When love turns into betrayal and trust is shattered, revenge becomes the only option. Experience this emotional short drama full of romance, secrets, and dramatic surprises.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00I threw my body into the woods. No funeral, no grave, just crows. And that was the second time I
00:06died for him. In my world, being blind is a defect. Without a wolf, I am nothing. I am an
00:11omega, the very bottom of the pack. No strength, no shifting, no healing. A normal wolf gets stuck. Heels in
00:19minutes. Give me a paper cut, and I'll bleed for days. But I have something no one knows about. I
00:25don't see faces. I see souls. Jealousy. Toxic green. I hate you.
00:30De-oily black. In my last life, I used it to build a king. Lucian, a forgotten fifth son. I
00:36picked him. I made him. I put him on the throne.
00:39In the day my sister Celeste died, he grabbed my jaw so hard I heard it crack. Forced a wolf's
00:46vein tincture down my throat.
00:48You blind freak. You knew I never wanted you. Celeste should have been mine from the start. And because of
00:54you, she ended up with Marcus. They tortured her to death. It was your fault.
01:01I died in agony. He gave Celeste's corpse a royal burial. He gave me the woods. But the hate, his
01:10hate, it was so consuming it dragged me right back to the death.
01:13I opened my eyes. Seventeen again. Night of the mating bell. Lucian walked straight past me and took Celeste's hand,
01:22like he was afraid someone might stop him.
01:24The bastard came back too, and he remembered everything. He is terrified I'll choose him again. Honestly, I couldn't care
01:30less.
01:30I swept my blind gaze across the back of the room. Then a sea of dark, rotten souls of sand.
01:36My soul so pure it glowed like liquid gold. The man in the wheelchair. The true alpha.
01:42I choose Celeste as my mate. Lucian's voice cracked through the hall like a whip. She is my one and
01:48only Luna.
01:49He walked toward my sister with eyes full of a tenderness I knew was performance. The room went silent. Then
01:54the whispers hit me like a wall.
01:56No heir in their right mind would want her. A blind Omega who couldn't even shift? What a joke. Why
02:03is she even here?
02:04Trash like her should be in the kitchen, not at a mating ball.
02:09I am an alpha's daughter born blind. When I came of age, my wolf had a girl.
02:14The world broke my teeth and claws. That is not just weakness. That is a death sentence.
02:19Being wolf-less. That makes you a joke. My sister Celeste is the golden child. Born with a siren song.
02:27A voice that can calm even the most violent alpha in the world.
02:31The family treats her like a goddess. They treat me like a mistake they can't take back.
02:36Lucian dropped to one knee in front of her.
02:39Accept my mark, Celeste. I will make you the most powerful woman alive.
02:44And as he spoke, he threw one look back at me. Not an apology. A warning.
02:50He thinks he can take the throne without me this time. He thinks I was what held him back.
02:54He has no idea what he just threw away. I didn't awaken a wolf to make me a page.
02:59I got something much more dangerous. The soul line.
03:05Jealousy is toxic green. Hate is a bottomless black.
03:09Love is pink. And the deeper the feeling, the darker it burns.
03:14In my last life, I kept him alive with this.
03:17I spotted assassins before they moved.
03:19I told him who to trust, who to kill.
03:22This time, I am going to let him have exactly what he wanted.
03:25And watch him realize too late that without me, he is nothing.
03:29And I really hope, for his sake, he doesn't end up calling back to me.
03:34Begging for a mercy on the one at home.
03:37The moment Lucian's announcement landed, every eye in the room found me.
03:41I am just a blind girl. I am not worthy of a man like Lucian.
03:45Solelsta is the perfect match for him.
03:48At least you know your place.
03:49He stepped closer.
03:50An Omega with no wolf? I wouldn't choose you if you were the last woman breathing.
03:56Not even if you crawl to me on your knees.
03:58My mother Marilyn made a sound beside me.
04:01A sharp inhale, like she was about to say something she shouldn't.
04:04I squeezed her hand.
04:05She went quiet and swept the room with my soul wide.
04:09Marcus, murky charcoal, cruel underneath the surface.
04:12The other airs, muddy swirls of greed and want.
04:15In my last life, I chose Lucian because his soul looked cleaner than anyone else's in the room.
04:20It was a mask.
04:22I didn't see what was underneath until the day he killed me.
04:24The rotten, the purple black.
04:26He didn't just hate what it was, he hated me.
04:29I was blind in my last life in more ways than one.
04:32Never again, Celeste glided toward me.
04:34Face arranged into the perfect picture of a loving older sister.
04:38Don't be sad.
04:39Go ahead. I'll let you have whoever you want.
04:43Her soul was churning, toxic green, edge to edge.
04:46Pure jealousy, barely holding its shape.
04:49Since no one's going to claim you anyway, you can always beg me for work.
04:54Celeste will need a personal maid.
04:55If you see us vest-smitchy floors, scrubbing floors all a wolf-less Omega is good for.
04:59I didn't blink. I didn't even bother.
05:02None of them were worth the energy.
05:03And then, the sound of wheels.
05:06The chatter died.
05:07Then the room shifted.
05:10Kyle Ravenscroft had arrived.
05:13Uninvited, unannounced, and completely unmoved by the spectacle.
05:16He sat in that wheelchair like a predator at rest.
05:20And then I saw.
05:21My breath caught.
05:22His soul was gold, pure, shimmering, blinding gold.
05:26The mark of the moon goddess herself.
05:29The mark of a true king.
05:31I clenched my fists so hard my nails broke the skin.
05:34Last life, I picked the wrong man.
05:37I defied the moon goddess, put a monster on the throne.
05:40And everyone paid for it.
05:42Not this time.
05:44I stood up.
05:45I walked past Lucian without a glance.
05:47Past every arrogant alpha heir in the room.
05:49I stopped in front of Kyle's wheelchair.
05:52I choose him.
05:53The hall went dead silent.
05:55Then it exploded.
05:57Laughter.
05:58From every direction.
05:59All it was.
06:00The blind girl and the cripple.
06:03Neither of you has a wolf.
06:05You really are a perfect match.
06:10Zaya, you can't see.
06:12You don't understand.
06:14He's in a wheelchair.
06:16She glanced at the crowd, milking every second of it.
