Chapter 3 THE WHITE WOLF

I couldn't breathe.

My heart hammered inside a chest that felt too large. Too different. Every sense screamed with input I couldn't process. The smell of blood was overwhelming. The sound of heartbeats thundered like drums.

"Impossible." My father's voice broke through the chaos. He had shifted back to human form, his naked chest heaving with exertion. "This is impossible."

I tried to speak, but only a whine escaped my throat.

"That's a white wolf," someone whispered. "There hasn't been a white wolf in three hundred years."

"The royal bloodline," another voice added. "Only the original Luna carried that color."

Murmurs spread through the hall like wildfire. I caught fragments. Ancient prophecy. The true heir. The end of days.

None of it made sense.

"Shift back." My father strode toward me, his eyes blazing with something I had never seen before. Fear? Anger? Both? "Shift back now, Cassia."

I didn't know how.

The wolf inside me... she was vast. Powerful. She didn't want to retreat into the small space she had been trapped in for nineteen years.

"She doesn't know how." Prince Kiran stepped forward, still in his human form. When had he shifted back? "First shifts are always disorienting. Give her a moment."

"Do not tell me how to handle my own daughter," my father snarled.

"Then perhaps you should have handled her properly years ago." Kiran's voice was ice. "A white wolf doesn't simply appear. She has always been there. Someone suppressed her."

Silence crashed over the hall.

My father's face went pale. Luna Helena grabbed his arm, her expression twisted with alarm.

"That's a serious accusation, Prince Kiran." She kept her voice steady, but I could smell her fear now. Sharp and sour. "We would never..."

"The suppression marks." Kiran pointed at my wolf form. "Look at her shoulders."

Every eye turned to me. I couldn't see what they were looking at, but I felt it. Burning patterns beneath my fur. Lines of pain I had lived with so long I had forgotten they weren't normal.

"Those are binding runes," Kiran continued. "Old magic. Forbidden magic. Someone carved them into her when she was young enough that she wouldn't remember."

"You're lying!" Lydia pushed through the crowd, her face flushed with rage. "Cassia is nothing. She has always been nothing. This must be some trick, some..."

A growl rumbled from my chest before I could stop it.

Lydia stumbled backward, her eyes going wide.

"Easy." Prince Thane approached me slowly, his hands raised in a peaceful gesture. "Easy, beautiful. No one is going to hurt you. Just breathe. Focus on your human form. Remember what it feels like to have two legs. Two arms. Skin instead of fur."

His voice was gentle. Soothing. The wolf inside me responded to it, her hackles lowering slightly.

"That's it." Thane smiled encouragingly. "You're doing great. Just breathe."

I closed my eyes and searched for the feeling of being human. It was there, buried beneath layers of fur and instinct. I reached for it desperately.

Pain ripped through me again.

Bones cracked. Fur receded. I screamed as my body folded itself back into its original shape. When it was over, I lay curled on the cold marble, naked and shaking.

Someone draped a cloak over my shoulders. I looked up to find the silver eyed prince standing over me. He said nothing. Just stared at me with an expression I couldn't read.

"Take her to the cells." My father's voice was cold. Colder than I had ever heard it. "Until we understand what she is, she's a threat to the pack."

"Father!" The word escaped me before I could stop it. "Please. I don't understand what's happening. I didn't ask for this."

He looked at me then. Really looked at me for the first time in years. And what I saw in his eyes shattered something inside my chest.

Hatred.

Pure, undiluted hatred.

"You are not my daughter," he said quietly. "You never were."

The words hit me like silver bullets.

"What?" I whispered.

"Aldric." Luna Helena grabbed his arm again. "Not here. Not like this."

"She deserves to know." He shook off his wife's grip. "Your mother was not my mate, Cassia. She was a prisoner. A captive from the war with the Northern Packs. I kept her alive because she was carrying something valuable."

"You're lying."

"Your mother was the last surviving member of the Silvermoon Pack." His lip curled with disgust. "The pack that nearly destroyed our kingdom. The pack whose Luna carried the white wolf gene. I was supposed to kill you at birth. End the bloodline forever."

Tears burned my eyes. "Then why didn't you?"

"Because my foolish first wife begged for your life." He spat the words like poison. "She thought she could raise you as her own. Keep you suppressed. Harmless. But she died when you were three, and I was stuck with the burden."

The room spun around me.

Everything I thought I knew... my entire life... it was all a lie.

"The binding runes," I said slowly. "You carved them into me."

"To keep the wolf sleeping. To keep you weak." He smiled, but there was no warmth in it. "It worked for nineteen years. But now..."

"Now she's awake." Prince Kiran finished the sentence. "And according to ancient law, a white wolf cannot be imprisoned or executed without trial by the Royal Court."

My father's face twisted with rage. "This is my pack. My territory. I don't answer to..."

"You answer to my father." The silver eyed prince finally spoke. His voice was deep and commanding. "The Alpha King's law supersedes all pack authority. The girl comes with us."

"Caspian..." my father started.

"That's Prince Caspian to you, Alpha Aldric." The prince's eyes flashed dangerously. "And unless you want to add treason to your growing list of crimes tonight, you will step aside."

The tension in the hall was suffocating.

I watched my father's hands curl into fists. For a moment, I thought he might actually challenge a prince of the realm.

Then Luna Helena whispered something in his ear, and his shoulders dropped.

"Take her," he growled. "Take the monster and get out of my sight."

Prince Thane helped me to my feet. My legs shook so badly I could barely stand.

"Can you walk?" he asked softly.

"I don't know," I admitted.

"Then lean on me." He wrapped an arm around my waist, supporting my weight. "We're getting you out of here."

As we moved toward the exit, I caught Lydia's eye. She stood frozen beside her mother, her face a mask of shock.

But beneath the shock... I saw something else.

Recognition.

She had known. They had all known.

Every beating. Every insult. Every time they called me worthless and wolfless. They knew exactly what they were hiding inside me.

And they had tried to destroy it.

The night air hit my face as we emerged from the mansion. The blood moon still hung overhead, but it seemed different now. Brighter. Like it was welcoming me home.

"The infected," I said suddenly. "The attack. It was a distraction, wasn't it?"

Prince Kiran's expression flickered. "What makes you say that?"

"They came through the walls too easily. The guards were overwhelmed too quickly." I looked back at the mansion. "Someone let them in."

The three princes exchanged glances.

"She's smart," Thane murmured. "I like that."

"She's right," Caspian said grimly. "The attack was coordinated. Timed perfectly with our arrival."

"Which means someone knew we were coming," Kiran added. "Someone who wanted chaos tonight."

"Or someone who wanted me dead before I could shift." The words left my mouth before I could stop them.

Another exchange of glances.

"Get her to the carriage," Caspian ordered. "We leave for the capital immediately."

As Thane guided me toward the waiting vehicle, I heard footsteps behind us. Running footsteps.

I turned just in time to see the arrow flying toward my heart.