THE FORSAKEN LYCAN PRINCESS.

CH 15..

The deafening silence that settled over the West Drawing Room was heavy enough to crush bone.

Tanya lay sprawled across the ruined marble floor among the shattered crystal and pooling plum wine, clutching her rapidly swelling cheek. Blood leaked from the corner of her lip, staining her fingers as she stared up at me. The arrogant, sadistic princess was completely gone; in her place was a terrified, hysterical girl who couldn't comprehend that the "unranked curse" had just struck her back.

I didn't utter a single word. I simply stood over her, my chest heaving, my right hand dripping fresh crimson onto the floor, my hazel eyes burning into hers with an absolute, lethal calm.

"GET OUT!" Tanya suddenly screeched, her voice cracking into a frantic, sob-filled shriek as she scrambled backward on her elbows. She glared wildly at her stunned friends, her face flushed with utter humiliation.

"ALL OF YOU, GET OUT! LEAVE!"

The girls didn't need to be told twice. They scrambled off the plush couches, pulling their silk cloaks around themselves in sheer panic, and bolted out the double doors like frightened deer. Only Aurora paused at the threshold, throwing one last, wide-eyed look of awe and terror at me before vanishing into the corridor.

The moment the doors slammed shut, Tanya scrambled to her feet, sobbing uncontrollably as she held her bleeding face. Throwing me a look of pure, unadulterated venom, she kicked her ruined white skirt out of her way and ran blindly out of the drawing room, her high heels clicking frantically toward the Alpha’s private wing.

I stood alone in the quiet room for a brief second. My body was trembling, not with fear, but with the lingering surge of adrenaline that was still singing through my veins.

It has begun, I thought quietly. There is no turning back now.

Two minutes later, the heavy iron-reinforced doors of my cellar room were kicked open by four fully armed royal guards. They didn't drag me. They didn't grab my arms. The deadly, fearless aura still radiating from my frame made them keep a wary three-foot distance, their hands resting nervously on the hilts of their silver swords as they escorted me straight to the High Sovereign Council Chamber.

The grand chamber was bathed in the harsh, cold light of late afternoon. High above, the vaulted ceiling was lost in shadow, while below, the heavy mahogany council table sat like a monolith in the center of the room.

Alpha Raymond sat at the head of the long table in his massive carved throne. His towering, broad-shouldered frame was rigidly still, his dark leather cloak pulled tight. His amber eyes were fixed on the far wall, burning with a deep, volatile friction, but his expression was unnaturally, terrifyingly blank.

Beside him, Luna Victoria was practically vibrating with rage. Her chest rose and fell in rapid, shallow gasps, her manicured fingers digging into the wood of the table so hard her knuckles were stark white. Tanya sat slightly behind her mother, weeping loudly into a silk handkerchief, her left cheek purple and grotesquely swollen.

Sitting across from them were three strangers, figures I had never seen in the Silverwood fortress before.

Two elderly men and one regal, stern-faced woman sat in dark robes of thick, heavy charcoal wool, trimmed with unfamiliar silver runes. They radiated a cold, ancient authority that did not belong to our territory. They weren't pack members; I was sure.

As I stepped into the center of the marble floor, the sharp, copper smell of my blood and the faint trace of ozone around my skin filled the air.

Victoria couldn't contain herself for another second. The moment my feet stopped on the stone, she leapt out of her high-backed chair, her face contorted into a monstrous mask of pure, demonic fury.

"You filthy, wretched, demonic PARASITE!" Victoria screamed, her voice echoing off the stone walls like a screeching blade.

"You dare?! You dare raise your filthy, cursed hands against my daughter in this house?! You spat on the royal bloodline! You should be flayed alive in the courtyard and fed to the border beasts!"

She spat a torrent of curses, her voice rising to a frantic, hysterical pitch that filled every corner of the vast room. The three strange elders exchanged quiet, extremely cold glances, their sharp eyes taking in Victoria’s unhinged loss of control.

The elder woman seated in the middle, her grey hair styled in a severe crown braid, raised a single, claw-like hand, her voice ringing out with smooth, iron authority.

"Control yourself, Luna Victoria," the female elder commanded coldly.

"We are here to record the facts before the treaty terms are finalized. Let the girl speak, but first, young lady, state your account once more for the record."

Tanya stepped forward, dabbing frantically at her swollen cheek, her voice trembling with calculated, tearful desperation.

"I... I was only trying to guide her," Tanya sobbed, her blue eyes wide with fake innocence as she looked at the three strangers.

"I invited my noble friends for tea, and out of mercy, I allowed Elara to serve us so she could earn her keep. But she was bitter... so bitter. When she poured the wine, she deliberately emptied the entire jug onto my new white gown to humiliate me in front of my guests!"

Tanya sniffled loudly, taking a shuddering breath as she stacked lie upon lie.

"I didn't even touch her! I merely told her she was being careless and asked her to fetch a cloth. And then... without warning... she lunged at me! She struck me with all her force! She hit me again and again until I fell into the glass! She tried to kill me!"

Victoria let out a theatrical, agonized gasp, clutching her chest.

"Do you hear this?! Do you hear what this monster did to my child?!"

The female elder’s sharp eyes shifted away from Tanya’s tearful face and locked onto me.

"Young lady," the elder said quietly, her voice measured and impartial.

"You have heard the accusation. Speak your piece."

I took a slow, deep breath, stepping forward. I didn't look at Tanya. I didn't look at the elders. I looked straight ahead, keeping my spine straight and my left arm clamped firmly over my ribs to guard my token.