06:20I'll pretend I didn't hear that.
06:23Choose again.
06:24And if you truly can't find an alpha willing to have you,
06:28you're welcome to follow our caravan.
06:31Serve Lucian and me.
06:33At least you won't go hungry.
06:35I'm not anyone's servant.
06:37And I'm not a stray you take in out of pity.
06:40Kyle hadn't said a word through any of it.
06:42He just pulled his chair forward until he was right in front of me.
06:45He took my hand.
06:46His palm was large and rough.
06:49Thick with calluses.
06:50A kind you only get from yours of hard use.
06:56He took my hand and guided it to his knee.
06:59No flinching.
07:00No excuses.
07:02If he was lying.
07:03He didn't want pity for it.
07:05I left my hand there.
07:06I could feel the heat of him through the fabric and tents, alive.
07:10Then a jolt.
07:11It shot through my fingertips, raced up my arm,
07:14and hit my chest like a beast.
07:16This wasn't the soul line.
07:17It was something else entirely.
07:20My blood was screaming.
07:21I don't have a wolf.
07:22I was never supposed to feel a mate bond.
07:26But there it was.
07:29Kyle's whole body locked up.
07:31I looked into his soul.
07:33Warm pink threading through shaming gold.
07:35I leaned in close and smiled.
07:38At six minutes, Lucian's face went ugly.
07:41The mating ball isn't over.
07:43And you're out here making promises you can't keep?
07:46If you fail to heal him, the Alpha Council will have your head.
07:49Can you actually do it?
07:51I didn't answer right away.
07:52I let my fingers trail slowly along his test file.
07:56I can, but it'll require a very specific kind of contact.
08:01He understood immediately.
08:03The tips of his ears went red.
08:04He turned his head away.
08:06Couldn't quite bring himself to look at me.
08:08In my peripheral vision, Lucian's soul ignited.
08:12A roaring wall of green fire, jealousy.
08:15A cold laugh rose in my chest.
08:17Jealous of what, except Lucian?
08:19You are the one who poured poison down my throat.
08:22The moment I stepped outside the hall, the world tilted.
08:25White hot pain detonated behind my eyes.
08:30Like something was being driven through my skull from the inside.
08:33That is the cost.
08:35Every time I used the soul eye on that many people at once, it cost me.
08:38I pressed my freezing fingers to my temples.
08:41The cold always came after.
08:43After the ball, Lucian got to work.
08:45He pulled up everything from our past life.
08:47Her favorite flowers.
08:49Her secret hiding spots.
08:50Every word she'd been waiting her whole life to hear.
08:54He played her like he'd been practicing for years.
08:57That same day, a mating contract arrived at my door on heavy old parchment.
09:04I accept you as my mate.
09:05I will hold and protect you in this life and the next.
09:08Not even death will part us.
09:10The handwriting was deep and certain.
09:12No hesitation in a single stroke.
09:14It felt exactly like him.
09:16Both weddings were set for the same morning.
09:18The night before, Celeste walked into my room like she owned it.
09:22She didn't knock.
09:23Her maid tossed something at my feet.
09:25A tattered gray shawl.
09:27A kind worn by the lowest ranking of omegas.
09:30A mark of total submission.
09:32You're a blind freak, Zara.
09:38No real alpha will ever claim you.
09:40She leaned in.
09:42Voice honeyed and vicious at the same time.
09:45Lucian and I are being generous.
09:48We're keeping you on as a servant.
09:50But on the day of the ceremony, no carriage for you.
09:53You'll wear that and walk behind the caravan.
09:57Servant's entrance, don't embarrass us.
09:59The morning came.
10:00I left the shawl on the floor where it landed.
10:03I put on the dress Kyle had sent instead.
10:06White silk, thousands of diamonds sewn into the fabric.
10:09Small enough to look like starlight.
10:12At the estate gate, two carriages waited.
10:15One was extraordinary.
10:17Draped in thumb-sized pearls.
10:19Built like a throne that happened to have wheels.
10:21The other was plainly standard word.
10:25Nothing remarkable.
10:28Celeste didn't hesitate for a second.
10:30She walked straight to the pearl carriage and stepped inside.
10:34The head guard turned.
10:37His expression didn't waver.
10:39You're in the wrong carriage.
10:41This was commissioned by Alpha Kyle for his Luna and no one else.
10:46He didn't get her time to argue.
10:48Guards took her by the arms and went around.
10:50She caught her heel on her skirt and went down hard for his face into the dirt.
10:56Lucian arrived just in time to see it.
11:00Celeste scrambled up and threw herself at him, already crying.
11:06It's Zara!
11:07She planned this!
11:10She can't stand that I'm the one becoming a Luna!
11:13She turned to the crowd gathering around them, eyes blistening.
11:17Please, don't hate her.
11:19She's struggling.
11:21I know we're in love, Lucian.
11:23But I begged you to keep her safe.
11:26I pleaded for months just so she could be our servant and I not starve on the street.
11:32She's a blind, Omega.
11:34She should be grateful anyone even bothered to take her in.
11:37To pull a strunt like this on her sister's wedding day?
11:40It's pathetic.
11:41The crowd was vicious.
11:42They always are when they smell wetness.
11:45Lucian's soul was drowning in black.
11:47Thick, suffocating.
11:49Ink dark.
11:50He pulled Celeste against his chest and turned on me.
11:53You're an Omega, Zara.
11:56You have no right to wear white.
11:59Take that dress off right now or I'll shred it off your back myself!
12:04Celeste buried her face in his chest.
12:07But I could see her soul.
12:08She was smirking.
12:11Lucian, you don't have me watching your back this time.
12:15What's coming for you tonight isn't a wedding.
12:19It's a funeral.
12:22Celeste, we foiled like I'd struck her.
12:24How can you curse him like that?
12:26Just because he didn't choose you?
12:28You dare curse an Alpha heir?
12:32Guards!
12:33Seize her!
12:35The soldiers started moving in.
12:37Think carefully.
12:39You're laying a hand on Alpha Kyle's mate.
12:42Make sure that's a consequence you're ready to live with.
12:45Lucian laughed.
12:46Jagged.
12:46Ugly.
12:47Kyle, the cripple isn't even here.
12:50Probably hiding in his chambers, too embarrassed to show his face.
