MELISSA'S POV

A few days later, even though my body remained sore and my limbs were frozen stiff. However, the fever had left me, and in its place there was a spark, a hunger, as though my wolf had clawed her way up from the ashes inside me. My father’s words and the parchments buried in the floorboard were the only weight keeping me upright.

The fire of my father’s words, the secret of Eden’s Gold gnawed at me, urging me to act before Leon or Marcel tightened their noose around the pack.

Clara, as always, hovered like a guardian shadow. She brushed the loose strands of hair from my face, holding out a bowl of broth. “You have color again, Melissa. Thank the Moon. I thought…” Her voice cracked. “I thought I’d lose you.”

I touched her hand lightly. “You won’t lose me, Clara. Not yet.”

She smiled, though worry haunted her eyes. She knew me too well. She could sense the restless energy humming beneath my skin, even if she didn’t know why.

By afternoon, I could no longer sit idle. I gripped Clara’s arm, steadying myself as I rose. My legs trembled but held. “Clara.” My voice was steadier than I expected, firm enough to make her pause mid-motion. “I need your help. We are going to the northern cliffs.”

Her brow furrowed. “The cliffs? Melissa, you’re barely strong enough to walk across the room. Why on earth…You should still be resting.”

“I’ve rested enough.” I declared

Clara hesitated, glancing toward the door as though expecting Leon himself to barge in. “What are you planning?”

“I can’t explain,” I cut her off, harsher than intended. Then I softened, lowering my eyes. “Not yet, but it’s important and urgent. Please.”

Her loyalty had never wavered, not once through my fever or heartbreak. With a resigned sigh, she tied my cloak around my shoulders. “Then I’ll come with you. Whatever madness this is, you won’t face it alone.”

We set out together, slipping past the courtyards, the banners of Eden swaying overhead, golden wolves stitched upon black. My heart hammered with every step, but the map’s markings burned in my mind. Father’s voice whispered in my ear: Enter by the river’s mouth at twilight…

The air was crisp and filled with the scent of pine and damp earth. Clara steadied me when my legs faltered, her arm warm around my waist.

“Melissa,” she murmured, “Whatever this is, I hope you know what you’re doing.”

I didn’t answer. If I told her about Eden’s Gold, I risked dragging her into a fire that could consume us both. Still, her loyalty was a balm, one I clung to more tightly than the cloak she had fastened around me.

We had just reached the path that curved toward the cliffs when shadows detached themselves from the trees ahead: six guards, all of whom were Eden’s security team. This made my pulse stutter.

“Lady Melissa,” the captain spoke, voice clipped but not unkind. “You are not permitted to leave the central grounds.”

I lifted my chin, summoning every ounce of my father’s blood that ran in my veins. “I am the daughter of Alpha Roran. You dare block my path?”

The men exchanged uneasy glances. Their eyes flickered with the memory of who I was, who my father had been. For a moment, they didn’t move. Hope surged-until the captain continued, his tone colder now.

“By orders of Alpha Marcel and Beta Leon, you are confined to your quarters. Any attempt to leave will be treated as insubordination.”

The words struck me like a slap. Confined? My blood boiled immediately I heard it.

“Is this what we have become?” I spat. “Prisoners in our own land? Do you not see who you serve? My father and his ancestors built this pack with his blood. And you would chain his daughter at the command of a usurper and a traitor?”

One of the younger guards shifted, guilt flickering across his face. But the captain’s jaw remained hard. “Lady Melissa, do not make this harder. If you resist, we have the Alpha’s permission to take you to the cells.”

The cells! The humiliation brought a bitter taste of betrayal that clawed up my throat. I wanted to scream, to fight, to let my wolf tear free and shred the lies that bound me. But my body trembled, too frail to withstand a skirmish, too broken to win.

Clara’s hand found mine, squeezing tightly. “Melissa… please. Not like this.”

I swallowed hard, rage burning hot behind my eyes. For a long moment, I stood unmoving, the weight of making a choice between leaving and fighting against them pressing down on me. Then slowly, with every ounce of pride I had left, I turned my back.

“Very well,” I said, my voice brittle as ice. “Enjoy your leash. When this pack falls, remember that you turned your fangs against the wrong wolf.”

************

By the time we reached my quarters and Clara closed the door behind us, my hands were shaking with fury. I ripped the cloak from my shoulders and hurled it across the room.

“They dare.” My voice broke into a growl. “They dare to treat me like some criminal? Marcel, Leon… they have poisoned everything my father built!”

I paced the chamber, too restless to sit, though my legs screamed with weakness. Rage was the only thing holding me upright now. Clara hovered, wringing her hands, torn between comfort and caution.

“Melissa,” she said softly, “you can’t keep fighting them head-on. Not while you’re like this.”

“I am strong enough,” I snarled. “I will be strong enough. They will pay for this.”

She fell silent for a while, watching me with those thoughtful eyes of hers. Then, hesitantly, she spoke words so unexpected they nearly stopped me in my tracks.

“Then why don’t you go to the Alpha Academy?”

I blinked. “What?”

“The Academy,” she repeated, a spark of determination in her voice. “If you were certified there, no one could deny your right. Not Marcel, not Leon, not even the council. You did be Alpha in truth, not just in name.”

A bitter laugh tore from my throat. “Clara, don’t be ridiculous. They don’t accept women. You know that as well as I do.”

Her lips pressed into a thin line. “Yes. But what if they didn’t know?”

The words hung between us, wild and dangerous. My heartbeat quickened.

“You mean…” My voice faltered. “Go as…”

“Yes, go as a boy,” she finished firmly. “You’ve always been quick with a blade. You move like your father. Your voice can harden when you want it to. With the right clothes, the right disguise…”

I stared at her, stunned. My maid. My closest friend. This gentle girl who scolded me for skipping meals and fussed over torn hems was the one daring to suggest treason.

“Clara, that’s insane.” I shook my head, though something in my heart stirred at the thought. “If they discovered me.”

“They won’t,” she interrupted, her eyes burning with conviction I rarely saw in her. “And even if they did, what choice do you have? Stay here and waste away under Leon’s thumb? Watch Marcel flaunt Linda in your rightful place? Or fight. On their terms. Beat them at their own game.”

Her words pierced something inside me. The fire that had sputtered in me since the guard's rejection now roared. My wolf stirred, restless, whispering Yes. Fight. Claim what is yours.

I pressed my trembling hands to my face. The thought was madness, yet wasn’t my entire life now madness? Betrayed by my mate, cast out by my uncle, caged in my own home?

Slowly, I lowered my hands. My eyes met Clara’s.

“Disguised as a boy…” I whispered. “At the Academy.”

Her answering smile was small, but fierce. “Yes. It’s not the life you were meant to have, Melissa. But it may be the only way to take it back.”

I sank into the chair by the fire, my body felt heavy, my mind brewing a storm. Could I truly do it? Walk among the wolves as something I was not, risk everything for the chance to claim what my blood already promised me?

But then I thought of Leon’s smirk. Marcel’s cold avoidance. Linda’s false smile. And beneath it all, my father’s voice echoed: Choose with the heart of a true Alpha.

The embers in the hearth glowed brighter, casting shadows that looked almost like golden veins across the walls, Eden’s Gold and my destiny.

I closed my eyes, exhaling slowly.