(Chapter 28:Mira's Pov)
The heavy silence in the ancient stone chamber settled like a blanket over me, suffocating my every thought. My mind reeled from everything I had just learned, but none of it seemed real. It was too much, too much to absorb all at once.
I stood by the massive hearth, the low flames crackling as they flickered across my uncle's stern, worn features. He had told me everything—everything about my parents' deaths, about my life before the rebirth, about the betrayal that had shattered our family. I wanted to scream, to demand more answers, but the rawness of the truth kept me rooted in place. I felt like a ghost in my own skin.
The betrayal.
it kept echoing in my mind, haunting me like a nightmare I couldn't escape. The friend I had trusted most in my first life—Selene. Her face came to me in a flash: the sweet, innocent girl I had called my best friend, the one I had confided in, laughed with, cried with. And yet, she had betrayed me. Her father, a powerful vampire lord, and her mother, a skilled white witch, had turned on us—on me—using their influence and magic to orchestrate my downfall.
My own people, my own blood, my own best friend. I felt sick to my stomach.
But what tore me apart more was the revelation that they had known, all along, that I would possess this body. It was always meant to be. My mother's old friend, Elysia, the white witch who had sheltered me all these years, had known the truth of my rebirth. She had known I would return, and so had Selene's family. They had all known, and yet they still chose to deceive me, to feed me lies.
I looked over at my uncle, his eyes still watching me carefully, his presence calm and unshaken. It was strange to think of him as family—this stranger who shared my blood but had lived in isolation for years, away from the land of my ancestors. He was a king in his own right, ruling over a lost, forgotten part of the Lycan world.
"You're not just a princess, Mira," he had told me. "You are the heir to the legacy your parents left behind. Their deaths were no accident, and your survival, your rebirth, was no coincidence."
A cold shiver ran down my spine. I remembered the fear in his eyes when he had spoken of my parents' death. My uncle had told me they were killed in cold blood, ambushed in the midst of a bitter war that had been brewing for years. The Lycan kingdom had been under siege, and my parents had fought desperately to protect their people. They had died fighting, sacrificing their lives for the future of our kind.
And now… now, I was supposed to continue their legacy. But how? How could I possibly live up to the image of the fierce, beloved leaders my parents had been?
"Mira," my uncle's voice broke through my thoughts, pulling me back to the present. He took a few steps toward me, his face softening for the first time since I arrived. "I know this is a lot to take in, but you must understand something. You are the key to our survival. Your brothers, they… they've turned their backs on our home, on everything we fought for. But you…" He paused, as if searching for the right words. "You are different. You were always meant to carry the weight of this legacy, and I will help you bear it."
I wanted to argue. I wanted to scream, to tell him that I wasn't ready for this—that I wasn't even sure I wanted this life. But something inside me stirred, something deep within my soul. The Lycan princess inside me—the one that had been buried for so long—was beginning to awaken. There was power there, power I didn't fully understand yet, but it was there.
And then I remembered the other part of my past. Selene. She wasn't just some friend who had betrayed me. She had been the daughter of a powerful witch and a vampire lord, the very same who had plotted against me, using dark magic to ensure that I would never return to the throne.
My heart twisted at the thought of it. She had known everything. She had known I would return, and yet she chose to align herself with the forces that had torn our family apart.
As if sensing my unrest, my uncle stepped closer, his expression more serious now. "You must understand, Mira. The forces at play here are not just those who have already betrayed you. There are darker things brewing—things that even your parents were unable to fight off in the end. The vampire factions, the witches, they've all been watching. And now that you've returned, they'll be coming for you."
My stomach clenched.
I wasn't just a target anymore. I wasn't just a princess. I was a weapon, a pawn in a game far larger than I could ever have imagined.
But I wasn't helpless. Not anymore.
I had Lorenzo—the vampire lord who had made it his mission to protect me.
I glanced up at my uncle, a new determination stirring in my chest. "I want to know everything about my parents. Their allies. Their enemies. And the truth about Aurelia. I can't let this go, Uncle. I need to know what happened."
My uncle's eyes darkened at the mention of Selene's name, but there was a glimmer of understanding there too. He didn't say anything at first, but he nodded slowly.
"Good. It's time you learned the full extent of the war that's been raging for years," he said, his voice heavy with years of regret and loss. "And once you understand it, we'll begin your training. You'll need every ounce of strength you can muster."
And with that, the weight of my past—of everything I had lost and everything I was about to face—settled upon my shoulders once more. The truth was now clear, but the path ahead… that was anything but.