BREAK ME, BREAK YOU: Love and Vengeance

CASSANDRA ASHMONT'S POV

BROOKVILLE PROVINCE.

“If you are not careful, you will be dethroned,” the seer warned my father, his voice low but firm. “A strange spirit already walks among you. Your bloodline will be wiped out. Your name will fade into nothing. You can stop it or you can let it happen.”

Then his cloudy eyes turned to me sharply. “Do the right thing. Always.”

Those words were spoken three years ago, yet they never left us. From that day, our home stopped feeling like a home. It became a place of silence and watchful eyes, where every step felt wrong, like the ground could break beneath us at any moment.

Panic lived in our halls. Fear slept in our rooms. Even the wolves within us grew restless, pacing under our skin as if they could sense the danger creeping closer.

My name is Cassandra Ashmont, daughter of Cruz Ashmont, the Grand Alpha of Brookville Province, ruler of six powerful packs in the Northwest region of the Flariva Kingdom.

Each pack had its own Alpha, strong and proud, but all of them bowed to my father. His word was law. His strength kept the province united.

After the seer’s warning, my father called every Alpha to the grand court. One by one, they stood under the sacred moon and swore blood oaths that could never be broken without death. Loyalty was no longer just expected. It was forced into their veins.

Not just the Alphas. Every member of every pack was made to swear and pledge themselves to my father, forever.

The borders were sealed tight. Patrols doubled. No one moved without being watched. And still, it was not enough.

The seer was called again, his strange powers searching through the packs until he found a baby, barely three months old. The child carried a dark, wrong aura no one could explain. She and her parents were banished from the province.

But even after they were gone, the fear did not leave. My brother, Prince Orion Ashmont, my father’s only son, was pushed into harsh training. Day and night, he was prepared for war, his wolf forced to grow stronger, faster, deadlier. There was no room for weakness anymore.

As for me, my life changed in quieter ways. I was never alone again. Guards followed me everywhere. Servants were carefully chosen and watched. Even my tutors were screened before they were allowed near me. I stayed close to my parents, always within reach, always protected.

At first, it felt suffocating. But I understood why. In our world, dethronement was not just losing power. It meant losing everything. Our title, our home, our lives. We could be hunted down or worse, turned into rogues wolves without a pack, without protection, forced to survive like animals.

That thought alone was enough to keep me awake at night. So I learned to adapt.

Because of these fears, here was I, sitting on an old log at the edge of the training field, watching the scouts train. Their beautiful wolves moved with such power and grace under the Beta’s commands. My father, Alpha Cruz Ashmont stood aside in his human form as he watched them. I couldn’t help but feel a sharp sting in my chest.

I was twenty-one now, way past the age when most wolves first shift. Yet here I was, still waiting for mine. Every time I saw younger wolves running and leaping in their wolf forms, it hurt. The seer had told us my wolf was simply delayed. That gave me some comfort, but the shame of being wolf-less at my age still ate at me deep inside.

“He is worse than his father,” my mother’s soft voice pulled me back to the present.

I blinked and looked at her. “Huh?”

Luna Valeria Ashmont, my mother, smiled gently. “Don’t tell me you weren’t listening, Cassandra. Where did your mind wander off to?”

I quickly pointed at the old picture in the book I was holding. “Just thinking about him. How someone can be so ruthless,” I lied. I didn’t want her to know I was still worrying about my missing wolf.

She glanced at the image and nodded. “I was just telling you about him. He’s more brutal than his father ever was. This is the closest photo anyone has ever taken of him, and it was shot from far away.”

Valeria’s voice dropped lower. “Anyone who gets closer doesn’t live long enough to talk about it.”

I stared at the picture again. Heclox Rutherford, the brutal rogue Alpha. The monster every pack warned their pups about. A tall, broad-shouldered man with cold, piercing eyes that seemed to burn right through the paper and into my soul. His face was all sharp angles, dark stubble, and scars that spoke of battles no one else survived.

“How did he become like this?” I asked quietly.

“His father committed treason against his Alpha,” my mother explained. “The entire family was sentenced to death, but somehow they escaped and turned into this.”