12:54He's using you for sport, Zara.
12:55Nothing more.
12:56He stepped forward, close enough that his shadow fell over me.
12:59Neil.
13:00Beg Celeste's forgiveness.
13:03And maybe, maybe, I'll still find a use for you.
13:06Then a voice cut through everything.
13:08Who is threatening my mate?
13:09The crowd squeaked.
13:10Kyle moved through them like they weren't there.
13:12Sharp black suit.
13:14Not a single piece out of his face.
13:16Even seated.
13:16His presence was suffocating.
13:18The moment he appeared, the street went silent.
13:21Beside him, Lucian suddenly looked like a boy wearing his mask.
13:26Kyle came straight to me.
13:27He took my hand and folded it inside his large, warm, unhurried.
13:32So he likes to go.
13:34Then he looked up.
13:35Now.
13:36His eyes fixed on Lucian like a blade finding its mark.
13:39Let's try that again.
13:40Who was it that told my mate to move?
13:43The temperature in the street seemed to drop.
13:45No one awoke.
13:46No one breathed.
13:48He didn't shout.
13:49Didn't signal his men.
13:50He just watched Lucian the way a predator watches something it has already decided to deal with later.
13:55I'll remember that.
13:57I'm an alpha heir, same as you.
13:59Who the hell do you think you are?
14:01Who the hell do you think you are?
14:02A forgotten fifth son trying to give orders to my mate.
14:07You're not a rival, Lucian.
14:09You're a Fipnote.
14:11The color drained from Lucian's face.
14:13This isn't over.
14:14Low and mean.
14:15You'll both regret tonight.
14:18I gave you a chance, Zara.
14:21When you come crawling back, and you will, don't expect mercy.
14:26I looked at his soul, muddy green, murky and small.
14:29He genuinely believes he is the chosen one.
14:31He thinks the throne is already his, and that I was just dead weight holding him back.
14:36He has no idea what is waiting for him.
14:38Without me clearing his path, he won't last the season.
14:41He'll be lucky to still be breathing by the time the leaves turn.
14:44Oh, her first night as mates was quiet.
14:47Just the two of us, and the fire crackling low between us.
14:51We shared whiskey, amber and slow burning on the way down.
14:57I could feel his eyes, heavy and silver warm against my skin.
15:01My pulse wouldn't settle.
15:03Even sitting across from me in that chair, his presence filled the entire room.
15:07You said you could fix my legs.
15:11How?
15:13Help me with something first.
15:16I've never seen this room.
15:19Describe it to me.
15:21Then he started talking.
15:23The fires glow.
15:25The oil paintings.
15:26He told me their textures, not just their subjects.
15:29The velvet curtains, deep and heavy.
15:31On the shelf above the nightstand, there's an old book.
15:37The cover is faded.
15:39My hand stilled around the glass.
15:41That shelf was high, nearly at the ceiling.
15:44From a wheelchair, the top of that book was completely out of sight.
15:48There was no way he could know the cover was faded.
15:51I didn't say a word.
15:52I just took another sip and filed that detail away somewhere.
15:55I wouldn't forget it.
15:57I stood up with my glass in hand, then let it slip.
16:01It hit the carpet with a dull thud and rolled toward the sofa.
16:06Kyle's body moved before his mind could stop it.
16:09His chest surged forward.
16:11The muscles in his thighs locked and coiled, dense as iron cables.
16:15For a single, unguarded second, he was about to stand.
16:19Then he caught himself and settled back into the leather as if nothing had happened.
16:23But I felt it.
16:24That reflex was all the confirmation I needed.
16:27I didn't say anything.
16:29Not yet.
16:30There's one more way to be sure.
16:34I stepped in close.
16:36And I straddled his lap.
16:38Kyle stopped breathing.
16:41The heat from his hands soaked straight through the silk.
16:44It burned against my skin like a brand.
16:47My heart was slamming.
16:49I ignored it.
16:51I raised my hand and let my fingertips trace from his jaw down to his chest.
16:56Hard as stone beneath the shirt.
16:58Not the body of a man who hadn't used his legs in seven years.
17:01I looked into his soul.
17:03A storm deep crimson.
17:05Soft pink.
17:06Something more tender than he'd admit.
17:08And threading through both.
17:09A sharp streak of dark green panic.
17:13He knew I was getting close.
17:14I leaned down.
17:20My lips barely grazed the corner of his mouth.
17:23Not a kiss.
17:25A question.
17:25His breathing came apart.
17:27And then I took his hand and pressed his palm flat against my chest.
17:31The silk between us was nothing.
17:33My face was burning.
17:35Because in that moment, his body gave me the most honest answer he had.
17:39His body reacted before his mind could stop it.
17:43I felt the shift in his balance.
17:45The sudden brace through his thighs.
17:47The instinctive drive upward.
17:49A man who hadn't used his legs in seven years wouldn't move like that.
17:53I pulled back just enough.
17:55Let the smile come slowly.
17:57Your legs are fine.
17:58That much, I know.
17:59Kyle closed his eyes.
18:01His throat moved as he swallowed.
18:03Then he stood up.
18:05One hand stayed at my waist.
18:06The other still pressed against my chest.
18:09He lifted me and I felt just how much of him there was.
18:12Nearly six foot long.
18:14All of it muscle.
18:15My whole world was suddenly just him.
18:18How did you know?
18:19I just smiled and gave him something vague enough to pass.
18:23He set me down gently on the edge of the bed.
18:25Then stepped back.
18:27The hand that had touched my chest was shaking.
18:29I'm sorry.
18:29I shouldn't have.
18:31Don't.
18:32I'm the one who put your hand there.
18:34He looked at me for a long moment.
18:35And he laughed.
18:37A real laugh.
18:38Warm and unguarded.
18:39Like seven years of tension finally giving way.
18:42Seven years.
18:43Seven years fooling everyone.
18:45The whole damn world.
18:48And my blind mate catches me on the very first night.
18:51We didn't go any further that night.
18:53We ended up on the rug in front of the fire.
18:55The bottle of whiskey between us.
18:57And we just...
18:58Talked.
18:59He told me about the night his parents were killed.
19:01They called it a rogue wolf attack.
19:04Everyone knew what it actually was.
19:06The alpha king had ordered it.
