LOGIN{Ragna’s POV}Recognition spread faster than fire.One person pointed. Another looked. A third stopped walking altogether, and before long voices were passing my description from mouth to mouth until I was no longer standing in the middle of a street.I was standing inside a rumor that had suddenly remembered it possessed a face.“The Arena girl.”“The demonic female.”“The one who survived the Bloody Gnai.”“The one that killed the King’s Beast.”People weren’t simply looking anymore.They were gathering.Some edged closer out of curiosity while others kept their distance, their fear obvious enough that I briefly wondered whether they expected me to start breathing fire.I looked at Milena.“Do you know what we do now?”Her eyes darted nervously between the growing crowd.“…What?”I drew one slow breath.“Now we run.”Then I ran.The crowd erupted behind us.“Catch her!”“Don’t let her escape!”“Seize the demon!”“Someone call the guards!”Milena hesitated for only a heartbeat before
{Ragna’s POV}For one spectacularly stupid moment, neither of us moved.The shattered statue lay scattered across the polished floor while the first guard remained sprawled among the rubble. The second guard hung limply against me, his weight threatening to pull us both to the ground, and from somewhere beyond the intersecting corridors came the unmistakable sound of boots striking stone.Not walking.Running.“…I’ll kill myself here,” Milena whispered, growing out her claws. “I genuinely think this is where I—”I smacked the back of her head.She yelped.“Pull yourself together.”Rubbing the back of her head with an injured expression, she glared at me.“You keep doing that.”“I’ll keep doing it if you keep announcing your death before anyone else has the opportunity.”Another burst of footsteps echoed toward us.Closer.I looked once at the unconscious guard leaning against me, then at the one buried beneath broken marble. My gaze swept across the corridor in search of anything usef
{Ragna’s POV}The dungeon erupted behind us.Voices chased us through the corridors long before the guards ever could.“You damned females!”“Get us out too!”“You can’t just leave us here!”“Come back!”The shouting dissolved into curses, pleading, threats, and laughter until it became impossible to distinguish one voice from another. Somewhere in the middle of it all, a familiar male voice continued roaring louder than everyone else.The guard.The one currently tied rather securely to the bars of our former cell.Milena hurried beside me, still looking as though her mind had failed to catch up with her feet.“You tied him to the bars.”We rounded another corner, neither sprinting nor slowing, moving as quickly as caution allowed.“You actually tied him to the bars.”She looked at me in open disbelief.“How did you—”She broke off as we reached an intersection leading toward the upper passages. Raising a hand, I motioned for her to stop, and we both flattened ourselves against the c
{Ragna’s POV}The guard stopped.Slowly, he turned toward me, his face tightening with something that looked suspiciously like wounded pride.“Do you think I’m afraid of you?”“No.”I met his glare without moving. “I think you’re foolish.”The words landed exactly where I wanted them to.His jaw clenched.“You stand there talking trash because you think you’ve accomplished something,” he spat. “In a few hours they’ll drag you out of this dungeon, slaughter you in front of the Kingdom, and leave your worthless body for everyone to see!”I watched him while he spoke. Not because I particularly cared about his opinion.Because he was closer now.Not close enough though.“You hear me?” he snapped.“I hear you.”“Then perhaps reality is finally settling in.”“I doubt it.”His nostrils flared.“You’re the miserable one here!”“I’d still rather be me.”That seemed to confuse him more than anger him.“What?”“I’d rather die,” I said with a shrug, “than spend my life standing in the same corri
{Ragna’s POV}The dungeon had become considerably louder.Not because anything had changed down here.Because everything had changed somewhere above us.The screams still drifted through the stone ceiling in waves. Some were distant enough to sound almost unreal. Others arrived sharp and sudden before disappearing beneath the barking of orders and the thunder of hurried footsteps racing across the Palace.The attack had reached the Kingdom.That much was obvious.Milena was now pacing the length of the cell, looking upward every few seconds as though staring hard enough might somehow allow her to see through several layers of stone.“So it’s true,” she whispered. “The Blood Mothers are real.”She turned another restless circle before looking at me.“This is the end.”I remained where I was, listening. Not to her. To everything else. The Palace sounded frightened.That was different from sounding attacked. Milena crossed the distance between us in three hurried steps.“They’re here,”
{Liam’s POV}Loud voices guided me toward the western battlements long before I reached them.The Palace had abandoned every trace of its usual composure. Generals crossed courtyards at a run, shouting fresh orders before disappearing into different formations. Stable hands struggled to calm restless warhorses while servants hurried frightened citizens away from the outer walls. Everywhere I looked, discipline fought a losing battle against urgency.Beyond the gates, thousands of warriors were already assembling.Rows upon rows of armored males stretched across the Palace grounds as standards bearing the crest of the Reigns snapped violently in the afternoon wind. Generals rode along the formations issuing final instructions while captains adjusted ranks with clipped, impatient commands. Brutality flashed beneath the sun as countless claws extended and retracted in restless anticipation.The army was enormous.It should have been reassuring.Instead, the mood surrounding it bordered o
{Ragna’s POV}The carriage rolled steadily away from the Arena while silence settled between Milena and me.For a while, neither of us spoke. The only sounds came from the horses pulling us forward, the rhythmic turning of the wheels beneath us, and the occasional creak of wood whenever the carriage
{Ragna’s POV}For a moment, nobody moved.The corridor seemed to shrink around us as the King’s gaze settled on our little group, drifting from my father to me and then back again. The shock on his face lasted only a second, but it was enough. It was enough for me to understand that he had recogniz
{Ragna’s POV}“Is that your father?”Milena’s question hung between us, but I didn’t answer it. My attention remained fixed on the man standing a short distance away while a dozen unwanted thoughts crashed into each other inside my head. Some were angry. Some were confused. Most were things I had s
{Ragna’s POV}The night before Selection smelled like rain and nerves.Well, mostly nerves.Girls across the Werewolf Reigns were probably doing the same thing I was doing— lying awake in their beds, staring at the ceiling, praying that tomorrow the elders would say the word ‘fertile’.Because if t







