I was privileged as a child, but I was also an embarrassment to the royal house—I was shiftless.

My leopard never manifested. Once I’d reached adulthood and she hadn’t even sneezed, no one thought she would ever emerge.

But according to my father, I wasn’t totally useless. As I carried His Majesty’s special gene, I had potential as a breeder for another sovereign. My fate depended on whether I could produce powerful shifter children in the future.

So, King Felim gave my hand to Jeroboam, the Wolf King, who had murdered his brother to take the throne for himself then discarded his wife.

I was to be the new Wolf Queen.

Except that I didn’t go along with their plans.

Instead, I stole the spaceship Virgin, assisted by my loyal guard, Thane, and escaped, heading straight toward the coordinates of Pandemonium.

I knew my father and would-be husband would chase me to any corner of the universe, except for that cursed planet.

Twenty years ago, their combined forces had slaughtered the members of the former Wolf King’s royal household and his loyal court and army. Jeroboam had exiled all their children to Pandemonium, sentencing them to a fate worse than death.

As a little girl, I’d often wondered whether those children had survived.

Most likely not.

And now, out of desperation, I sailed for the very planet that, according to myth, generated only nightmares. It was the only place King Felim and King Jeroboam wouldn’t come looking. And if they somehow thought I was worth hunting even to the doomed planet, I reasoned, then let fate decide who would perish first. 

Any fate was better than to be the cruel Wolf King’s bride.

Though a dud, a shiftless one, and a shame to the royal house, I was as ruthless as any leopard, and even more so. The leopard legacy ran in my blood.

“Space mine ahead!” Thane called.

Thane was five years older than me. He was good-looking and strong. Though I was a princess, we’d been best friends since I could walk. He’d never looked down on me because I couldn’t shift, unlike others, who smiled at me with reverence but talked down about me behind my back.  

I rushed to the view window and stared through it at a cluster of asteroids blocking our path.

“Blast them!” I shouted.

“Aye, Captain, and shield up.” Thane grinned and opened fire as he navigated amid the asteroids.  

“Your moment to shine, Thane,” I said.

Thane had always dreamed of being a navigator rather than my royal guard. Yet, he hadn’t abandoned me to pursue his career as a pilot because he loved me and wanted to keep me safe.

Our energy beams turned the big rocks to dust, and we high fived a few times and cheered. 

We safely passed through the asteroids, debris bouncing onto Virgin and dropping. 

“We’re here,” Thane said, rubbing his hands excitingly. “We’ve reached Pandemonium!”

I peeked at the gray planet beneath the murky atmosphere. It was nowhere near the recreation planets I used to visit, but we didn’t come here for a vacation.

We were refugees, and we made it. Finally, we were out of reach of King Felim and King Jeroboam.

A small happiness bloomed in my heart.

No matter what lay ahead, Thane and I would go through it together.

“Carry on, Thane Sage,” I said coolly. “And please don’t call me, ‘Aye, Captain.’”

“Why the hell not?”

“We aren’t the space pirates you’d like us to be,” I said, trying to put sternness into my voice. “What lies before us could be harsh. There’s no room for fantasies and mistakes. We need to get into a new mindset if we want to survive. Besides, I heard snipers always pick up high-ranking officers who are greeted by the soldiers in the field.”

“Sorry, Princess.”

“Don’t call me Princess either. As I said, you could get me killed by declaring my title. We’re in disguise. If there’s any living thing on that planet, no one should know who we are or where we’re from.”

“Bella, then,” he sighed, not used to calling me that. “What about your last name?”

“Absolutely not!”

Thane pressed the alarm.

The noise rang through the whole ship, hurting my eardrums.

I hurried to turn it off and stared hard at him, though it was more of a friendly glare. “Why did you sound the alarm when there are only two people in the ship?”

“Sorry, Bella, it’s a habit. The ship detects an unfamiliar burst of energy surging toward us.” Before he finished, a vortex formed in front of us, twirling fast.

It was mesmerizing, but it was also bad news.

I widened my eyes. “What the fuck?”

“It wasn’t there before. Shit, shit, shit!”  

“Pull back!”

“I’m doing that, but we’re losing power! Oh no, shit!” Thane shifted to the manual gear, trying to veer away from the path of the vortex.

It expanded in an instant, and a violent current sucked us into its hole.

Virgin spun in the endless whirlwind.

My skin burned like it was going to peel from my aching bones. I screamed, yet I couldn’t hear it. I don’t know if Thane screamed as well. I saw him open his mouth wide, and his expression twist painfully. 

He stretched a hand toward me as if to help me. 

The dark current spat us out of its tunnel, and the crushing pressure released its grip on me.

Was it over?

Please, let it be over.

“Thane!” I breathed. 

“Bella!”

We were alive and in one piece, as was our ship!

Before relief washed over me, the ship’s power shut off and Virgin plunged toward the dark planet.

I screamed again and scrabbled my hands in the air in vain.

We crash landed, and my body was thrown to the deck. My head bounced off the hard floor, and an array of colors exploded in my vision.

I blinked once as they faded to black and all became quiet.