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The Cursed Princessa
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Short filmTranscript
00:00They sent my sister back in a box.
00:02Her arms were gone.
00:03Her legs were gone.
00:05I killed the messengers who brought the box back with my own hands.
00:09I came north for revenge.
00:16My father gave him to me!
00:18I'll kill you!
00:20You're a monster!
00:25So I married the man who killed her.
00:31I was born a cursed princess.
00:33Only my sister cared for me.
00:35The night I was born, my shadow tore itself off my body.
00:38It devoured everyone present.
00:40The servants screamed and ran, but they weren't fast enough.
00:43My shadow devoured them all.
00:45The pack shaman rushed in, swept his staff over me once, and my shadow returned to normal.
00:50Everyone called me cursed.
00:51Even my father and mother drew their blades.
00:53Then my sister came.
00:55Elena rushed in.
00:56She pressed her chest against the sword tip and pulled me fully behind her.
01:00She held me.
01:01She is not cursed.
01:03She is my sister.
01:04I swear on my life that I will raise my sister to be the gentlest and kindest wolf in the
01:10history of the pack.
01:11Our parents sheathed their swords in silence and never looked at me.
01:14She carried me back to her room.
01:15I grew up beneath the cold, indifferent stares of the wolf servants.
01:19Even their shadows seemed to reject me.
01:21Only Elena kept crouching down and pulling me into her arms once and once again.
01:25I hated those servants.
01:27More than once I thought about skinning them alive.
01:29But for Elena, I swallowed it.
01:31I played sweet.
01:32Then I turned 15.
01:33The packs to the north had raiding our borders without stop.
01:36My father signed the order.
01:38Elena would be sent north as a treaty mate.
01:40The day the order came, Elena sat me in front of the mirror and brushed my hair one last time.
01:45Elena, please, don't go.
01:47We'll hide.
01:48No one will find us.
01:50Lyra, I'm not going just to stop the wars.
01:53I want to be a bridge.
01:54I want to bring our writing, our medicine, our songs north.
01:58That day, I watched her put on her ceremonial bond dress and step into the carriage.
02:02The wheels ground over the stone path and moved away.
02:05I ran after her.
02:06The carriage disappeared.
02:07Elena, take me with you.
02:09Fold me into your bag.
02:11I'll be small.
02:13Just don't leave me here alone.
02:16Be happy, Elena.
02:17Elena, promise me you'll come back to see me often.
02:20But I never imagined that when I saw Elena again a year later, she can find inside that black box.
02:26A messenger from the northern pack arrived with a small black box.
02:31Inside was my sister.
02:32That was the day I learned a person, after death, can be made to fit inside something the size of
02:37a jewelry chest.
02:38What was left of her had been packed into a coffin no bigger than a vanity case.
02:43Elena, please hold me.
02:45My hands found only wet flesh.
02:48My mother's cup hit the floor and shattered.
02:50The princess, delicate by nature, she fell gravely ill shortly after arrival.
02:55To prevent the sickness from reaching her heart, the afflicted limbs were removed.
03:00But her strength had already faded beyond saving.
03:02But I could see the bite marks on her severed limbs.
03:05Those were big claw marks on her face.
03:07The kind a large cat leaves.
03:09She hadn't been sick.
03:10I dare not imagine what inhumane torment she endured.
03:14My fingernails dug into the wood of the coffin until splinters drove under the beds.
03:18Then I yanked the silver pin from my hair and moved toward the messenger.
03:22My mother saw it coming and dragged me to a side room.
03:25That night, I stole my father's blade and walked to the messenger's quarters.
03:32I was almost at the door when I heard them laughing inside.
03:35Those southern fools actually believe the illness story.
03:38Our alpha's favorite she-wolf walked that soft little treaty mate right up to the cage herself.
03:42Watched the cage shake all night.
03:43The sound of bones cracking was better than any music.
03:46The black panther must have had its fill.
03:48This little beauty must taste absolute delicious.