19:08He was 15 years old.
19:10Standing at their funeral.
19:11And he made a decision.
19:13He would become the cripple.
19:15Invisible.
19:17Unthreatening.
19:18Off the king's list entirely.
19:20It was the only way to stay alive.
19:22I told him about Lucian.
19:24All of it.
19:25What he was underneath.
19:27I didn't choose you because I had no other options.
19:30I chose you because you were the only one worth choosing.
19:34I watched his soul begin to shift.
19:37The gold bleeding slowly into a deep and glowing lake.
19:41Late into the night, it came back.
19:44The splitting pain behind my temples.
19:46Like an axe working its way through bone.
19:48I tried to keep my hands still.
19:50They were shaking anyway.
19:52Kyle stopped mid-sentence.
19:54Your head.
19:55Before I could deflect, his thumbs were already at my temples.
19:59The pressure.
20:00Exact like he'd mapped the pain before he touched it.
20:03My mother used to get them.
20:04I've known what to do since I was a boy.
20:07The pain didn't ease.
20:08It vanished.
20:09We shared the same bed.
20:11His arm lay heavy and warm across my waist.
20:13My head settled against his chest.
20:15I listened to his heartbeat through my soul-eye.
20:18I watched his soul settle.
20:20The gold softening, deepening into a rich and quiet pink.
20:23For the first time in two lifetimes, I felt safe.
20:26Lucian's wedding night was far from the heart.
20:28In my last life, a maid tried to spike his wine with wolf's bane.
20:32I caught her before she could get close.
20:34I read the murder in her soul, swapped the glasses, had her detained before he'd taken a single seat.
20:40This time, I did nothing with her.
20:42Celeste wouldn't notice.
20:44She wouldn't know a threat if it sat down beside her and introduced itself.
20:47The next morning, Kyle and I arrived at the Alpha King's estate.
20:51No sign of Lucian.
20:53No sign of Celeste.
20:54The corridors were alive with hushed, urgent voices.
20:57The hair was poisoned in his own chambers.
21:00He hasn't woken.
21:01The healers say the dose was enough to drop a grizzly.
21:04I kept my face perfectly still, but underneath it, I was smiling.
21:09Lucian's fall had started.
21:10I missed him.
21:11I wasn't going to stop it.
21:13The carriage had barely rolled to a stop when Celeste appeared at the gates.
21:17She looked like she hadn't slept in days.
21:19Zara!
21:20You poisoned him!
21:23Give me the antidote right now!
21:26I felt the temperature inside the carriage shift.
21:29Kyle went very still beside me.
21:30I placed a hand on his arm.
21:32I've got this.
21:34I leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek.
21:37Then I stepped out into the morning air.
21:40Antidote?
21:41I don't have one.
21:43Whatever happened to Lucian has nothing to do with me.
21:47Liar!
21:49Then how did you know he'd be dying on his wedding night?
21:52I tilted my head.
21:55That's a serious accusation.
21:57Where's your proof?
21:59Did you catch the killer?
22:01Did you find the poison?
22:02I already knew she hadn't.
22:04The spy Marcus sent was a professional.
22:06Without my soul eye, she was a ghost.
22:09By now she was likely across the border, untouchable.
22:12Celeste stood there, mouth open, nothing coming out.
22:16If you keep causing a scene on my land, my warriors will remove you.
22:22Her eyes dropped to my neck.
22:24She saw the red mark Kyle had left there.
22:26You actually slept with him?
22:29A blind girl and a broken man?
22:31I suppose trash finds its own level.
22:33I suppose trash finds its own level.
22:35I thought about last night, the fire, the whiskey, the long silence after he finally stood up and I felt
22:40the full weight of him for the first time.
22:43Kyle wasn't broken.
22:44He was ten thousand times the man Lucian would ever be.
22:46I laughed.
22:49What is so funny?
22:51I stopped, looked at her.
22:52We're close enough to it.
22:53I'm laughing at how blind you are.
22:56Lucian is going to die.
22:58And when he goes down, he'll take you with him.
23:01If you want to survive what's coming, sever the bond now.
23:05While you still can.
23:06That was it for her.
23:07She swung at my face.
23:09Wide, furious.
23:11Telegraphed from a mile away.
23:12I shifted my weight and stepped aside.
23:14She hit nothing but air.
23:15The momentum carried her forward and she went down hard.
23:18Palms and knees in the dirt.
23:19I looked down at you.
23:20Remember this.
23:22Because the next time you raise a hand to me, I won't step aside.
23:25She stared up at me from the ground, trembling.
23:28For the first time in her life, she was actually afraid of me.
23:30The blind girl she used to torment wasn't there anymore.
23:34Someone else had taken her place.
23:36Kyle was waiting when I stepped back into the carriage.
23:39He just watched me with those gray eyes.
23:41And in them, not worry, not pity.
23:43Admiration, he trusted me to handle my own affairs.
23:46That respect landed heavier than any shield he could have raised.
23:49He turned to his lead god and spoke low.
23:51No one from Lucian's pack crosses onto my land again.
23:55For any reason.
23:57Ever.
24:00After Celeste was escorted out, we turned to the business of leaving.
24:04We were heading for Thorn Harbor.
24:05The courtyard filled with people and supplies controlled chaos.
24:09And through all of it, my soul, I found a single target.
24:12A guard named Vaughn.
24:13His soul was a muddy, treacherous gray.
24:16I leaned close to Kyle's ear.
24:18Who is that man?
24:20Vaughn.
24:21He's been with me since I was 15.
24:23Saved my life twice.
24:25I pulled back and looked at him.
24:26Kyle, do you trust me?
24:28His soul flushed deep, darkening all at once.
24:31You're my mate.
24:32Of course I do.
24:33He's a traitor.
24:35We changed the route to Thorn Harbor.
24:37And we tell no one.
24:39And my last thought.
24:40This was where it ended with Kyle.
24:42Ambushed on the road to the harbor.
24:44Wounds that never healed.
24:46He died defending the city walls.
24:48I finished speaking.
24:49Let my lips brush his cheek.
24:52Kyle's arm came around my waist immediately.
24:54Pulling me in.
24:56Across the yard, I felt Vaughn watching us.
24:58He clocked how close we were and looked away fast.
