POV: Aria
I woke up screaming.
Silver light poured from my skin like I was burning from the inside out. My wolf—my weak, pathetic wolf—was roaring. Actually roaring with a power I'd never felt before.
"What's happening to me?" I gasped, clawing at my chest where the light was brightest.
The three massive wolves hadn't moved. They sat in a perfect triangle around me, watching with those glowing eyes. Calm. Like watching someone explode with mysterious power was completely normal.
"Breathe," the deep voice said in my mind. It came from the silver-eyed wolf. "The curse is breaking. Your true nature is fighting to surface."
"Curse? What curse?" The light was getting brighter, hotter. It hurt. Everything hurt.
"We'll explain everything," a different voice said—smoother, colder. The ice-blue-eyed wolf. "But first, you need to survive the awakening."
"I don't—I can't—"
My wolf suddenly lunged for control. Not the gentle way she usually surfaced. This was violent. Desperate. Like she'd been caged for years and finally found the key.
My body convulsed. Bones cracked and reformed. My scream turned into a howl as the shift tore through me.
But something was wrong.
Normal shifts took seconds. This one kept going. My wolf form grew larger. And larger. The small, weak wolf I'd always been stretched and expanded until I was the size of the three massive wolves surrounding me.
Maybe bigger.
The silver light finally faded. I collapsed onto four legs, panting, my new body feeling completely foreign.
"Look at yourself," the third voice urged—darker, more dangerous than the others. The blood-red-eyed wolf.
I looked down at my paws. They were huge. Covered in silver fur that shimmered in the moonlight. And along my back and shoulders, black markings that looked like... like...
"A crown," the silver-eyed wolf confirmed. "The Shadow Crown. You're no Omega, little one. You're a queen."
My wolf tried to speak, to argue, but all that came out was a confused whimper. This couldn't be real. I was cursed, rejected, worthless.
The three wolves stood as one. Then, right before my eyes, they began to shift.
But they didn't shift into normal wolves going to human form. They shifted into men—tall, powerful, radiating the same ancient energy I'd felt from their wolves.
The silver-eyed wolf became a man with dark hair and silver eyes that seemed to glow even in human form. Muscular and broad-shouldered, with scars crossing his bare chest. He looked at me with an intensity that made my new wolf form shiver.
The ice-blue-eyed wolf became a man with white-blond hair and those freezing blue eyes. Leaner than the first, but no less dangerous. His skin was pale, almost translucent in the moonlight.
The blood-red-eyed wolf became a man with black hair and those disturbing red eyes. He was the most terrifying of the three—something predatory in the way he moved, like violence was always just beneath the surface.
All three were completely naked, but they didn't seem to care. They knelt before me—before my massive wolf form—and bowed their heads.
"Welcome home, Shadow Crown," the silver-eyed man said. His voice matched the one I'd heard in my mind. "We've been waiting twenty-three years for you."
I shifted back to human form, my body responding easier now despite how large my wolf had been. My clothes were shredded from the transformation. I grabbed the remains of my cloak, trying to cover myself.
"I don't understand," I whispered. "What's happening? What are you?"
"We're the Alpha Kings," the white-haired man said. "I am Damon Silvercrest, ruler of the Eastern Frost Lands."
"Theron Ashford," the silver-eyed man added. "Northern Reaches."
"Lucian Nightbane." The dark-haired one's red eyes locked onto mine. "Southern Shadow Territories."
Kings. They were kings.
And they'd been waiting for me?
"There's a mistake," I said quickly. "I'm not whoever you think I am. I'm just an Omega. A rejected, exiled Omega who—"
"You were never an Omega." Lucian moved closer, and I stumbled backward. He stopped, holding up his hands. "Your parents were the Shadow Crown King and Queen. The most powerful wolves to ever live. The Moon Goddess murdered them twenty-three years ago because their bloodline threatened her control over all wolves."
My head spun. "That's impossible. My parents abandoned me. I was found at the pack border—"
"You were hidden there," Theron interrupted gently. "With a curse placed on you to suppress your true power. To make you appear weak so the goddess's hunters wouldn't find you."
