The Truth Comes
Luka thought the dungeon felt draftier than usual, but that abnormal cold feeling could also be from Matilda’s absence.
He descended the stone steps slowly, each footfall echoing off the damp walls. Torches flickered as he passed, and the sound of scurrying rats intensified the deeper he entered. He was mad with grief, but had to lay his misery aside temporarily to get answers. He craved closure.
Draven sat chained to the wall, half his body and face hidden in the shadows. His eyes lifted as Luka approached.
“You came,” Draven murmured.
Luka stopped just outside the bars. His lips curled as he caught the scent of his prisoner’s hybrid blood that was similar to his.
“Tell me what I want to hear,” Luka demanded unceremoniously.
“You won’t like what I tell you.”
Luka’s jaw tightened. “Start talking.”
Draven shifted, and the chains clinked softly in the muted darkness. “You want to know about my origins, yes?”
Luka refused to respond, letting the silence linger between them.
Draven took a breath. “Reynard would travel to Moonshire for diplomatic reasons; however, peace was the furthest from his mind. Getting his dick wet was the climax of his trips. He’d frequent the brothels where he met my mother, Raya.”
Luka’s brows drew together. “A brothel worker?”
“No,” Daven said quickly. “She worked there, yes, but she wasn’t… she wasn’t what people assumed. She was kind and gentle, and she had a gift for healing. She didn’t belong in a place like that, and he knew it.”
Luka scoffed, but Draven wasn’t deterred.
“They fell deeply and recklessly in love. And when he realized he couldn’t live without her, he tried to find a way to bring her to Night Falls.”
“My mother would have killed her,” Luka replied tersely.
“Yes,” Draven answered. “Reynard knew that. So, he did the only thing he could. He hid her.”
“Where?”
Draven hesitated, then spoke the words that would change everything.
“Garden Ridge.”
Luka froze. The flames from the torches crackled, and the dungeon seemed to tilt. “Garden Ridge,” Luka repeated, voice haunted and hollow. “The summer cottage.”
Draven nodded. “He purchased it for her. It was their secret sanctuary where he visited whenever he could. That’s where I was born.”
Luka’s breath left him in a slow, stunned exhale.
Garden Ridge.
The place he loved most in the world.
The place he had taken Matilda for retreat.
The place he had considered hiding her and their child if she remained human.
Realization struck him like lightning. He had been repeating his father’s sins without even knowing it.
Draven watched the stricken king cautiously when Luka’s fingers curled around the bars.
“And your mother? What happened to her?”
Draven’s gaze dropped.
“Reynard was with us in Garden Ridge and was called back to the castle. He received word that you were gravely ill. He panicked and left immediately.”
Luka frowned.
“I was never sick.”
“I know,” Draven acknowledged. “It was a lie.”
Luka’s pulse hammered in his throat.
“My mother.”
Draven nodded. “She discovered the affair and acted swiftly. She sent assassins to Garden Ridge. My mother was killed in the cottage—the same cottage you love so much.” Draven’s voice softened.
“She died on the floor, calling for Reynard. He never made it back in time. Queen Elowen ordered my death as well, not wanting any trace of Reynard’s betrayal to survive.
But the assassin she sent… he couldn’t do it.
He took pity on me and returned me to Moonshire and left me at an orphanage. ”
Luka wanted to call Draven a liar, but his mother was jealous, and she would not be embarrassed by his father’s lies and deceit.
“Reynard returned to Garden Ridge and found her body. He knew Elowen had orchestrated it, and it anguished our father that he fell for her manipulation and abandoned my mother in her final moments.”
“Don’t you dare call him that!” Luka hissed, gripping the bars tighter.
Draven swallowed down his retort and nodded. “Very well. You and him… you are not so different. From what I hear, the nobles demand Matilda be turned, or a new regime may take over. Perhaps, Garden Ridge will have new occupants.”
“Shut up!” Luka barked, closing his eyes. He envisioned Matilda in the grave, and Denalia in his arms. The parallels between their lives were too uncanny to digest.
“Reynard spent his last years in agony, but with agony nearly came change. Loving my mother had softened him. He wanted peace between the wolves and vampires—real peace. Not treaties or temporary truces. He desired a future where wolves and vampires could coexist.”
Luka’s jaw tightened. “He never spoke of this.”
“He couldn’t,” Draven said. “Your mother would’ve seen it as treason.”
Luka thought of his mother. Queen Elowen Alesi was cold, feared, and unyielding.
She was ambitious and believed in hierarchy.
Vampires were at the top, and the rest be damned.
The ban on hybrids initially extended to all non-vampiric creatures before eventually narrowing to apply exclusively to unions between vampires and humans.
Luka recalled his father’s decline. He withdrew, barely leaving his bedchambers, allowing his mother to command the kingdom in his place. He stopped speaking and wasted away.
“He died from grief,” Draven whispered. Luka swallowed hard, and the truth settled in his chest like molten lead.
After a long silence, he asked, “Why did you want me executed?”
Draven lifted his chin and narrowed his eyes. “Because I am better suited for the throne.”
Luka’s eyes sharpened.
“I am both wolf and vampire,” Draven explained. “I can unite the clans. I can finish what Reynard wanted—peace and balance—a kingdom that doesn’t rely on fear and bloodshed. You plan for retaliation and destruction and will tear this realm apart.”
Draven leaned forward. “I don’t want to kill you. But I will not let you destroy everything our father dreamed of.”
Luka stepped closer to the bars. His voice was calm—too calm. “Do you have any final words?”
Draven blinked. “Final?”
“You asked for my throne and wished for my death. You plotted against me. So, I ask again—do you have any final words?”
The dungeon fell silent.
Draven’s breath hitched in fear, but he lifted his chin with defiance. “Yes. I do.”
Luka waited.
“Go fuck yourself.”