KIRA BEAUMONT POV
When the truth was completely laid bare before me, I was instead in a state of confusion. I turned and walked toward the town's only 24-hour café. I needed warmth and a safe place to think before making my next move.
I pushed through the glass door, the sudden blast of heated air and the smell of stale coffee washing over my chilled skin.
I took a booth in the farthest corner, tucked into the dim shadows beneath a flickering fluorescent bulb. Sliding into the cracked vinyl seat, I placed a crumpled one-dollar bill on the table and asked the tired waitress for a cup of boiling water with lemon.
The hot ceramic mug warmed my frozen palms. I closed my eyes, letting the steam rise against my face as I silently began the second phase of my internal cleansing.
Deep within my veins, the silver toxicity felt like jagged shards of glass. Using the subtle circulation of Moon Runes I had practiced in secret for thousands of nights, I visualized the moonlight outside filtering into my lungs, weaving a radiant, crystalline net that captured the microscopic silver particles, dissolving them into harmless mist.
Ding.
The chime above the diner’s entrance broke my concentration.
"I told you, babe, this place is totally disgusting," a whiny, high-pitched voice echoed across the quiet diner. "Why couldn't we just drive thirty miles out to the private pack lounge?"
"Because your father said we need to keep an eye on the perimeter road until tomorrow morning, Brenda," a deep, arrogant voice replied.
I didn't need to look up to know who it was.
Brenda Hicks strutted into the diner, draped in a brand-new silver-fox fur trim jacket that had cost more than my entire medical care for the past five years. Clinging to her arm was Dylan, a second-tier Beta warrior from the local suburban pack, reeking of cheap pine cologne and unwarranted superiority.
Brenda's eyes scanned the room, and when they landed on me, a nasty, triumphant grin spread across her heavily painted lips. "Oh, look who it is. Our little Cinderella. Homeless now? Need some money for a shelter?"
"What's the matter, Kira?" Brenda leaned over my table, placing her manicured hands on the laminate surface. "Can't even afford a cup of coffee? Just hot water? At least you used to be part of our family—don't embarrass our family name."
"You don't have a reputation, Brenda," I replied smoothly, taking a measured sip of the hot water without looking at her. "You have a collection of stolen privileges and a hollow wolf that requires curses on innocent orphans to stay healthy."
Brenda’s smile instantly vanished, replaced by an ugly flush of red. "You shut your mouth! You're the one who's hollow! You’re a wolfless parasite!"
Dylan stepped forward, his chest puffing out as he let a low, rumbling growl vibrate in his throat, attempting to project dominance. "Watch your tongue when you speak to Brenda. You don't have a pack to protect you now."
I slowly placed my mug down, the ceramic clicking softly against the table. I looked up, meeting Dylan's golden-tinted shifter eyes with absolute, unyielding indifference. The sheer absence of fear in my gaze made the young warrior hesitate, his growl catching awkwardly in his throat.
Then Brenda's greedy gaze drifted downward. A glint of something shiny peeked out from beneath my canvas jacket.
"Wait a minute..." Brenda’s eyes widened with sudden avarice. "What is that? You’re not allowed to take any valuables from our house! Give me that necklace!"
"This was tucked in my blanket before your parents bought me from an alley," I said evenly. I knew she had seen the Valerius Locket, but it didn't matter now.
"I don't care!" Brenda snapped, lunging forward with her hand outstretched, her sharp nails aiming straight for the delicate chain. "Everything on your worthless body belongs to the Hicks family! Dylan, hold her down while I take it!"
Before Dylan could even take a step, Brenda’s fingers closed around the cold metal of the locket.
Big mistake.
I didn't slap her hand away. Instead, I channeled a microscopic pulse of lunar resonance from my heart directly into the dormant core of the pendant.
A blinding, microscopic arc of silver-white lightning snapped from the royal crest.
"AAAHHH!"
Brenda shrieked in agony, leaping backward as if she had grabbed a red-hot iron brand. She crashed against the neighboring booth, clutching her right hand to her chest. The skin across her palm was blistered and charred in the perfect silhouette of a sacred crescent moon.
"Brenda!" Dylan shouted, rushing to her side. He turned toward me, his fangs extending, his eyes flashing dangerous amber. "What the hell did you just do to her, you freak?!"
I rose slowly from the booth. Though I was wearing oversized, second-hand clothes, the terrifying, ancient stillness radiating from my posture instantly swallowed the entire room in a suffocating silence.
"That locket is a precious relic of the Valerius Clan," I stated, my voice dropping an octave, as if issuing a decree: no one of low birth and poor character is worthy to touch its shadow.
"You... you lying wretch!" Brenda wept, holding her blistered hand, but she retreated behind Dylan's broad back, trembling with genuine terror. "Dylan, kill her! Rip her throat out!"
Dylan bared his claws, but when he looked into my eyes—eyes that held no panic, only the cold calculation of an apex predator waiting for him to make a fatal mistake—his wolf refused to obey his command to attack. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.
"Take her to a clinic, Dylan," I said calmly, tossing the dollar bill onto the table. "And tell Barton and Deidre that every silver curse they carved into my flesh will be etched into their bones by the time this winter ends."
Without waiting for a response, I walked past them. Neither of them dared to reach out a finger to stop me.
Stepping out into the crisp night air, I tightened my coat. The locket against my chest was warm now, buzzing in harmony with my awakening bloodline.