03:51The sword shook in my hand.
03:53I sheathed my sword and poisoned the wine to be sent to their room.
03:56The servant carried the wine into the room.
03:59They drained the wine.
04:00They soon slumped to the ground.
04:02Their pupils dilated.
04:03Blood trickling from the corners of their mouths.
04:05If not for heading north to slay the culprits, I would surely flay them alive.
04:09I will personally slay everyone who harmed my sister.
04:12I turned around and walked straight to my father's war hall.
04:15The pack council was already in session.
04:17The elders had run out of patience with the northern pack's arrogance.
04:21Several had already called for war.
04:22I pushed open the doors.
04:24Send me north as a treaty mate.
04:28The northern pack is at full strength.
04:30If we go to war now, the cost will be total.
04:33Packs destroyed on both sides.
04:34More suffering for everyone.
04:36Another treaty mate costs less than that.
04:39Silence.
04:40My father and the elders stared at me.
04:41In the end, they chose the treaty.
04:43You deserve the name of our clan.
04:46Thank you, father.
04:47Why they hadn't gotten up?
04:48The northern wolves cannot adapt to the south.
04:50They fell seriously ill and took to their beds.
04:52I truly feel sorry for them.
04:54A few days later, I put on the ceremonial dress and went north.
04:59The carriage had barely stopped when the escort brought me straight to the Alpha's war tent.
05:04Alpha Cade was stretched out on his throne.
05:09Another southern wolf crawling into our Alpha's tent.
05:13Didn't you see what happened to the last one?
05:16Or are you here to feed my panther again?
05:20The panther came low and fast.
05:23I didn't flinch.
05:24I could do something for my sister with my own hands.
05:26I drove the silver pin into the soft place at the base of its throat.
05:30The panther howled once and dropped, four legs jerking.
05:34You killed him!
05:36My father gave him to me!
05:38I'll kill you!
05:40She pulled a bone-handled blade and came at me.
05:44Nara, enough.
05:46The panther lost.
05:48You forget.
05:49The strong eat the weak.
05:51That's the only law of the pack.
05:54Right then, his amber eyes fixed on me.
05:57What's your name?
05:58Panther blood was sliding down my face.
06:01Liar.
06:02Lyra.
06:05More interesting than your sister.
06:07Tonight you stay.
06:08The torch jumped, lighted the great wolf tattoo across his chest.
06:11Monster!
06:12You're a monster!
06:14Yes, that's right.
06:16So when the servants moved to carry the panther's body out, I stopped them.
06:20Cade made no move to stop me.
06:21He watched me with keen interest.
06:23I walked to it, took my sliver pin, and skinned it clean in a few smooth strokes.
06:28Every one of them who hurt Elena would get this back.
06:31Send the pelt to her.
06:34I rested my hands on his shoulders.
06:36He kissed me.
06:37Hard.
06:38He didn't notice the silver pin was still in my hand, the tip of it pressing against the
06:42back of his neck.
06:46I was about to exert my strength.
06:48A hand closed over mine.
06:50Why are you still holding this dirty thing?
06:52The dirty knot deserves you.
06:55I'll send you a better one tomorrow.
06:57The candle went out.
06:58My fingertips found the wolf tattoo on his chest.
07:01The silence all around us was so complete that only our heartbeats could be heard.
07:05By morning, Cade had already ordered the pack servants to strip off my southern dress and
07:10replace it with a northern dress.
07:12He gave me no time to ask questions, simply lifted me onto the horse and galloped toward the edge of
07:17the camp.
07:18It's a grey, wide hollow that smelled of iron and blood and sweat.
07:22Normal wolves would have gagged on that air.
07:24It woke something in me.
07:26The horse stopped.
07:27I saw it.
07:28Inside the cage, one battered man and one hungry brown bear.
07:33I'd heard about this.
07:34The northern alpha was a savage.
07:35That his favorite entertainment was watching his prisoners fight the pack's captive beasts.
