Chapter 12
674 Words
The Great Hall of the Silver-Moon Palace was silent, but for Silas Vane, the silence was deafening. He stood by the hearth, watching the flames lick the stones, but he felt no warmth. Since the moment he had felt that jagged, electric pulse through the bond, the one Ivy had sent as a warning, his own skin felt like a cage too small for his wolf.
The doors burst open, and Commander Vance stumbled in. He was a man who prided himself on his iron composure, but today, his armor was dented, and his eyes were wide with a primal terror Silas had never seen in his elite guard.
"Report," Silas commanded, his voice a low vibration that made the wine in the glasses on the table ripple.
"She... she’s not an Omega, Sire," Vance wheezed, falling to one knee. "We found her. Or rather, she found us. The Blackwood Forest; it’s alive, Silas. The shadows... they moved like they were her limbs. She disarmed us without touching a blade."
Silas moved so fast he was a blur, his hand fisting in Vance’s collar and hauling the heavy man to his feet. "You let a girl, a servant, disarm the King’s guard?"
"She isn't a girl anymore!" Vance cried out, his voice cracking. "She looked at me, and I felt my soul freeze. Her eyes... they weren't brown anymore. They were violet fire. She told me to tell you that she isn't waiting for your mercy. She told me the shadows are coming for you."
Silas released him, his mind reeling. Violet eyes. That was the mark of the Eclipse lineage, a myth he had been told was a bedtime story to scare disobedient pups. If Ivy was a Shadow Walker, then his rejection hadn't just been a mistake, it had been a catastrophic strategic failure. He had discarded the most powerful weapon in the world because he was too arrogant to see past her tattered clothes.
"Get out," Silas whispered.
"Sire, we should send the full battalion—"
"I SAID GET OUT!" Silas roared, his shift partially taking over. His claws elongated, shredding the arm of his leather chair.
As the guards scrambled out, Silas collapsed back into his seat, clutching his head. The bond was screaming now. It wasn't the pain of a wound; it was a beckoning. Every instinct in his Lycan DNA was telling him to run, to hunt, to find the female that belonged to him and drag her back. But for the first time in his life, he was afraid of what he would find.
He thought of Elena, who was currently in the west wing, probably picking out silk for a wedding that Silas now knew would never happen. The thought of touching another woman made his stomach turn. The bond, even broken and bleeding, was demanding its due.
"You think you can hide in the dark, little bird?" Silas murmured to the empty room, his eyes glowing a fierce, predatory gold. "You think you can turn my own shadows against me?"
He stood up and walked to the wall where his father’s broadsword hung. He took it down, the weight of the silver familiar and heavy. He wouldn't send more men. Every man he sent was a man she could humiliate, a man who would see his King’s mate as a monster rather than a Queen.
He would go himself.
He would enter the Blackwood Forest not as a King looking for a servant, but as a wolf looking for his soul. He didn't know if he wanted to kill her for her defiance or fall at her feet for her strength, but he knew one thing: the silence was over.
"I'm coming, Ivy," he growled, the words disappearing into the shadows of the room. "And this time, I won't be the one walking away."
He turned and strode out of the hall, leaving his crown on the table. For where he was going, a crown would only get in the way of the hunt.
- Writer
