The syringe hits my neck before I can shift. Wolfsbane. Pure liquid silver. My knees buckle as Alpha Killian's pack warriors pin me to the stone floor. "Hold her," Killian orders. My body convulses. The shift rips through me—bones snapping, wings tearing from my shoulder blades. I scream as scales erupt across my skin in a wave of agony. This isn't natural. I'm being forced into my dragon form against every instinct. "Killian—" I gasp. "Please—" He doesn't look at me. He's staring at Elena, his mistress, who's coughing delicately into a handkerchief. "The Vital Scale," Elena whispers. "It's the only thing that can cure me." Lies. All lies. But Killian nods. I'm paralyzed now, my dragon form sprawled across the Pack Stone. My wings twitch uselessly. My heart pounds against my chest—right where the Vital Scale sits, the scale closest to a dragon's heart, rumored to heal anything. Killian kneels beside me. His knife gleams. "You know what this will do to me!" I scream through the haze. "We're bonded! If you carve out that scale, I'll—" "You'll what?" He presses the blade to my chest. "Die? Good. I'm tired of your lies." The knife sinks in. White-hot pain explodes through my chest. I feel the scale rip away, hear the sickening crack as he tears it free. My vision goes red. One hundred years of protection. Gone. I collapse, my human form returning in jagged bursts. Blood pools beneath me. Killian stands, holding the iridescent scale up to the light. "Only Grandfather believes your dragon guardian bullshit," he says coldly. "You're just a shifter who conned her way into this pack. Elena told me the truth—she's the one who saved my life, not you." He tosses the scale to Elena like it's trash. I try to crawl toward him. My legs won't work. Something's broken inside me, something vital. "Grandfather Silas," I wheeze. "Please… I need…" Silas appears in the doorway, his face gray with horror. "What have you done?" The old Alpha drops to his knees beside me. "Seraphina—the Dragon Pact—" "Is a fairy tale," Killian snaps. "She's been using you for years, Grandfather. Time to end the con." My hair turns white in an instant, draining of color like ash. Silas grabs my hand, his weathered fingers trembling. "The protection," he whispers. "The pack will fall without it." I look up at him, tears streaming down my face. "Your father saved my life when I was a hatchling," I rasp. "I swore a blood debt to protect the Thorne Pack for one hundred years. I diverted every disaster. I gave Killian my blood to pull him from his coma. I broke every sacred law for this pack." My body starts to fade, wisps of smoke curling from my skin. "The debt is paid," I whisper. "My physical form is destroyed. I can no longer protect you. Let me go."
I wake up in the pack infirmary, but not for long. The wound in my chest hasn't closed. Every breath is fire. The beta healer shakes her head. "Without the Vital Scale, your body can't regenerate. You're human now, Seraphina." Human. The word echoes in my skull. Before I can process it, the door slams open. Killian's servant storms in, dragging me out of bed by my wrist. "You're not staying here," he snarls. "Elena needs you." He hauls me through the pack house, my bare feet scraping against the floor. Warriors watch with cold eyes. No one helps. When we reach his quarters, I hear them before I see them. Moaning. Gasping. Elena's voice purrs through the door: "Now that I've swallowed that dragon's Vital Scale, don't you think my body moves like liquid? Did she seduce you like this too?" Killian laughs. "Liquid? Seraphina was never this desperate." He shoves the door open. They're on the bed, tangled together. Elena sees me first—sees my stark white hair, my hollow eyes—and shrieks. "Monster!" She clutches her chest, coughing violently. "She cursed me! Killian, she's trying to kill me!" Killian's hand cracks across my face. I hit the floor. "What did you do to your hair?" he roars. "Some kind of witch trick to make Elena sick again?" I press my hand to my bleeding lip. "It's not a trick," I whisper. "It's what happens when a dragon loses her essence." Elena sits up, wrapping the sheet around herself. Her eyes gleam with calculated malice. "Killian, I'm sure Seraphina didn't mean it." She coughs delicately. "But since the Vital Scale worked so well… wouldn't Dragon Blood Soup work even better?" My blood turns to ice. "No—" Killian grabs my arm, dragging me toward the door. "Perfect idea, sweetheart." He tosses me to the pack's butler. "Take her to the kitchens. Bleed her. Make soup." The butler's grip is iron. I try to shift—to call my wings, my fire—but nothing happens. The power is gone. In the kitchen, they chain me to a chair. A blade opens my wrist. The pain is instant, searing. But worse is the heat that follows—my blood boiling in a pot on the stove, the scent of herbs and flesh filling the air. I feel every degree. Every simmer. I scream until my voice gives out. When they finally drag me back upstairs, Killian and Elena are at the dining table. The soup sits between them, steam rising. Killian looks at me with disgust. "Your acting is pathetic," he says. "You stole Elena's place as Luna. You stole her hundred-year lifespan blessing from the Dragon Pact. I took one scale and some blood. Do you really need to be this dramatic?" Elena spoons the broth to her lips, her eyes never leaving mine. She smiles. And drinks.
I collapse in the corridor outside Killian's quarters. The burning sensation from the soup spreads through my veins like wildfire. I dig my nails into my thighs, biting down on my tongue to keep from screaming. Inside, they laugh. Killian's voice drifts through the door: "You know, the Dragon Pact was supposed to grant the Luna a century of life. When I divorce Seraphina, that blessing transfers to you." Elena giggles. "A hundred years with you? I can't wait." I laugh—a broken, bitter sound. They don't understand. The Thornes were always cursed. Blood-soaked from generations of violence. Only my power held back the tide of disaster. And now that I'm broken, now that my last trace of dragon essence is being digested in Elena's stomach— The curse will come for them all. I drag myself to my feet and stumble down the hall. Fifteen years ago, Grandfather Silas knelt at my shrine and begged me to save Killian from a coma. The boy was dying—a childhood death written in his fate. I gave him my blood. Breath by breath. Year by year. To save him, I broke sacred dragon law. I endured three days of divine lightning, nearly died, just to channel my essence into his failing body. When Killian woke, he found me collapsed at his bedside, barely breathing. He wasn't afraid. He'd stroked my hair and whispered, "Seraphina. I'm going to marry you. I promise." He said he didn't care that I was a dragon. He begged Grandfather for permission. The pack whipped him with their ancestral cane until he couldn't stand, but he kept his back straight, demanding to make me his mate. It was the first time in ten thousand years I'd felt my own heartbeat. After we mated, he treasured me. Brought me rare meats. Traced my scales when I shifted. But everything changed when Elena appeared. She'd planted a pill bottle under his bed—neurological medication—and convinced him she'd saved his life, not me. Killian threw the bottle at me. "I believed your superstitious bullshit! You're just a gold-digger!" I reach the pack shrine now—the Treaty Site where my oath was sealed. And I smash the stone tablet with my bare hands. If I can no longer protect the Thornes, I will not accept their offerings. The stone cracks. Black smoke rises. Killian's voice echoes behind me: "What the hell did you just do?" I turn. He's staring at the shattered tablet, his face twisted with rage. "You destroyed the Treaty Site!" he roars. "You're trying to curse Elena! Keep her from her hundred years!" I meet his eyes. "There is no blessing left," I say quietly. "You destroyed it yourself when you tore out my Vital Scale." He lunges for me.
Watch? https://cps-front.novelix.live/app-api/ext/new/20260619HPof2ea93m ? Continue the story here ?? ? Download the "Novelix" app ? search for "ni869245", and watch the full series ✨! #Novelix