Pain.
It was the first thing Ashley felt as she drifted between consciousness and the void. A burning, searing pain in her side where Marion’s dagger had struck.
Her body was heavy. Her limbs refused to move. But she could hear—faintly—the distant echoes of battle. The clash of steel. The roars of wolves shifting. The scent of blood and smoke filled her nostrils.
She wasn’t dead. Not yet.
Ashley forced her eyes open. The world spun. The cobblestone alley was cold beneath her, damp with the night’s mist and her own blood. Marion was gone. The coward ran.
A voice called her name.
Through the haze of pain, she saw a shadow looming over her. Coleen.
His face was tight with fury, his silver eyes burning with an emotion she couldn’t quite place. He dropped to his knees beside her, pressing his hands against her wound to slow the bleeding.
“Ashley,” he said, his voice dangerously low. “Stay with me.”
She tried to smirk, but it came out as a grimace. “You’re... worried about me?”
His jaw clenched. “You’re bleeding out. This isn’t the time to joke.”
Ashley felt herself slipping again. Darkness tugged at the edges of her vision. She couldn’t pass out. Not now.
“Marion...” she forced out. “She’s working with them... She thinks—thinks she’s saving the kingdom.”
Coleen’s expression darkened. “She won’t get far.”
Ashley felt herself being lifted. Strong arms wrapped around her. Coleen held her against his chest as he carried her out of the alley, his grip tight like he refused to let her go.
She wanted to fight. To stand on her own. But for now... she let him hold her.
And then, the world faded to black.
When Ashley woke again, she was in an unfamiliar room.
The air smelled of herbs. A warm glow from a lantern flickered against the stone walls. Soft blankets covered her body, though the dull ache in her side reminded her she wasn’t completely safe.
“She’s awake,” a voice whispered.
Ashley turned her head.
Elena sat beside her bed, her face filled with relief. “You scared us,” she said softly. “Coleen brought you back barely breathing.”
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Ashley blinked. “How long...?”
“Two days.”
Two days.
Memories came rushing back—the poison, the docks, Marion stabbing her.
Ashley tried to sit up, but a sharp pain forced her back down.
“Easy,” Elena said, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. “You lost a lot of blood, but we stopped the bleeding. You’re healing, but not fast enough to shift.”
Ashley’s fingers clenched around the sheets. She needed to be out there.
She looked around. “Where’s Coleen?”
Elena hesitated. “He’s with his parents. There’s... tension.”
Ashley’s heart pounded. “Because of me?”
Elena sighed. “They don’t trust you, Ashley. Not yet. They think you’re a danger to Astravel.”
Of course they did. She was an outsider. A royal from a fallen kingdom. A threat.
Ashley forced herself to sit up despite the pain. “I need to speak to them.”
Elena’s eyes widened. “You’re still recovering—”
“I don’t care.” Ashley swung her legs over the side of the bed. “If I don’t prove myself now, I never will.”
Elena hesitated before nodding. “Then let me help you.”
The royal hall was filled with tension.
The King and Queen of Astravel sat on their thrones, regal and powerful. Their eyes were cold as they watched Ashley approach.
Coleen stood to the side, his arms crossed, his expression unreadable.
Ashley refused to falter. She stood tall, despite the pain, and met the King’s gaze head-on.
“You should be resting,” the Queen said, her voice smooth but sharp.
Ashley shook her head. “There’s no time for rest. Not when your kingdom is under attack.”
The King’s eyes narrowed. “And you claim to know how to stop it?”
“I do,” Ashley said. “But first, you need to hear the truth.”
She took a breath. Then, she told them everything.
About Crescent Moon. About the hunters. About the poison spreading through Astravel. About Marion’s betrayal.
By the time she finished, the Queen’s expression had softened slightly. But the King still looked unconvinced.
“You expect us to believe that a group of humans—humans—are strong enough to destroy us?”
Ashley’s jaw clenched. “They have a poison that kills us instantly. You’ve already lost wolves to it.”
The King hesitated. He knew she was right.
Ashley took a step closer. “I don’t want your throne. I don’t want your war. But it’s coming whether you accept it or not. And if you don’t act now, Astravel will fall just like Crescent Moon did.”
A heavy silence filled the room.
Then—
“You have a sharp tongue,” the Queen said, a small smirk playing on her lips. “I like that.”
Ashley blinked in surprise.
The Queen turned to the King. “She’s right. The poison is real. The threat is real. If we ignore this, we’ll regret it.”
The King exhaled, rubbing his temples. “Fine. We will take action.”
Ashley let out a slow breath.
She had won.
But she wasn’t done yet.
“There’s one more thing,” she said.
The King looked at her warily. “What now?”
Ashley squared her shoulders. “I have reason to believe the hunters’ poison isn’t just killing us. It’s suppressing our wolves.”
Coleen’s head snapped up. “What?”
Ashley turned to him. “I tested an antidote on a boy who had been affected by the poison. His wolf woke up.”
Murmurs filled the hall.
Ashley continued. “This means there may be more wolves out there who have been weakened—wolves who should be shifting but aren’t.”
Coleen’s mother’s eyes widened. “That would mean...”
“The hunters have been attacking us for longer than we thought,” Ashley said. “They’re not just killing us. They’re silencing us.”
A chilling silence fell over the room.
Coleen turned to his father. “We need to gather our strongest wolves. If the hunters have been planting their poison in Astravel, we might have warriors who are weaker than they should be.”
The King nodded slowly. “We will investigate this at once.”
Ashley felt a flicker of satisfaction.
She wasn’t just surviving anymore. She was fighting back.
But this was only the beginning.
The hunters weren’t done.
And neither was she.