"The curse made you register as an Omega," Damon explained. "Hid your royal scent. Weakened your wolf. All to keep you alive until you were old enough to break free."
I shook my head. This was insane. "If I'm so powerful, why did my mate reject me?"
The temperature dropped. All three men's eyes flashed with their wolf colors—silver, ice-blue, blood-red.
"Because he's a fool," Lucian growled.
"Because the curse was still active," Theron said more calmly. "He saw what the curse wanted him to see. A weak Omega. Not the queen standing before us now."
"This doesn't make sense." My voice cracked. "You're saying I have some kind of... royal blood? That I'm powerful? Look at me! I just got rejected and exiled. I was ready to die in these woods."
"And instead, you found us." Damon's cold smile held no warmth. "Do you really think that's a coincidence?"
"The Forbidden Lands are our territory," Theron said. "We knew the moment you crossed the border. We've been guiding you deeper, away from the pack lands, to safety."
"Safety?" I laughed bitterly. "I heard the stories. The Forbidden Lands is where wolves go to die."
"It's where wolves go to be free," Lucian corrected. "Free from the Moon Goddess's control. Free from pack hierarchies and Alpha commands. We rule here, not her."
A howl split the night—distant but getting closer. Then another. And another.
The three kings tensed immediately.
"What is that?" I asked.
"Divine Hunters," Theron said grimly. "The Moon Goddess's assassins. She knows you've awakened."
My blood turned to ice. "She's sending them after me?"
"You're the one thing she fears," Lucian said. "The Shadow Crown bloodline can break her control over all wolves. She won't let you live if she can help it."
The howls were getting louder. Closer.
Damon grabbed my arm. "We need to move. Now. The Sanctuary is three miles north. We can protect you there."
"Wait—" I pulled back. "Why should I trust you? I don't even know you!"
Theron stepped in front of me, his massive frame blocking my view of the forest where the hunters were approaching. "Because in about thirty seconds, those hunters are going to reach us. And you have two choices: come with us and live, or stay here and die."
"Some choice," I muttered.
"Life rarely offers better ones," Lucian said.
The hunters burst through the trees—five wolves with glowing white eyes, larger than normal wolves but smaller than the kings. They saw me and lunged.
Theron's hand grabbed mine. "Run!"
We ran.
My new powerful wolf wanted to fight, but my human brain screamed that I had no idea how to use this body. The kings shifted mid-run, their massive wolf forms flanking me as we crashed through the forest.
Behind us, the hunters howled for blood.
My blood.
"Faster!" Theron's voice commanded in my mind.
I pushed harder, my new legs eating up ground I could never have covered before.
A hunter broke through the line. Aimed straight for me.
Lucian intercepted, his massive jaws clamping onto the hunter's throat.
"Keep running!" Damon urged. "Don't look back!"
But I did look back.
I saw Lucian kill the hunter with a vicious shake of his head. Saw the hunter's body dissolve into white mist.
And I saw something else.
More hunters. Dozens of them, pouring out of the forest like a white tide.
The Moon Goddess really did want me dead.
"The Sanctuary!" Theron's triumphant voice rang in my head. "We're here!"
A massive stone fortress appeared through the trees, walls towering thirty feet high. The gates began to open.
We were going to make it.
Then pain exploded in my hind leg. A hunter had caught me, its teeth sinking deep.
I yelped and fell, tumbling across the ground.
The three kings whirled around, snarling.
But the hunters were already on me.
One lunged for my throat.
And something inside me snapped.
Power erupted from my body—that same silver light from before, but a thousand times stronger. It exploded outward in a wave that sent every hunter flying backward.
They hit the ground and didn't get up.
I stood there, panting, staring at my paws in shock.
What did I just do?
Theron shifted to human form, his eyes wide. "Impossible. You shouldn't be able to access Shadow Crown magic yet. The awakening isn't complete."
"Then how—" I started.
My vision blurred. The world tilted.
The last thing I felt was Theron catching me as I collapsed.
And a voice—cold, feminine, and ancient—whispered in my fading consciousness:
"You should have died with your parents, little Shadow Crown. I'll finish what I started."
The Moon Goddess herself had just threatened me.
And I'd barely survived my first night.