Chapter 43: The Sister’s Venom
The eastern tower felt smaller with every passing hour, as though the stone walls themselves were closing in to listen.
Seren stood at the tall arched window, staring out over the frost-covered gardens where moonlight painted the hedges in silver and deep shadow. The bond hummed steadily inside her chest, but beneath it something wilder stirred—bones aching with a low, persistent fire, senses stretched so thin she could hear the distant clink of a guard’s armour three floors below and smell the faint jasmine-and-frost scent that now clung to every threatening message from Elowen like a signature.
She no longer doubted the Deepening. The change was accelerating, unstoppable.
And Princess Elowen knew it too.
The first attempt came before midnight.
A soft scrape at the outer door made Kael’s head snap up. He was on his feet in an instant, sword already drawn, placing his body like a wall between Seren and the entrance. Theron melted silently into the shadows near the hearth, twin daggers glinting in his hands. Aeron remained seated at the table, but his eyes had gone fully gold, pupils narrowed to slits.
The outer guard knocked once. Three measured raps, the signal they had agreed upon, then he entered carrying a silver tray. On it rested a crystal goblet of spiced wine, still steaming gently, and a single perfect white rose.
"From Princess Elowen," the guard said, voice tight with unease. "She sends her... congratulations on the Deepening and hopes Her Ladyship will accept this token of sisterly affection."
Kael took the tray before Seren could move. He lifted the goblet, sniffed once, and let out a vicious snarl.
"Nightshade. Concentrated. Enough to kill three full-grown wolves, let alone someone still mid-transformation." He hurled the goblet into the hearth. The wine hissed and flared an unnatural violet as it burned. "Tell my sister her ’sisterly affection’ is noted, and returned in kind."
The guard paled and bowed out quickly, nearly tripping over his own feet.
Theron stepped from the shadows, turning the white rose slowly between his fingers. A tiny needle glinted near the base of the stem, coated in something dark and glistening.
"Slow-acting paralytic," he murmured, voice deceptively calm. "Even if the wine had failed, a single prick while arranging the flower would have finished the job. She’s getting creative. And desperate."
Seren’s hands trembled as she pressed them against her sides. The silver mark at her throat burned hotter, flaring with silver light. "She knows. She knows that if I complete the change, I’ll have a legitimate claim to stand beside you. Not as a pet, but as pack. As queen in truth. And she cannot allow that."
Aeron rose slowly and crossed the room. He cupped her face with both hands, thumbs brushing the glowing mark with surprising gentleness. "She has always believed the throne should be hers by the simple right of being first-born. Now she sees that claim slipping away, not just to the three of us, but to you. A former servant. A human who is becoming a wolf through the power of the mating bond. In her eyes, that is the ultimate insult. The final theft."
Kael sheathed his sword with a violent snap. "If she tries again..."
"She will try again," Theron interrupted smoothly, though his eyes glittered with cold calculation. "And soon. Elowen doesn’t do half measures. She’s intensifying her efforts because she understands the timeline better than most. Once Seren’s transformation completes, the Deepening cannot be undone without killing all four of us. A human-turned-wolf mate standing beside three kings would have ironclad legitimacy under every ancient law. The reformers would cheer. The old houses would have no legal ground left to stand on. Elowen’s entire claim to power would collapse the moment Seren stands before the court as a full wolf."
A sharp, lancing pain suddenly tore through Seren’s ribs, shorter than before, but deeper, like bones preparing to reshape themselves. She winced, clutching the windowsill as her vision blurred for a heartbeat. When it cleared, she could see heat signatures in the garden below: small animals moving through the frost, guards patrolling in pairs, and, faintly, at the edge of the eastern hedge, a lone figure in a dark cloak watching the tower with unnatural stillness.
"She’s out there right now," Seren whispered. "I can feel her hatred like ice pressing against my skin."
Kael was at the window in two strides, claws fully extended. "Where?"
