Chapter 2

The heavy iron doors didn't just open. They exploded inward.

Wood and metal shrapnel rained down on the screaming crowd as a dozen feral rogues poured into the hall. Massive, starved beasts, fur rotting, jaws foaming with black saliva.

Total chaos. Three hundred guests shrieked and trampled each other in blind panic.

"Defend the altar!" Lucian roared over the screams. He tore off his shredded shirt and shifted mid-leap, his massive black wolf landing hard on the marble. "Form a wall around Elara!"

It was the stupidest command a leader could give. The ferals weren't going for the altar. They were going for the weakest, the elderly and the pups trapped near the entrance.

A massive feral lunged for a group of terrified Omegas cowering by the overturned banquet tables.

I didn't hesitate.

Silver heat flared in my veins, rushing to my fingertips. I grabbed a fallen ceremonial spear, spun, and drove it through the beast's skull. The feral dropped, sliding across the bloody marble.

A violent shockwave tore through my chest. My newly knitted ribs screamed. Glowing silver veins crawled up my arms and neck, burning like acid under my skin.

I stumbled against a stone pillar, coughing. The sharp taste of copper filled my mouth.

But I couldn't fall. Not yet.

I forced myself upright and wiped the blood from my chin.

"Forget the altar!" I bellowed. My voice sliced through the chaos. "Elders, pups, and Omegas, move to the eastern escape tunnels! Warriors, hold the center line! Buy them time!"

For a split second, the room froze.

Then the pack moved.

The Obsidian warriors formed a brutal wall of fur and fang across the center of the hall, ignoring Lucian completely. Behind them, the vulnerable wolves flooded toward the eastern corridors, exactly as I'd ordered.

Across the hall, Lucian shifted back to human. Blood poured from a deep gash on his shoulder. Elara clutched her white pelt, crying hysterically and useless.

Lucian saw the pack following my orders. His eyes went wide with desperation and fury.

"You do not give orders here, Rhea!" Lucian yelled, his chest heaving. "Submit to your Alpha!"

He unleashed his full Alpha aura, a heavy, suffocating wave of dominance meant to crush my spine and drop me to the floor.

But he didn't know what was awake inside me.

The command hit me and backfired. The ancient silver power in my blood didn't just reject him. It snapped back like a whip.

A pulse of silver energy blasted out of me.

Lucian's eyes went wide with terror. His legs buckled.

The great Alpha of the Obsidian Pack crashed onto the bloody marble, forced to his knees at my feet.

The hall froze. The warriors stared. Elara shrieked and backed away from me like I was a monster.

I looked down at the man I'd spent six years protecting. He trembled, unable to lift his head under the weight of my bloodline.

"I'll save your people," I told him coldly. "But I won't save your crown."

I opened my mind to the pack bond one last time.

"I renounce my place in the Obsidian Pack."

The connection that had tied me to this territory for six years snapped.

I left him kneeling in the ruins of his wedding and walked out through the shattered doors.

The cold night air hit my face. Headlights blinded me as a black SUV skidded to a halt on the gravel. The passenger door flew open.

"Get in!" Fenrir yelled from the driver's seat.

I slid into the leather seat. Fenrir hit the gas, and the SUV tore down the mountain road.

I leaned against the cold window, shivering, the silver veins on my neck pulsing and lighting the dark cabin.

Fenrir kept his eyes on the road, knuckles white on the wheel. "What is that, Rhea?" he breathed. "Your eyes... your blood."

"The fall broke my mother's seal," I whispered, every word scraping my raw throat. "The surge is too loud. The Court's trackers will feel it soon. We can't stay anywhere near here."

"Where do we go?" Fenrir asked, pushing the accelerator.

"Drive north," I said quietly. "Past the borderlands."

Fenrir hit the brakes on instinct. The SUV swerved before he caught it. He stared at me, horror draining the color from his face.

"North? The frozen territories?" His voice shook. "Rhea, that's Wintercrest land. The Blood King slaughters anyone who crosses his borders!"

I wiped the glowing silver blood from my chin and looked in the mirror.

"He won't slaughter me," I said, watching the red light bleed across the storm clouds. "He's my grandfather."