THE FORSAKEN LYCAN PRINCESS.

CH 2.

The heavy, suffocating weight of the anniversary did not dissipate as the morning wore on; it merely shifted shape, morphing from the quiet malice of the dining hall into the grand, ritualistic theater of the entire Silverwood hierarchy.

By noon, the atmosphere within the pack lands had reached a fever pitch of solemnity. Today was also the day of the Lunar Remembrance, a sacred, ancestral rite performed every year to honor the soul of a fallen Luna, ensuring her spirit remained tethered to the pack’s ancestral hunting grounds until her Alpha joined her in the stars. For the Silverwood Pack, it was more than a tradition; it was a mandatory demonstration of grief orchestrated by my father, Alpha King Raymond.

I stood in the shadows of the eastern stone colonnade overlooking the Alpha’s Ring, my hands clasped tightly in front of my threadbare tunic. The outdoor amphitheater was breathtakingly vast, its tiered stone seats carved directly into the bedrock of the mountain, surrounded by ancient, towering pines that whispered in the cold wind. Today, the ring was draped entirely in black and silver banners. At the center stood the Lunar Altar, a massive slab of pure white marble stained gray by decades of melted wax and dried ritual oils.

For a wolf with a muted beast, the upcoming ritual was a sensory execution. Even without my Mind-Link network to feel the collective emotions of the pack, the sheer density of dominant Lycan pheromones in the air was enough to make my chest ache.

But as my eyes scanned the arriving crowd, a sudden, desperate spark of warmth ignited deep within my locked soul.

Carriages and heavy, armored transports bearing the crest of the Cresthaven Pack, a roaring silver bear gripping a crescent moon, were rolling through the high gates.

My mother’s family.

They had arrived. The Cresthaven bloodline was an ancient, powerful lineage that had historically allied with the Silverwood Pack through the fated bond of Luna Evelyn and Alpha Raymond. Unlike the wolves of Silverwood, who looked at me as if I were a disease walking the corridors, the Cresthaven wolves were the only beings in the entire supernatural world who still saw her when they looked at me. They were the only ones who loved me genuinely, without condition, and without the poisonous stain of Raymond's blame.

Ignoring the strict protocols that mandated unranked Omegas remain invisible during royal arrivals, I pushed past the heavy velvet drapes and hurried down the stone steps, my heart hammering against my ribs. My bare feet practically flew over the freezing gravel paths.

"Uncle Valerius!" I breathed, the name slipping from my lips like a forbidden prayer as I spotted the tall, broad-shouldered figure stepping out of the lead carriage.

Valerius, the current Alpha of Cresthaven and my mother's eldest brother, turned at the sound of my voice. His fierce, battle-scarred face immediately softened, his dark eyes shining with a mixture of profound sorrow and protective fury as they swept over my worn clothes and raw hands. Before the Silverwood sentries could intercept me, Valerius stepped forward, throwing his heavy, fur-lined cloak around my shivering shoulders and pulling me into a crushing, protective embrace.

"Elara," he murmured against my hair, his deep voice rumbling with a pure, familial Alpha warmth that I hadn't felt in an entire year.

"Look at you, my sweet girl. You grow more like Evelyn with every passing season. What have they been doing to you?"

Behind him, my cousins and aunts emerged from the carriages, immediately surrounding me like a protective wall of muscle and fur. For a few beautiful, fleeting minutes, the crushing weight of the Silverwood hierarchy disappeared. They pressed their cheeks to mine, scenting me with the comforting, earthy aroma of the Cresthaven forest, temporarily washing away the toxic pheromones of Luna Victoria that usually clung to my skin. They held my raw hands, whispering words of validation, reminding me that I was royal blood, no matter what my father’s commands had decreed.

"He keeps her wolf locked away, Valerius," Aunt Cassia whispered bitterly, her eyes darting toward the upper balcony where Luna Victoria stood watching us like a hawk.

"Look at her palms. She is being worked like a common rogue."

Valerius’s jaw tightened, a low, dangerous growl vibrating in his chest that made the nearby Silverwood guards tense up, their hands drifting toward their silver-bladed weapons.

"Raymond will answer to the ancestors for this sacrilege," he growled softly. "But today, we honor your mother. Stay close to us, Elara. Do not let them push you into the dirt today."

But the illusion of safety was shattered as a horn blew, echoing across the valley. The ritual was beginning.

