Chapter 1
1877 Words
RAVIENNE
The scratching sound of my pen against paper was the only thing keeping me sane.
For the past hour, I had buried myself beneath endless reports from the eastern borders, tax disputes between merchants, and complaints from lower-ranking wolves who somehow believed the Luna possessed enough power to solve every inconvenience inside Crescent Ridge.
Maybe I once did.
Maybe before grief hollowed me out from the inside and left nothing behind except exhaustion pretending to be strength.
My office smelled faintly of lavender and old parchment while rain tapped softly against the tall windows behind me. Dark clouds stretched across the mountains surrounding the pack territory, swallowing the sky in dull shades of gray.
Everything felt gray lately.
Cold. Empty. Dead... Just like my son. Dead!
I rubbed my temple tiredly while reaching for another file, but my fingers froze halfway there when my gaze landed on the framed drawing sitting near the edge of my desk.
Kiran’s drawing... My dead genius's drawing.
My chest tightened instantly.
Stick figures with oversized crowns stood beneath a badly drawn moon. One figure had long hair and a crooked smile labeled Mama. The taller figure beside it had broad shoulders and a sword labeled Papa.
And between us stood a smaller figure with messy curls and a giant weapon nearly bigger than his tiny body.
Future Alpha. A painful ache spread violently through my chest.
Six months. It had already been six months since I buried my son beneath the sacred grounds of Crescent Ridge.
Yet every corner of this palace still carried pieces of him.
His laughter still haunted these hallways. His scent lingered inside rooms nobody entered anymore.
Sometimes I still woke in the middle of the night convinced I could hear his tiny feet running through the corridors while he searched for me after another nightmare.
Then reality always returned.
Cruel. Silent. Merciless.
Kiran was gone. Gone for good.
And no matter how badly I wished otherwise, nothing in this world could bring him back to me.
I quickly looked away from the drawing before the grief swallowed me whole again. I had been doing a good job lately putting emotions aside just to focus my every attention on the pack's business. No matter how much the grief of losing a child tried to pull me down, I had to remain strong because the pack needed me. Their Luna.
Work. I needed to focus on work. Because if I stopped moving for even one second, I would remember too much.
The blood. The screaming. The way his tiny hand slowly stopped squeezing mine near the end.
A sharp knock suddenly echoed through the office before the doors burst open violently.
“Your Majesty!”
I shot to my feet instantly. Mira, my favorite maid, stumbled inside breathing hard, her face pale with panic beneath her brown curls.
My stomach dropped immediately. Knowing something must have gone terribly wrong.
“What happened?” I demanded sharply.
“The princess—” Her voice cracked painfully. “She... she’s acting strangely again, your majesty.”
The world stopped. For one horrifying second, I forgot how to breathe. Then panic exploded through me violently.
No. Not Ashlyn. Please not my baby too.
I shoved my chair back so hard it nearly toppled over before rushing toward the door. I barely noticed I had left my shoes behind until the freezing marble floors hit my bare feet while I sprinted through the palace corridors.
"Your majesty..."
Servants jumped out of my way. Guards called after me. I ignored all of them.
My heartbeat thundered violently inside my ears as terror clawed through my chest with every passing second.
Please. Please let her be okay. Please don’t take her from me too. Please please please.
I pushed through the final hallway leading toward Ashlyn’s chambers, nearly slipping against the polished floors before catching myself against the wall.
The doors were already open. The sharp smell of medicine hit me immediately. So did the sound.
My baby was crying.
"Mama... It... It hurts."
Crying. Weak. Painful.
My daughter’s tiny whimpers shattered what little remained of my heart.
“Ashlyn—” I rushed inside.
The room that once belonged to a cheerful little princess no longer looked like a child’s room anymore.
Medicine bottles covered nearly every table. Bowls of cold water sat untouched beside folded cloths.
The curtains remained closed most days now because sunlight hurt her eyes too much. Even the air inside the room felt sick.
Heavy. Hopeless.
Ashlyn lay weakly against the pillows while Doctor Elric hovered beside the bed with exhaustion written across his face.
My daughter looked impossibly small beneath the blankets. Too pale. Too thin.
Her silver-blonde curls clung damply against her forehead while her tiny chest rose unevenly with each shallow breath.
God. She looked exactly like Kiran did near the end.
“No…” My voice cracked painfully as I stumbled toward her bedside. “Ash…”
Her amber eyes fluttered weakly toward me.
“Mama…”
The sound nearly destroyed me completely.
I climbed onto the bed beside her instantly and grabbed her tiny trembling hand carefully inside mine.
“I’m here, sweetheart,” I whispered shakily while brushing curls away from her damp forehead. “Mama’s here.”
Her skin burned beneath my touch. Too hot.
Panic immediately tightened around my throat.
Doctor Elric carefully adjusted the cloth resting against her forehead before looking toward me with an expression I already hated.