"Eastern hedge. Cloaked. She’s not coming herself tonight. She’s watching. Waiting to see if her poison worked."
Theron joined them, eyes narrowing. "Then let’s give her something worth watching."
He moved to the table, scribbled a quick note, and summoned a runner. Within minutes, the palace guard doubled its presence throughout the gardens. The cloaked figure slipped away like smoke, but not before Seren caught the unmistakable flash of golden hair beneath the hood.
Elowen.
The next attempt came at dawn.
Seren had finally fallen into a restless sleep curled between Kael and Theron, with Aeron keeping watch at the door. She woke to the sound of steel on steel and Kael’s roar of fury.
A young servant woman, one Seren had seen many times in the lower halls, had slipped past the outer guard with a breakfast tray. Hidden beneath the linen napkin lay a thin silver needle coated in a glistening black substance. The moment Seren sat up, the girl lunged, aiming straight for the glowing mark at her throat.
Kael caught the girl’s wrist mid-strike, bones crunching under his grip. Theron disarmed her with a flick of his dagger. Aeron hauled the trembling servant to her feet, voice like winter steel.
"Who sent you?"
The girl’s eyes were wide with terror, but her jaw remained stubbornly set. "The true heir," she spat. "The first-born. She says the human abomination must die before the change completes. Before she can claim a throne that doesn’t belong to her."
Seren rose slowly from the bed, the silver mark flaring brighter. She could smell the girl’s fear, but also the faint trace of jasmine still clinging to her uniform, Elowen’s scent, deliberately left behind like a calling card.
"Tell your princess," Seren said, voice low and steady despite the fresh ache spreading through her bones, "that the change is almost complete. And when it is complete, I will stand beside my kings not as a threat to the throne, but as its rightful guardian. If she wants to stop me, she will have to come herself."
The girl was dragged away screaming curses and promises of Elowen’s wrath.
By midday, three more attempts had been thwarted: a fresh carafe of poisoned wine delivered by a trusted page, a nearly invisible tripwire laced with wolfsbane stretched across the private stairwell, and an archer positioned on a distant rooftop whose arrow was tipped with the same paralytic as the rose.
Each failure only seemed to fuel Elowen’s rage.
That afternoon, a new message arrived, not by servant or guard, but shot through the tower window on a black-fletched arrow that embedded itself deep in the heavy oak table with a solid thunk.
Theron pulled the arrow free and unrolled the small scroll tied to its shaft. His expression darkened as he read aloud in a cold, precise voice:
"’The longer you delay the inevitable, the more painful her death will be. A human who becomes a wolf through the mating bond would have legitimate claim to stand beside the kings. That cannot be allowed. I am the eldest. The throne is mine by right of blood and birth. I will burn this tower to ash, and every last one of you with it, before I let a former servant wear a crown.
The Deepening ends tonight.
One way or another.
—Elowen, First-Born of Silvermoor’"
Kael slammed his fist onto the table, cracking the thick oak. "She’s lost her mind."
"No," Aeron said quietly, staring at the arrow still quivering in the wood. "She’s perfectly sane. She understands exactly what Seren represents. If the transformation completes, Seren will have the same rights as any wolf-born mate. The law cannot deny her. The reformers will demand her coronation. The old houses will have no argument left. Elowen’s entire claim to power collapses the moment Seren stands before the court as a full wolf."
Seren touched the glowing mark at her throat. The pain was constant now, a low burning that spoke of bones preparing to shift and senses sharpening to the edge of pain. She could feel Elowen’s hatred like a physical weight pressing against the tower walls from every direction.
"She’s right about one thing," Seren said softly. "The Deepening must end tonight. But not the way she wants."
She turned to face her three mates, eyes bright with silver fire that had not been there the day before.
"Let her come. Let her throw everything she has at me. Because when the change completes, I won’t just be standing beside you. I will be one of you. And Elowen will finally understand what it truly means to challenge a queen who was forged by the Moon herself."