I kept listening, my eyes fixed on the image. “And the Moon Goddess still lets him live? Just so he can keep hurting the whole werewolf world?”

Valeria sighed. “The Goddess has her reasons. We cannot question her will.”

“But he looks so young in these pictures,” I noted, “especially for something that happened so many years ago.”

“He was only a boy when it all started,” she continued. “His father ruled that savage rogue pack for years. When Heclox took over, he became even worse. He doesn’t hesitate to kill. He is the line no wolf should ever cross.”

Suddenly, screams and fierce howls ripped through the peaceful afternoon. The training ground exploded into chaos. A disgusting, heavy stench filled the air.

“Rogues,” my mother muttered, her nostrils flaring as she sniffed.

The foul smell hit me too, even without a wolf, my senses were still sharp. Warriors and scouts began shifting all around us, bones cracking, fur bursting through skin. My father’s powerful black wolf exploded out with a thunderous snarl and charged toward the tree line where dark shadows moved fast.

“Cassandra! Stay down!” my mother cried as she shifted into her elegant silver wolf.

Panic seized me. I jumped to my feet, eyes darting everywhere. Wolves were being torn apart. Silver bullets whistled through the air. Everyone else had shifted except me.

“Find the prince! And the princess! Keep them alive!” a deep, terrifying voice growled over the noise.

My heart nearly stopped. These attackers were looking for my brother and I.

“Princess!” a familiar voice shouted behind me.

I spun around and saw my guard, Gamma Thorne, running toward me in his human form.

“We need to leave now!” he yelled, grabbing my arm. “Get on my back!”

Before I could ask what was happening, Thorne shifted into his massive wolf. I climbed on quickly and held tight to his fur as he bolted into the woods. The wind whipped past us. This was the first time I had ever been caught in an attack. I had always been kept safe inside the palace before.

I twisted around to look back at my parents. What I saw made my blood run cold.

My father’s huge black wolf was pinned down, being ripped apart by three massive rogue wolves. Right beside him, my mother’s beautiful silver wolf lay crumpled on the ground, whimpering in pain as blood pooled beneath her.

“No!” I screamed.

Terror made my grip slip. I tumbled off Thorne’s back and hit the ground.

Thorne skidded to a stop and turned to grab me again, but a silver bullet pierced into his shoulder. He roared in agony and collapsed.

I scrambled to my feet, heart pounding wildly. The shooter was already reloading, his cold eyes locked on me.

I had no wolf. I couldn’t shift. All I could do was run.

So I ran straight into the screaming chaos and then deeper into the woods. Branches slapped my face. My lungs burned. Tears streamed down my cheeks, but I didn’t stop.

I don’t know how long I ran before I tripped and fell hard. Exhaustion pulled at every part of me. I lay there on my back, staring up at the thick canopy of trees that barely let any sunlight through. The forest was darker and thicker than any I had ever seen. It was strangely quiet now, except for the whistling birds and distant animal sounds.

My mind went back to my pack. To my father. To my mother lying in her own blood. Were they dead? And my brother Orion, had they found him? Was he captured or killed too?

Tears poured down my face as heavy sobs shook my body.

Then a deep, foul stench hit my nose. I froze. Rogue.

I shot up, eyes darting around in terror. I couldn’t see anyone, but the smell was getting stronger and closer.

I turned again in panic and my whole body went stiff with fear.

Two huge men stood right in front of me. Their eyes were red and hardened, full of pure murder.

“Tired of running, Princess?” one of them asked with a cruel smile.

“You… I… I’m not a princess,” I lied, my voice shaking badly. “I’m Natalia… just an orphan.” Tears fell like a waterfall down my face.

The rogue stepped closer, looking me up and down slowly. “Too bad. I’m looking for the princess. So you die.”

He drew out the last words, letting the terror sink deep into me.

“Please… don’t kill me,” I begged, my body trembling violently.

The rogue turned to the other man and said coldly, “Kill her.”

As the second man stepped forward, my heart felt like it jumped out of my chest. My legs gave out completely.

I collapsed onto the forest floor, and everything went black.