The memories—or whatever that situation had been—dissolved into a heavy mist. The gallop of the beast beneath her shattered the silence of the night, a night that bathed her path in red.
— Princess, what will you do when we reach the great hall?
Elizabeth tightened the reins far more than someone who always held perfect control over herself ever should. She still didn't understand what had happened, where those memories had come from, but the warmth of hands against her skin lingered like a ghost upon her lips.
The heat of that touch… the brush of lips…
She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, something had changed.
— I will bring the justice of the night, even if I stain the moon with traitor's blood!
It was not an oath.
It was a promise.
She had given too much to that people. Years of comfort, of stability, of pride to an entire pack. She had denied herself her own lands, her natural domain, to forge alliances that once seemed impossible.
And now there was blood.
Treachery at her table.
She had been living beside the enemy… and favoring them without ever realizing it.
— Princess… does the Crown know? Do they?
The answer did not come at once.
It couldn't.
— I don't know, Leónia… but for the sake of a future generation, I hope they do not. Otherwise, I will be the reason an entire kingdom ceases to exist.
The words felt strange, not in structure, but in weight.
The extinction of an entire kingdom.
The execution of a nation.
And still… she felt nothing.
No guilt.
Not even a trace.
— Whatever your decision, I will be there to see it done.
Elizabeth did not need to look back. She did not need to see Leónia's eyes.
She already knew.
Years ago, when Elizabeth was still only a child, Leónia had been nothing more than a forgotten wolf within the temple—until the day she saved the Lycan Queen with her own body.
Her Majesty Araliz.
The fairest and gentlest wolf of the Lunar Kingdom. A queen who fed the starving and clothed those who had not even a skin to cover themselves.
It had been an autumn morning.
Leaves burned orange across the vast lands near the Temple of the Goddess.
The royal guard—wolves who killed first and questioned later—stood twenty paces from their sovereign.
— My dear, why the restlessness?
Even as a child, Elizabeth possessed instincts sharp enough to know something was wrong. But she still struggled to shape into words what her mind screamed.
— Mama… strange smell…
Araliz narrowed her eyes at the hushed murmur. She pulled Elizabeth closer, fingers pressing almost too tightly into the girl's skin.
— A smell? I sense nothing…
She did not finish.
It wasn't that she sensed nothing.
It was that it was so faint… it bordered on nothing.
But in their world, the insignificant often hid the deadliest truths.
Elizabeth remembered that day well.
Not only because her mother was still vividly alive in that memory… but because of what followed.
It happened fast.
But not fast enough for Elizabeth's observant eyes to catch it as if time itself had slowed.
The attack was silent.
A claw tore through the air from nothingness.
The Lycan Queen turned, leaping back, instincts snapping into perfect clarity. The guards moved, still in human form, blades clashing against claws. Then the wolf revealed itself fully before the queen.
— Protect the Queen!
Someone shouted, but chaos had already swallowed them. Distractions, deliberate and suffocating, reeked of traitor's blood and rebellion's ash.
— The Queen!
A black wolf, its fur broken by large patches of scarred skin, let out a savage roar.
— Your enemy is me! Your queen will receive what she deserves!
It lunged for a soldier's throat, missing by a breath.
Before the queen, a familiar figure materialized.
Old. Ancient. Undeniably vile.
— Dark magic… you've truly fallen far, Dará.
Araliz declared.
— Your arrogance will be the death of you.
Araliz laughed, a sound without warmth.
— Yours hasn't killed you yet. Why would mine be any different?
The clash began.
Dará, a renegade omega, struck viciously. The queen moved with precision, evading while shielding the child in her arms. Elizabeth clung to her mother with a ferocity far beyond her years.
— I will end you once and for all!
Dará roared, her claws blackened with lunar venom capable of bringing down a full-grown Lycan.
— Your envy led you to ruin, not me!
— You ruined my life, you stupid bitch!
— No, Dará… I did nothing. You destroyed yourself.
— If you hadn't stolen Samuel from me, I would be Queen of the Lunar Mount!
— The Goddess did not give you Samuel because he was never yours!
Araliz shot back with fierce elegance, turning her body to shield the child in her arms.
— Die once and for all!!!