Chapter 2 THE THREE PRINCES

My heart stopped.

That was impossible. Princes didn't notice servants. Especially not wolfless servants carrying dirty linens in their arms.

Yet all three of them stared at me like I had grown a second head.

The one with frozen silver eyes tilted his head slightly. His nostrils flared. He was... scenting me?

"Move, you fool!" Maren hissed, shoving me sideways. "You're blocking the royal path!"

I stumbled and nearly dropped the linens. Heat flooded my cheeks as I pressed myself against the wall, trying desperately to disappear.

The moment broke.

The three princes continued walking, their attention shifting to my father who stood waiting at the head of the grand hall. But I caught the golden haired one glancing back at me with curiosity dancing in his amber eyes.

"What was that about?" whispered Nella, another servant girl, as she passed me. "The princes were staring right at you."

"I don't know," I muttered. "Probably wondering why a servant was standing in their way like an idiot."

Nella gave me a strange look but said nothing more.

I slipped out of the grand hall through the servant's entrance, my pulse still racing. The cool night air hit my face as I stepped into the courtyard. I needed a moment. Just one moment to breathe.

"Interesting."

I spun around.

The dark haired prince leaned against the stone archway, arms crossed over his chest. He had moved without making a single sound. Like a shadow given form.

"Your Highness." I dropped into a clumsy curtsy, nearly losing my grip on the linens. "Forgive me, I didn't see you there."

"Most people don't." He pushed off the wall and walked toward me with slow, deliberate steps. "That's the point."

Up close, he was terrifying. His dark eyes held depths that seemed to swallow light. A thin scar ran along his jaw, disappearing beneath his collar.

"I'm Prince Kiran," he said. "And you are?"

"Nobody, Your Highness."

"Nobody." He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "That's a strange name."

"Cassia." I swallowed hard. "My name is Cassia."

"Cassia." He tested the word like tasting wine. "The wolfless daughter of Alpha Aldric."

My stomach dropped. "You know about me?"

"I know everything about everyone in every pack we visit." He circled me slowly, studying me from every angle. "But you... you don't match your file."

"My file?"

"Every pack member is documented before a Summit. Name, rank, wolf status, bloodline." He stopped in front of me again. "Your file says you're a failed shift. No wolf. No power. No worth to the pack beyond manual labor."

Each word landed like a punch. I kept my face blank. "The file is accurate, Your Highness."

"Then why," he leaned closer, his breath warm against my ear, "do you smell like an Alpha?"

I jerked backward. "That's impossible."

"My senses don't lie." His eyes narrowed. "You carry the scent of raw power. Dormant, perhaps. But there. Unmistakable."

"You must be mistaken. I can't shift. I've never been able to shift. Everyone knows..."

"What everyone knows and what is true are rarely the same thing."

Footsteps echoed from the hallway behind us. Prince Kiran straightened and stepped back, his expression becoming unreadable once more.

"There you are!" The golden haired prince bounded into the courtyard like an excited puppy. "Kiran, Father is asking for you. Something about the treaty documents."

"In a moment, Thane."

Prince Thane's attention shifted to me. His smile widened into something warm and genuine. "Oh, hello there. You're the girl from the hall. The one with the interesting eyes."

I blinked. "My eyes?"

"They're silver," he said. "Like moonlight. Very unusual. Very beautiful."

Heat crept up my neck. "Thank you, Your Highness."

"Thane." He waved his hand dismissively. "Call me Thane. 'Your Highness' makes me feel like my grandfather."

"That would be inappropriate," I said carefully. "I'm just a servant."

"Servants, nobles, wolves, humans." Thane shrugged. "Labels. Boring labels. I prefer to judge people by their actions, not their titles."

Prince Kiran made a sound of impatience. "We don't have time for your philosophies, brother. Father is waiting."

"Yes, yes." Thane rolled his eyes but started walking back toward the hall. He paused at the archway and looked back at me. "I hope we meet again, Cassia with the moonlight eyes."

Then he was gone, Prince Kiran following like a silent shadow.

I stood alone in the courtyard, my mind spinning.

You smell like an Alpha.

That couldn't be true. I had been tested dozens of times. Poked and prodded by the pack healers. Subjected to every ritual and ceremony designed to awaken a dormant wolf.

Nothing had ever worked.

I was defective. Broken. Wolfless.

Wasn't I?

The blood moon seemed to pulse overhead, casting everything in that eerie crimson light. Elder Miriam's words echoed in my mind.

You are not what they made you believe.

A howl split the night air.

Not a normal howl. This was something ancient and terrible. A sound that reached into my chest and wrapped around my heart like frozen claws.

Screams erupted from inside the mansion.

I dropped the linens and ran toward the grand hall. Servants fled past me in the opposite direction, their faces twisted with terror. The smell of smoke reached my nostrils.

Fire. Something was burning.

When the fire starts, do not hide.

I burst through the servant's entrance and stopped dead.

The grand hall was chaos. Tables overturned. Crystal shattered across the marble floor. Wolves in their shifted forms fought against... something. Creatures I had never seen before. They looked like wolves, but wrong. Twisted. Their fur was matted and gray, their eyes glowing sickly green.

"Infected!" someone screamed. "The infected have breached the walls!"

I had heard stories about them. Wolves corrupted by a mysterious plague that had begun spreading through the outer territories five years ago. They lost their minds, their humanity, their souls. They became monsters driven only by the need to kill and spread their disease.

A single bite was enough to turn a healthy wolf.

And now dozens of them flooded the grand hall.

My father stood at the center of the chaos, his massive gray wolf form tearing through infected after infected. Luna Helena fought beside him, her white wolf stained with black blood.

The three princes had shifted as well. Prince Kiran's wolf was pure black, moving through the infected like death itself. Prince Thane's golden wolf fought with wild energy, all instinct and power. And the third prince... his wolf was silver, almost white, and he fought with cold precision.

I needed to run. I needed to hide. I was wolfless. Useless in a fight.

But my feet wouldn't move.

An infected wolf broke through the defensive line. Its green eyes locked onto me. Drool dripped from its fangs as it charged.

I threw my arms up instinctively.

And something inside me... answered.

Heat exploded through my veins. My bones cracked. My skin stretched. Pain unlike anything I had ever experienced ripped through every cell of my body.

I screamed, but the sound that left my throat was not human.

It was a howl.

The last thing I saw before darkness consumed me was the infected wolf stumbling backward, its eyes widening with something that looked like... fear.

Then everything went black.

When I opened my eyes again, I was lying on cold marble. My body ached in places I didn't know could ache. Everything smelled sharper. The smoke. The blood. The fear.

And surrounding me in a perfect circle...

Stood every wolf in the grand hall, staring at me with expressions of pure shock.

I looked down at my hands.

But they weren't hands anymore.

They were paws. Massive white paws tipped with silver claws.

And somewhere deep inside my mind, a voice that was mine and not mine whispered...

Finally. You let me out.