07:42A deafening roar burst forth.
07:44Man and bear crashed into each other.
07:46Cade pulled the reins and wrapped his arm around my waist.
07:49How is it, Lyra?
07:50Good way to start the morning?
07:54He'd asked Elena the same question once.
07:57Elena was nothing like me.
07:59She couldn't bear it.
08:00That reaction had disgusted him.
08:02The northern pack believed in one thing.
08:04The strong survive.
08:06Pity was weakness.
08:07Tears were weakness.
08:09Elena fell into Cade's disfavor and was eventually bullied to death by Nara.
08:15The best thing I've seen in the morning.
08:19Look at that.
08:21He's still moving.
08:23The way those bones went.
08:25That's something.
08:28And you're not afraid.
08:29Afraid of what?
08:31This is far more entertaining than those hypocritical shows down in the south.
08:35Something in my blood had always liked the sight of this.
08:38Years ago, a tribe tried to overthrow me.
08:42I did not slaughter them.
08:44Instead, I settled them here.
08:46Living their whole lives just like performers trapped in this pit.
08:50In this territory, you are either outside the cage watching or inside it, being watched.
08:55What he didn't know was that I was outside the cage too.
08:58Wild.
08:59Just better at putting on a disguise.
09:04Elena shouldn't have come here.
09:05It should have been me.
09:06If it had been me and not her, maybe Cade and I would have been well matched from the beginning.
09:12Two wolves who understood exactly what the other was.
09:14But Elena was gone.
09:16I pressed closer to him.
09:18Out of his sight, my eyes turned cold, little by little.
09:21The man in the cage was screaming.
09:23What I think instead was Elena, locked in iron.
09:27Nara, along with her black panther, killed my sister.
09:31That night, Cade took me across his entire territory on horseback.
09:35Purple flowers banking the hills.
09:37The sun went down.
09:38Wind flattened the long grass.
09:40I spent every second of it thinking about how to use him to cut Nara apart.
09:44The prettiest flowers are the ones watered in pretty woman's blood.
09:48Cade kept me in his tent for days.
09:50Nara came back to the entrance more than once and was turned away every time by his guards.
09:55Nara's sister heard of what had happened and hurried over from the neighboring tribe.
09:59Though Gaia is a woman, she is bolder and fiercer than any wolf.
10:03She was nothing like other she-wolves.
10:05She could split a target at distance with a single shot.
10:07She'd face down bear with a blade.
10:09Even the fiercest wolf soldiers stepped aside for her.
10:12She was the one female Cade had ever openly respected.
10:15When Gaia arrived, Cade went to meet the two sisters.
10:18I was still half asleep when I heard about her.
10:21I thought about how much Gaia loved her sister.
10:23So you have a sister too.
10:25One who spoils you like that.
10:27How lucky.
10:28My sister used to spoil me the same way.
10:31She couldn't stand to see me hurting.
10:34But she's not here anymore.
10:36What am I supposed to do?
10:40I've never been quick with emotions.
10:42When the wetness dropped, I was still confused by it.
10:44That's Elena.
10:45I miss her so much it feels like going insane.
10:48I walked out with my skirts dragging.
10:50I ordered the servants to prepare firewood and a cooking rack.
10:53Get the firewood and grill ready.
10:55Bring over the Black Panther's body.
10:58We have guests and I intend to give them a proper welcome.
11:02We had a guest.
11:03I would host properly.
11:04Then I had them drag out the Black Panther's body.
11:07Nara came to Cade time and again, not merely to vie for his favor.
11:11She hoped to retrieve the Black Panther's body and lay to rest the companion who had grown
11:15up beside her.
11:16Someone as cold-blooded and ruthless as her turns out to be sentimental, wanting to give
11:21her childhood playmate a proper burial.
11:23Please.
11:24I just want my Panther's body back.
11:26It's just a Black Panther.
11:28Let it go.
11:32It's the companion who grew up with me.
