Crystal's POV
The weight of his words hung high in the air, suffocating and impossible to escape.
It's still not possible that I am The Lycan Queen.
Me, of all whole wolves in the pack?
It didn't make any sense to me.
None of it made equal sense to me.
I couldn't be some legendary ruler of the pack that hated me.
I was barely surviving in this pack, bullied, ignored, and forgotten.
But the look in the man with gray eyes told me he wasn't joking.
He truly believed it.
And worse, there was a part of me, deep, deep inside, that wondered if it might be true or just a mere story.
"No," I whispered, shaking my head, backing away from him, slowly.
"I can't just be."
"You are, Crystal," he said firmly, his voice unwavering.
"It's in your blood, in your bones, in your flesh. You've felt it, haven't you? The pull, the power? It's been waiting for you to wake up."
I backed up until I hit the stone wall behind me.
My heart was pounding, my mind spinning with anxiety.
"I've never felt anything like that. I'm just… me. I'm nobody and I can't be somebody useful to this pack, and that's what they've signed up for me."
"You've always been more than that, Crystal," he said, his tone softer now, like he was trying to coax the truth out of me slowly.
"You've been suppressed, kept in the dark shadows. But now, it's time for you to rise up to the peak. The pack is shifting day after day. The world is shifting each passing time. You can feel it within your inner self, can't you, crystal?"
My hands were shaking, and was totally uncontrollable.
I wanted to deny it, to tell him he was wrong at first.
But somewhere deep down of me, I could just feel it. That pull inside. That restless energy that was inside of me, that had been growing ever since the three men arrived. It was like something had been asleep for years, and now it was starting to stir up and want to be awake.
"I don't understand you," I said, my voice shaky, and my whole hands and legs shaky.
"Why me? Why now?"
Before he could answer my question, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed from the hallway.
The courtyard door burst open at once, and two more of the three men entered, their expressions tensed.
"Alpha," one of them said, his voice urgent.
"We need to move. Now!"
The gray-eyed man called the Alpha, as I had come to know him, nodded sharply, his calm demeanor gone in an instant.
"What's happened?"
"They know," one of the men said.
"The pack… they know she's connected to us. They're gathering."
My heart dropped with the revelation.
"What do you mean by, 'gathering'?"
The man glanced at me, his face grim.
"The pack is restless. They're afraid of you, Crystal. Afraid of what you might be if you accept fate. They're preparing to act."
I blinked, shock washing over me.
"Act? How? Why?"
"They think you're a threat to them all," Alpha said, turning back to me.
"They've heard the rumors of your grace. They've seen how we've protected you, how we've watched you. And now, they want to take matters into their own hands."
Panic shot through me, like a sharp dagger pulled into my chest.
"They want to… kill me?"
"They don't understand who you are,"
Alpha said, his voice tight and husky.
"But once they learn the main truth about you, they won't stop at all. You're too powerful, too dangerous for them to let you live."
"No," I whispered, my mind racing and my breathe hanging up.
"They wouldn't… they can't… why would they..."
But deep down, I knew they could do anything. And they would do it. I had seen the looks of suspicion and fear in their eyes over the few days.
The way they had turned on me in the hallway. The pack had never cared about me before, but now they saw me as a threat to them and there lives.
And they would do whatever it took to eliminate that threat.
"We need to go at once," the man said urgently.
"If we don't, there will be bloodshed and loss."
Alpha's eyes were locked on mine, and I could see the weight of his decision in them.
"Crystal, this is the moment, we all have been waiting for. You have to choose, now!"
"Choose?" I asked, my voice shaking with confusion.
"Choose what?" I asked.
"Choose to embrace who you are now," he said with his eyes locked into mine, stepping closer, his presence overwhelming and intidimidating.
"Or choose to run and hide from fate."
I swallowed hard, fear pulsing through me, like blood In my vein.
"I… I don't know what to do."
His eyes softened.
"You've always known what to do, Crystal. You've just been afraid to see it in your point of view. But you're not alone in this. We will stand with you, fight with you. But only if you're ready."
I looked at him; at the two other men behind him, and for the first time, I realized they weren't here to control me or make me suffer.
They weren't here to take me away from home. They were here to protect me. To help me rise.
The pack had never cared for me, not for once. But these men, these strangers, they had shown more loyalty to me even on my own mistake.
The three stood looking into my eyes.
"I'm Alpha Dante," he looked to his other brother.
"I'm Beta Ezra,"
"I'm Gamma Ryan,"
The three Said.
"We three are the Noble Brothers and we promise to be your guide," the three says together.
I took a deep breath after their words, my heart hammering in my chest.
"What happens if I say yes?"
Alpha's Dante lips curved into a faint smile.
"Then you reclaim your birthright. You become what you were always meant to be in this pack "
"What if I say no?"
"We'll take you away from here," Ryan said.
"Far from the pack. But you'll be running forever, hiding from the power that's already waking inside you."
The weight of his words hit me hard and fast. I wasn't ready for this challenge in life. I didn't know how to be a queen, let alone a Lycan Queen.
But if I didn't make a choice now, the pack would come for me, and I would lose whatever chance I had at survival in my life. At understanding who I truly was.
I closed my eyes, taking in a slow, shaky breath, to have a quick thought.
I can't run anymore from my future.
When I opened my eyes, I looked up at Alpha, my decision made up at this point.
"I'll fight."
His smile widened up, something like pride flashing in his eyes.
"Good."
One of the Noblemen handed him a silver dagger, its blade gleaming in the moonlight, while I just looked at him with no extra words.
"Then we begin," Alpha said, holding it out to me.
"We'll need to awaken your power and wolf."
I hesitated for only a second before reaching out to take the dagger from his stretched out arm.
My hand wrapped around the hilt, and the moment the cool metal touched my skin, something inside me snapped up and I couldn't control it.
Like a dam breaking through, a rush of energy surged through me, wild and untamed.
I gasped, my body trembling as the power flooded my senses, like a flow of water.
"Hold on to it," Alpha Dante said, his voice steady and much calmer.
"This is only the beginning."
I gripped the dagger tightly, my entire body humming with a strange, terrifying energy that wasn't usual.
I could feel it ,like burning fire coursing through my veins, igniting something deep within me that had been dormant for far too long.
And then, in the distance, I heard it loud and clear.
A howl.
The pack was coming out for me.
"Stay close enough," Alpha Dante said, his gray eyes burning with determination.
"Tonight, you will prove to them who you really are, and tell them you've accepted your fate."
I swallowed hard to his words, nodding as I felt the energy build inside me, ready to explode.
For the first time in my life, I wasn't afraid of anything, or even afraid of the pack coming for me.
I was ready for anything that was ready to come up.