The Lycan Regent's Wolfless Fated Mate

Jazlyn POV:

"We just passed the capital gates, Miss Jazlyn. Pack Alpha Hartwell and Luna Camila ordered you to report to the fortress immediately," the Burks family coachman barked through the wooden partition.

I coughed hard into my threadbare wool cloak, tasting iron on my tongue. The three-year-old silver scar deep in my lungs burned with every breath. Silver was the only metal fatal to our kind, capable of scorching a werewolf's inner wolf into ashes. Three years ago, at age sixteen, I took a poisoned silver blade meant for Queen Grandmother Eleanor Mejia. That near-fatal blow earned my father, Hartwell Burks, his noble Pack Alpha title over the southern fortress, elevating our clan from southern backwater wolves to capital elites. Yet my mother, Camila Stewart, claimed I needed to heal my shattered wolf core and exiled me to the freezing, isolated Sunridge Estate for three years.

In my past life, I obeyed her. I rotted in Sunridge while slow silver poison ate my organs, until a staged fire burned me alive. For eighteen years after my death, my ghost lingered in the capital. Watching from the shadows, I finally saw the truth: my mother's beloved niece, Kalia Pugh, and my elder brother, Essex Petty, were both bastard Rogues-fathered by the black-market smuggler Elton Butler.

The Moon Goddess took pity on me and sent me back to the morning my carriage entered Silvermoon Kingdom's capital in a roaring blizzard. Deep in my veins, my dormant White Wolf bloodline-the sacred, direct lineage of the Moon Goddess herself-hummed with icy clarity.

I pulled back the frayed curtain and stared at the coachman's neck. My eyes were as cold as the snow pelting his coat. He flinched, his shoulders hunching under an invisible pressure he couldn't name.

"Turn the horses around," I rasped, my voice carrying the unmistakable weight of high-born blood. "Go straight to the side gate of the Moonstone Palace sanctuary."

The coachman swallowed hard. The reins went slack. "Miss Jazlyn... the Alpha and Luna ordered the fortress. If I steer elsewhere-"

"Then tell them I overruled them." I pushed the partition open a hand's width. "The royal sanctuary. Now."

He flinched, muttered something under his breath, and snapped the reins, steering clear of the main noble avenues until we halted before the towering marble steps of the royal sanctuary.

I stepped down into the ankle-deep snow, walked up to the armored royal guards, and held out a worn bronze token from three years ago.

"Please inform Royal Steward Arthur Hayes that Jazlyn Burks has returned," I said.

Moments later, Arthur Hayes, a high-ranking Beta who managed the inner palace, hurried down the windswept corridor in his dark-gold embroidered cloak. He had been there the day the assassin's blade pierced my chest. When his gaze landed on my pale, hollow cheeks, his footsteps froze.

"Greetings, Miss Jazlyn! By the Moon Goddess... when did you return to the capital? Have your silver burns finally healed?" Arthur's voice trembled as he bowed low.

"Uncle Arthur, during my three years at Sunridge Estate, I prayed daily for the Queen Grandmother's health. I just passed the city gates today and dared not return home before paying my respects to Her Majesty," I said softly, pressing a hand to my chest as my eyes rimmed with tears.

Arthur's gaze dropped to my washed-out linen robe, my bare wrists, and the lack of a single maid behind me. His jaw tightened, his nostrils flaring with obvious disgust toward the Burks clan.

"Good child, your devotion is unmatched! Her Majesty is meditating in the inner sanctuary. Follow me!" Arthur turned and led me past heavy-armored wolf guards into a warm pavilion scented with calming cedarwood.

On a cushioned couch in the center sat Eleanor Mejia, the Queen Grandmother and the true political pillar of the royal court. Hearing our footsteps, she opened her golden-amber wolf eyes and sat bolt upright.

"Jazlyn? Is that my Jazlyn? Quick, bring her to me!" Eleanor's voice shook as she waved her attendants forward.

I walked over and knelt by her couch, letting my freezing fingertips brush her warm palm. A suppressed cough tore from my throat. The collar of my faded robe shifted, revealing the ugly, blackened edge of the silver burn over my collarbone.

"You foolish child, your heart meridian was damaged back then! Why didn't you stay in the south to recuperate? How dare that old fool Hartwell let you travel in rags like this?" Eleanor stroked my thin spine, her chest heaving with rising fury.

"Please calm your anger, Your Majesty," I whispered, lowering my eyelashes. "Father and Mother are busy with fortress military affairs. My cousin Kalia has been unwell lately, so the pack's finances are tight. As the eldest daughter, I dare not ask for luxury."

Beside us, Arthur let out a cold snort. "Your Majesty, this old servant heard that the Burks pack recently spent fortunes on that cousin's wardrobe, even dealing with black-market salt merchants, while cutting off the monthly allowance of our royal savior."

Golden fire flared in Eleanor's eyes, the wolf totem embroidered on her chest rising and falling rapidly.

"Absurd! A distant outsider dares to trample over the savior of the royal family?" Eleanor snapped. She slid a strand of seventy-year-old glowing blue beads-her prized Moonstone Rosary, blessed by generations of high shamans-off her left wrist and pushed it onto mine.

The moment the cool beads touched my skin, pure lunar energy surged into my damaged veins, soothing the icy ache in my lungs.

"Jazlyn, I wear this Moonstone Rosary every day. Seeing it is like seeing me in person! Wear it back to your fortress. I want to see who in the Burks pack dares to touch a hair on your head!" Eleanor commanded.

"Jazlyn thanks Your Majesty for your grace," I murmured, bowing my head to hide the icy curve of my lips.

Arthur personally assembled a squad of royal guards in dark-gold armor to escort my carriage. Out on the broad central avenue, noble war chariots pulled aside and bowed as our royal banners passed through the howling blizzard. Soon, the ancient marble archway of the Burks fortress loomed ahead, where several servants huddled in the wind, waiting to watch my humiliation. I slowly turned the cool moonstone beads around my wrist as the carriage rolled to a stop at the bottom of the front steps.