"It is very simple," I began, my raspy voice smooth, clear, and quiet.

"Tanya invited her friends to mock me. When my hand slipped under the weight of the decanter, she didn't 'correct' me. She backhanded me across the face with full royal force before a single word was spoken."

I lifted my head higher, the cold light catching the raw, split flesh of my left cheek and my bloody lip.

"I simply returned the strike."

"LIE! YOU LYING, CURSED WITCH!" Victoria roared.

Before anyone could react, before the guards could step forward or the elders could raise a hand, Victoria completely lost her mind.

She vaulted across the small gap between the table and the floor, lunging at me like a rabid beast. Her manicured hand flew out, her fingers curved into sharp talons as she struck me across the side of my face.

PAAAACK!

My head snapped back, the sharp pain radiating down my neck, re-igniting the blistered burns on my spine. But Victoria didn't stop. Blinded by absolute hatred, she rained a flurry of furious, merciless blows onto my shoulders, my head, and my chest, screaming incoherent curses as she tried to force me down onto my knees.

"I will kill you! I will tear your throat out myself!" Victoria shrieked, her fists slamming repeatedly into my body.

The chamber erupted into absolute chaos.

Tanya clapped her hands over her mouth, giggling quietly behind her silk handkerchief. The three strange elders sat frozen in absolute disgust, horrified by the Luna’s barbaric, uncontrolled display of violence in a formal council setting. The guards hesitated, looking nervously toward the head of the table, entirely unsure if they were permitted to lay hands on their Luna to restrain her.

And Alpha Raymond?

He didn't move a single muscle. He sat on his massive wooden throne like a statue carved of dark stone, his jaw clenched so hard the muscles in his cheeks pulsed violently, his amber eyes burning with a deep, chaotic storm. But he didn't raise his voice. He didn't command her to stop. He didn't utter a single word.

Through the haze of Victoria’s strikes, my mind remained razor-sharp. I felt the absolute, cold truth of the room. Raymond wasn't staying silent out of agreement with Victoria. He was staying silent because the three strange elders were watching. He was terrifyingly aware that if he interfered, if he unleashed his brutal Alpha command or threw his usual cruel insults at me in front of these people, it would expose the toxic, ruined decay of his royal house right. He was hiding his shame behind a golden mask.

Victoria raised her right hand high into the air, her face twisted in a hideous sneer as she prepared to deliver a heavy, full-force blow directly to my temple to knock me unconscious.

"Die, you curse!" she screamed.

My hazel eyes flared with a sudden, blinding golden light.

I didn't flinch. I didn't take a step back.

As her hand came crashing down, my left hand, moving with lightning speed, powered by two decades of buried strength, shot up through the air.

My fingers clamped around Victoria’s wrist mid-strike like a vice of forged steel.

The impact stopped her hand dead in the air, an inch from my face.

Victoria’s eyes widened in sheer, unimaginable shock. Before she could scream, I dug my fingers into the pressure points of her wrist, leaned my body weight forward, and gave her arm a violent, calculated, excruciating TWIST.

CRACK-SNAP.

"AAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!"

Victoria screamed, a blood-curdling, high-pitched shriek of absolute, agony that shattered the air in the high chamber. Her knees instantly buckled beneath her as the severe joint lock forced her body down toward the floor. The sheer physical force of my grip sent a violent tremor straight up her arm, sending her heavy golden rings clattering onto the marble.

The entire council room went deathly, terrifyingly still.

The guards drew their swords halfway out of their scabbards, their eyes bulging in complete disbelief. Tanya’s laughter died instantly, her jaw dropping as she backed away in sheer terror. The three strange elders leaned forward, their eyes fixed on me in absolute, jaw-dropping shock.

Even Alpha Raymond leaned forward half an inch, his amber eyes flaring with a violent, chaotic flash of utter astonishment.

Victoria lay collapsed on one knee before me, clutching her severely sprained wrist, weeping and hyperventilating in pure pain and humiliation. She looked up at me through a curtain of unraveled dark hair, her face pale as a corpse, her voice trembling with a hysterical, frantic terror.

"She's... she's POSSESSED!" Victoria shrieked, pointing her trembling, swollen hand at me as she backed away on the floor like a wounded animal.

"Look at her eyes! She's possessed by a demon! She isn't human! Alpha, kill her! KILL HER!"

I released her wrist with a quiet, indifferent flick of my fingers, letting her arm drop limp against the stone floor.

I didn't look down at the sobbing Luna. I didn't address the terrified princess. I turned my head slowly and looked directly into the burning amber eyes of my father.

Raymond stared at me from his throne, his breathing heavy, his knuckles white against the armrests, his lips locked tight in a suffocating, silent vault of his own making. He couldn't speak. He couldn't act. He was completely trapped by the presence of the strangers sitting at his table.

I met his gaze for one long, agonizing second, letting him see the absolute, serene power in my hazel eyes, letting him know that I saw right through his cowardly silence.

"If there is nothing else," I said, my voice smooth, quiet, and echoing clearly off the high stone arches of the silent hall, "you will excuse me."

Without waiting for his command, without bowing, and without asking for permission, I turned on my heel.

My threadbare tunic rustled softly against the polished marble floor as I walked smoothly toward the grand arched exit, leaving the weeping Luna, the terrified princess, the silent Alpha King, and the three stunned elders sitting in the suffocating ruins of their own council chamber.