11:34The Panther had been dead for days, but the northern cold had kept it from spoiling.
11:38What are you doing out here?
11:39Burning something in front of my tent.
11:41Move!
11:41Nara, your sister came all this way.
11:45I wanted to welcome her properly.
11:47I made roasted panther.
11:50Come and try some.
11:52It smells good.
11:56That's my Black Panther!
11:57Even Nara understood.
11:59She looks furious, her body trembling.
12:02You sick woman!
12:03Did they run out of normal people back home?
12:05They sent you?
12:06You're supposed to be a treaty mate, not a lunaturk!
12:09What is wrong with you?
12:10Who's making all this noise out here?
12:13Nara ran to him immediately.
12:15Cade!
12:16She killed my Black Panther!
12:18And that wasn't enough!
12:19Now she's even roasted it!
12:21Her voice already breaking, Cade hated tears.
12:25Poor Nara.
12:26Why cry so helplessly?
12:28It's simply loathsome to watch.
12:30Don't you know northern wolves hate weepy women the most?
12:34You're letting a southern wolf make you look like this.
12:37That isn't like you.
12:39And Gaia stepped out.
12:41Her hair wasn't braided the way other women wore theirs.
12:44No ornaments.
12:45No trailing leather cord.
12:46You must be Nara's sister.
12:48I made this for you.
12:49It's a welcome gift.
12:51This is the Black Panther father gave me!
12:53Now she's turned it into roasted meat!
12:55That panther was the only relic father left me!
12:58Sister, make this bitch die a miserable death!
13:01All living things have spirits.
13:03You have no respect for life.
13:05That's an insult to everything we hold sacred.
13:07Someone like you belongs in the trial cage.
13:09Let the beasts finish you.
13:10I laughed.
13:11All living things have spirits.
13:13Respect for life.
13:14Then where was Elena's?
13:16I dropped the meat on the ground.
13:18Gaia, that sounds rather absurd.
13:20I killed it because it tried to eat me.
13:22Should I have knelt down and begged for mercy from a Black Panther that can't even understand human words?
13:27Since when has the law of the Wolfpack become like this?
13:30Well spoken of the Wolfpack's law.
13:33If that's the case, then we shall settle this by the rules of the wolves.
13:37Gaia turned around and dropped to one knee before Cade.
13:40I, Gaia, swear by the souls of my father and brother, and the honor of my clan.
13:47Layla is cunning and malicious, who has slain an auspicious beast.
13:51I hereby straight trial her to a duel according to the laws of the Wolf law.
13:55The sacred trial meant locking two wolves and the pack's most dangerous wild beast into the trial cage together.
14:01Whoever walked out was the one the moon goddess had chosen.
14:06Sacred trial.
14:07They say the moon goddess chooses, but in truth, the northern wolves decide everything themselves.
14:12Northern wolves usually choose beasts who are on good terms with them.
14:16I'd underestimated Gaia's thick skin.
14:18No wonder she and Nara are sisters, but they'd also underestimated me.
14:23Fine.
14:23I'd take her life and let Nara feel what it's like to lose the sister who loved her most.
14:28Cade looked down at Gaia, kneeling with a straight spine.
14:32Then he moved his gaze to me.
14:33I hadn't shown a single trace of fear.
14:35I was still smiling, daring him.
14:38Granted.
14:38A fanatical smile spread across Gaia's face.
14:41She thumped her chest with a fist and said,
14:43Thank you!
14:44What she failed to see was the same fanatical glint on my face.
14:48The ceremony began immediately, me and Gaia to the sacred trial ground.
14:52Deep inside the cage, a massive black panther prowled in tight circles.
14:59Gaia's voice came from beside me.
15:01The one you killed was his brother, born the same litter.
15:04She looked at me once with contempt.
15:06I'm a pack warrior, not a pampered alpha's daughter.
15:09You have no idea what's coming for you, southern girl.
15:12Gaia walked to the cage without looking back.
