POV: Soraya
The healers rushed Raevan down the corridor, their footsteps echoing like pounding drums inside my skull. I followed a few paces behind until Vienne physically pulled me back, reminding me he needed space, not my panic. The corridor smelled of blood and incense, the air trembling with leftover adrenaline.
I should’ve left.
I should’ve returned to my chambers.
I should’ve run to the furthest balcony and breathed until my pulse steadied.
Instead, I hovered in the hallway, fingers trembling, heart still aching from the moment his hand reached blindly for mine.
Everything inside me was raw.
Too vulnerable. Too exposed. I was still reeling when a sharp voice sliced through the air.
“Where is he?”
Azhara’s heels clacked against the stone like daggers as she swept into the corridor, face pale, eyes blazing. Her perfect silk robes shimmered gold under the sconces—soft, delicate, untouched by battle. The sight of the courtyard’s smoke clinging to my clothes made her lip curl.
She spotted me.
Her fury sharpened instantly.
“You.” The word came out like poison. “Why is it always you?”
My stomach dropped. “Azhara, not now.”
“Not now?” She laughed, brittle and sharp. “Raevan returns bleeding—bleeding, Soraya— and where do I find him? With you kneeling over him like some moon-damned temptress.”
Heat rushed to my face. “He was hurt—”
Her voice rose, echoing down the hall. “And you took advantage of that, didn’t you? Pretending to save him while putting your cursed hands all over—”
“Azhara,” Kaide’s voice cut from behind her, grim and low. He stepped forward, jaw tight. “Stop.”
She spun on him. “Do not tell me to stop! I am his betrothed. I should’ve been the one brought to his side. Not her. Not the Zehrael stray who has done nothing but cause chaos since the day she arrived!”
My vision blurred with anger. “I healed him. He would’ve bled out—”
“Oh, yes,” she spat. “How convenient that your magic appeared at the perfect moment. Almost like you want everyone to believe you're some miracle rather than the danger you truly are.”
My heart thudded painfully.
More wolves gathered in the hall. Warriors. Elders. Healers returning with blood-stained cloths. All of them watched—eyes flicking between us, tension heavy as the heat outside.
Azhara turned to them dramatically. “Look at her! Look at what she’s done to him! Raevan was fine before she came—now he’s distracted, reckless, and injured because he has to drag her cursed fate behind him like a chain!”
A few elders exchanged glances, uneasy.
Kaide crossed his arms. “That blade was going for a young guard. Raevan stepped in. It had nothing to do with Soraya.”
Azhara ignored him entirely.
“Didn’t you hear me?” she demanded, pointing at me like I was a stain. “She must have seduced him again. Look at her! Torn clothes, flushed cheeks—”
“That’s enough.” The words came from Elder Korrin, one of the oldest wolves in Ashra. His voice boomed down the hall. “We saw everything.”
Azhara froze.
Elder Korrin stepped forward, leaning on his carved staff. “We witnessed Lady Soraya healing the Alpha with her own hands. She saved his life. Without her, Raevan would be in far worse condition—or dead.”
Whispers rippled through the hall.
Azhara’s face went white.
“She—she used forbidden magic,” she stammered. “Zehrael witchcraft—”
“Power,” Korrin corrected. “Gifted power. Not forbidden. And certainly not evil.”
My heart twisted at the word gifted. I had never been called that before.
Another elder stepped beside him. “Soraya saved three warriors and our Alpha today. Whatever we thought of her before… she deserves respect.
Azhara’s mouth fell open, shaking with silent rage.
But something else struck me harder:
The elders defended me.
Me.
Not completely. Not with warmth. But they didn’t call me cursed. Didn’t blame me. Didn’t condemn me. For the first time since stepping foot into Ashra, the tide had shifted. Even if only by an inch.
Azhara noticed too. And it destroyed her.
She forced a trembling breath. “You’re all blind. She’s manipulating you. Don’t you see? She’s turning Raevan against his own pack!”
Kaide scoffed. “He turned against injustice, not us.”
“Stay out of this, Kaide!”
“Not if you sling lies.”
Her fists clenched around the silk of her robes so tightly the fabric strained.
Then she turned on me again.
“This is your fault,” she hissed quietly enough that only I and Kaide heard. “Everything falling apart. Raevan’s injuries. The raid. The elders doubting me. The pack whispering.” Her voice vibrated with hatred. “You are a disaster in human skin.”
I swallowed hard. “I didn’t ask to be here.”
“But you’re here all the same,” she spat. “And as long as you are… everything I deserve, everything I’ve worked for since childhood, everything that should be mine—”
Kaide cut in sharply. “Raevan is not an object. Neither is the throne. Or Soraya.”
Azhara trembled with barely contained fury. “I will NOT let her destroy this pack.”
Kaide stepped between us. “If anyone is dividing the pack, it’s you.”
The elders murmured agreement.
Azhara paled further, realizing—for once—her words held no sway here.
Not after what they’d seen. Not after Raevan bled in my arms. Not after my power saved the lives they valued.
She drew herself tall, chin trembling. “I am Raevan’s future queen.”
“And today,” Elder Korrin said, “you acted like a jealous child instead.”
Her breath hitched—a tiny, wounded sound.
Shame flooded her features, buried instantly under rage.
“This isn’t over,” she whispered to me, eyes gleaming like a blade in torchlight. “I will not lose to you.”
Before I could respond, she turned sharply and stormed down the hall, shoving past anyone who dared stand in her way.
When she disappeared around the corner, Kaide looked at me.
“You okay?”
I nodded, though it was a lie. “I don’t know what I am.”
He exhaled. “She’s losing control. She knows it.”
“And she blames me.”
“She blames anyone who threatens her illusion of power.”
The elders dispersed slowly, whispering under their breath. Some looked at me with new respect. Others with caution.
None with hatred. Not this time.
But as I pressed a shaking hand to the wall, feeling my breath hitch, I knew something else:
Azhara would only get more dangerous now. Much more.