25:01Kyle pressed his face into the curb of my neck.
25:04His breath was warm against my skin.
25:06Are you trying to fix my legs again?
25:08Because I'm happy to wait until tonight.
25:10Or we could start now.
25:12The next morning, Vaughn was gone.
25:14Kyle sat beside me at breakfast.
25:16Cutting my steak into careful pieces without being asked.
25:20You were right.
25:21Vaughn was Marcus' man.
25:23Buried so deep I never suspected him once in seven years.
25:28It took some...
25:30Persuasion to get him to talk.
25:33He looked at me.
25:34How did you know, Zara?
25:36I looked into his soul, golden pink.
25:38Wound together.
25:39No suspicion.
25:40No fear.
25:41Lucky guess.
25:42The words were barely out when the pain hit.
25:45White.
25:45Hot behind both temples at once.
25:47My hand went to my head before I could stop it.
25:50Kyle didn't say a word.
25:51He just moved his chair flush against mine.
25:53Un-in-hand kept cutting my food.
25:55The other reached up and wrapped around the back of my neck.
25:57The pain dissolved.
25:58He has stopped asking why it happens.
26:01He just makes sure he is there when it does.
26:03Thorn Harbor.
26:04Kyle's territory.
26:05The land was rough.
26:07Resources thin.
26:08The kind of place the Alpha Council never bothered to look at twice.
26:12The wolves here were loyal to Kyle.
26:15The way wolves are loyal to someone they've chosen.
26:18Out of true devotion.
26:19When I went to the market, they called me Luna and refused my coin.
26:23Every stall, every vendor.
26:24I had to set the money down and walk away before they touch it.
26:28I came back to the estate breathless.
26:30And my maid watched me come through the door.
26:34The Luna is blind.
26:35But she moves faster than any soldier I've trained with.
26:40Kyle heard her.
26:41That night his fingers found the edges of my eyes.
26:45Zara.
26:47Is it really just...
26:49Nothing?
26:50I nodded.
26:51He pulled me in against his chest and held me there.
26:55It doesn't matter.
26:56I'll be your eyes.
26:57Every sunrise.
26:59Every star.
27:00Whatever you want to see, I'll find the words for it.
27:03I watched his soul through all of it.
27:05The gold was shifting.
27:06Becoming something warmer, deeper.
27:08The more time we spent together, the deeper the gold grew.
27:11Every shared meal.
27:12Every quiet evening beside him.
27:14It only became richer.
27:15But then something strange started happening.
27:18When I was away from him, even briefly, I got restless.
27:20Not just missing him.
27:21It was physical.
27:22A deep, pulling ache I couldn't reason away.
27:24The further I walked, the worse it pulled.
27:26Until it hurt.
27:27I told myself it was the intensity of a new bond.
27:30But I knew that wasn't it.
27:31I don't have a wolf.
27:33I was never supposed to feel this.
27:34That night when he kissed me, his soul shifted into something I'd never seen before.
27:38A pink so saturated and alive.
27:41It looked like the first day of spring breaking open all at once.
27:44The most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
27:46It didn't last.
27:47The next morning, a piece of encrypted intelligence arrived.
27:50Lucian is awake, but the damage is permanent.
27:53Intermittent mania.
27:54He has lost control of his wolf.
27:55A slow smile touched my lips.
27:57This was just the beginning of what was coming for him.
27:59But then, the catch.
28:01The Alpha Council had issued a mandatory summons.
28:03Marcus was hosting a banquet.
28:05Every heir was required to attend.
28:06No exceptions.
28:07Kyle had no choice.
28:09We were going back.
28:10Marcus' estate reeked of bad intentions before we even stepped inside.
28:14I swept the ballroom with my soul-eye the moment we crossed the threshold.
28:17Oily green for greed.
28:18Thick in every corner of the room.
28:20A deep, sickening crimson for lust.
28:22And underneath all of it, something flat and purposeful that made my skin crawl.
28:26I found Kyle's hand under the table and held it.
28:29Don't eat.
28:29Don't touch the wine.
28:31And don't leave my side.
28:32Not for a second.
28:33Kyle glanced at me.
28:34As you wish, my Luna.
28:35I couldn't explain.
28:37Not here.
28:38But I remembered this night.
28:39In my last life, this banquet ended in blood.
28:41Their souls were a flat, professional gray.
28:44The color of people who had killed before and slept just fine after.
28:48Last time, when the blades came out, I didn't think.
28:50I just threw myself in front of Lucian and took a poison silver dagger to the lips.
28:55Carried that scar for years.
28:56Lance, when Lucian was already king, I mentioned it.
28:59He looked at me with something close to boredom.
29:02Protecting your mate is your duty, Zara.
29:04You're already Luna.
29:05What more do you want?
29:06I don't make the same mistakes twice.
29:08It happened fast.
29:09The three dancers reached into their silks.
29:11Short blades.
29:13Jagged.
29:13Silver.
29:14And they lunged.
29:15Kyle moved before I could blink.
29:17He didn't care about the secret anymore.
29:20He came half out of his chair.
29:22One arm sweeping me behind him.
29:23And his guards materialized from the dark like they'd been part of the shadows all along.
29:28A wall of bodies between us and everything.
29:30We were safe.
29:31I looked past them toward Lucian.
29:33No one moved to cover him.
29:35The moment the first blade flashed, Celeste screamed and ran.
29:38Straight for the exit, he didn't look backwards.
29:41Lucian was surrounded.
29:43A silver dagger, soaked in concentrated wolfsbane, buried itself into his thigh.
29:48Dark blood hit the floor.
29:50He went down hard, gasping.
29:51Through the screaming, the overturned chairs, the crush of bodies trying to flee.
29:56His eyes found mine.
29:58He was begging.
29:59His soul was a wreck.
30:01Terror and pain and underneath it all.
30:04A dark green tide of regret.
30:06I held his face.
30:07Kept my face completely still.
30:09Didn't move a single muscle.
30:11I am blind after all.
30:13I can't see a thing.
30:14I didn't make it two steps into the carriage.
30:16The spike hit the moment the door closed.
30:18Red hot.
30:19Straight through the center of my skull.
30:21It was the worst backlash I'd ever suffered.
30:24I scanned the entire ballroom.
