The wind howled against the windows that night, a mournful, lonely sound that seemed to seep through every crack in the ancient stone walls of the Mooncrest estate. It rattled the shutters, tossed the heavy drapes, and carried the distant cries of night creatures across the cold, dark woods beyond.
The storm outside was fierce — wild, untamed, a reflection of the storm raging inside Selene's restless heart.
She tossed and turned in her narrow bed, sheets twisted around her limbs like chains.
Sleep refused to claim her, no matter how deeply she willed it. Her eyes remained closed, but the images behind her lids were vivid — relentless and merciless. Kael, broken and trembling in that study. The way he had fought to keep the pain hidden, the tight clench of his jaw, the raw vulnerability she had never expected from the merciless Alpha.
There was something wrong with him.
Something no one else seemed to notice… or dared to speak about.
Her breath caught and tightened, a weight on her chest that grew heavier with every passing moment. She hugged her knees to her chest, pulling the thick quilt tighter around her shoulders, but the cold clung to her bones anyway.
Was she imagining it? Was her heart playing tricks?
But the truth wouldn't leave her alone.
The dream began then. Or was it a dream at all?
The room around her dissolved, as if the stone and wood melted into mist. Every shadow in the room seemed to twist and shift, whispering secrets she wasn't sure she wanted to hear.
Shadows deepened and stretched like living things, until she stood not in her cold chamber, but inside a vast, ancient hall — a place she had never seen before, yet somehow knew.
The hall was grand and crumbling. Its stone walls rose high and proud, draped in tapestries torn and faded by centuries of neglect. The air was heavy, dense with magic and sorrow, the scent of old smoke and forgotten promises lingering like a ghost.
A voice echoed through the space — rich, broken, filled with sorrow and accusation.
"You promised me forever, Kael…"
Selene's heart hammered as she turned toward the sound. In the center of the hall stood two figures — a vision from a past that had never truly left.
One was Kael — young, proud, untouched by the cold bitterness she had come to know.
His black hair gleamed even in the dim light, his jaw set in stubborn defiance. His eyes blazed with fierce conviction, and his stance spoke of unyielding strength.
Opposite him stood a woman, radiant and terrible. Her hair flowed like molten silver, catching every glimmer of light, and her eyes stormed with betrayal and grief. Her presence filled the hall with a sorrow so deep it threatened to swallow everything whole.
"You said you loved me," she whispered, voice trembling yet sharp like shattered glass.
Kael's hands clenched into fists at his sides.
His mouth opened, as if to speak, but no words came. His silence echoed louder than any scream.
She could almost feel the weight of the unspoken words pressing down on Kael, heavier than any chain or curse.
"You swore a blood vow," the woman continued, stepping closer, her presence overwhelming, suffocating. "You bound yourself to me by the ancient rites. You promised loyalty beyond death."
Selene could feel the weight of the woman's grief like a physical force pressing down on her chest.
Kael's gaze faltered, shifting away. His face became a mask — regret mingled with something colder, harder.
"I did," he finally said, voice low and raw. "But love… it isn't enough."
The woman recoiled, her voice cracking but eyes burning with unrelenting fire.
"You chose ambition over loyalty."
"You chose power over me."
Kael said nothing.
A cold shiver ran down her spine as the woman's voice echoed in the hall—words that burned like acid against Kael's pride.
The silence stretched between them — thick, suffocating, filled with the ghosts of broken promises.
Slowly, the woman raised her hands. Power shimmered around her like a living storm, twisting and turning in furious spirals. Her sorrow twisted into rage, a tempest fueled by betrayal.
"You will carry this burden for eternity," she intoned, voice heavy with ancient authority.
"Strength without peace. Power without solace. A heart that will never know rest."
"You will conquer, but never heal."
A cold wind swept through the hall, tearing at the tattered tapestries, scattering dust and ash. Lightning flashed, illuminating the tears streaming down the woman's face.
"You will be king of ashes."
"Master of shadows."
"Prisoner of your own soul."
Kael's body jerked, as if invisible chains had wrapped around him. He dropped to his knees, gasping, clutching his chest as if the very air had become a blade.
Selene cried out, but no sound left her lips.
The woman's form began to dissolve, her grief folding into the very air itself, vanishing like smoke on the wind.
"You will never be whole again," she whispered.
And then she was gone.
Kael knelt alone in the ruined hall, black hair dulled, proud shoulders bowed beneath an invisible weight.
When the vision faded, Selene was left with a lingering ache, a silent question screaming louder than any scream she'd ever uttered.
Selene's heart twisted painfully in her chest. The vision cracked like shattered glass, fragmenting and warping until she found herself back in her cold, narrow bed, trembling with cold sweat and racing thoughts.
She clutched the quilt tighter, trying to steady her ragged breathing.
Was it only a dream?
Or had she glimpsed some buried truth — a secret Kael fought to hide even from himself?
Kael — so strong, so cruel, so untouchable — was nothing more than a man shackled by his past.
A cursed king.
And somehow, Selene knew deep in her bones she was tied to that ancient sorrow, though she didn't yet understand how or why.
Sleep eluded her the rest of the night.
She lay awake, listening to the wind howl, the old mansion creak and groan around her, wondering if the monster she had married was truly a monster at all — or merely another prisoner, like herself.