Episode 3 — The Hunt Begins
1085 Words
I wake with the taste of ash in my mouth.
The ceiling above Zane’s bed swims in and out of focus as the echoes of last night claw through my memory—fire in my veins, crimson light burning across my skin, the word queen spoken like a curse.
My fingers twitch.
Warm.
Solid.
Zane’s hand is still wrapped around mine.
Relief crashes through my chest so hard I almost sob.
“You’re awake,” he murmurs instantly, golden eyes snapping open. He hasn’t moved. Hasn’t slept. His jaw is rough with stubble, his expression carved from pure exhaustion and fury.
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” I whisper weakly.
Zane’s grip tightens. “You nearly died.”
Silence swallows the room.
Jason stands near the far wall, arms crossed, the faint lines of warding magic glowing along the doorframe. Protection spells. Dozens of them.
They’re not here to protect me from the pack.
They’re here to protect the pack from what’s coming for me.
“They crossed the outer tree line before dawn,” Jason says flatly. “Scouts confirmed vampire movement. Three clans.”
Zane’s eyes blaze. “Already?”
“They were waiting for your Awakening.”
Cold dread slides down my spine. “They felt it.”
Jason nods. “Every royal surge ripples through the Blood Realm.”
“Hunted,” I breathe.
Zane leans forward, his forehead pressing against mine. “Let them come.”
Jason’s gaze sharpens. “That confidence will get your pack slaughtered if you don’t listen.”
Zane growls low in his throat.
“Enough,” I whisper. “Both of you.”
Their attention snaps to me instantly.
“I need to know,” I say softly. “What exactly did I awaken into?”
Jason hesitates.
Then he finally speaks the truth.
“The Crimson Throne does not rule peacefully anymore. Your parents were murdered in a coup that fractured the vampire kingdoms. The clans are at war. Each believes they deserve the crown.”
My stomach twists.
“And now they know the true heir lives,” Zane finishes darkly.
Jason meets my eyes. “They will not stop until one of two things happens.”
“Which is?”
“Either you take the throne,” he says quietly,
“Or someone kills you before you can.”
The pack hall erupts hours later.
Zane stands at the center, shirtless, battle scars bared. I stand beside him, flanked by Jason and Elder Bram as wolves crowd the stone floor, voices clashing like thunder.
“She will bring war to our doorstep!”
“She already has!”
“She’s a ticking weapon!”
A wolf named Garrick steps forward, muzzle twisted in fear and hate. “You expect us to die for a vampire queen?”
Zane’s power flares. The floor cracks beneath his feet as his wolf surges near the surface.
“She is my mate.”
“And not yet marked,” Garrick snaps. “The bond isn’t sealed. The pack is not obligated to bleed for her.”
My chest aches.
Zane steps forward, eyes glowing lethal gold. “You will bleed for her because I command it.”
Gasps tear through the hall.
An unsealed Alpha command carries risk.
Political.
Dangerous.
Jason stiffens. Elder Bram’s eyes widen.
Garrick bares his teeth. “Then you damn us all with your heart.”
The challenge is clear.
Pack dominance.
Public.
Deadly.
Zane doesn’t hesitate.
His wolf explodes free in a surge of bone and fur and light.
The fight is brutal.
Fists. Fangs. Blood.
The entire hall trembles with the impact of two alphas colliding. Garrick fights with desperation. Zane fights with possessed fury.
I feel every blow through the bond.
When Zane finally slams Garrick into the stone floor hard enough to crack it, the pack falls silent.
Zane stands over him, claws at his throat.
“Speak against my queen again,” Zane snarls, “and the next fracture will be your spine.”
Garrick bows.
The pack bows.
And just like that…
War is chosen.
Night falls with the taste of iron in the air.
The borders blaze with watchfires as wolves shift and patrol in haunting silence. I stand at the balcony again, staring into the forest that now hides enemies on all sides.
Zane joins me, resting his forehead against my shoulder.
“I never wanted this for you,” he says quietly.
“I never wanted a crown,” I whisper.
He exhales. “You wanted a family.”
I nod.
“I still do.”
He turns me in his arms, pressing his lips to my temple. “Then we’ll build one out of fire and blood if we have to.”
A ripple of unease curls through my chest.
The bond hums.
Warning.
Jason’s voice cuts across the night.
“They’re inside the perimeter.”
The first scream echoes through the trees.
Then another.
Then the scent of vampire blood floods the air.
The attack is swift.
Silent.
Deadly.
Shadows burst through the perimeter wards as cloaked vampires crash into our defenses. Wolves shift mid-air. Howls split the sky.
Zane shoves me back toward the chamber. “Stay. Locked. Do not move.”
“I can fight.”
“You will not.”
The Alpha in him overrides everything.
Pain tears through the bond as he shifts mid-leap into the fray.
I run anyway.
Magic surges in my palms as instincts I don’t fully understand blaze awake. A shadow lunges from the corridor and I react without thinking—
The vampire disintegrates into crimson ash.
I freeze.
Horrified.
Terrified.
Power thrums beneath my skin like a living storm.
The assassin duel spreads through the halls.
Blood streaks the stone.
Wolves fall.
Vampires burn.
And then—
A hand grips my throat from behind.
Cold.
Bone-crushing.
“You should have stayed hidden, little queen.”
I’m dragged into the shadows.
Jason appears instantly, blades flashing—but another cloaked figure slams into him, sending him crashing through a wall.
The assassin’s lips brush my ear.
“The throne will be ours.”
A blade presses to my spine.
The bond between Zane and I ignites in agony.
KALI!
I scream.
Power erupts from my core.
The corridor explodes in red light.
The assassin is hurled backward violently.
But I fall with him.
Over the balcony edge.
Into darkness.
Zane’s roar shreds the night.
And I am falling.
Falling.
Falling—
- Writer