30:25Every soul.
30:26Every shadow.
30:27Every blade before they struck.
30:29It cost me everything.
30:30The world went black.
30:32My knees folded.
30:34Kyle caught me before I hit the floor.
30:36His arms locked around my waist like armor.
30:38Pulling me hard against his chest.
30:40Zara.
30:41I'd never heard that in his voice before.
30:43Fear.
30:44My head.
30:44It was all I could get out.
30:45He didn't wait.
30:46He pulled me in against him and pressed both palms to my temples.
30:50And something happened that I still can't explain.
30:52It wasn't just pressure.
30:53It wasn't just warmth.
30:54It felt like a hand reaching through the pain and pulling it out from the root.
30:58Gone completely.
30:59In seconds.
31:00I lay against his chest.
31:02Dazed.
31:02Listening to his heart pound.
31:04Why does his touch do that?
31:05This isn't comfort.
31:07This is something older.
31:08Something that runs deeper than either of us understands.
31:11And it is starting to frighten me.
31:13While I recovered in Kyle's arms.
31:15The reason is learning what that blade actually felt like.
31:18The wolf's bane on those daggers was pure.
31:20It doesn't just wound.
31:21It destroys whatever the body would normally heal.
31:24It shredded his body's ability to heal from the inside out.
31:27In my last life.
31:28I took that blade for him.
31:29I felt the silver eat into my flesh.
31:31Felt the poison dissolve everything I had.
31:33I survived it barely.
31:35And he never once mentioned it again.
31:37He treated my body like a shield he was entitled to stand behind.
31:40This time he got to find out what it actually costs.
31:43The healers couldn't do a thing.
31:45If the damage was permanent.
31:46Lucian would never walk again.
31:47The man who spent his whole life looking down at everyone from a great height.
31:51Is never going to stand again.
31:53The intelligence reports kept arriving.
31:55One after another.
31:56Like a slow collapse.
31:58Lucian confirmed permanently disabled.
32:01Celeste began her exit strategy the moment he lost his strife.
32:05She spent months petitioning the Alpha Council to dissolve their bond.
32:09Six months later the Alpha King had seen enough.
32:12He stripped Lucian of his inheritance.
32:14No title.
32:15No claim.
32:16No future.
32:17In the werewolf world.
32:18No one pledges their sword to a man who can't leave from the front.
32:22In our last life.
32:23Lucian thought seizing the throne was simply a matter of wanting it badly enough.
32:27He had no idea what was actually holding him.
32:30He thought those allies followed him by choice.
32:33I made sure they were worthy long before they ever pledged themselves.
33:05The traitors he feared never had the chance to strike.
33:06I took her as a mistress.
33:07I ran into her yesterday.
33:09A high-end perfume shop near the harbor.
33:12I was holding a bottle.
33:13A rare blend when she reached over and plucked it straight out of my hand.
33:17I'll take all of these.
33:47She told the clerk.
33:48The clerk looked baffled.
33:50I didn't explain.
33:52There is no point arguing with a woman who's already walking toward her own end.
33:57She just doesn't know the road she is on yet.
33:59It was late.
34:00Thorn Harbor was in a hard rain.
34:02My headguard appeared in the doorway.
34:04His face tight.
34:06Lupien is at the front gate, Luna.
34:08He has been dragging himself through the mud for the better part of an hour.
34:11He won't leave.
34:13I walked out to the entrance and looked through the iron bars.
34:17He was there, soaked to me, shaking, loaded and felt from the road.
34:21When he saw me, something desperate ignited in his eyes.
34:25He lurched forward and the guards broke me back.
34:28He went down into the prison mud.
34:30Why?
34:31The word tore out of him like it had more thought on someone.
34:34Zara, tell me.
34:35In the last life, you always knew what was coming.
34:39I thought if a blind girl could build a kingdom for me, then all I had to do was take
34:43the credit.
34:43So why did I lose everything?
34:45He started screaming, slamming his fists against his own useless legs.
34:49The sound of it got swallowed up by the thunder.
34:52When he finally ran out of breath, he looked up at me.
34:55He looked small.
34:56The arrogance was gone.
34:58What was left underneath wasn't much.
35:00Zara, like he said, quiet enough.
35:03His voice doing something approximating humility.
35:06I made a mistake.
35:08Come back.
35:10Come back.
35:40The Luna title, it's yours.
35:41I put my back on you.
35:42I walked toward the warm lights of the estate.
35:44Lock the gates.
35:46If he sets foot on this land again, you have my permission on permission to treat him accordingly.
35:51The iron gates slammed shut.
35:53The sound cut through the rain like a verdict.
35:56He was still screaming my name when I walked through the front door.
35:59I didn't look back.
36:01That door was never opening again.
36:03Celeste, the report arrived this morning.
36:07The report arrived this morning.
36:07History repeated itself down to the last detail.
36:10Marcus both turned to there was nothing left to go.
36:12And they carried her body out of his estate.
36:14Someone noted the scent still on me.
36:17He took me and she'd snatched it from my hands in that shot.
36:20She was wearing it when she died.
36:22Lucien heard the news from his room.
36:24He didn't breathe.
36:25He didn't rage.
36:27Good.
36:27She watched me fall and ran straight to another man's bed.
36:30I gave up everything in this life for her.
36:33And that's how she repays it?
36:35He beat his fists against the wheels of his chair until his knuckles bled.
36:39I never should have poisoned Zara.
36:41I never should have chosen Celeste over Zara.
36:43I was still holding the report when I heard the bedroom door.
36:46I crumpled the paper in my fist.
36:49Kyle walked in.
36:50I turned toward the window.
36:52The sun had gone down.
36:53I was just...
36:54Before I could finish, he reached out and took the crumpled note from my hand.
36:59He smoothed it flat, then lifted it to the light.
37:02Then he lowered it and looked straight at me.
37:05You're not blind in the way you let everyone believe, are you?
37:09My throat closed.
37:10I couldn't find a single word.
37:12I looked into his soul.
37:14It was burning.
37:15A sharp and a small orange came here.
37:18Don't I deserve the truth?
37:21I marked you.
37:22I made you my mate.
37:24I would have protected you regardless.
37:26Blind, wolfless, it didn't matter.
37:28But for a year, you let me believe I understood you.
