“How dare you use poison against another shifter!” I snarled. “And you reek of dark magic. Who are you consorting with?”
She refused to answer, trying to resist me. Her eyes darted toward her father, then our mother, pleading.
“Alpha, please stop him!” my stepfather began.
“Silence!” my mother snapped.
“Where did you get the poison?” I bellowed, my command slamming into her.
“The druid,” she gasped, her defiance crumbling. “It wasn’t my fault! He came to me! Said he could make me stronger than you. Said I deserved to be heir. I didn’t completely trust him, but…”
“You betrayed everything we stand for so you could be heir?” I snarled.
“You betrayed us first!” Tears streamed down her face. “Bowing to outsiders, forming pacts with the other heirs. The druid said you’d weaken our bloodline?—”
“The druid will be dead soon. The coward doesn’t dare show his face in the realm.” I tightened my grip, my claws sinking into her neck and drawing blood. “You violated our most sacred laws. Brought corruption into our territory. Conspired with the worst enemies of Mist of Cinder.”
“Silas.” My mother finally spoke, a fragile tension in her tone. “She’s your sister.”
“A traitor—weak, unworthy, and corrupted!” I leveled my stare at my alpha mother. “You didn’t remind her I was her brother when she aimed for a killing strike. You see me as a threat, don’t you? You could have stopped this, but you allowed her crime to fester. I was never weak. I never will be. My bond with the other heirs doesn’t weaken our kingdom; it strengthensit. And do you know who stands with me now? The only goddess walking this earth and her companion, the true old magic! You know nothing, and you’ve done nothing but enable harm. While I bled for our kingdom, fighting to repel the Shriekers’ invasion, you withheld reinforcements and hoped I’d fall on the battlefield, didn’t you? You wanted this weakling to replace me because she’d be easy to control. Your neglect and weakness have allowed our enemies to infiltrate our most sacred space. You violated our shifter laws!”
Silence whipped through the clearing, then the shifters threw their heads back and howled their rage.
My claws extended.
“Please,” Thyra whispered.
“Am I soft?” I asked her.
“No,” she whimpered. “I was mistaken…”
“The mistake now costs you,” I said. In one swift motion, I tore out her throat.
Her body hit the ground with a wet thud. Fire erupted from my fingertips, engulfing her remains. I would not let her corrupted blood poison the earth. Shifters’ elemental magic is water. Very few of us bore two elements like I did, water and air. But now I wielded fire as well, a gift from my bond with the other heirs.
My parents stood frozen, their faces pale as moonlight.
I turned to them. “You let this happen.” My growl sent most shifters dropping to their bellies in submission. “You were so busy playing favorites, so obsessed with bloodlines and politics, that you allowed an enemy to turn your own daughter.”
“You killed my daughter!” Frank's wolf surged forward. “I'll tear out your throat!”
I moved faster than he could track, my clawed hand lifting him as if he weighed nothing. “This ends with you and the alphaqueen stepping down,” I commanded, my eyes blazing. “Submit or die. Both of you.”
I tossed him aside.
Power rolled off me in relentless waves—not just shifter dominance, but something far greater. The blessing of the divine, the touch of old magic, the strength of our five united kingdoms. One by one, every shifter in the clearing dropped, bellies to the ground, necks bared in submission.
My stepfather fought it for two heartbeats before crashing to his knees.
My mother lasted five before she, too, knelt.
I hadn’t planned this. Hours ago, I’d called Killian a traitor for suggesting we might need to take our parents’ thrones. Now I stood over my sister’s ashes as the first heir to claim a crown.
“We’re cleaning house,” I said, my voice carrying to every corner of the forest. “Find everyone who conspired with the druid. Root out every trace of corruption. But first”—I turned to my mother, my gaze unyielding—“why wasn’t I informed about the second bride trial?”
The new shifter alpha king demanded answers.
Chapter
