Isabella's bare feet kissed the frozen marble as she drifted down the corridor, her shawl trembling against the drafts that whispered through the estate. No torch was lit, no candle dared to glow—only the merciless hush of darkness wrapped her. Her steps were delicate, feathered, as though she feared her very shadow would betray her to unseen eyes.
A sudden tap… tap… echoed behind her.
Her chest tightened. Slowly, she turned her head, her breath carving ghosts in the cold air.
"Who lingers?" she whispered, her voice calm but sharpened with defiance. "No one in this house can make me tremble."
Silence.
She turned again, continued forward. Another tap.
This time, her lips curved into a faint, mocking smile. "Ah, so the darkness plays its petty tricks again."
But on the third sound, she spun sharply—and saw it.
A small figure, crouched, with gleaming eyes. At first glance, it was but a cat, shivering in the blackness. With tenderness unbecoming of her otherwise resolute spirit, Isabella bent down and gathered it in her arms.
The creature mewled softly, trembling in her palms.
"Shh, my little one," she cooed, her voice dripping with both gentleness and cunning. "Fear not. Tonight, we are seekers of secrets. Together, we shall unmask the shadow of Alpha Theodore."
Yet what her eyes mistook for a cat was no feline. The moonlight, spilling faintly through a cracked window, kissed the creature's silken fur, revealing not a kitten—but a wolf cub. A descendant of the same bloodline that ruled these halls.
Still, Isabella did not yet discern the truth.
The muffled air grew heavier as she approached the grandest hall of the estate. The massive oak doors loomed before her, half-ajar. From within, murmurs surged like a forbidden tide. She pressed her ear closer, the wolf cub twitching in her hold.
Then—her heart stilled.
The first voice that sliced through the silence was achingly familiar. Deep, commanding, threaded with authority she had long buried in her memory.
It was her father.
"Owen…" she breathed almost inaudibly, the name tasting both of longing and dread.