Fangs & Fates

Princess Aurelia

The first rays of morning slipped through the towering windows of the Moonstone Palace, painting golden streaks across the polished marble floor.

Aurelia stood barefoot on the balcony outside her chamber, her silver-blonde hair dancing with the cool breeze as she overlooked the kingdom slowly coming to life below. Merchants arranged colorful stalls in the village square, children chased one another through the gardens, and the distant clang of swords echoed from the training grounds where warriors had already begun their morning drills.

It was a view she had admired every day for as long as she could remember, yet somehow it never lost its magic.

This was home.

Every tree, every stone pathway, every smiling face below belonged to the kingdom her parents had spent years protecting, and one day it would become her responsibility too.

The thought should have frightened her, but instead it filled her with quiet determination. She didn’t dream of becoming the strongest ruler the Lycan Kingdom had ever known. She only hoped to become one worthy of the love her people gave so freely.

Before she could lose herself in thought, a familiar knock interrupted the peaceful morning.

Aurelia barely had time to turn before the chamber doors swung open and her mother entered with the confidence and elegance only a Luna Queen possessed.

Queen Selene smiled the moment their eyes met, crossing the room to brush a loose strand of hair away from Aurelia’s face as though she were still the little girl who insisted on climbing palace trees in expensive dresses.

“You’ve been awake since sunrise again,” she said, amusement warming her voice.

Aurelia only smiled in return. Sleeping through mornings had never appealed to her when there was an entire kingdom waking outside her window.

Moments later, another presence filled the room.

Alpha King Alaric leaned casually against the doorway with his arms folded, pretending to look disappointed.

“I see breakfast has once again begun without your king.”

His dramatic sigh earned exactly the reaction he wanted.

Aurelia laughed, the sound bright enough to make both her parents smile.

It was a familiar routine in the palace. Every morning began the same way: light teasing, shared meals, and stolen moments before duty called them away.

To the rest of the kingdom they were rulers feared by their enemies.

To Aurelia, they were simply Mother and Father.

Breakfast inside the royal dining hall was never as formal as visiting nobles imagined.

Aurelia often wandered away from her seat to steal fresh pastries from the kitchen, earning playful lectures from the palace cooks who secretly baked extra because they knew she would return.

She greeted every servant she passed by name, asked after their families, and somehow remembered birthdays better than the royal record keeper himself.

It was impossible to walk beside the princess without someone stopping to greet her.

The stable master proudly introduced a newborn young wolf that had arrived overnight.

The head gardener presented the first moon lilies of the season because Aurelia had planted them herself months earlier.

Even the youngest guards straightened with pride whenever she wished them a good morning.

She never noticed how unusual that was.

To her, kindness required no effort.

To everyone else, it was the reason the kingdom adored her long before she would ever wear its crown.

Aurelia escaped the palace the way she always did—not by sneaking through hidden passages or climbing over walls, but simply by walking out the front gates with two guards trailing several steps behind her.

Everyone knew the princess loved spending her mornings among the people, and after years of trying to stop her, her parents had finally accepted that no amount of royal protocol could keep Aurelia inside the palace for long.

The bustling village welcomed her with familiar smiles.

Shopkeepers paused their work to wave, children abandoned their games to run toward her, and elderly women reached for her hands before blessing her with the same prayers they had spoken over her since she was a little girl.

Aurelia greeted every one of them with the same genuine warmth.

She stopped at the bakery to thank the old couple who had been making honey bread for the palace since before she was born, buying twice as many loaves as she needed only to hand them out to children who had gathered around her.

At the tailor’s shop, she admired a young apprentice’s first embroidered cloak until the nervous girl blushed from ear to ear.

She visited the village healer, carrying a basket of herbs she had picked herself the previous afternoon, insisting they would be more useful there than decorating the palace gardens.

None of these gestures were expected of a princess, but to Aurelia they felt as ordinary as breathing.

Titles meant little if they created distance between hearts.

The sound of laughter drew her toward the training field where dozens of little wolves chased one another across the grass while pretending to be fearless warriors.

The moment they spotted her, the game dissolved into excited chaos.

“Princess Aurelia!” they shouted in unison, racing toward her with such enthusiasm that one little boy tripped over his own feet and landed face first in the dirt.

Aurelia burst into laughter before kneeling to help him up, brushing the dust from his tunic while trying not to smile too much at his embarrassed expression.

“A great warrior always gets back on his feet,” she teased, earning determined nods from every child standing nearby.

They immediately begged her to judge their mock battle, each insisting they were the strongest future warrior in the kingdom.

Aurelia played along without hesitation, dramatically praising impossible sword techniques fashioned from sticks and declaring every child a winner in one way or another.

Their laughter echoed across the field, so loud that even the guards watching from a distance couldn’t hide their smiles.

One little girl suddenly wrapped her arms around Aurelia’s waist and looked up with bright amber eyes.

“When you’re Queen,” she whispered, “will you still come and play with us?”

Aurelia gently tucked a loose curl behind the girl’s ear before answering without a moment’s hesitation.

“If you still want me here, I’ll never stop coming.”

The promise was simple, but the children believed every word.

So did the adults quietly watching nearby.

On her way back toward the palace, Aurelia noticed a small young wolf limping near the edge of the forest.

Its tiny legs had become caught beneath the roots of an old tree, and despite its determined cries, it couldn’t free itself.

She immediately hurried over, ignoring her guards’ warnings to be careful.

Kneeling beside the frightened wolf, she spoke softly until its trembling slowed.

Only then did she gently lift the heavy root just enough to free its feet.

The wolf hesitated for a heartbeat before it turned and darted back into the trees.

Aurelia watched it disappear with a smile that lingered long after it was gone.

“You have a habit of rescuing everything,” one of her guards said with quiet amusement.

Aurelia rose to her feet, brushing dirt from her dress.

“Maybe one day someone will rescue me.”

She meant it only as a joke, yet the words settled strangely in the air.

Neither guard laughed.

By the time the palace came back into view, the afternoon sun had climbed high above the forest.

The peaceful rhythm of the day should have continued as it always did, but something felt different.

The guards stationed at the main gates stood unnaturally rigid.

Messengers hurried through the courtyard instead of walking.

Palace servants whispered among themselves before falling silent the moment Aurelia approached.

She frowned, exchanging a glance with the captain of the royal guard, but before she could ask what had happened, the heavy doors of the throne hall burst open.

A scout, his clothes stained with mud and streaked with blood that clearly wasn’t all his own, stumbled inside the palace.

Every conversation stopped.

Every pair of eyes turned toward him.

He dropped to one knee before the Alpha King, struggling to catch his breath after what must have been days of relentless travel.

His voice, though weak, carried through the hall with enough force to silence even the beating of Aurelia’s heart.

“My King…” he rasped. “The vampires didn’t come to negotiate this time.”

The warmth that had wrapped itself around the palace all morning vanished in an instant.