn't hiding me from the world," she whispered.
"She was hiding me from whoever killed her."
Rylan stiffened.
"What did you say?"
Lyra lifted her tear-filled eyes.
"My mother didn't die in an accident," she said.
Her voice broke.
"She was murdered."
A furious wind swept across the courtyard, scattering snow, rattling gates.
Then—
The sentinel lunged forward and collapsed at Lyra's feet.
Dead.
Kade drew a sharp breath.
"What—what killed it?!"
Isolde's face went white.
Rylan knelt beside the fallen creature, checking for wounds.
"There's no mark. No blood. Nothing."
Lyra stared at the sentinel, heart crashing.
And then she saw it.
Carved into the snow beneath its body:
"YOU WERE NEVER MEANT TO LIVE."
The queen staggered back.
Rylan's eyes burned molten gold.
And Lyra felt the mark on her wrist ignite like fire.
Her past wasn't just a danger.
It was coming for her.
And it had found her.
---