POV: Serephina
Isolde's smile was the kind that made children cry.
"What I really am?" I whispered through the silver chains burning into my neck. My voice came out broken, raw from screaming. "I'm nothing. Just a failed Luna. A terrible mother. A—"
"A liar," Isolde interrupted softly. She stepped closer to my cell, her ancient eyes gleaming in the torchlight. "Or rather, someone who's been lied to. Tell me, child—what do you know about mate bonds?"
I flinched. The words hurt worse than the wolfsbane chains. "I know mine is worthless."
"Is it?" Isolde tilted her head, studying me like a bug under glass. "You felt the pull when you met Kael seven years ago, didn't you? That undeniable attraction? The certainty that he was yours?"
My throat tightened. I remembered that day so clearly—walking into the Alpha meeting as a scared twenty-two-year-old omega from a destroyed pack, and then feeling it. Like lightning striking my chest. Like coming home. Kael had looked at me with those ice-blue eyes, and I'd known.
He was mine. I was his. The Moon Goddess had chosen us.
"Yes," I breathed. "I felt it."
Isolde's smile widened. "That's what we wanted you to feel."
The dungeon spun.
"What?"
"The mate bond, dear child, was never real." Isolde spoke each word slowly, like explaining something to a stupid puppy. "It was a binding ritual. Very old magic. Very illegal magic. We created a false bond to chain you to Kael."
My wolf howled inside me—a sound of pure anguish. "No. No, that's impossible. Mate bonds are sacred. The Moon Goddess—"
"The Moon Goddess had nothing to do with you and my grandson." Isolde examined her nails casually. "We needed to bind you, suppress you, keep you weak and obedient. The false mate bond accomplished all three. Quite elegantly, I might add."
The chains suddenly felt heavier. Tighter. Like they were squeezing the life out of me.
Seven years. Seven years of loving Kael with every piece of my soul. Seven years of believing the Moon Goddess had chosen us. Seven years of thinking I just wasn't good enough, wasn't strong enough, wasn't enough.
And it was all fake.
A spell. A trick. A leash.
"Why?" The word ripped out of me. "Why would you do that to me? I was nobody! Just an omega from a dead pack!"
Something flickered in Isolde's eyes. Something that looked almost like fear.
"You were never nobody, Serephina Thorne." She said my maiden name like a curse. "Your bloodline was... problematic. Dangerous. We had to neutralize the threat before you realized what you were."
"What I—" I started, but Isolde was already turning away.
"Kael will come for you in the morning," she said over her shoulder. "He'll sever the false bond and make Lyssandra his true Luna. You'll be executed for abandoning your mate duties. Quick. Painless. Better than you deserve, really, considering—"
"Considering what?" I screamed. The chains burned hotter, but I didn't care. "What am I? What bloodline? What are you so afraid of?"
Isolde paused at the dungeon stairs. For a long moment, she didn't speak.
Then: "Your mother sang to you when you were small, didn't she? Lullabies about silver wolves and violet flames?"
My blood turned to ice.
I did remember. Fragments of memory I'd always thought were dreams—my mother's voice, soft and sweet, singing about wolves crowned in purple fire. About queens who ruled the night. About—
"The Thornecrown Dynasty," Isolde whispered. "Your parents were King Aldric and Queen Sevana. We killed them thirty years ago. We killed everyone with that bloodline. Or so we thought."
The world tilted.
"You're lying." But my voice shook. Because suddenly things were clicking into place. The way Kael always looked at my violet eyes with disgust. The way Isolde watched me constantly. The way they'd isolated me from other packs.
They weren't just cruel.
They were terrified.
"Your bloodline was supposed to stay buried," Isolde continued, climbing the first stair. "The binding ritual kept your power suppressed. Kept you weak. Kept you exactly where we needed you—powerless and broken." She smiled one last time. "Sleep well, little omega. Tomorrow, you die."
The dungeon door slammed shut.
Darkness swallowed me.
I sat there in my chains, my mind fragmenting. Royal bloodline? Thornecrown Dynasty? It was insane. Impossible.
But the memories were surfacing now—rushing back like a dam breaking. My mother's violet eyes. My father's silver wolf. The screams the night our home burned. Being dragged away by a woman with ancient eyes who whispered, "Forget. Forget everything. You are nobody. You are nothing."
Isolde. It had been Isolde.
She'd taken a six-year-old princess and turned her into a terrified omega. Then she'd gift-wrapped me for her grandson, bound me with a false mate bond, and watched me suffer for seven years.
And tomorrow, she'd finish what she started thirty years ago.
Rage boiled up inside me—hot and violent and wrong. My wolf snarled, thrashing against the wolfsbane chains. The silver burned deeper, but I welcomed the pain. Used it. Fed it into the growing fire in my chest.
"No," I whispered into the darkness. "No more."
Something inside me was waking up. Something that had been sleeping for thirty years. Something that burned hotter than silver, stronger than wolfsbane, older than fear.
The chains started to glow.
Not with silver light.
With violet.
"No more lies," I growled, and my voice didn't sound like me anymore. It sounded like power. Like fury. Like—
The chains exploded.
Purple flames erupted from my skin, consuming the silver like paper. The wolfsbane burned away to nothing. My small gray wolf surged forward, but it wasn't small anymore. It was growing—bones cracking, fur shifting from dull gray to shimmering silver, power flooding through every cell.
My wolf threw back its head and roared.
The sound shook the entire dungeon. Shook the pack house above. Shook the ground itself.
And somewhere in the darkness, something answered.
A presence so ancient and powerful it made my new flames feel like candles next to the sun. It pressed against my mind—curious, hungry, awake.
A voice like midnight and smoke whispered directly into my soul:
"Finally. I've been waiting for you, little queen."
The dungeon wall exploded inward.