15:14Seeing Gaia approaching, the black panther in the cage relaxed and lay down on the ground.
15:19They knew each other well.
15:20I stepped in quietly beside her.
15:22If your own beast kills you, is that a stain you carry into death?
15:26He's my friend.
15:27He would never.
15:28Then we walked into the cage together.
15:30Go on.
15:31Your food is ready.
15:33The panther lifted its head and looked at me.
15:35Gaia and I both smiled at the same moment.
15:37Then it lunged.
15:38Not at me.
15:39At Gaia.
15:40She had no time to move.
15:41The panther hit her full force and drove her into the ground.
15:45The crowd went silent.
15:47Gaia was the pack's greatest female warrior.
15:50No one had expected this.
15:52All creatures can love.
15:54You loved your sister enough to come through the night for her.
15:58That panther loved his brother just as much.
16:01I stared at Gaia, feeling my mood suddenly lighten.
16:04She wouldn't know what I'd done.
16:05While we talked outside the cage, I had smeared the dead black panther's blood on the back of her colds.
16:11Her black panther was blood brother to the one that had been killed.
16:14Panthers had an extremely keen sense of smell, and it caught the scent of its brother's blood on Gaia.
16:19Yet panthers are not intelligent enough, and it thought Gaia had killed its brother.
16:24Rage and hunger drove the black panther to turn on its own master.
16:28Nara's screaming tore through the yard.
16:30She was begging Cade to open the gate.
16:32Save her sister.
16:33Nara's grief was so real, it made me want to laugh until I couldn't breathe.
16:37Don't rush, Nara.
16:38I'm just getting started.
16:39I want you to beg for your life.
16:42I want you to find out there's no way out.
16:44The sacred trial begins.
16:46It cannot be stopped.
16:49After everything was over, I walked out of the iron cage.
16:54As I lifted my head, my eyes met Cade's gaze right away.
16:58I flashed him an extraordinarily bright smile.
17:01Anyone who saw what lay inside the iron cage behind me,
17:04then looked at my smile, would only find me terrifying.
17:07But Cade wasn't normal.
17:10I used to think, sometimes, that if he hadn't let Nara do what she did to Elena,
17:15things could have been different between us.
17:17Unfortunately, there are no what-ifs.
17:19Cade came down to meet me.
17:20His chest was burning hot.
17:22You killed my sister.
17:24You're going to die for it.
17:26I'll make sure of it.
17:27She'd lost her panther.
17:29She'd lost Gaia.
17:30She had nothing left to lose.
17:32She released Cade's captive bear.
17:34Nara came rushing toward me like a mad woman,
17:36luring the brown bear straight to me.
17:39The bear came straight for me.
17:40It raised one massive pull.
17:42Cade spun around and put himself between us, but he lurched forward.
17:46He dropped to one knee, fist against the ground, and held himself there.
17:50The bear didn't stop.
17:51It roared and prepared to attack again.
17:54He pulled me into his arms with one hand.
17:56The bear charged.
17:58Met the bear as it reared up and drove the spear in one clean thrust into Mettred.
18:04The bear's charge stopped dead.
18:07Its red eyes spread wide.
18:09Cade held me in his arms and landed steadily.
18:11Then he went down into my arms with his eyes closed.
18:14I half knelt in the dirt and blood and held the weight of him.
18:18He was still.
18:18The spear was still dripping a few paces away.
18:21If I wanted to kill him, I had never had a better moment.
18:24But something complicated was filling up my chest, and I couldn't name it cleanly.
18:29It wasn't hate anymore.
18:30It wasn't love, either, made my head feel like it was going to split.
18:34I pressed both hands over my ears.
18:36It's strange.
18:37When I face everything alone, I fear nothing at all.
18:40But now I hesitate, and that fills me with fear.
18:43I reached for the spear.
18:45The pack guards and shamans flooded in, pushed me back, surrounded Cade.
18:49I ended up outside the ring of bodies, watching.