37:32And I didn't.
37:34The blind girl in the cripple.
37:36People who had made an art form of being something they weren't.
37:39Standing in this room in the dark.
37:41Every mask we'd ever worn was gone.
37:43He turned for the door.
37:45And I felt something I hadn't felt in two lifetimes.
37:48Genuine terror.
37:49I threw myself off the bed and wrapped my arms around him.
37:53Held on.
37:54I could feel the anger in him.
37:56But underneath it, his soul was already shifting.
37:59The orange queen in the dark.
38:01Leading towards something else.
38:03The harder I held on.
38:04The faster it faded.
38:06My voice came out small.
38:08I pressed my face against his back and just held on.
38:11His soul turned pink.
38:12His pride hadn't moved.
38:14He was still standing there.
38:16Every muscle locked against me.
38:17But his heart had already answered.
38:20I came around to face him.
38:22Pressed my cheek against his chest and listened.
38:25His heartbeat was fast.
38:27Uneven.
38:28His soul was so pink it was almost blinding.
38:30Kyle.
38:32I steadied my voice as best I could.
38:35That wasn't the only thing I lied about.
38:37This was the secret I'd carried through two lives without telling a single person.
38:40I see souls.
38:42I can read the truth inside people.
38:44He went completely still.
38:46And I know what's coming.
38:48The werewolf world is about to burn.
38:51Thorn Harbor will be under siege.
38:54I looked up at him.
38:55In my last life, you died when the city walls fell.
38:58His breathing changed.
38:59I searched his soul one last time.
39:02Not a flicker of doubt.
39:03Not a trace of fear.
39:05Only gold appears to me.
39:07Shimmering gold.
39:08Do you believe me?
39:10I asked.
39:11He didn't answer with words.
39:12He pulled me into his chest.
39:14Both arms, no space between us.
39:17And buried his face against my neck.
39:19I believe in you.
39:22That's the only thing in this world I'm sure of.
39:25Five hours.
39:26That is what it took to dismay.
39:27I'm going to get down.
39:29Kyle gave me the Alpha War seal and put every warrior in the pack under my command.
39:33We didn't just hold Thorn Harbor.
39:34We took the fight to the Alpha War's fortresses.
39:37Then came the first night of the great siege.
39:39The Vos army hit the valley.
39:41The sea of Blackbird and Walter Wall.
39:44As far as the dark of sea reached.
39:45Kyle sat in his chair at the edge of the fortress wall.
39:48Watching it come.
39:49Then he stood up.
39:50Not in our bedroom.
39:51Not in the dark where no one could see.
39:53The front of every soul on that night of the night.
39:56He shrugged off the heavy coat he'd hidden behind for seven years and let it drop.
40:00His bones began to crack the ship and would no more.
40:03He transformed.
40:04A massive silver wolf.
40:05He was huge, larger than any Alpha in history.
40:08His fur shimmered like liquid metal in the dark.
40:10He stood on the edge of the fortress wall.
40:12And he let out a howl that shook the very cloud.
40:14Every wolf on that field, ally and enemy alike, dropped their heads not from orders.
40:19From something older than orders.
40:21Seven years of buried power.
40:23Of swallowed rage.
40:24Of playing the broken man while the world underestimated him.
40:27He snapped his head around before the echo died.
40:30That silver gaze cut straight through the smoke.
40:32Through the fire.
40:33Through everything between us and found me.
40:35I felt at the moment it landed.
40:37Not just a look.
40:38Something that went all the way down to the bone.
40:40Like a string he taught over two lifetimes had finally been raised.
40:45Flayed of Napalm.
40:46He had kept his wolf locked away for seven years.
40:49The bond had been sealed with him.
40:51But now his wolf was fully awake.
40:53And everything that he can help back came through at once.
40:56He shifted back.
40:57Dropped one knee on the stone.
40:59Chest heaving.
41:00Hands braced against the ground.
41:02Tremble.
41:02When he looked up at me.
41:04It was like the first stone.
41:06Like he was seeing something he'd been reaching toward without knowing it.
41:09It's you.
41:10His voice was wrecked.
41:12It was always you.
41:15The moon goddess didn't give you to me for your gift.
41:19She gave you to me because you're mine.
41:22I felt the truth of it in my own head.
41:24Every piece of it clicking into grace all at once.
41:27The jolt when our fingers first touched at the mating ball.
41:30The way his hands could pull the pain from me out of my skull.
41:33The suffocating dread every time he wrecked the ring.
41:36I don't have a wolf.
41:38So the bond had come through quietly.
41:40A whisper where it should have been born.
41:42But it had always been there.
41:44From the very first moment when he reached out and touched his knee.
41:47Our blood had already made it a choice.
41:50Take your place as Alpha King.
41:53The Grand Hall was in ruins around him.
41:56Dust still settling from the siege.
41:58And Zara shall be your Luna.
42:01Kyle didn't hesitate.
42:02No.
42:03One word.
42:04It landed in that hall like a stone dropped into steel.
42:07I'm issuing two commands.
42:09First, we are establishing a dual kingship.
42:15Zara and I rule together.
42:17As equals.
42:18The silence cracked.
42:20Impossible!
42:21There has never been a woman on that throne!
42:24Kyle stepped up onto the platform.
42:26He looked out across the council.
42:28Every face, every objection.
42:30With the kind of calm that has nothing left to prove.
42:33When Thorn Harbor was under siege,
42:35Zara stood on the front lines beside me.
42:38Every wound I took, she felt.
42:42Every sacrifice I made,
42:44she had already paid a higher price for.
42:46He brought his hand down flat on the stone table.
42:49The crack of it echoed.
42:51Without her, I'd be in an unmarked grave on the battlefield.
42:54You don't get to erase what she built just because she isn't what you expected.
43:00I am the Alpha King.
43:02And so is she.
43:04Alpha King!
43:05He leaned forward, voice dropping.
43:08If anyone here has a problem with that, step forward now.
43:11No one moved.
43:12I have spent seven years being underestimated.
43:14I have no patience left for it.
43:16Not for myself.
43:17And not for her.
43:18The bond had been a river with no outlet for years.
43:21The night the war ended, the dam broke.
43:23He marked me.
43:23The moment his teeth found the back of my neck,
43:26something detonated beneath my skin.
