MasukLILY
After I slipped through the broken postern and disappeared into the mist, I learned what it meant to be truly alone.
The scent-vanish powder did its work. No howls followed me. No riders appeared on the road. No familiar voice called my name from the darkness.
But freedom had its own hunger, and it hollowed me out day by day.
My boots split at the seams by the fourth day. My cloak grew heavy with damp and never fully dried. Little Spark, who had once filled my
LILYThe work became so much that I could barely breathe.It was never one task. It was everything, from the moment I opened my eyes until my body could no longer carry me.Pound the grain. Carry water. Sweep the floor Eleanor had already ordered me to sweep an hour earlier. Wash the villagers’ clothes. Cook. Scrub the pots. Start again.My arms ached down to the bone. My lower back felt ready to snap, and the pup sat so low in my belly that I had to waddle to keep my balance. Every step sent pain through my hips.That afternoon, I was pounding grain to separate the chaff, the way Eleanor had taught me.I lifted the heavy pestle and brought it down. Turned the grain with my bleeding hands. Lifted it again.Sweat ran down my back and into my eyes. My arms trembled so badly that the pestle wobbled each time I raised it.I should have stopped.I knew that.But Eleanor had already complained twice about how slow
KAELI reached my chamber still burning with anger.I did not sit. I stood in the middle of the room, staring at the door as though Jace might appear simply because I expected him to.“Bring Jace to me. Now.”The guard stationed outside bowed and hurried away. He knew better than to ask questions when my voice sounded like that.I paced while I waited, my boots striking the stone floor.I was King.He was my Beta.He could not keep treating me as though I were nothing.The guard found Jace outside the palace gate.“My lord, the King commands your presence.”He looked at the chief guard and said, “Tell him I am tired and hungry from the many scrolls he made me read today. Tell him exactly that.”The guard stared at him.“My lord, please. He will be angry if I say exactly that or return without you.”“He is already angry,” Jace s
LILYI fainted beside the hearth.One moment, I was stirring the soup, the wooden ladle heavy in my hand, steam dampening my face. The next, the heat became unbearable. The smoke stung my eyes, the smell of boiling herbs turned my stomach, and the weight of the pup low in my belly seemed to drag the rest of me down with it.The room tilted.The ladle struck the pot with a sharp clang.I reached for the hearth to steady myself, but my fingers caught nothing. My hip hit the floor first, then my side. Pain flashed through my lower belly.Everything went black.When I woke, Eleanor stood over me with a wooden bucket.Before I could speak, she tipped the water over my face.Cold water struck my eyes and entered my mouth. I jerked upright, coughing and choking.“Eleanor!”Water streamed down my neck and soaked the front of my dress. My heart hammered against my ribs. The place where I had struck the h
KAELI returned to the council chamber for the first time in weeks.The moment the great doors opened, the hall went silent.Quills stopped scratching. Chairs scraped against the stone. Elders who had been speaking in low voices fell quiet, and the guards lowered their eyes as I entered.They were afraid of me.I could see it in their stiff shoulders and the way they watched my hands. They expected me to draw my sword. Perhaps they thought I had come to finish what I had started the night I killed the water girl.I had not.I had come to take back my seat.The humiliation of the previous night still burned beneath my skin. Jace’s sword at my throat. His power throwing me across my own chambers. His voice warning me that he would take my throne if I threatened the pack again.I had heard those words every time I closed my eyes.I would not allow him to rule in my place another day.Jace sat in front of
LILYI was trying with all my heart to be human.Eleanor never suspected that I was anything else.She cared for me in ways I had never expected from a stranger. When my back ached from carrying the pup low, she made bone broth and ordered me to sit. When my feet swelled until my slippers no longer fit, she rubbed warm oil into them with hands that were rough but gentle.“You carry too much in front, little mother,” she would mutter, kneeling beside my stool. “Lean back before you fall over.”“I’m not going to fall over.”“Of course not. You’ll simply topple forward and blame the floor.”I would laugh, and she would smile as though making me laugh had been her intention all along.We became sisters in that small cottage at the edge of the village. She taught me to weave on her old loom, showing me how to thread the shuttle without tangling it and how to keep the tensio
Jace steel met mine so fast as if he had anticipated it.The woman dropped to her knees with a scream.I stared at Jace over our crossed swords.“Move.”“No.”“Move!”“Put your sword down, Kael.”My wolf surged against my skin. Heat flooded my veins, and my eyes burned gold.“She is not my wife,” I said, my voice shaking. “My wolf knows it. She doesn’t smell like Lily. There is nothing about her that makes her Lily except her face.”Jace’s arm trembled beneath the pressure of my blade.“Why would you do this to me?”His expression twisted.“Because I didn’t know what else to do.”“So you brought me a counterfeit? You wanted me to touch her, to believe she’d returned, to humiliate myself in front of you?”“I wanted to stop you from destroying yourself