18:52Two shamans came to check me for injuries.
18:54Thanks to him, there wasn't a scratch on me.
18:57A blow like that?
18:59Most men would have died on the spot.
19:01The shaman stopped what he was doing.
19:02Kneel down on the ground before me.
19:04The shaman lifted his face.
19:06My lady, you are carrying the alpha's child.
19:10Only then did I realize he was bowing not at me, but at my belly.
19:13I knocked my fist against the side of my skull a few times.
19:17The pain didn't shift.
19:18I looked down at my own stomach.
19:20There lives a child who was never meant to exist.
19:22I hit myself a few times in the stomach.
19:24The shaman lurched to his feet, pulling my hands away.
19:28Eventually, the edges of my vision went dark.
19:31I woke to a black sky.
19:34The first thing I did was look at my stomach.
19:36I set my hand on it carefully.
19:37I felt nothing.
19:39The shaman was already kneeling when he saw my eyes open.
19:42My lady, the moon goddess has kept the child safe.
19:47He is well.
19:48I went still.
19:49Is Kate awake?
19:51The alpha's injuries are severe.
19:53That he still breathes is only because he was born hard.
19:55As for waking, that is unlikely.
19:58My lady, please take care of yourself.
20:00The child in your wrist is all that remains of the alpha in this world.
20:03I pulled my hand, free, and stood.
20:07Take me to him.
20:09The servant scrambled after me with a cloak and boots.
20:13After Elena passed away, I, imagining how it would be when Cade died,
20:18I hadn't expected to feel so little.
20:20Maybe everyone was right.
20:21Maybe I was the monster they'd always said I was.
20:25I sent the guards out, just the two of us.
20:28Cade, we have a child.
20:30I held my hand over his face, fingertips about an inch from his cheek.
20:34I have no intention of letting it live.
20:37It was made from hatred.
20:38It doesn't belong in this world.
20:40You're its father.
20:42So I came here to let you see it one last time.
20:46My fingers closed around the handle of the blade inside.
20:49I pointed the tip at my own stomach.
20:51A hand closed around my wrist.
20:54Put it down.
20:55I pulled back hard.
20:57He reached again and caught my wrist a second time.
21:00The blade trembled between us, both of us holding on,
21:04neither moving.
21:06Let go of me.
21:07I wrenched my arm free.
21:10The dagger drove down toward my stomach.
21:12I froze.
21:13The blade cut his palm.
21:15Blood came fast, soaking down through the blankets in a wide, dark stain.
21:22Keep the child.
21:26Please.
21:28I went rigid.
21:29The blade dropped from my fingers and hit the ground.
21:32A long time passed.
21:34Then I felt his head came to rest against my shoulder.
21:36He passed out again.
21:37I was shaking.
21:38I thought of Elena.
21:39Elena.
21:40Elena with the claw marks on her face.
21:42Elena who never did one unkind thing in her life.
21:46I reached for the blade.
21:47A shaman shoved through the tent flap.
21:49The alpha is unconscious.
21:51I have authority to act in his absence.
21:54I stood.
21:55I put away the mess of the last few minutes.
21:57I looked at the shaman with flat eyes.
22:00He went to his knees.
22:01My lady, Nara is also carrying the alpha's child.
22:06My eyes narrowed.
22:09A traitor's bastard has no right to be born.
22:11I'll handle it myself, in the alpha's name.
22:14The shaman's face shifted.
22:15Lead the way.
22:16And don't forget who holds authority in this camp right now.
22:21It was the worst crime a wolf could commit.
22:24She was already in the dungeon.
22:26When I arrived, she was singing something soft to herself.
22:30What do you want?
22:32I want to see Cade.
22:34I came forward and had her chin in my hand.
22:37How exactly do you plan to face him?
22:40How do you think you deserve to carry his child?
22:43She flinched.
22:44Her eyes went small and frightened.
22:46Let go of her face.
22:47The alpha only needs one air.