43:28Not pain.
43:29Or not only pain.
43:30Something that felt like being struck by lightning from the inside.
43:33My bones began to shift.
43:35I screamed.
43:35Kyle didn't let go.
43:37He pulled me harder against his chest and held on.
43:39His soul blazing gold in my sight.
43:41Steady as a thick star.
43:43An anchor in the middle of everything coming apart.
43:45Something that had been waiting under my skin for 17 years was finally waking up.
43:49It was never missing out.
43:50It was just too powerful to surface on its own.
43:53It needed something equally matched to call it out.
43:55I shifted.
43:56White.
43:56Pure.
43:57Absolute white.
43:58A wolf larger than any female in recorded history.
44:00Her coat caught the moonlight the way fresh snow catches it from within.
44:04Kyle's silver wolf circled me.
44:06Ponce twice.
44:07Three times.
44:08Then he stopped.
44:10Pressed his massive head against my neck.
44:12And let out a sound so low and so full, it barely qualified as a sound at all.
44:17The elders hadn't moved.
44:19In the old legends.
44:20The white wolf is the living avatar of the moon goddess.
44:23She hadn't walked the earth in 500 years.
44:26I had never been broken.
44:27My wolf had never been missing.
44:29She was just waiting for the one person strong enough to bring her home.
44:33Kyle shifted back.
44:34He pulled me into his lap and held me there.
44:37Both of us still catching our breath.
44:39The soul.
44:40As I looked at it, I had no words.
44:43Gold and pink.
44:44Woven together so completely.
44:46They'd become a single color that didn't exist anywhere else.
44:50I knew.
44:51He said into my hair.
44:52From the moment you chose me at the ball, I didn't know what you were.
44:58But I knew you were something the world hadn't seen before.
45:02You were just waiting for someone to finally find you.
45:05I never let myself dream this far in my last life.
45:08I was too busy holding someone else to ever look up for myself.
45:12Now I sat at the highest seat in the council hall.
45:15Kyle beside me.
45:16Every elephant in my mouth had heads.
45:19The intelligence network was mine.
45:21The land rights were mine to grant or revoke.
45:23The power I had spent a lifetime building for someone else.
45:26It was finally in my own hands.
45:28And then they brought in Lushin.
45:31He dragged himself across the stone floor on his hands.
45:34He reached my boots and stretched out one trembling hand toward the hem of my robes.
45:39A guard stepped forward.
45:41His sword flashed.
45:42The blade stopped an inch from Lushin's fingers.
45:45Lushin didn't even register it.
45:47He just started screaming.
45:48This isn't right.
45:50That seat belongs to me.
45:52You were my instrument, Zara.
45:55I promised to make you my Luna.
45:57Why isn't that enough for you?
45:58Get down.
45:59Help me up there.
46:00That's where I'm supposed to be.
46:02I looked at him for a long moment.
46:04I remembered the last line.
46:06The rebel wolves had us surrounded.
46:08He didn't reach for me.
46:09He didn't hesitate.
46:10He turned and ran.
46:12And when they caught him anyway, he offered me up to buy himself another day.
46:16And at the very end, he was the one who forced the wolf's vein down my throat.
46:20He was the one who gave Celeste my title and my burial.
46:23He threw my body to the pros.
46:25And now he was on the floor of my hall, demanding I come down and handed our back to him.
46:30I looked at his soul.
46:31There was nothing left to me.
46:34Hold him.
46:35The guards pinned him to the stone.
46:37He crashed.
46:37He tried to bite.
46:38He screamed until his voice cracked.
46:40They forced his jaw open, and I poured the wolf's vein myself.
46:44A quick death would have been mercy, and I had none left to give him.
46:49This was something else.
46:50A slow, total erasure.
46:52First, the taste would go.
46:54Then the smell of air.
46:55Then the light, fading at the edges, dimming inward.
46:58Then sound.
46:59Then touch.
47:00Then nothing at all.
47:02A living body with no world left inside it.
47:04Trapped in the dark he had always carried, with nothing for company but his own guilt.
47:09It took a week.
47:09The guard came to me on a quiet morning and delivered the news without ceremony.
47:14Lucian was dead.
47:16Died in total silence.
47:17Total darkness.
47:19Without a single sensation to mark the end.
47:21What should we do with the body?
47:23I didn't look up for my work.
47:24Take it outside the territory.
47:26No retz.
47:28No marker.
47:29Leave nothing.
47:29I gave his remains exactly what he gave mine.
47:33Down to the last detail.
47:35The account was closed.
47:37The fire had burned down to embers.
47:39The room was almost quiet.
47:43Kyle's arms came around my waist from behind.
47:46His breath was warm and even against my neck.
47:51You went to see him today?
47:53I did.
47:55I watched a monster reach the end he earned.
47:58I leaned back into him.
47:59Are you jealous of a dead man, Kyle?
48:02A low sound in his chest.
48:04Not quite a laugh.
48:05He reached up slowly and found the knot of the silk blindfold I still wore in public.
48:09Worked it loose.
48:10Let it fall.
48:11The moonlight came through the window.
48:14Neither of us spoke for a while.
48:15Then he took my hand and guided it to his chest.
48:18Pressed it flat right above his heart.
48:19Zara, tell me what color it is.
48:21I laughed, soft, surprised by it.
48:23I closed my eyes and turned everything I had toward him.
48:26This man, who gave me his trust before I deserved it.
48:29Who stood up in front of an army to unmake seven years of his own carefully constructed lie.
48:34Who fought his way to a throne he didn't want.
48:36Just so I could stand beside him on equal ground.
48:39His soul.
48:40I don't have the words for it.
48:41Even now, a pillar of gold, deep and unwavering.
48:44And running through the heart of it.
48:46A tide of pink so rich and so dark it looked like the last light of a sunset seen through
48:50clear water.
48:51The kind of color time can't bleach.
48:53It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
48:56And I've seen a lot of ugly things.
48:58His arms tightened around me.
49:01Describe it.
49:02I want to hear it.
49:03I turned in his arms.
49:04Found his chest.
49:06Pressed my lips to the place above his heart and held them there.
49:09I don't think any language has the right words for it.
49:11I looked up at him.
49:12I have the rest of my life to try.
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