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