22:49My shadows stretched across the dungeon floor and swallowed hers.
22:53She fell to her knees.
22:54In front of me.
22:55I'm sorry.
22:55I know I was wrong.
22:57Please.
22:57Not the baby.
22:59Please.
23:00She lunged forward and grabbed the hem of my robe.
23:02She's all I have left.
23:04She kept begging.
23:06I smiled and tapped the flat of the blade against her cheek.
23:11Then tell me where you went wrong.
23:14She trembled.
23:16I should never have fought you for Cade's attention.
23:19Before she finished the sentence, I put the blade into her left shoulder.
23:24She screamed.
23:25Wrong answer.
23:27Try again.
23:28I pulled the blade free.
23:29She was crying so hard.
23:31I should never have sent my panther at you.
23:33The blade went into her right shoulder.
23:35Still wrong.
23:38I should never have released the bear.
23:41She pushed through the pain to try again.
23:43The blade went into her left thigh.
23:45Last chance.
23:46I rested the tip against her right thigh and waited.
23:49She looked at her bleeding limbs.
23:51Something moved in her face.
23:53I should never have done what I did to the princess who came before you.
23:57I kept the blade still.
23:58She knew she'd gotten it right.
24:00I put her in the cage.
24:01I walked my panther in.
24:03I deserve to die for it.
24:05I'll do anything.
24:06Any punishment.
24:07Just not the baby.
24:08Please.
24:08The blade came away from her thigh.
24:10Nara let out a breath.
24:11Then I drove it into her stomach.
24:13She coughed blood and...
24:15You liar.
24:17You absolute monster.
24:20Forgiving you is Elena's business, not mine.
24:22All I'm here to do is send you to her.
24:26Blood spread across the dungeon floor.
24:28Nara curled onto her side.
24:29Both hands pressed to her stomach.
24:30She couldn't speak anymore.
24:31Then, slowly, she started to cry.
24:33And then, she started to laugh.
24:36You came here for revenge.
24:39You never loved him.
24:41Clear expression she had left.
24:42Yes.
24:44Every single one of you is going to pay for what you did to my sister.
24:48He won't forgive you for this.
24:51She pushed herself off the floor with the last of whatever she had.
24:55She didn't come at me.
24:56She moved toward the dungeon door.
24:58I turned.
24:59She collapsed into the arms of the man, standing in the dark at the entrance.
25:03She doesn't love you.
25:04Kill her.
25:05Kill them both.
25:07Nara's voice was gone to nothing.
25:08She gripped his clothes with both hands.
25:10Save me.
25:12Save our baby.
25:13Cade looked down at her hands on him.
25:16Then, Cade peeled her hands off.
25:17Lies.
25:18He stepped back.
25:19He didn't catch her.
25:22Did you think she was telling the truth when she said she loved you?
25:26She used you.
25:27She's laughing at you.
25:28He was furious.
25:30Her words had reached something real.
25:31Cade didn't look at her body for more than a moment.
25:37What are you doing down here?
25:39You'll catch something.
25:40He pressed his forehead to my shoulder.
25:42I stood still inside his arms.
25:44He took me back to the tent.
25:46He never mentioned anything from the dungeon.
25:48In the weeks that followed, he kept me beside him for everything.
25:51The loyal elders.
25:53The sharp-eyed pack council members.
25:55Cade had executed them on my advice.
25:57Good wolves cut.
25:58Bad ones stayed.
25:59Then Cade stopped asking questions about me entirely.
26:02I knew he'd heard everything in that dungeon.
26:04But I didn't explain myself.
26:05I didn't deny anything.
26:07I accepted everything he gave.
26:09And gave him exactly what he wanted back.
26:11I stopped trying to end the pregnancy.
26:13The child was still useful for now.
26:14Every night, Cade pressed his ear to my stomach and listened.
26:17He pulled me close afterward and said this child would be his only heir.
26:21Said I was the only she-wolf he'd ever take.
