Chapter 5
1152words
I was finally home. My real home. My father's territory.
No more begging for my life from a cold-hearted vampire like Justin.
Before my consciousness faded completely, a mother's instinct—a she-wolf's drive to protect her pup—kept me clawing my way back.
After fighting so hard to escape that frozen coffin, I couldn't give up now.
Justin had severed our bond, but I had one last move.
Fighting through a haze of pain, I activated a communication crystal.
Enduring the searing agony of the wolfsbane poisoning, I clutched my stomach and sent the signal I knew by heart.
"Dad," I choked out, "I should have listened to you. Please... save me."
He only asked for my location.
He didn't need the details.
The ancient bond of our Alpha bloodline carried my terror across the miles.
The moment I heard his voice, I broke down completely.
A flood of regret, relief, and grief washed over me.
Within fifteen minutes, a squad of Moonshadow Guards appeared beside me, moving like ghosts through the moonlight.
They placed me on a stretcher and carried me away through secret tunnels.
The tribe's shaman performed an emergency nature ritual to deliver the baby on the way.
I saw the moonlight shimmer above the ritual.
Even with the herbal anesthetic, my wolfsbane-ravaged body felt every sharp, tearing pain.
After what felt like an eternity, just as I thought both my child and I would be lost to the darkness, the shaman's exhausted but ecstatic voice rang out:
"He's alive! Princess! It's a boy, and he's alive! The Moon Goddess protects! He inherited your powerful Alpha blood and miraculously survived the magical backlash!"
After the ritual, I was taken to my father's headquarters in North America, the "Moonlit Holy Mountain."
My father, channeling the ancient magic of earth and moonlight, wove a glamour. A perfect copy of my body, which he placed in the secret chamber of Justin's castle.
That was the body Justin found.
A lie that would never rot. A curse to torment him day and night.
Back in my family's territory, I locked myself in my room.
When night fell, I didn't cry.
I just held my son, Orion, silently.
The wolf inside me was snarling. Furious at what I'd almost lost. Sharpening her claws for the revenge to come.
I used to think I could never fight fate.
But now, looking at this tiny life in my arms, I knew. From this moment on, my fate was my own.
My heart was a block of ice. My breathing, a steady rhythm of hate.
Then, the magical candles in my room flickered to life.
I looked up, my gaze cool and sharp.
"Gracie, my little moon."
It was my father.
His deep, magnetic voice filled me with a sense of safety.
Seeing his gentle face, the floodgates of memory burst open.
Years ago, as the only princess of the Moonlit Alliance, I had failed to sense my fated mate.
Under pressure from the Alliance elders, my father had arranged for me to marry the young Alpha of the Northern Ice Wolf Pack to strengthen the two great wolf powers.
"It is your duty, Gracie," his words from back then were still clear. "For the Alliance, you must accept."
But I wanted a mate my soul screamed for, not a name on a treaty.
On the eve of the wedding, I ran away.
I stubbornly cut off all ties with my family, chasing a fleeting dream of freedom and true love.
I met Justin.
He was the first vampire to ever make my heart race.
His scent drove my inner wolf wild.
Drawn by the mating bond, I followed him like a shadow. Even when he tried to push me away, I refused to leave.
Soon after we mated, I became pregnant.
But that's when Justin started to doubt me.
His paranoia twisted our mating bond, turning it into a source of constant pain.
I never told him who I really was. To him, I was just some nameless she-wolf.
He thought I'd mated him just to get pregnant, to secure our child's place in the clan.
Around that time, Isolde also became pregnant with his child through a "Blood Resonance" ritual.
So he threw all his protection, all his hope, behind what he called the "purer" heir.
Throughout my pregnancy, he looked at me with complicated eyes, rarely showing complete trust in his true mate.
But I knew, from the little things he did, that he was still looking forward to his child.
So I kept telling myself that maybe things would get better after the baby was born.
But he almost killed us both...
Years of grievance, regret, and fear turned into a torrent of tears.
"I was wrong, Dad," I sobbed. "Forgive my willfulness... I shouldn't have..."
My father reached out a rough hand and gently wiped away my tears.
"No, I'm the one who should be sorry," he sighed, his face filled with heartache and self-blame. "I shouldn't have forced you. If I hadn't pushed you into that marriage, you wouldn't have left, and you never would have met that bastard and suffered so much."
"Don't worry, Gracie," he said, his eyes turning firm again. "We possess an ancient wolf relic. An artifact that can bring any vampire to its knees. The entire supernatural world will learn what happens when you harm the princess and heir of the Moonlit Alliance!"
The rift between father and daughter vanished in that moment.
I leaned against my father, feeling a long-lost warmth, and the last bit of weakness in my heart was driven away.
From that day on, I buried all thoughts of love and romance. I dedicated myself to learning the ways of the Alliance from my father.
I was his only heir.
The entire Moonlit Alliance—all its lands and resources—would one day be mine.
I would learn to be as ruthless as my father, to become a true Alpha in a world of power and shadows.
Holding Orion, I stood before the massive floor-to-ceiling window, looking out over the vast domain that was mine.
My handmaiden cautiously reported the news from the Crimson Court.
Justin hadn't buried my "body" according to clan tradition.
Instead, he had cleaned the "corpse" and kept it with him. He ate with it, slept with it.
"Your Highness, are you... still sad?"
I shook my head, a cold smile touching my lips. "Sad? No. I'm just wondering... if he can lavish such devotion on a fake corpse, what did the feel of his own child kicking inside me ever mean to him?"
I turned, handing Orion to the wet nurse. My eyes were sharp as knives.
"Come. To the council hall. I need to review the trade terms for the 'Bloodspring of Life' myself. The future of the Moonlit Alliance will no longer be tangled up in foolish emotions."
