I was close enough to feel the searing heat scorch my skin.
Fear and anguish devoured me from the inside out.
My child was not just the future sovereign of the Six Great Packs.
He was the culmination of hundreds of thousands of years of hope between the Supreme Alpha and me.
Three years I had carried him. My own flesh and blood.
All those years, the Supreme Alpha and I had treasured him more than our own lives.
And this tiny, newborn boy had never even been held. Not once.
He was swallowed by merciless flame before he ever knew what an embrace felt like.
Tears streamed down my face, covering every inch of it.
Seraphina looked at the charred, motionless body and let a smile play across her lips.
"The little mongrel is finally dead."
The other handmaidens beamed.
"A human-born's mongrel, tough as leather. Thank the Moon Goddess Lady Seraphina is so resourceful!"
"Exactly. One look at the pup and you can tell his lowly patrol-wolf father was just as worthless and disgraceful."
"Congratulations, Lady Seraphina, for ridding the Shadowfang Pack of this stain!"
Bathed in their praise, Seraphina lifted her chin and cast a sidelong glance at my dead child, admiring her handiwork.