Return to the Ruins

Valerica's POV

I turned on my heel, ready to leave the suffocating opulence of Lavinia's quarters behind me. Before I could take three steps, a furious, wolfish howl tore through the stifling jasmine-scented air, stopping me dead in my tracks.

"Wait!" Luna Lavinia roared. Her face darkened with a sudden, ugly rage, the veins in her neck protruding against her flawless skin. "Valerica, how can you be so foolish?"

I glanced over my shoulder, keeping my posture rigid. I had no intention of stepping back into that parlor.

"Garrick is a powerful Alpha," Lavinia spat, her voice echoing off the vaulted ceiling. "He is destined to have more than one woman. Every strong pack in the north operates this way! You are still legally his mate. You still hold the Luna title. What more do you possibly want?"

Her arrogant entitlement grated on my nerves. A solid year of quiet compliance had clearly made these wolves forget who I was. They looked at me and saw a walking coin purse, a pliable girl they could step on. They forgot I was Alpha Evander's daughter, bred from a lineage of apex predators.

"Cool your jets," I said flatly. I let my voice drop to a dangerous, icy register. "Other packs can rot in the dirt for all I care. I will not share my mate."

Lavinia choked on her next breath, coughing into her fist. Normally, I would rush to pour her tea and soothe her ego. This time, I stood my ground, my expression unreadable.

Before Lavinia could recover from my blatant insolence, the heavy mahogany doors swung wide open. Drusilla barged in, her eyes blazing with spiteful indignation. She pointed a manicured finger at me.

"Look at Luna Lavinia! You are embarrassing us!" Drusilla shrieked, her chest heaving. "Glacierclaw has already fallen. Your family is dead and gone! What makes you think your precious Alpha blood means squat around here anymore? Garrick can reject you just as easily as he brought Morrigan in, you know!"

I slowly looked Drusilla up and down. My eyes lingered on the fine, pale yellow silk dress she wore. It was a custom piece I had personally commissioned for her last autumn. My gaze then shifted to the glittering, heavy gemstone necklace resting against her collarbone, and the matching wrist cuff catching the candlelight. I paid for every single thread and jewel adorning her body.

"Take it off first," I replied coolly. I maintained perfect stillness, letting my gaze bore into her soul. "Then you can have your little tantrum."

Drusilla’s face flushed a deep, blotchy crimson. "I didn't beg for this dress! I will return it!"

"Go ahead," I said. "Return the gems, too. They belong to the fallen pack you just mocked."

I swept my gaze over the room one last time. Only Lavinia managed to keep a poker face, though her claws gripped the velvet sofa tight enough to tear the fabric.

"Anything else?" I asked the silent room. "No? Then I am leaving."

Without waiting for Drusilla’s humiliated sputtering to form into words, I strode out the heavy wooden doors. The moment I hit the cool autumn air in the corridor, the inner wolf I kept chained in my mind snarled. She begged me to let the claws slip, to turn around and rip their ungrateful throats out.

I silently, forcefully shoved her back down into the depths of my consciousness. Causing a bloodbath so close to Lycan Theron's sovereign palace would instantly brand me a rogue outlaw. That would ruin my entire plan.

I lingered just a moment by the cracked doorframe. My enhanced hearing caught Lavinia's voice from inside the parlor. She was coldly instructing a mortified Drusilla, promising the girl that I would eventually bend.

"She will come crawling back," Lavinia muttered. "She has no other choice."

A dark, cynical smile tugged at the corner of my lips. They all blindly assumed I was forever trapped in Crimsonmoon. To them, Glacierclaw was just a museum piece—a ruined territory with no future. They thought I had nowhere else to go.

The very next morning, long before the Crimsonmoon patrols blinked the sleep from their eyes, Odelia and I rode out. We pushed our horses hard until we reached Glacierclaw's desolate border just as dawn broke.

The ancient magical wards, fueled by my bloodline, still held strong. They shimmered faintly in the pale morning light, a translucent barrier protecting the graveyard of my past. As I stepped through the boundary, my wolf let out a sharp, mournful howl in my mind. Odelia shivered behind me, her ears sprouting wolf-tipped fur as she picked up on my sorrow.

We walked slowly into the untended central plaza. This place used to hum with life, echoing with the laughter of pups and the clashing swords of training warriors. Now, it was choked with waist-high, creeping weeds. Suffocating blankets of dead autumn leaves covered the cobblestones like forgotten memories.

My heart ached profoundly. The biting wind sighed through the empty, hollowed-out streets, carrying the scent of dust and decay. The desolate sound instantly dragged me back six months. I could still see myself collapsing in a pool of tears right here on these stones, my hands stained crimson. I had knelt beside the brutally butchered bodies of my mother and grandmother, screaming until my voice gave out.

Now, standing solemnly before their weathered stone altar, hot tears fell freely down my cheeks. I reached out, tracing my trembling fingers over the deep, jagged engravings of their grave markers. The rough stone grounded me.

"Mom, Dad, please forgive the difficult path I have chosen," I whispered firmly into the wind. My voice steadied with every word. "I won't be a complacent Luna for any pack. Not when Garrick is clearly not the mate the Moon Goddess originally chose for me. Rest easy in the Goddess's embrace."

I pressed my forehead against the cold stone. "I promise you, I will survive. And I will rebuild."

Odelia knelt beside me in the tall grass, weeping silently for the home we lost. We spent the next hour clearing away the overgrowth around the altar. We burned a bundle of dried sage, letting the fragrant smoke carry our prayers to the Moon Goddess. Once the embers faded, I wiped my face and turned my back on the ruins. My grief hardened into unyielding, ruthless determination.

We immediately headed toward the towering spires of Lycan Theron's palace. My mind was set. I needed to secure the formal rejection decree today, sever my ties with Garrick, and begin my life anew.

For two relentless, agonizing hours, Odelia and I stood outside the colossal iron gates of the sovereign grounds. The autumn sun, surprisingly hot and glaring, beat down on our shoulders. We waited unnoticed and unmoving, ignored by the elite sovereign guards who marched past us on their patrols.

By noon, the heat radiating off the cobblestones was suffocating. Sweat trickled down my spine, but I refused to break my rigid posture. I kept my eyes locked on the heavy iron doors, projecting the aura of an Alpha's daughter who demanded an audience.

Odelia, however, lacked my endurance. She shifted her weight from foot to foot, fretting nervously. She knew I had not eaten or drank a drop of water since last night's disastrous dinner. The massive military presence surrounding the palace clearly intimidated her; every time a guard's armor clanked, she flinched.

The heavy silence stretched on, broken only by the cawing of ravens above.

"Valerica," Odelia broke the silence, her voice a small, wavering whisper. "Maybe we should just leave? This is humiliating. Lycan Theron might not even see you today."

I slowly turned my head to look at her. My posture remained rigid, my expression devoid of any warmth. I stared into her fearful eyes, letting my dominant aura press down on her.

"Odelia, if you ever utter such spineless words again, I'll leave you behind."