Shattered Bonds

Down in the abandoned library of one of the forgotten wings of the Frosted Crown castle. It's the home of the royal family. A wooden trapdoor hidden under a rug, under a spiral staircase, past the cobwebs hanging limp from the wooden rafters, under a dust-covered floor. The seeker would obtain- a nasty coughing fit away from the prying golden irises of wolves keen to get revenge — an aged leather-bound book buried. Holding secrets, questions, and answers to the werewolf realm. The leather-bound book holds every law and tradition within the distressed yellow pages‌. Every record of past Alpha Kings and Luna Queens' reigns documented, securing lineage. The pages, even tyrant alphas recorded.

A soft crack echoes from the spine of the leather- bound book as the reader cracks it open. Its secrets sprawled across its yellowed pages, waiting for them to be revealed to them seeking them. Golden irises drift across the pages, soaking in the secrets meant to say secrets.

Pages flip, landing on a secret on page ninety, paragraph six.

Alpha King Rutherford the Second and his fated mate, Luna Queen Anna, birthed a set of quadruplets. Three little boys-Oxley, Trystan, and Merrel — and a little girl named Reese. Time had passed in a blur of giggles, and tears and expectations. Until the day, the quadruplets' coming- of -age ceremony.

It was time for the Frosted Crown to choose a new heir to ascend the throne to rule the heart of the werewolf realm. The Elders voted that the quadruplets undergo a series of trials, each one eliminated until the last pup was standing, except that the Alpha King’s only daughter would be prohibited from entering. Within months, the trials and regulations had been discussed and set in stone.

There was only one rule. No royal she-wolf would be permitted to inherit the throne unless they had the support of the king and wolves around them.

Merrel was disqualified first, then Oxley, leaving Trystan the successor of the trials. Trystan received the crown as the heir to the Frosted Crown throne. Reese stayed at Frosted Crown, witnessing her brother rule.

If prying eyes read further, darker secrets are discovered. Secrets meant to stay hidden between the pages.

More pages flip, landing on a dark secret.

Page two-hundred- paragraph one. Sprawled across the distressed pages is a distinct story,a secret never meant to see the light of day. A secret was supposed to be lost to history.

There was a pack hidden deep in the snow-covered north and bone- chilling temperatures. It was nestled deep in the Moonstone Mountain range. A she-wolf named Cressida Ruxley-Parker rose through the rigid hierarchy of her pack leadership, eventually succeeding in becoming the first female alpha in history.

Rumors of her strength and sharp wit reached Frosted Crown. Alpha King Trystan grew furious at the prospect of a she-wolf achieving alphaship.

In his eyes, she-wolves were only good enough to bear children, and at homemaking, even his own sister. He gathered his elite force of Moon warriors. They stormed the pack called Winter Ridge, causing mass chaos and destruction. He executed the she-wolf and her mate, and pack, unaware of a little wolf hiding in a hollowed-out tree, watching as their mother and father were being executed by the werewolf king.

Winter Ridge ceased to exist in the eyes of the Alpha King and the werewolf realm. One thing he didn’t notice was a single threat keeping the pack alive.

By Alpha King decree, Winter Ridge ceased to exist. Under no circumstances was Winter Ridge to be referred to again, not even in the history books, or they would face banishment from the werewolf realm. Generations came and went, with the first female alpha of Winter Ridge forgotten, except for the bond of the little pup keeping it alive.

Until one day, the leather- bound book disappeared from its hiding spot, taking its secrets with it.