Elis
The Great Hall was thick with tension, the kind that prickled at the skin. I sat on the throne, but the weight of it that night felt heavier than any crown.
Alpha José was the first to rise, his voice sharp as a blade.
"Your Majesty Alpha King, our warriors were slaughtered—good and brave men. They gave their lives to shield weaker packs. Yet where was our King? You were distracted, unfit, led astray by a healer who played at being your mate while you were pledged to gorgeous and graceful Zeena."
Murmurs rippled through the hall, nods and grunts of agreement. The insult burned hotter than fire. I leaned forward, my voice low but trembling with rage. "Mind your tongue, José. Lily is no distraction. She is the reason I still breathe. Speak against her again, and you will answer to me—not as your King, but to the wolf inside me."
He sneered, unbowed. "Then answer to us now! Your affair with a common girl dishonors Princess Zeena, your fiancée, daughter of Alpha King Phil, whose alliances hold this kingdom together. You endanger us all with your selfish whims."
The growl tore from my throat before I could stop it. My vision flickered, colors sharpening, bones straining under skin. Tika howled and surged forward, desperate to shred them for daring to spit Lily's name with such venom. "You dare…" My voice broke into a snarl. Claws threatened to burst from my fingers. "You dare insult my mate?"
Gasps echoed as my body convulsed. The shift clawed at me but stumbled—halfway, half-formed. Agony sliced through me. My chest heaved, sweat slicking my skin. The hall fell silent, the silence of shock and fear.
"Alpha King…" Douglas's voice cut through, steady, grounding. I felt his hand grip my arm, firm but respectful. "Not here. Not now."
I staggered, half-blind, still trembling from the failed transformation. My wolf raged, humiliated. Around me, Alphas exchanged dark, knowing glances; the kind that said our King was broken.
José's voice dripped like poison. "Behold, the mighty Alpha King who cannot even hold his wolf."
"Enough!" Douglas's command cracked the hall like thunder. He pulled me upright, his strength anchoring me, his eyes warning me not to speak another word.
The chamber spins as he drags me from the hall, my body burning, my wolf snarling inside me, my honor bleeding on the stones I leave behind.
The heavy doors of my chamber shut with a thud, and I collapsed against them, every nerve in my body screaming. The pain was no longer something I could wrestle into silence—it tore through me like fire laced with glass, clawing at bone and sinew. My wolf thrashed inside, half-raging, half-crippled, caught between the urge to shift and the cruel barrier of the curse.
I staggered toward the bed, each step a fight, each breath a rasp. Sweat drenched my skin, and my vision blurred as if shadows themselves were bleeding into the room. I clawed at my own chest, desperate for air, for relief, for anything.
It's back. The realization sliced through me with brutal certainty. The curse had returned—this time not to haunt me, but to finish what it began. My strength, my body, my throne… all of it was unraveling.
I pressed my forehead to the edge of the bed, gripping the frame until my knuckles burned white. "Lily…" The whisper cracked from my lips before I could stop it. Her name was the only anchor in the storm, the one thought that didn't dissolve into agony.
In my delirium, I reached for her, not with my hands, but with my mind. Lily… hear me. Come to me. I can't… I can't bear this without you. My wolf keened, a broken, guttural sound inside me, echoing the same need.
Visions flickered in the haze of fever: her eyes, soft and fierce all at once; her hands steady even when the world trembled; her touch, the balm that quieted both man and beast. I clawed at the mattress as if it could bring her closer, my body convulsing between heat and chills.
The chamber blurred in and out of focus; stone walls warping into phantom forests, torchlight twisting into fireflies. And always, her face hovered just beyond reach.
"Lily," I groaned, half a plea, half a prayer. "Don't leave me. Not now." But only the silence of the cursed night answered back.
The days that followed bled together in a haze of pain and fever. My body felt as if it were tearing itself apart from the inside, every nerve raw, every bone thrumming with the curse's slow, merciless return. Still, even through the torment, I was not deaf to the whispers that slithered through the Great Hall and down the corridors of my palace.
Douglas brought them to me like a loyal hound carrying poisoned scraps, his face grim.
"Some say you are losing your mind, Elis," he confessed one night, his voice low but steady. "That you are no longer fit to lead."
I gave a hollow laugh, though it clawed at my throat. "Madness would be a relief compared to this."
But Douglas did not smile. "Others claim you've been bewitched by that healer—by Lily. Jose is rallying them. He says a new king should be chosen before the Lycan King strikes again. He demands that Lily be arrested."
At the sound of her name on his lips, my wolf stirred, furious and protective. I clenched my fists until my nails broke skin. "They would dare lay a hand on her?" My voice cracked like a whip.
Douglas bowed his head. "They believe she is the reason you falter. They believe she has turned you from duty."
For a moment, the chamber spun. The pain surged so fiercely through my chest that I thought my heart might burst, but beneath it burned another fire, rage. They could strip me of the crown, title, breath itself, but not her. Never her.
"Listen well, Douglas," I rasped, forcing my body upright against the wave of agony. "Lily stays in her chamber. She is not to be touched. Not by Jose. Not by any Alpha who breathes in my palace. Do you understand?"
Douglas nodded, his jaw tight, his eyes heavy with worry.
"She is mine," I growled, though it was more than a claim of possession; it was a plea, a vow, a truth that anchored me to life itself. "If they believe she is my weakness, let them. For in truth, she is the only strength I have left."
The pain surged again, blinding and relentless, dragging me down. But as I fell back against the pillows, delirium rising like a tide, I clung to one name, one thought that would not leave me. Lily.