My Stepmother Poisoned Me Into a Monster — But Her Curse Unlocked a Hidden Kingdom’s Darkest Secret

Part 1

Beauty doesn’t matter.

It’s what’s inside that counts.

My mother used to whisper those words while smoothing my plain brown hair.

I clung to them long after she died.

I clung to them when my father brought home his new wife, Brenda.

Brenda didn’t come alone.

She brought her daughter, Heather, a girl made of absolute sunlight.

Heather was everything I wasn’t.

Graceful.

Adored.

Even her shifter form shimmered like silver moonlight, while I was nothing but dull brown.

Brenda’s maternal love belonged entirely to Heather.

My father’s pride belonged to Heather.

The pack’s praise, the suitors’ flowers, all of it went to Heather.

I was left with scraps.

A distracted pat on the head.

A cold room beneath the eaves.

Whenever my longing for affection became too obvious, Brenda would smile her cruel, perfect smile.

Envy is unbecoming, she would say, especially in one so plain.

She was a master at quiet cruelty.

When my father was home, she’d stroke my hair with one hand while holding Heather tightly with both arms.

She’d whisper about my difficult moods and jealous tendencies with fake maternal concern.

And my father, dazzled by his golden new family, would just nod.

But I still had my mother’s words.

I threw myself into learning.

I read every book I could find.

I sharpened my mind until, finally, someone noticed.

A high-ranking beta came to our home, seeking not Heather’s beauty, but my cleverness.

For one shining moment, my mother’s words felt true.

That night, Brenda brought me a cup of warm milk.

Her smile was as sweet as poison.

I drank it down, dreaming of finally having worth.

I should have known better.

When I woke the next morning, I understood the brutal truth my mother had been too kind to tell me.

I looked in the cracked mirror above my washbasin and screamed.

My throat turned raw as I stared at the monster I had become.

Wolf ears jutted from my skull, covered in coarse brown fur that spread across my cheeks.

My eyes had turned a burning, predatory red.

Elongated canines cut into my own tongue when I cried out.

I was caught between forms.

Not human.

Not wolf.

Something sick and twisted that belonged to neither world.

Brenda had laughed when she found me.

She claimed my curse would break when a man willingly took me as his bride.

Then she dissolved into cackles, because we both knew the truth.

No man would ever choose to bind himself to an abomination.

So I fled.

For years, I lived in the deep woods.

I traded herbs for scraps of bread, moving through the village markets like a shadow.

Parents covered their children’s eyes when I passed.

But hiding wasn’t enough for the villagers.

One afternoon, a crowd gathered near the well.

Nancy, a sharp-faced woman who had hated me since I arrived, pointed a trembling finger in my direction.

She claimed I had slaughtered a widow’s chickens in the night.

I hadn’t been anywhere near the farm.

I tried to back away, but strong hands seized my arms.

The village constable bound my wrists with iron shackles without meeting my eyes.

They dragged me to the castle of our Alpha, Craig.

Craig’s great hall was shrouded in darkness, lit only by flickering candles.

At the center grew something impossible.

A massive tree with golden bark and leaves that shimmered with their own inner light.

At the base of that magnificent tree lay Craig’s six sisters.

They were pale and worn, fading like flowers left without water.

Craig sat on his dark throne, his voice cutting through the air like a blade.

He demanded to know why they called me the red-eyed monster.

I lowered my hood.

Courtiers shrank back in horror.

Someone retched.

I offered him a desperate bargain.

I had heard of his sisters’ mysterious affliction, how they grew weaker each night, how anyone who tried to solve the mystery simply vanished.

I volunteered to find the truth in exchange for my freedom.

Craig gave me three days.

If I failed, I would be executed.

That night, they locked me in a small chamber beside the sisters’ rooms.

Near midnight, the sisters rose from their beds like sleepwalkers.

They pressed a hidden panel in the floor and descended a spiraling stone stair.

I followed them into the dark.

The stairs ended in a realm of impossible, amber-lit twilight.

We emerged onto the shore of a crystalline lake.

Radiant young men waited in silver boats, ready to ferry the entranced sisters across the water.

I had no way to follow.

Does the lady need a ride?

The voice came from directly beside me.

A man lounged in a boat, his hair dark as midnight, his eyes shifting between silver and deep blue.

I climbed in, keeping my hood pulled low to hide my monstrous face.

He rowed me across the lake to a vast crystal pavilion.

Inside, hundreds of ethereal figures danced under the twilight sky.

And at the heart of it all, Craig’s six sisters twirled endlessly.

They’re dancing themselves to death, the man beside me said with a callous shrug.

I realized with horror that we were in the hidden kingdom of the Fay Court.

I told him I needed proof to show Craig.

He pointed casually to a crystal branch sparkling nearby.

He said no one would miss it.

I reached out and wrapped my fingers around the cold crystal.

The moment I did, a heavy, invisible weight settled over my shoulders.

Thank you, he said, his smile turning razor-sharp.

I stared at him as the music abruptly stopped.

Unless the human steals something from my realm, he whispered, as every beautiful face in the pavilion turned to stare at me.