Pearl's POV

Every step I took felt heavier, my feet dragging through the forest floor. My body was numb but my heart felt like it was breaking all over again. Each crack of a twig beneath my feet like a reminder of the world I was no longer a part of the world where I had once believed I belonged. I didn't have a mother to cry to, a home to run back to, or friends to comfort me.

I didn't even have a pack.

I was nothing. Just a discarded thing.

I cried as I walked, tears mingling with the blood on my cheeks. A sob choked out of me as I thought of my mother, the one I never had, and how I would never know the warmth of a loving embrace, never know the simple comfort of being truly wanted.

It felt like I had lost everything.

A sharp pain stabbed through my foot and I gasped. Looking down, I saw the nail, a cruel spike in the dirt that I had stepped on, now lodged deep in my sole. Blood seeped out, hot and sticky, running down the arch of my foot. The pain was unbearable but I gritted my teeth, willing myself to keep moving.

I couldn't stop. I couldn't.

But the blood wouldn't stop either. It dripped, staining the ground beneath me, and soon, my world began to spin. My vision blurred and the throb in my head grew louder, pulsing in time with my heartbeat.

My body felt like it was betraying me, one step at a time, but I kept walking. The thought of being alone again, wandering this world without a purpose, without a place to belong, was too much to bear.

And then I saw it.

A gate. Tall, wrought iron, standing like a fortress against the endless night. I didn't know where I was, but I was beyond caring. I was desperate for something, anything, that would take me away from the agony of my own life.

The guards at the gates stood alert as I approached, but their eyes narrowed in confusion as I stumbled towards them, dazed.

"Who are you?" One of them asked, his voice firm.

I opened my mouth to respond, but no words came.

Instead, I collapsed, my body giving in to the blood loss, my head spinning as darkness overtook me.

When I woke, I was no longer in the forest. I was on a soft, unfamiliar bed, wrapped in a blanket. My hands, my wrists, were bound to the bedposts with thick metal cuffs, unyielding and cold.

I struggled against them instinctively, my heart racing in panic.

"W - where am I?" I whispered, my throat dry and raw.

A voice answered me, a smooth velvety voice that seemed to seep into the room like poison.

"Rest, Pearl," the voice said. "You're safe here."

I lifted my head, blinking through the haze of exhaustion.

A man stood at the foot of the bed, tall, lean and impossibly handsome. He was young, perhaps my age, or maybe a little older, his features sharp and chiseled like this in the stories I used to hear as a child. Dark hair fell messily over his forehead, and his eyes were the colour of midnight — a deep, haunted blue.

"I'm Felix," he said, his gaze lingering on me with an unreadable expression. "I'm the Beta of the Lycan King."

My stomach dropped.

The Lycan King.

A chill ran down my spine at the very thought of him. The king of the Lycans, the sworn enemy of my pack, the Moonveil Pack. The ruthless ruler of the largest and most feared faction in the realm. Everyone knew of him, even if they dared not speak his name too loudly. His reputation was one of terror and unyielding strength. And that strength was something I had always feared, something that had haunted my nightmares.

"You—" I gasped, the words coming out in a breathless whisper. "You — work for him?"

Felix's lips quivered upward slightly but there was no humour in his smile. "The King has given orders for you to rest. You're safe now. No harm will come to you."

I recoiled slightly, my breath hitching as I tried to make sense of my surroundings. This place, this room, it was nothing like I'd ever seen before. The furnishings were grand, the walls lined with ancient tapestries, and the windows were tall, open to the cold night sky. But the cuffs... they were still on my wrists.

"Why - why are these on me?" I asked, my voice trembling.

Felix's face hardened, and he took a step back. "The king's orders," he said, his tone firm. "He told me to leave them on you until further notice."

I wanted to scream. I wanted to tear those cuffs off and run until my legs gave out, but I couldn't. I was a prisoner here, trapped in a world I didn't belong to.

I scoffed bitterly, turning my face away from him. "You're just like them," I muttered under my breath, though I wasn't sure if he'd hear.

Felix didn't respond. Instead, he turned and walked towards the door. "Get some rest. I'll check on you later," he said, his voice distant.

The door clicked shut behind him, and I was left alone in the silence.

But the silence was a suffocating kind of peace, one that made my skin crawl with unease. I was in a foreign place, surrounded by strangers, and I had no idea what would happen to me next.

Days passed or maybe it was just one long, endless stretch of time. The maids would come in to tend to me, bringing food and fresh clothes but they never spoke to me. They didn't look at me. They just did their duties, as if I were an object to be maintained and kept in place.

The cuffs never came off.

It wasn't until I asked one of the maids if I could speak to the Lycan King that things changed.

"He's busy, milady." the maid said, not looking me in the eye.

"Busy?" I repeated, my frustration mounting. "I'm not going to sit here like an animal in a cage. I need to speak to him."

But the maid simply nodded and left without a word. And I was left there once again, alone with nothing but my thoughts and the quiet yearning to escape.

That night, as the moon hung low and the air chilled, I decided I could take no more. I would leave. I would run.

I waited until the house was silent, then, with trembling hands, I carefully unlocked the window and climbed out, my heart pounding in my chest.

I didn't know where I was going, only that I couldn't stay in that room any longer.

But just as I made it to the courtyard, a figure stepped out of the shadows, blocking my path.

I froze. The moonlight illuminated him fully, his skin gleaming under the pale light, his eyes glowing a fierce, blood-red.

His dark hair fell around his face, wild and untamed, his chest bare, glistening with blood. His muscles rippled beneath his skin as he stood tall and imposing , a bloody sword still gripped in his hand.

"What do you think you're doing?" the man growled, his voice low and menacing.

I opened my mouth to scream, but the words stuck in my throat.

Felix called out to him, his voice surprisingly respectful. "Your Majesty."

My stomach twisted into knots as realization hit me like a physical blow.

The man before me, the one whose very presence made the air feel heavy with power, was none other than the Lycan King himself.

King Dante

And when he turned those piercing blood-red eyes on me, I knew my life had just taken a dangerous, terrifying turn.

"Welcome to Lycan Vale, Pearl," he said, his voice dark and thick, like the storm clouds that filled the night sky.

His smile was cold, predatory. "I am Dante, King of the Lycans."

I fainted.