The grand hall was being polished from marble to chandelier when the message arrived:
Lady Virellia of Frostvale was coming.
An old, pure-blooded vampire noblewoman — older than three kingdoms and colder than the mountains her house ruled. She'd been an ally to the werewolf clans for centuries… and she was arriving unannounced.
No one liked what that meant.
---
Sayori stood beside Thalen in the gallery above the throne room, unnoticed, her hands folded neatly before her.
She watched them enter: tall guards in silver-studded cloaks, a pale litter veiled in blue velvet, and then—
Her.
Virellia was elegance sculpted in ice. Her skin was porcelain, her eyes a glacier. Jewels as red as blood dripped from her throat, but it was her voice that sliced the deepest.
"I see the Cursed Alpha still broods in his northern keep," she drawled, smiling with no warmth. "And I see… your pet is human."
The silence that followed was sharp enough to draw blood.
Fenris, seated on the dark wolf-carved throne, did not flinch.
"She is not a pet."
"Oh?" Virellia's smile widened, the way a knife widens a wound. "Then what, exactly, is this frail little mortal to you?"
Sayori tried not to shrink.
"I heard she cleans," the vampire added softly. "That she scrubs the walls like a rat while your pack bows to her shadow."
Thalen tensed beside Sayori. The guards held their breath.
And Fenris… rose.
His voice was quiet.
"This 'frail mortal' uncovered the treachery festering in my own halls. She stood bloodied and silent while your kind looked away. She earns her place not through magic — but through truth."
"She is weak," Virellia said coolly.
"She is mine," he replied.
The vampire narrowed her eyes. "You would claim her publicly? A human?"
"I already have."
A hush fell. One that even the walls seemed to honor.
Sayori felt her breath catch. Heat bloomed in her chest, both overwhelming and terrifying. Her knees threatened to buckle, and still… she stood straight.
Virellia's lips pursed. "Foolish, Fenris. The Council will not like this."
"They rarely like anything I do," he said, then smiled — the kind of smile that made ancient creatures remember their nightmares. "That's why I do it."
---
Later, as Virellia's carriage vanished into the mist beyond the gates, Sayori sat alone in her chamber, heart still thudding.
She didn't understand everything.
But she understood this:
She had been claimed — not as property.
But as someone worth defending.
Someone dangerous in the eyes of the powerful.
And that… changed everything.