The Howl Beneath the Throne
1136 Words
Raina stood at the balcony of the King’s chamber, staring into the moonlit forest that bordered the kingdom. The wind brushed her hair back like a soft whisper, but her heart was far from still. There was a quiet storm brewing inside her — one made of unanswered questions and feelings she didn’t know how to tame.
Behind her, the scent of crushed pine and leather announced the King’s presence.
“You didn’t sleep again,” Kael said softly.
She turned slowly. “How can I sleep when every dream turns into a memory?”
Kael stepped closer, his gaze intense but unreadable. “The past isn’t meant to hold you captive, Raina.”
“Isn’t it?” she snapped. “You say that as if mine didn’t try to kill me.”
Silence.
She immediately regretted the bitterness in her tone. But it was there — raw and festering — and she didn’t know how to silence it anymore.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I just… I don’t know who I am anymore. I don’t know how to live like I matter.”
Kael’s jaw tightened, then relaxed. “That’s because no one ever showed you what it means to be chosen — not for power or blood, but for who you are.”
He lifted her hand to his chest, pressing it over his heart.
“I see you, Raina. I always have.”
The warmth of his heartbeat against her palm made something fragile tremble inside her. But before she could speak, a sharp howl tore through the night air.
It was urgent. Familiar.
Kael’s expression darkened. “That’s from the northern border. My guards wouldn’t send a signal unless…”
He didn’t finish the thought.
Within seconds, the room erupted in motion. Guards poured into the hallway. Kael shifted into command — issuing orders like the born Alpha he was.
Raina, however, couldn’t move. That howl… it stirred something in her. It wasn’t just a warning. It was a cry from her past.
A part of her she thought she had buried.
Within the hour, the palace courtyard was a blur of armed wolves and tension. Kael stood with his generals, his voice cold and sharp.
“Who crossed into our land?”
A scout shifted nervously. “It’s not a war party. It’s… a messenger. From the Blackfang Pack.”
The name hit Raina like a slap.
Her old pack.
The one that rejected her. The one that let her bleed alone in the woods.
Kael’s eyes found hers. “You don’t have to be part of this.”
But she stepped forward. “I want to see who dares show up wearing that name.”
In the grand hall, under the watchful eyes of the King’s guards, a lone wolf knelt — tall, proud, and bruised.
It was Micah.
Raina gasped. He had once been her only friend in the Blackfang Pack, the only one who slipped her food when the others looked away.
“I came alone,” he said. “I bring no threat.”
“Speak quickly,” Kael growled.
Micah’s gaze flicked to Raina. “She needs to hear this.”
The room hushed.
Micah’s voice trembled, not from fear, but from grief.
“After you left, things changed. Alpha Rowan grew crueler. He demanded more from the pack — and from your sister.”
Raina’s heart skipped.
“My sister?”
Micah hesitated. “She tried to protect your memory. Said you were betrayed. That you didn’t deserve what happened. Rowan didn’t like that. He—he punished her.”
Raina’s fists clenched.
“She’s in the dungeons. And… Rowan is preparing for something. He’s rallying allies. Rogue packs, dark magic — things I’ve never seen before. He wants war. And you—” Micah looked at Raina, haunted — “you’re at the center of it.”
Kael’s expression turned ice-cold. “Why come here now? Why risk your life to tell us this?”
“Because…” Micah lowered his head, voice cracking. “Because she begged me to find you. She said… ‘Tell Raina she was always stronger than she believed. And tell her… I still remember the lullabies.’”
Tears welled in Raina’s eyes. Her sister. Her baby sister, who once cried in her arms when their mother died.
Kael stepped beside her, a hand on her shoulder.
“You don’t owe them anything,” he said gently.
But Raina shook her head. “I owe her. And I owe myself the truth.”
That night, she wandered into the royal gardens. The moonlight cast silver streaks on the path as she walked barefoot, trying to breathe through the storm in her chest.
She sat beneath an ancient tree, the same one where the King had first shown her the stars through a telescope and told her stories of forgotten queens.
She didn’t notice Kael until he knelt beside her.
“Tell me what you’re thinking,” he said.
“I’m thinking that maybe the Moon Goddess didn’t abandon me after all,” Raina whispered. “Maybe… she was waiting for me to choose who I’d become.”
“And who is that?”
She looked at him, a fire rising behind her tears. “Someone who won’t run anymore. Someone who doesn’t need a mate to be powerful. Someone who can protect the ones who never stopped believing in her.”
Kael smiled. “Then let me stand beside her. Not in front of her. Not behind. Beside.”
The air between them shifted. It wasn’t just tension or longing — it was understanding. A union not forged by fate, but by choice.
And just as Kael leaned forward, his lips almost brushing hers—
A guard sprinted into the garden.
“Your Majesty! The seer is here. She says the prophecy has changed.”
They followed the guard to the temple.
Inside, the old seer stood like a withered tree, her eyes milky white with visions beyond this world.
She turned to Raina and pointed a trembling hand.
“You are not just the lost mate. You are the Queen whose blood will burn the false kings.”
A chill ran down Raina’s spine.
“But beware,” the seer added. “For when the past begs at your door, the enemy may wear the face of love.”
Outside the temple, thunder rumbled — though the skies were clear.
And deep in the forest, beyond the veil of Kael’s kingdom, Alpha Rowan stood before a dark altar.
At his side, a shadowy figure emerged.
A witch.
“She doesn’t know what she is,” the witch whispered. “But soon… the world will.”
Rowan smiled. “Let her come. I’m ready for her.”
- Writer
