Chapter 5 - Lucien
725 Words
Lucien’s POV
The night smelled of blood and rain.
I stood beneath the storm-dark trees overlooking Blackmoor Estate while screams echoed faintly through the forest below.
My claws flexed at my sides.
The worst part was that this had never been about the throne. Not entirely. The throne had simply become the consolation prize.
Seraphine was inside that house. She had never once looked at me the way she looked at Alaric.
Never.
Lightning split across the sky, illuminating the estate in violent silver.
Rosewood.
The heart of the kingdom.
The place where she laughed, lived and carried another man’s heir.
My jaw tightened.
“She could still live.”
The rogue beside me shifted uneasily.
“Alpha Alaric will never allow…”
“He is not in control here.”
The growl beneath my words silenced the rogue instantly.
Below us, wolves crashed through the estate defenses while smoke curled upward into the storm.
The attack had gone smoother than expected.
Because I had built those defenses myself. I knew every weakness, blind spot and every guard rotation.
Alaric trusted me completely.
That trust almost made this harder.
Another scream echoed faintly through the trees.
Female this time.
My wolf stirred restlessly.
Seraphine.
His pulse quickened instinctively.
“She was never meant to die,” I muttered quietly.
The rogues exchanged glances.
Fear.
Confusion.
Good.
They should fear me
One stepped forward carefully.
“What about the child?”
Silence.
Lucien stared toward the lit windows of the estate.
The heir.
The infant princess.
The child Seraphine loved more fiercely than anything else in the world.
I remembered holding the girl once after her birth.
Pale hair and blue eyes rimmed in black, she was the perfect combination between Alaric and Seraphine.
Seraphine had smiled when I mentioned that.
“She will be extraordinary.”
The memory curdled inside him now.
“She’s only a baby,” another rogue pressed carefully.
My expression hardened.
“I gave instructions.”
The rogues visibly relaxed.
Of course.
Because even now they believed there were lines I would not cross.
Interesting.
A distant howl suddenly split through the night.
Pain.
Agony.
Alaric.
I closed his eyes briefly.
The king was dying.
And despite everything…grief twisted sharply through my chest because once upon a time, Alaric had been his brother in everything except blood.
Alaric was a true Alpha. He was honourable, loyal, strong and Seraphine had loved him effortlessly for it.
Jealousy burned hot and poisonous beneath my ribs.
Why him?
Why had fate chosen Alaric for greatness?
For loyalty?
For love?
While I stood forever at the edges watching another man possess everything he wanted.
A violent crash echoed from the estate.
Magic surged through the air suddenly.
My eyes snapped toward the house.
Seraphine.
Even wounded, the witch queen was still fighting.
Awe and fury tangled viciously inside me.
“She should’ve chosen me,” I whispered.
Seraphine would rather burn the world to ash than kneel beside me willingly.
One of the rogues approached again moments later, blood covering his clothes.
“The queen is dead.”
The words landed strangely hollow.
I felt…nothing. No triumph, no satisfaction. Only emptiness.
A pause.
Then:
“Gone.”
I lifted my head sharply.
“What?”
“We searched the estate. She’s not there.”
The storm rumbled violently overhead.
Impossible.
No infant simply vanished.
Unless—
Magic.
My jaw clenched instantly.
Even dying, Seraphine had protected the child.
Of course she had.
For one dangerous second, I considered ordering a hunt.
Find the child.
Finish it properly.
A strange instinct stopped me. The girl carried Seraphine’s blood. Alaric’s blood. Royal blood.
Killing an infant heir outright, would fracture the kingdom permanently.
Perhaps hidden among humans, the child would become nothing.
No wolf.
No queen.
No threat.
A soft laugh escaped me.
“Yes,” I murmured slowly. “Let fate bury her.”
Because if the girl survived as human—
Then eventually Rosewood would belong to me entirely.
The throne.
The kingdom.
The legacy.
All without another drop of royal blood standing in my way.
Behind me, dawn slowly began bleeding into the horizon.
I stared toward the ruined estate one final time.
Then turned away from the bodies of the people I just betrayed and walked toward the future that belongs to me.
- Writer
