<h4>Chapter 119: Chapter 119: The Tyrant’s Crown</h4>


    That night, ra couldn’t sleep. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw her children’s cold faces from the images.


    When she finally drifted off, the nightmares came. But these weren’t just dreams. They felt real. Too true. She stood in a world twenty years in the future.


    The sky was gray, and massive walls surrounded what used to be their pack area. But now it looked like a castle. A jail.


    "Wee to the New Order," a familiar voice said behind her. ra spun around and gasped. It was Kira, but grown up.


    Beautiful and scary. Ice crystals floated around her like a cap, and her eyes held no warmth at all. "Kira?" ra whispered. "Baby, what happened to you?" "Baby?" Kiraughed, but it sounded like breaking ss. "I haven’t been anyone’s baby for a long time, Mother."


    The word ’mother’ came out like a curse. "You taught me that power is everything," Kira continued.


    "So I took all of it." She pointed, and ra saw them. Hundreds of people in chains, working in fields under the burning sun.


    Werewolves with metal cors stood guard, their eyes empty and controlled. "You enved them," ra breathed in horror.


    "I freed them from the burden of choice," Kira corrected coldly. "Humans are weak. They needed strong leaders. We gave them that."


    A shadow moved beside Kira, and Kai appeared from the darkness. But he wasn’t the sweet baby ra knew. This version was tall and lean, with eyes like ck holes. Shadows writhed around him like living things.


    "The humans used to hunt our kind," Kai said, his voice echoing oddly.


    "Now they serve us. It’s better this way." "Where’s your brother?" ra asked, looking around for the third child. "Sister," Kira corrected.


    "And she’s busy running the factories." As if called, the ground shook. A figure approached, and ra’s heart stopped.


    The third child had grown into someone beautiful and terrible. Power radiated from her in waves that made the air shimmer.


    "Mother," the young woman said, inclining her head slightly. "You look exactly like I remember."


    "This isn’t real," ra said desperately. "This is just another idea. Another trick." "Is it?" the third child asked.


    "Look around. Does this feel like a dream to you?" ra did look. The smells were real.


    The sounds. The pain in her chest as she watched humans stumble under heavy loads while werewolf guardsughed. "How did this happen?" she whispered.


    "You want to know the truth?" Kira stepped closer, ice forming under her feet with each step.


    "You were weak, Mother. All of you were weak." "We tried to teach you right from wrong," ra argued.


    "Right and wrong?" Kaiughed, and shadows danced around him like fire. "You taught us that we were different. Special. Better than everyone else. So we acted like it."


    "That’s not what we meant!" "Isn’t it?" The third child’s eyes glowed with power.


    "You told us we were meant for greatness. You said we had to protect the pack. Well, we did. We protected it by conquering everything else."


    ra watched in fear as a human child, maybe seven years old, stumbled while carrying water.


    A werewolf guard raised his hand to strike. "Stop!" ra screamed. The guard froze mid-swing, looking confused. "Interesting," Kira whispered. "You still have some power here."


    "Let me help him," ra begged, running toward the child. But Kai’s shadows wrapped around her legs, keeping her in ce.


    "Help is weakness, Mother. You taught us that too. Every time you saved us from consequences, you made us weaker." "So we learned to be strong," the third child added.


    "We learned that mercy is just another word for failure." ra fought against the shadows, tears streaming down her face.


    "Please. You’re my children. I love you." "Love?" Kira’s voice turned to ice.


    "Love is what made you hesitate when you should have moved. Love is what made you question when you should have been certain."


    "Love is why you’re standing here now, watching us fix your mistakes," Kai said. The third child walked closer, and with each step, ra felt her power draining away.


    "We don’t need your love, Mother. We have something better." "What?" ra gasped. "Fear." The scene around them moved.


    Now ra could see the full scope of their kingdom. Cities where people lived in carefully controlled sections. Werewolf guards on every corner.


    Children being sorted by magical ability, the strong ones taken to training camps, the weak ones sent tobor. "You created a world of monsters," ra sobbed.


    "We created a world of order," Kira corrected. "No more wars. No more confusion. Everyone knows their ce."


    "And what about happiness? What about freedom?" "Overrated," Kai said simply. "Security is better."


    "But what about your fathers?" ra asked desperately. "Where are Kael, Ronan, and Darian?" The three children traded looks.


    For just a moment, ra saw something flicker in their eyes. Pain? Regret? "They tried to stop us," the third child said softly. "So we stopped them first." ra’s world tilted.


    "You killed them?"


    "We didn’t have to kill them," Kira said, and for the first time, her voice held feeling. "We just... put them somewhere safe. Where they can’t interfere."


    "Show me," ra ordered. Kai gestured, and the shadows parted to show a crystal prison.


    Inside, ra could see three people. Kael, Ronan, and Darian, but older, stuck in some kind of magical sleep.


    "They’ll wake up when they’re ready to ept what we’ve built," the third child stated. "We’re not monsters, Mother. We just learned to make hard choices."


    "This is wrong," ra whispered. "All of this is wrong." "ording to who?" Kira asked.


    "ording to the humans who used to kill us? ording to the vampires who fought wars over territory? We ended all of that." "You ended everything good too!"


    "Good is subjective," Kai said coldly. "Results are not. Look at our world, Mother. No war. No hunger. No chaos. Everyone has a role."


    "Everyone except you," the third child added. "You’re the only one who doesn’t fit." ra felt a chill that had nothing to do with Kira’s ice skills.


    "What do you mean?" "We’ve been wondering what to do with you," Kira said carefully. "You’re too dangerous to leave free. Too valuable to simply jail."


    "But we think we’ve found the perfect solution," Kai added, his shadows growing darker.


    The third child smiled, and it was the most frightening thing ra had ever seen. "We’re going to give you exactly what you always wanted."


    "What?" "A chance to start over. To raise us again. To do it right this time."


    The world around ra began to dissolve, but she could still hear their words.


    "Sweet dreams, Mother. When you wake up, you’ll be back at the beginning. Back when we were babies. You’ll have another chance to teach us to be better."


    "But here’s the thing," Kira’s words echoed as everything faded. "No matter how many times you try, you’ll always end up here. Because this is who we were always meant to be." "This is your punishment," Kai added.


    "To watch us be monsters, over and over, knowing you created us." "Wee to your personal hell," the third child whispered.


    ra screamed as the vision shattered— And woke up in her own bed, breathing and covered in sweat.


    The triplets were there quickly, surrounding her with concern. "What happened?" Kael asked anxiously. "Another vision," she panted.


    "But worse. So much worse." She looked toward the nursery where she could hear the babies stirring.


    Sweet, innocent sounds that now filled her with dread. "They showed me what our children be," she whispered.


    "They showed me a world where our babies grow up to be tyrants." "It was just a nightmare," Ronan said, but his voicecked sincerity. "Was it?"


    ra looked at each of them. "What if every decision we make leads to that future? What if we’re destined to make monsters no matter what we do?"


    From the nursery came a sound that made them all freeze. It wasn’t crying. It wasughter. Cold, adultughsing from their six-month-old babies.


    And in thatughter, ra heard the echo of the viins from her vision. The horror wasn’t over. It was just starting.