Chapter Three — Lira
729 Words
“I was born to wear the crown. Not beg for it.”
Blood still lingered in the corners of my mouth.
His blood.
It wasn’t enough.
I stood barefoot in the clearing I had once claimed as sacred, surrounded by silence and betrayal. The wind stirred my hair. My claws retracted slowly, unwillingly, as my body returned to its human form. Cold, perfect, and trembling with rage.
Kade had protected her.
The filthy little omega.
The one who had vanished like a stain we finally wiped clean—only to return wrapped in the scent of a bond that should have been mine.
My mating bond with Kade had been arranged before I even hit my first shift. My family, the Vale bloodline, had ruled as Betas for generations. We don’t marry for love. We marry for power. Position. Control.
I didn’t need Kade to love me.
I just needed him to choose me.
But tonight?
He didn’t.
He chose her.
And she wasn’t even supposed to exist.
That scent—raw, wild, ancient—it clung to her like prophecy. But it didn’t make sense. Omegas didn’t carry power like that. They didn’t draw Alphas into madness. They didn’t survive bonds that weren’t meant to happen.
Unless…
Unless she wasn’t just an omega.
Unless something else ran through her blood.
My fingers curled into fists as I moved through the trees. The forest whispered around me, half-recognizing my fury. I could feel the stares of hidden wolves from the patrols, watching, waiting to see what I would do.
They smelled it too.
The shift in the balance.
The way the Alpha had looked at her.
I wouldn’t let her take what I bled for. What I trained for. What I waited years to claim.
I’d snapped my spine in two, shifting perfectly by thirteen. Learned every ritual. Studied the laws. Became everything this pack expected in a Luna.
And he kissed her.
He looked at her like she mattered.
No.
No, no, no.
This would not end in some fated fairy tale.
The moon didn’t care who bled for the throne.
And I wasn’t above drawing blood.
⸻
I arrived back at the estate in silence, my feet like ice against the polished floors. Servants watched me from a distance, pretending not to see the smear of blood on my collarbone, the tear in my dress.
They knew better than to speak.
My mother was waiting in the sitting room, sipping wine like she hadn’t just sent her daughter into a battle she couldn’t win.
“You lost control,” she said without looking up.
“I defended what’s mine.”
“She is Kade’s mate,” she replied coolly. “The bond doesn’t lie.”
“The bond is broken,” I hissed. “Fate is flawed. And I’m not surrendering to a ghost who doesn’t even know what she is.”
She finally looked at me. Calm. Calculated.
“Then fix it.”
I stilled.
“Fix it?” I echoed.
She leaned forward slowly. “Find her weakness. Find his. And make it cost them. Bonds may be fated, but the Luna is chosen.”
I stared at her, chest tight. “You want me to destroy her?”
“I want you to remind Kade who he was before she walked back into our world.”
A bitter laugh escaped me. “She’s inside his quarters. Right now.”
Mother’s eyes sparkled with something cruel. “Then make sure she never comes out again.”
⸻
Later that night, I crept down the dark hallway toward the Alpha wing.
I knew the guards. I’d been slipping past them since I was seventeen. They wouldn’t stop me. They wouldn’t dare.
Kade’s scent was everywhere—woodsmoke, pine, and wolf. It curled around my skin, wrapped around my throat.
I reached the door. My hand hovered above the handle.
Then I heard her.
A soft sound. A breath. A whimper.
She was dreaming.
Of him, no doubt.
My hand clenched.
I could walk in. Drag her out by the hair. Mark her with a scar she’d never heal from. Prove to Kade she didn’t belong here.
But I didn’t.
I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.
She wanted fire? Let her have it.
I’d burn down this whole estate before I let her take my crown.
- Writer