26:23Said the pup would rule after him.
26:25I laughed with him at those moments.
26:27He never knew that every night I laid in his arms.
26:29I dreamed of Elena.
26:30Elena's small body in that small box.
26:33Elena in the cage while Nara's Black Panther was let in on a chain.
26:36I dreamed Elena pulling me into her arms.
26:39I woke up every morning in Cade's arms.
26:41Four months into the pregnancy, I told him I wanted to see the Broken Moon Cliffs alone.
26:45Just us.
26:46He agreed.
26:47The pack council went frantic.
26:49They came to him one after another and begged him not to go.
26:52The Broken Moon Cliffs were wild wolf territory.
26:54Cade was a tyrant.
26:56And I was the she-wolf who'd enchanted him.
26:59The loyal wolves.
27:00Gone.
27:01We went to the Broken Moon Cliffs.
27:02Do you think we'll die out here?
27:06Not a chance.
27:07I still have to watch our pup grow up.
27:09He wasn't wrong to feel invincible.
27:15The Broken Moon Cliffs were dangerous for ordinary wolves.
27:19Not for Cade.
27:20His body was built for exactly this.
27:26And beyond the body, his mind worked faster than anyone I'd seen.
27:31Cade came once.
27:32Found the line in the first hour.
27:34We stood at the highest point in the Northern Territory.
27:37Wind snapped through my loose hair and the hem of his furs.
27:40He was half a step from the edge.
27:42I was close enough to push him.
27:43I didn't.
27:44I waited.
27:45We left the cliffs without me touching him.
27:50Cade had taken a blade from inside his coat and set it on the ground.
27:55Lyra, you couldn't do it because you love me.
28:00He wasn't slow.
28:01Nara's words in the dungeon had gone in.
28:03The elders warning him had gone in.
28:06He'd been watching me the whole time.
28:08Yes.
28:09I love you.
28:10And I hate you.
28:14I've wanted to kill you since the beginning.
28:16Not just at the cliffs.
28:18Every night.
28:20You let your guard down too fast.
28:22You were looking for a reason to trust me.
28:24The words had barely left my mouth.
28:27Wolf howls went up from every direction.
28:29You win, Lyra.
28:32Then we end it together, Cade.
28:35He lifted me onto the saddle.
28:37Then he struck the horse's neck hard once.
28:40That horse had grown up with him.
28:42It bolted forward with me and didn't stop.
28:44In the same breath, the wolf packs reached us.
28:47Cade turned to meet them.
28:48He moved through them on foot, fighting wolf after wolf,
28:51pulling each one away from the direction my horse had gone.
29:04Blocking the path back to me with his own body.
29:09I know you love me.
29:11I know you hate me too.
29:13Lyra, stay alive.
29:15That's your punishment.
29:17Live with all of it.
29:19The horse ran through the open, northern dark,
29:22toward the pack's territory.
29:23The silver pin he'd carved for me by hand came free
29:26and landed in my palm.
29:29I stared at it.
29:30He'd made this for me, himself.
29:32You thought sending me away meant I'd protect your child?
29:34I never loved you, Cade.
29:36I only have one heart.
29:38I gave it to Elena a long time ago
29:40and I'm not getting it back.
29:41I turned the pin in my hand
29:42and pressed the tip against my stomach.
29:44I didn't hesitate.
29:45After Cade died, the northern territory tore itself open.
29:49Every splinter pack, every rival branch,
29:51every wolf who'd been waiting for the alpha to fall
29:54came forward at once.
29:55They fought each other over the throne.
29:57No one had time to think about how the alpha had died.
29:59The north would be too busy bleeding
30:01to threaten our packs for years.
30:03I rode south through the cold.
30:04I brought more than myself home.
30:06I brought four limbs.
30:07In the months I'd spent in the north,
30:09I took what they had taken from her.
30:11Four limbs to make her whole again.
30:12I laid my hand on her coffin and patted it gently.
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