"I am the one closest to the Supreme Alpha's heart. I am the Silvercrest Alpha's most treasured daughter. What are you? You think your status could ever compare to mine?"
She let her gaze drift across the darkened hall, and her voice turned soft, almost idle.
"This Abyssal Den is far too gloomy. It could use a splash of red."
The Silvercrest she-wolves understood instantly. One by one, they shifted their hands into half-claws, long and gleaming, tipped with the faint silver sheen of their bloodline power.
And they lashed into me without mercy.
I was human-born flesh and bone. I had no way to withstand an assault from this many pureblood wolves at once.
I was beaten to the ground, curled into myself, my skin split open in ribbons of blood. The scent of my own blood filled the chamber, night-blooming moonflower and warm amber drowned beneath the copper tide of it.
Through the blinding agony, I locked both hands over my belly and screamed with everything I had left:
"Stop! I am the Luna Queen!"
At those words, the Silvercrest she-wolves froze mid-strike.
Seraphina stood off to the side, eyes narrowing as she studied me.
"What did you just say? That you're the Luna Queen?"