The Cresthaven wolves were ushered to their ceremonial seats of honor surrounding the Lunar Altar, and because I belonged to the Silverwood Pack, I was forcefully separated from them by the Pack Beta, Marcus, who gave me a look of quiet warning before directing me to the very edge of the ring, the designated spot for the unranked and the forgotten.

My father, Alpha Raymond stepped down into the center of the Ring, flanked by Luna Victoria and Princess Tanya. He wore his full ceremonial regalia, a heavy, midnight-black cloak pinned with the silver skull of the first pack wolf. His expression was a mask of tragic majesty, his amber eyes locked onto the altar.

The Lunar Remembrance ritual was an intricate, sensory experience designed to evoke the memory of the dead. Three elder seers stepped forward, carrying bowls of burning silver-sage and nightshade, filling the amphitheater with a thick, sweet smoke that made the wolves' inner beasts hum in reverence. The ritual required the Alpha King to pour a libation of moon-blessed water mixed with his own blood onto the marble altar, symbolizing that his life force was still partially bound to his deceased mate.

As Raymond approached the altar, he purposefully drew his ceremonial dagger across his palm. I watched him closely, my eyes wide. As he stepped past the section where I stood, his eyes flicked toward me for a fraction of a second. The sudden, localized spike of his disdain hit me like a physical blow. His jaw clenched, his upper lip curling in a subtle, silent sneer of absolute revulsion. He looked at me, his own biological flesh and blood, as if I were a piece of filth rotting his pristine courtyard.

Just imagine, I thought, a cold, bitter knot twisting in my stomach. My own biological father, the man who gave me life, looking at me with more hatred than he would show a rogue invader.

Raymond turned back to the altar, his broad shoulders suddenly trembling as the ritual reached its c****x. The seers began to chant in the ancient, guttural language of the first wolves, their voices echoing off the mountain peaks.

Then, the theater truly began.

A tear slipped down Alpha King Raymond’s rugged, battle-hardened cheek, glistening in the pale afternoon light. He dropped to one knee before the marble slab, his voice cracking with a raw, agonizing emotion that echoed perfectly through the silent amphitheater.

"Evelyn..." Raymond choked out, his hand slamming against the stone, staining the white marble with his crimson blood.

"My queen. My true lunar heart. The darkness in this territory has been absolute since the day the stars took you from me. I miss you with every breath I draw. I swear to the heavens, I will never forget you. My soul remains in the dirt with yours."

A collective, sympathetic sigh rippled through the Silverwood wolves. Many of the pack members lowered their heads, some even weeping at the sight of their fierce, untouchable King showing such profound, eternal vulnerability.

I stood in the shadows, watching the tears stream down his face, and a sudden, sharp urge to laugh out loud bubbled up in my throat.

Hahaha, how utterly pathetic, I thought, a deeply cynical, mocking smile threatening to break across my lips. It was almost funny.

If he indeed missed her so much that his soul was buried in the dirt, why was Luna Victoria currently wearing my mother’s ancestral sapphire necklace around her throat? If his grief was so all-consuming that he could never move on, why had he brought another woman into his bed less than a year after her passing? Most of all, if he truly loved Luna Evelyn above all things, why did he treat the only living piece of her left on this earth, her only child, with such absolute disdain, hatred, and cruelty?

His grief wasn't a testament to love; it was a weaponized excuse for his own tyrannical malice. He didn't miss his queen; he missed the version of himself he was when she was alive, and he used my existence as the perfect scapegoat to justify the darkness that had consumed his soul.

The ritual concluded as the blood and moon-water evaporated from the heated marble altar, sending a thin plume of silver smoke up into the gray sky. One by one, the visiting pack and relatives stepped forward to pay their final, formal respects to the altar, bowing to the King before preparing for their long journeys home.

Alpha Valerius walked past Raymond, the tension between the two Alphas so thick it practically crackled like lightning in the air. Valerius didn't bow. He merely gave Raymond a cold, sharp nod before turning his eyes to me one last time, offering a subtle, reassuring nod that promised this wasn't the end.

Within the hour, the grand carriages of Cresthaven and the other minor packs rolled back out through the iron gates, their comforting scents fading rapidly into the cold northern wind. The heavy, dark atmosphere of the Silverwood Pack closed back over the territory like a suffocating blanket, leaving me completely alone once more in the shadows of the fortress. They had gone back to their various homes, and I was left behind, an unranked princess standing on the precipice of a destiny that was about to shatter the entire world.