"I have an unfinished deal with you" a voice filled with anger and revenge said out loud.
In the heart of the forbidden mountains,the moon hung low and red like a watchful eye, an eye filled with hatred, cloaked in black from head to toe, stood Victoria, the banished wolf queen.
She stood at the edge of her throne room, staring at the burning torches as their flames twisted in obedience to her will. Her long black cloak fluttered in the breeze that wasn't really there, her raven hair fell down her back like a waterfall of night.
She was very beautiful and cruel. Her eyes, violet and vicious, scanned the room before settling on the mirror mounted above her throne.
"The time draws near, My heart still aches" she murmured to herself, tracing the rim of a ceremonial dagger with one black-lacquered nail.
Behind her, her most trusted soldier, Raze, stepped forward. His hulking figure bowed low, his scarred face filled with so much illumination.
"My Queen," he started. "The scouts returned. There is movement in the Clan. The heirs are being tested. And the girl... the Alpha's daughter... she's fallen into a coma."
Victoria's eyes glinted like knives. "Rory?" She said the name like a curse. "Dorian's most cherished daughter."
She walked slowly toward the mirror, the shadows crawling with each step. "Fate has always been cruel to the worthy. Once, I too was chosen. I was meant to lead. To unify the packs. But they feared me. They called me... unstable."
Her voice dripped with venom as Raze remained silent. He had heard the story many times already. But tonight, there was something more in her tone, something filled with revenge.
"They tore my title from me," Victoria continued, her voice rising. "Banished me. For what? For unlocking the true potential of our kind? For daring to test the limits of our blood?"
She slammed her hand against the mirror, and it broke in several ways, revealing flashes of her past right in front of her. She could remember a younger Victoria, standing proudly in the sacred circle, and also the elders, turning their backs on her, a violent battle of bloodshed, betrayal, and her exile.
"I swear to make sure they regret this, All of them."
Raze stepped forward. "Your vengeance is coming, my Queen! Your powers remain unclaimed. The clan grows desperate."
Victoria's lips curled into a wicked smile. "Good. Then now is the time to strike."
At her command, a horn was blown in the distance. The sound echoed through the mountains, waking the dark army she had built in exile. Soldiers with crimson markings on their skin, loyal to her cause, emerged from the shadows, drawn by the promise of war and blood.
"Train harder my loyals!" she bellowed as they gathered. "Sharpen your claws and poison your fangs. We strike when the moon bleeds again!"
The ground trembled as hundreds of rogue wolves transformed into full wolves, their snarls rippling across the valley.
Victoria turned to Raze. "Send in the shadows. Let them infiltrate the hospital. I want eyes on that girl."
Raze bowed and turned away without a word.
Victoria walked back to her throne, the firelight caressing her cold features.
"If Rory cannot shift, it does not matter. Her blood is ancient. Her essence... divine. And I will take it for myself. This is my revenge and a call for my return"
She lowered herself into the throne, caressing the armrest shaped like a wolf's skull.
"I will end the clan. I will rewrite the prophecy in my name."
She closed her eyes. "No one will stand in my way.Not Dorian! Not the council."
Just then, another figure entered the chamber. Smaller. Leaner. A young she-wolf, cloaked in gray, her golden eyes gleaming.
"My Queen, I bring news."
"Speak, Salem," Victoria replied.
"The girl's condition worsens. She drifts between the realms. The clan's healers are baffled. Some believe her spirit is trapped in the old world."
Victoria stood abruptly. "Then we must find the tether. The link that holds her here."
"And take it?" Salem asked, uncertain.
"No," Victoria whispered, her smile stretching with wickedness "We bind it to me."
The fire crackled louder as if it, too, trembled at her words. The thick smoke twisted upward into claw-like shapes, casting monstrous shadows on the cave walls. Salem instinctively took a cautious step back, the air around them suddenly too heavy to breathe.
"The shadows leave tonight,"
Victoria declared, her voice cutting through the eerie silence like a blade. "They will infiltrate the hospital… become the air and become the warmth in the room. They will gain the trust of those around her. And when the time is right..." Her eyes gleamed with unholy light as she trailed off, lifting the ceremonial dagger over the flame.
The blade glowed red with heat, its edges humming with ancient magic. Her next words were spoken like a spell "…We drain her soul, take her powers and everything thags hers, for myself and I alone."
As the dagger hissed in the fire, a low howl rose from outside the cave, soon joined by another… and then another. The rogue wolves, her soldiers, answered her call, their cries ringing into the cursed night like the prelude of war.
Victoria's laughter followed, the kind that could make bones shiver and flames dim, a sound of chaos blooming.
But miles away, in a sterile hospital room cloaked in artificial peace, something stirred. Rory's fingers twitched.
Her chest rose sharply, as if struggling against invisible chains.
In her mind's eye, she stood in a realm of smoke and shadows. Cold wind whipped through her hair as her eyes blinked open in the dark. Shapes moved around her, distorted and hungry.
A woman draped in black, impossibly beautiful and terrifying. Her smile was too wide. Her teeth were bloodstained. Her voice echoed in Rory's skull without sound.
Panic clawed at Rory's throat. She tried to scream, to move, to wake. But her limbs felt bound by something older than fear. A shadow world closing in on her.
The red-eyed woman took a step forward.
"You don't belong here…" Rory heard herself whisper.
And Rory knew, if she didn't win here, she'd never wake up.