Selena’s question hung in the air, “Tell me, pup. Who are you?” Her silver eyes, cold and luminous, held Aiden captive, demanding an answer that felt weightier than just a name. It was a question about identity, about lineage, about his place in this hidden world she ruled. He could feel the weight of her scrutiny, the silent expectation of the watching guards, the echoes of ancient power resonating from the very silver bars that confined him.

He met her gaze, his own golden eyes reflecting the flickering light of the chamber, his lupine form held rigid, a mixture of defiance and uncertainty warring within him. “I am Aiden,” he responded, his mental voice firmer now, finding strength in the face of her regal authority. “Aiden Blake. Or… Aiden of Fenrir, as Kael called me.”

A flicker of something – surprise? Intrigue? – crossed Selena’s otherwise impassive features, a subtle shift in the glacial composure that encased her. “Blake,” she echoed, the name sounding foreign, almost… human, on her tongue, or rather, in his mind. “A human name. You were raised… among them?”

Aiden nodded, a slight inclination of his lupine head. “Yes. I was a doctor. At City General.” He offered the human detail as a point of reference, a grounding in the reality she seemed to question, the reality he himself was still struggling to reconcile with this monstrous new world.

Selena’s silver eyes narrowed, a hint of something akin to… disdain? Curiosity? It was difficult to decipher her aristocratic detachment. “A healer,” she mused, the mental words laced with a subtle irony. “A strange path for one of Fenrir’s blood. Your lineage is of warriors, of Alphas, of… power. Not of tending to human frailties.”

“I… I helped people,” Aiden countered, a flicker of defensiveness rising within him, a lingering loyalty to the human oath he had sworn, the human life he had lived. “It was… important to me.”

Selena remained silent for a moment, her silver gaze unwavering, her expression unreadable. Then, a slow, almost imperceptible curve touched the corners of her lips, a ghost of a smile that was more unsettling than reassuring. “Human sentimentality,” she echoed Kael’s earlier pronouncement, but her tone held a different nuance, a hint of… something akin to understanding? Or perhaps, amusement at his naivete.

“Tell me, Aiden of Fenrir,” she continued, her mental voice regaining its sharp, aristocratic edge. “What do you know of your lineage? Of Fenrir? Of the Crimson Moon?”

Aiden hesitated, the weight of his ignorance pressing down on him. “Almost nothing,” he admitted, the words feeling inadequate, exposing his vulnerability. “I found a diary. An anonymous package. It spoke of… legends. Of werewolves. Of… this place. Of Fenrir. But… it was cryptic. Fragments. I don’t understand.”

Selena’s silver eyes sharpened, focusing intently on him, her gaze probing, searching for any hint of deception, any flicker of falsehood. “Show me,” she commanded, the mental voice leaving no room for argument. “Show me this diary.”

Aiden hesitated again, a flicker of protectiveness rising within him for the worn leather book, the only tangible link to his past, to his awakening, to the mystery that had drawn him to this place. But Selena’s authority was absolute, her command undeniable. He couldn’t refuse.

He reached inside his jacket, carefully retrieving the diary, holding it out towards her through the silver bars of the cage. Selena didn’t move, didn’t reach for it, her silver gaze remaining fixed on Aiden, her expression still unreadable. One of the Beta guards stepped forward, his lupine form moving with silent efficiency, taking the diary from Aiden’s outstretched paw, carrying it to Selena with a respectful bow of his head.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Selena took the diary, her slender fingers brushing against the worn leather cover, a faint shimmer of silver energy emanating from her touch. She opened it carefully, her silver eyes scanning the faded script, her expression remaining impassive, betraying nothing of her thoughts. The silence in the chamber deepened, broken only by the rustle of brittle pages turning under her elegant touch.

Minutes stretched into an eternity as Selena read, her silver gaze moving across the faded ink, absorbing the cryptic pronouncements of the ancient diary. Aiden watched her, his heart pounding, his lupine senses straining to decipher any flicker of emotion, any hint of reaction in her aristocratic composure. But Selena remained an enigma, a Queen of Shadows, her thoughts and feelings veiled behind an impenetrable mask of regal detachment.

Finally, she closed the diary, the worn leather cover snapping shut with a soft, resonant thud that echoed in the silence. She looked up, her silver eyes locking onto Aiden’s once more, her expression still unreadable, but the air around her seemed to shift, the icy tension in the chamber subtly easing, replaced by a different kind of… intensity.

“It is… authentic,” she pronounced, her mental voice measured, deliberate, each word carrying the weight of her authority. “Crude, fragmented, incomplete… but authentic. The script… the markings… the references to Fenrir… to the Golden Eyes… it aligns with the lineage scrolls. The legends are… confirmed.”

A low murmur rippled through the assembled guards, a collective intake of breath, a subtle shift in their postures, a palpable easing of suspicion. The Queen of Shadows had spoken. The Alpha-born pup was… validated. Legitimate. Of Fenrir’s blood.

Selena returned her gaze to Aiden, her silver eyes now holding a different quality, a hint of… calculation? Assessment? The icy coldness remained, but it was tempered now by a flicker of something… else. Interest, perhaps? Or simply… strategic consideration.

“Fenrir’s lineage,” she mused again, the name echoing in her mental voice, a weight of history, of legend, clinging to the ancient name. “It has been dormant for generations. Lost to the human world. We believed it… extinguished. And yet… you have returned. Awakened. Bearing the Golden Eyes.”

She stepped closer to the cage, her slender form moving with a fluid grace that belied her power, her silver eyes now studying Aiden with an almost clinical detachment, assessing his lupine form, his build, his posture, his… potential. “You are… raw,” she pronounced, the mental words sharp, critical, yet not unkind. “Untrained. Unrefined. But the blood is strong. The potential… is there.”

She paused, her silver gaze lingering on Aiden, a silent assessment stretching between them, a weighing of worth, a calculation of future value. Then, a slow, deliberate nod, a regal gesture of… acceptance. Of a sort.

“Kael will train you,” she declared, her mental voice leaving no room for argument. “He will teach you our ways. Mold you into a warrior of the Crimson Moon. You will prove yourself, Aiden of Fenrir. You will earn your place in our pack. You will honor your lineage.”

She turned away from the cage, her elegant form moving with a regal certainty, her silver eyes sweeping over the assembled guards, her mental voice now commanding, authoritative, directed at her pack. “Release him,” she ordered, the words echoing through the chamber, dismissing the silver cage, dismissing the initial suspicion, embracing the Alpha-born pup into the fold of the Crimson Moon. “He is one of us now. Treat him as such.”

The guards moved with silent efficiency, unlocking the silver cage, the heavy bars swinging open with a groaning protest, releasing Aiden from his sterile confinement into the dim, expectant atmosphere of the foundry chamber. He stepped out, his lupine form stretching, flexing, shaking off the chill of the silver prison, his golden eyes meeting Selena’s silver gaze one last time, a silent acknowledgment passing between them, a pact forged in the heart of the Red Moon Club, under the watchful eyes of the Queen of Shadows. His trial by scrutiny was over. His true trials, he sensed, were only just beginning.