Karl's POV
"The left cuff is uneven."
I frowned at my reflection, and immediately three attendants swarmed, adjusting the midnight-blue formal coat that had been tailored specifically for today. Specifically for me.
"Better, your grace?" The youngest attendant's voice shook slightly.
I turned, examining the coat from another angle. Perfect fit across the shoulders—broad enough to showcase the warrior's build I'd earned through twenty years of brutal training. The silver threading caught the light, subtle but unmistakable. The Storm wolf crest on the breast gleamed.
Everything about this coat said power.
Destiny. Chosen.
Exactly as it should.
"It'll do," I said.
The relief in the room was palpable. I was used to that too—the way people held their breath around me, waiting for approval or dismissal. The weight of their expectations.
Strange that I'd stopped noticing when that weight had become comfortable.
A sharp knock—three measured raps that could only be one person. "Enter."
High Councilor Theron swept in, ceremonial robes rustling, rings glinting on every finger. Behind him drifted two seers, their milky eyes somehow fixed on me despite being blank.
I'd never liked the seers. Something about the way they looked at you or through you made my skin crawl.
"The morning of destiny," Theron announced, spreading his arms wide, voice carrying the grandeur reserved for occasions like this. "How do you feel, young Stormborn?"
"Ready," I said simply. I'd been ready since I was five, when the Council first explained I would save the world.
Everything in my life had been building to this moment.
"Humble as always," Theron said with an indulgent smile that I didn't quite like. As if I were a child performing a trick. "Though you needn't be. Not today. Twenty years we've prepared you for this moment. The finest combat trainers. The sharpest strategic minds. An education in leadership that would make Alphas weep with envy. You are the prophecy in flesh."
One of the seers stepped forward, her head tilted at an unnatural angle. "The Legendary Wolf awaits," she rasped. "Even now, it stirs in the deep places of the Hatchery. Drawn by destiny. By you."
"An Alpha Ice Wolf," the second seer added, her voice like wind through dead leaves. "Ancient beyond measure. Powerful beyond comprehension. It has waited centuries for this day. For you."
A thrill ran through me. Not fear. Never fear. Anticipation. This was what I was born for. What I had trained for. The moment when I would bond with a legend and become the savior everyone knew I was meant to be.
"The others will attend the ceremony as well, of course," Theron said, waving a dismissive hand. "Protocol demands it. But they're formalities. Background noise. Today is about you and the wolf that will make you unstoppable."
"Forty-three candidates this year." Theron continued.. "They will be chosen by other wolves but none of them matter. You are the person of the day. The Legendary Wolf, which has not been seen since The Great War, will appear because of you. Today will be the start of the journey of your destiny."
I studied my reflection again. Forty-three others, all of them about to witness my ascension. All of them are about to watch me bond with a power they could never hope to touch.
I should probably feel some sympathy for them. I didn't.
It's not my fault that the Legendary Wolf deemed them too weak to bond with.
"What of the Void?" I asked. "The seers said the seals are weakening."
"They are," Theron confirmed, his expression growing grave. "Which is precisely why today is so crucial. Once you bond with the Legendary Wolf, you'll begin your training in earnest. The Council has already prepared—" His tone irritated me.
"I don't need more training." I turned from the mirror, meeting Theron's eyes with cool confidence. "I've been training my entire life. Once I have the wolf's power, I'll be ready to face whatever the Void sends."
Theron's hand tightened on my shoulder. "Confidence is good, Kael. Overconfidence is dangerous."
"It's not overconfidence if it's earned."
For a moment, something cold flashed in Theron's eyes. Then he smiled—wide, paternal, hollow. "Of course. Forgive an old man's caution. You are absolutely right."
The seers said nothing, but I felt their blind stares boring into me.
"The car is prepared?" I asked, already moving toward the door. Time to stop talking about destiny and start claiming it.
"Waiting outside. You'll arrive before the other candidates, naturally. Make a proper entrance."
I nodded. Of course I would. Everything about today had been choreographed for maximum impact. The chosen one, arriving to claim his birthright while lesser wolves scrambled for scraps.
As I descended the marble staircase, servants and guards alike stopped to bow. Their eyes held worship, reverence, hope. I was used to it. I had been swimming in it my entire life.
"Lord Stormborn," a young guard breathed as he passed. "Good fortune in the ceremony."
I didn't slow. "I won't need fortune."
Because I wouldn't. Fortune was for people who had to rely on chance. I had the prophecy.
The white limousine waited in the courtyard—sleek and elegant. The door bore my family crest: a wolf silhouetted against a lightning strike.
Soon, it wouldn't just be a crest.
It would be reality.
The servant by the door bowed and held it open for me. Through the window, I watched the capital slide by, people stopped to stare as my car passed, some pointing, some bowing.
By sunset, the whole world would know the prophecy had been fulfilled. That Kael Stormborn had bonded with the Legendary Wolf. That their salvation had arrived.
I leaned back, allowing myself a small smile.
Only one person in that Hatchery mattered.
And that person was me.