The Wolf King's Bride

Fifty years ago, the three races signed the Rift Covenant, sustaining half a century of peace. The Wolf and Fox Clans forged political marriages and trade ties, so hybrids born from a wolf and a fox were far from uncommon back then. The Dragon Clan sequestered themselves in volcanic mountains, rarely interacting with the other two clans. Three years ago, King Edric of the Fox Clan secretly formed an alliance with the Dragon Clan. Taking advantage of the Wolf Clan's Full Moon Festival, the Dragons launched a surprise attack and massacred over three hundred wolves, including the Wolf King's parents and younger brother. This night came to be known as the "Night of the Bloody Moon". The Fox Clan played a treacherous part in the slaughter: they handed over the patrol schedules of the Wolf Clan's border outposts, betraying the wolves' trust by leveraging a fox's innate gift for intelligence gathering. The war has dragged on into its third year of stalemate. Internal turmoil within the Dragon Clan's volcanic territories has forced them to pause their assaults. Desperate to act before the Wolf King uncovers his treachery, King Edric of the Fox Clan intends to send his daughter Elara to the Wolf Clan's ancient castle as a bargaining chip for a political marriage. His calculation is simple: if the Wolf King accepts a Fox bride, he will lose any legitimate pretext to declare war on the Fox Clan. The Wolf King, however, has his own scheme: he will accept the fox maiden, then force her to witness the total annihilation of her own clan.