Katrina’s POV
A collective gasp swept through the courtyard like a wave crashing against stone. The sound was sharp, involuntary, too real to be contained. All around me, faces shifted. Doubt, awe, fear, they all flickered across the eyes of warriors, elders, and spectators alike. Their world was changing, and they could feel it.
The Alpha’s lips pulled back in distaste, his teeth clenched behind the scowl. His posture remained rigid, his arms folded, but something in his eyes faltered. It was small, but it was there.
Uncertainty.
"This is madness," he spat, his voice cracking through the charged air like a whip. "She is no wolf of mine."
I stood taller, forcing the tremble in my limbs to still. The energy from the transformation still pulsed beneath my skin, a quiet rhythm in my blood, but it was growing unstable, like fire struggling for air.
I stepped forward slowly. The ground beneath my paws seemed to hum with pressure, as though the earth itself recognized the power flowing through me. I felt every crack in the stone, every vibration, every shift in weight as eyes followed my movement.
"You fear what you do not understand, Alpha," I said in my wolf voice. Despite the storm of emotion behind my ribs, my tone held. Calm. Steady. “But whether you accept it or not, the power of the Lunar Flame flows through me.”
The Alpha’s glare deepened. He looked at me like I was something poisonous, something that needed to be crushed before it spread.
"Seize her!" he barked again, louder, more forcefully this time, turning toward his guards.
The command echoed sharply off the courtyard walls.
But the response was different.
The guards shifted uneasily. Some exchanged glances. I caught a flicker of hesitation in their eyes. Their bodies were tense, but not ready to move. No one stepped forward. No one wanted to be first.
I saw it then, the fear. Not just fear of punishment from the Alpha, but fear of me. They’d seen what I was now. What I’d become. And no one wanted to challenge the unknown.
Still, they moved. Slowly. Cautiously.
But before they could close the gap, something surged inside me.
A force I couldn’t explain.
Power roared to life in my chest, wild and uncontrollable. It poured out of me in a sudden wave, a silver shockwave that burst through the courtyard like lightning cracking open the night.
The nearest guards were flung backward, hitting the stone hard and skidding across the ground.
Gasps and shouts filled the air. My silver form flickered, the glow intensifying, spiraling out of control. The ground beneath me cracked open, jagged lines crawling across the stone like veins. Light flared through them, the very earth responding to what now lived inside me.
For a single, suspended moment, I felt unstoppable.
The power wrapped around me like a second skin, dangerous and pure. My vision sharpened, my hearing amplified. My heart thundered in my chest, and for the first time, I believed it.
I was the heir.
But then, just as suddenly as it rose, the power pulled back.
Drained.
My limbs trembled violently. My legs gave out beneath me.
I collapsed, hard, onto the cold flagstones, my breath escaping in ragged, shuddering gasps. The world spun. The stars above blurred. I shifted back to my human form and my wolf whimpered inside me, faint and distant now, buried beneath exhaustion.
"Katrina!" Adolphus’s voice tore through the chaos. He surged forward, but two guards caught him by the arms before he could reach me.
My head turned weakly in his direction. I saw him straining, rage twisting across his face. Desperation bled from every inch of him.
The Alpha’s voice came next, smug and sharp. “The real bearer of the Lunar Flame isn’t supposed to be weak,” he sneered, stepping down from the dais with slow, measured confidence. “Just as I thought.”
I felt hands grab me, rough and unkind. Fingers dug into my arms, dragging my limp form across the stone. I tried to fight, to kick, to shift, but nothing responded. My strength was gone, devoured by the very power that had once made me feel invincible.
“No!” Adolphus roared, struggling against the guards who held him back. “She is the true heir! You’re making a mistake!”
His voice grew fainter as I was pulled farther from him. The chill of the courtyard bled into my bones. My body was numb. My mind fogged.
And then I saw her.
Cassandra.
She stood tall at the edge of the crowd, her mouth curved into a cruel, satisfied smile. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to. Her expression said it all.
She’d won, at least for now.
The last thing I saw before darkness closed in was her eyes, bright with triumph, as I was dragged away.
Back to the dungeons. Back into the dark. With my fate hanging by a single, fraying thread.