That look. That pity. I remembered it too well. It was the same expression the healers wore before Kiran died.
No. No no no. Not again.
I've already lost one, I can't lose the other. I can't lose my ray of sunshine. I can't.
“There was another seizure,” Doctor Elric explained quietly. “Her fever worsened during the night.”
My breath caught painfully. Ashlyn whimpered softly before turning weakly toward me.
“Mama… hurts…”
A broken sound escaped my lips before I carefully gathered her into my arms despite the doctor beginning to protest.
I did not care. I held her tightly against my chest while her tiny body trembled weakly.
“You’re okay,” I lied desperately while pressing kisses against her hair. “You’re okay, baby.”
But she wasn’t okay. I knew she wasn’t. I could feel it.
The same sickness that stole my son was stealing her too. And nobody knew how to stop it.
Doctor Elric quietly moved toward the nearby table and began preparing another tonic while servants silently moved around the room.
Everyone looked tense. Hopeless. Terrified.
Because they all remembered Kiran too.
I remembered the first time he coughed blood into my hands. The first sleepless night. The first healer who failed him. Then another. Then another. And... Another.
Until my son slowly withered away in front of me while I stood there completely helpless.
I tightened my hold around Ashlyn instinctively.
Not her too.
Please. Anything but her too. Anything but my baby.
Doctor Elric finally approached holding a silver spoon filled with medicine. Ashlyn barely swallowed two sips before coughing weakly against my chest.
The doctor’s shoulders visibly sank. And somehow that tiny movement terrified me more than anything else.
I slowly looked up at him.
“What is it?” I whispered. Swallowing down thickly. "Please talk to me, doctor."
Nobody answered immediately. The silence inside the room became unbearable.
“Doctor.”
He lowered his eyes. And suddenly I already knew. The medicine was failing. Just like everything else.
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty,” he said softly. “We’ve tried every treatment available to us.”
My vision blurred instantly. “No…”
“There’s nothing more the healers can do.”
“No.” I shook my head harder while tears burned my eyes. “No, you said the new medicine would help her.”
His silence shattered something inside me.
“You said it would lower the fever.”
“I truly believed it would.”
“You’re lying.” My voice cracked violently. “You’re lying because you don’t know what else to say.”
Pain filled the doctor’s face. But not nearly as much pain as I felt inside my own chest.
“Your Majesty…” he whispered quietly. “You should prepare yourself for the inevitable.”
I stared at him. Then slowly looked back down at my daughter. At her tiny fragile body trembling weakly against mine.
At the child who still reached for me even while drowning in pain. And suddenly all I could see was Kiran.
Kiran smiling proudly after training. Kiran laughing while chasing Ashlyn through the gardens. Kiran dying slowly in my arms while I begged the Moon Goddess not to take my son away from me.
The air vanished from my lungs completely.
“Is she…” I swallowed painfully. “Is she going to die too?”
Nobody answered. That silence was answer enough.
Something inside me cracked. A soft broken sound escaped my lips before tears finally spilled down my face.
“No…”
I sank back onto the bed beside Ashlyn, clutching her hand desperately.
"Goddess, you can't! Not both of my babies. Not again... Please."
The room became blurry through my tears as the servants quietly lowered their heads. Even Doctor Elric looked close to crying himself.
After a long moment, he finally spoke gently. “We... we’ll leave you alone for now, Your Majesty.”
I barely heard him. One by one, everyone quietly exited the room until only the sound of Ashlyn’s uneven breathing remained.
And me. Broken beside her. I pressed trembling kisses against her tiny fingers while sobs tore painfully from my chest.
“I’m sorry,” I cried softly. “I’m so sorry, my sweet girl.”
I couldn’t save Kiran. And now I was losing her too. What kind of mother was I? What kind of Luna couldn’t even protect her own children?
The grief swallowed me whole. I buried my face against Ashlyn’s blanket and cried harder than I had in months.
Then suddenly... The doors burst open again.
I looked up sharply. Mira rushed inside breathing frantically.
Terrified. I wiped at my tears. Heaven knows I can't bear any more bad news right now.
“Your Majesty,” she gasped. “You have to run.”
I frowned in confusion, quickly wiping the rest of my tears. “What?”
“They’re coming.”
My stomach tightened instantly. “Who’s coming?”
“The soldiers.” Her voice shook violently. “They... they said Lady Lilian is currently... um, they are saying—”
Heavy boots thundered from outside. Both of us froze. Mira’s face turned ghostly pale.
“No…” she whispered. "No, they must not meet you here, your majesty. You need to run."
The sound grew louder. Closer. Then the bedroom doors swung open violently. Armed soldiers stormed inside.
And standing in front of them was Commander Hale. His cold eyes landed directly on me. Then his voice echoed through the room like a death sentence.
“Ravienne Arden,” he announced. “By order of the court and the pack, you are under arrest.”
- Writer
