<i>Lycannar </i>


    I wokezy and utterly weak; all I wanted was to stay in bed and never move. But my uncle’s voice from down the stairs forced me up.


    The sun had settled over the shifter empire and I was grateful for it. A beautiful day, it seemed, yet I felt anything but well.


    I rose from the chair where I’d been sitting alone and carried the reports down the stairs. Slowly I descended to find him waiting with the elders.


    Baron, my beta and cousin, stepped forward to take the reports from me. I let him have them, careful not to touch him. He took a step back, and I watched them quietly before turning toward the stairs to mount them when my uncle’s voice cut through.


    “You seem unwell, Your Majesty.”


    I paused, not replying. I started up the stairs when Baron’s sudden voice came, sharp.


    “You approved the reports without me?”


    I stopped and raised a brow. Why did he sound angry, so… authoritative? using?


    “Why would you approve those reports without the presence of your Beta, Apex?”


    Apex. The name they’d all heard my brother Hades call me. One that stuck. Even my father who tried to make Lycannar stick failed. They all thought it was a nickname, but no. It was my


    name.


    Wait… is Baron okay?


    I turned to stare at him. My uncle’s voice pitched in, smooth and steady.


    “Well, he can approve reports without you, Baron, but he looks ill.” He looked up and smiled. “Your Majesty, why not give your Beta the royal seal so he can handle today’s reports?”


    The question hollowed the room. I swallowed the bitter in my throat and met my uncle Dareth’s unwavering eyes. My gaze slid to the elders, and finally to Baron.


    “Get it, Your Majesty,” my cousin said. “I will take care of today’s reports and return the royal


    seal when I am done.”


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    “Go wait for me in the royal chamber. I wille with it,” I said. My gaze lingered on him a long moment, then I turned and walked to my bedchamber, to the sacred stand where the crown and royal seal rested. The inheritance from my father, the former King.


    I swallowed and took them both, crown and seal, and headed for the royal chamber.


    Few knew my curse. Very few knew my true nature. Among them were my uncle Dareth and my cousins. They knew I was a hybrid, but they did not know I shifted into a ravenous beast once each month. My father had kept it secret; my siblings had followed his lead.


    Walking toward the throne chamber with the crown in its sealed ss case drew every eye. Golden and sacred.


    I arrived to find them waiting. My eight elders, my uncle Dareth, Baron my beta. They stared at me as if I’d lost my mind, perhaps I had. For days they’d asked for the seal. Why?


    “You want to be king?” I asked Baron, extending the golden crown to him. “Take it. Put it on.”


    “What in the world are you doing, Your Majesty?” my uncle demanded, stepping forward. I ignored him. My hand remained outstretched.


    “<i>Take </i>it. Put it on and sit on that throne.”


    <b>“</b>Apex!” my uncle snapped. “What in gods name are you…”


    “He wanted it,” I cut him off, turning to stare. “Isn’t that what you all wanted? Baron to rule? Isn’t that what you elders wished? Why you have been straining me for the Royal seal?”


    Tension charged the room. The air shivered.


    “Watch your tongue, Apex,” my uncle warned as he stepped closer, leaning in. His whisper was venomous. “We all know you were never meant to be king. Son of a King and a queen, yet, you belong nowhere. I still do not know why my big brother did not kill you when he had the chance<i>.</i>”


    Those words were meant to pass, but theynded in my chest and would not leave. I met his eyes and swallowed.


    “You hate me that much, Uncle?” I asked, the voice choked out sadly,


    “Hate?” He chuckled bitterly. “You are a stain on our bloodline. Not fully Abyss, not fully Blood. Only the gods know how monstrous your offspring will be. We only ask out of mercy for you hand over the royal seal. Why didn’t you when we asked?.”


    hand over the royal seal. Why didn‘


    His words cut deep. The same usations I’d lived with all my life. The talk of monstrous


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    offspring tore something inside me. I felt like fleeing, but hisst question held me fast.


    Why had I not handed over the seal when they asked?


    “Because the ten seconds after Baron sits on that throne… he will die.”


    Silence mmed into the chamber. My uncle snapped. He lunged to the chair at the meeting corner and flung aside, just when my two sisters burst in, aghast.


    “Lycannar!” Mearez cried, rushing to my side. “What is happening?”


    Before anyone could answer, my aunt Eiryn dashed in.


    “What is going on here?” she demanded, breathless from the rm that must have spread through the kingdom.


    “You heard what your king said? This cursed man, abandoned by the moon goddesses, who would bring ruin?! Can you imagine what he said?” Uncle Dareth rasped, voice rising.


    “Excuse me, Uncle Dareth, you will not speak to the king that way,” Serena stepped forward, but before anyone could speak more, Baron’s voice cut in.


    “Bring the crown. I will wear it and prove you wrong, Apex.”


    Gasps flooded the chamber. A challenge, brazen and public, offered before the golden crown and our lineage.


    I extended the crown. He opened the ss case with reverence, lifted the crown, and set it on his head. He strode to the throne and lowered himself into it like a lord, a smile curving his lips.


    Nothing happened and My uncle sneered.


    “You see? You <i>see</i><i>…</i>” he began, but as the seconds ticked, the massive crest of the Lycan Kingdom shifted on the wall. It lurched, lost its bnce, and crashed down, heavier than any expectation, mming straight toward the throne.


    For a heartbeat I thought to let Baron be smashed, but I surged forward and hauled him free at


    thest second.


    The crest smashed onto the throne behind him, shattering and splintering across the floor. Baron stumbled, the crown tumbling from his head and rolling until it came to rest at my feet.


    Silence fell. Heaviest than anything. My chest tightened as I stared at the fallen crown. The golden circlet, the curse.


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    Slowly, I reached down to lift it. <fn6f0a> Get full chapters from find·novel</fn6f0a>


    “Say anything about my offspring again, uncle,” I warned as I straightened, “and I will make you weep for one of your own.”