A King's Bargain

Dawn found me shivering on the window ledge of the kitchen, watching the village wake up by the slow diligence of those who had no other choice. My hands were numb from the night’s cold and from the memory of Kellan’s palm closing around the scrap of blue.

I had expected Rowan to return like a story’s hero, like this thing of ones imagination: sudden and triumphant. Instead I felt only a hole left by his absence.

The morning brought an envoy — not the usual petty officials, but men in black cloaks with silver chains and a seal I had seen only in rumors: a crown ensnared by thorns. Word spread like wild fire. The Alpha’s son had summoned the royal house: a delegation from the King’s court itself had arrived. There were whispers of unrest at the borders, of rogues mutating with strange beasts, of political debts owed and unpaid. The hall itself smelled of mummur and fear

Kellan moved differently that day: not like a prince, but like a man who had chosen a weapon and could not put it down. He did not speak to me in public, but his eyes found me like a compass needle. Twice he walked past without notice and then, when the royal envoy had retired and the hall had emptied, he caught me in the servants’ corridor.

“You were reckless last night,” he said, voice low.

“You sent him away,” I replied. The accusation sat like a stone in my throat.

“We follow law,” he said. “You know that. You would have endangered everyone.”

“You endangered him,” I countered. “I nearly got us both—”

“Enough.” His words came out sharp. “Come with me.”

He led me through the corridors,it smelled of wax and old leather. Until we reached a door that opened not into a room but into a study lined with books and maps. The air there felt older than anything else in the house. Kellan fell into a chair and gestured for me to sit across from him at a small table, near him

“I was going to make you safe,” he said finally. “I told the mercs to take the rogue and release him beyond the first ridge, I thought distance would protect you from being questioned.”

“You thought wrong,” I said, looking straight at his eyes, with furry “He will die in the wastes.”

Kellan’s mouth thinned. “Rowan is not the kind of man to die easily,” he said. “But there is more at play here than one man’s fate.”

He reached into a drawer and produced a sealed parchment. The King’s sigil — a wreath of three thorns — glinted like a promise. He laid it on the table with a calm that betrayed nothing.

“There are rumors,” Kellan said. “Mutants at the southern passes, rogues that carry something in their blood. The Crown is nervous. They sent this to ensure the loyalty of pack leaders. They will offer protection — and take allegiance. The Alpha will be asked to pledge fealty to the King for aid. In return, the King will demand a token — someone to represent the pack in oath.”

My fingers clutched the edge of the table. “Token?”

Kellan’s eyes did not leave mine. “An offering,” he said bluntly. “A wolf to be given to the King’s custody as proof of fealty, the Alpha wants to choose someone without scandal.”

“You mean they will— give a person?” . My voice was small and incredulous.

“They will ask for one wolf who is loyal, obedient, and of the bloodline,” Kellan explained. “Someone who can be presented as a sign of trust.”

My stomach turned. “You would hand over someone to the King? To be…what? A ward? A hostage?”

“In a perspective,yes,” Kellan said. “But it would be a royal ward, treated with honor,the point is to be useful.” He paused. “Ivy, I need to know where your loyalties lies.”

“My loyalties?” I echoed. I had loyalties like cracks in glass: to survival, to the small kindnesses I kept in secret, I thought of Rowan’s blue eyes, the way he gripped my hand, the way he had been dragged away. I thought of the mercs’ laughter and the Alpha’s decree

Kellan leaned forward, his hands steepled. “There is another way,” he said. “If the pack offers no gift, the King will demand harsher terms. If the King is placated with a loyal wolf of noble blood, he may provide the aid we need. I propose an alternative: an oath from an unlikely place.”

“You mean me,” I said before I could stop myself. The words leaped out as if they had been waiting.

Kellan’s eyes sharpened. “You have been marked, ostracized, and yet you performed an act of mercy, the King’s court values those who defy expectation. You are…dangerously visible now.”

“Visible?” I laughed, a short, ugly sound. “Because I tried to help someone?”

“Ivy.” His voice softened in a way that made my bones ache. “They will ask for a representative of the pack who will stand in the King’s halls and vow loyalty,if we offer someone of higher station, it appeases them. But if we offer someone like you, it would show humility and…flexibility.” He let the word hang. “You would be sent to the capital as a ward of the crown. They would observe you, not bind you — at least in theory. You would not be punished for harboring a rogue. You would be…protected, you'd be rewarded .”

My first, flinching thought was disbelief. The second was rage. “Protected by handing me away like a trinket?”

“Protected by being under the King’s eye rather than under the mercs’ knives,” Kellan countered. “You would have choices in the capital. You could learn, and you would be off the border, Rowan’s fate would be unattached to your punishment. It’s a bargain.”

“And in exchange?” I asked. “What does the pack gain?”

Kellan’s voice lowered. “Favor with the King. Supplies. He will station a patrol along the border and the mercs will be paid to move on, you would be the face of that bargain.”

I thought of Rowan walking into the forbidden north, how the wind would find him and perhaps tear him apart. I thought of freedom, of something more than the hut and the chores and the gasps of Maris when she wanted to make me small.

“You would ask me to leave my home,” I said. The idea should have felt like a release,instead it felt like exile.

“Yes,” Kellan said simply. “And I would ask you to take the risk willingly.”

A laugh bubbled out of me then, not mad but bitter. “You want me to be the pack’s proof of loyalty by giving me to the King? You want to trade me for wood and coin?”

“I want to save you from the mercs who would make an example of you,” Kellan snarled, sudden heat. I get him and know he only wishes well but... “And I want to save the pack from being ground under the King’s heel.”

His face softened and, for a moment, he looked tired in a way that did not belong to someone who had everything. He reached for my hand with a gentleness so explosive I could barely even breathe.

“If you go,” he said, “I will make sure you are escorted and shown favor. I will ensure the King’s servants treat you with courtesy, but you will have to swear an oath to the crown upon arrival.”

“And if I refuse?”

Kellan’s fingers tightened, not cruelly but like a man squeezing something that still mattered. “If you refuse, I cannot promise Rowan’s safety nor the pack’s. The Alpha will have to choose a different offering, and it may be harsher.” He said honestly, but I knew deep down he never really cared for Rowan or his safely,I knew all he cared about was me.

I was offered a choice that was not a choice: leave for a strange court or remain and watch men like the mercs decide my fate. Both roads stank of exile. Both roads were lined with teeth.

“Why me?” I asked, voice raw. “Why choose me of all—”

“Because you are unexpected,” Kellan said. “Because you arouse curiosity on more than one side, because the King likes a story of redemption.

And because you did an act of mercy he can use as propaganda.”

The world shifted then; My life — small and measured in chores and bruises — had been folded into a map that touched cities I had only smelled on merchants’ waves

“What about Rowan?” I asked in a demanding tone. The name hissed like a prayer.

Kellan’s face crumpled. “I will find him, if he’s alive,” he said quietly. “I cannot promise success, but if you go to the capital, you will be under less immediate danger to your life and to those you care for.”

I thought of the blue scrap, the coin, the way Rowan had pressed it into my hand as if sealing a covenant. I thought of Kellan’s closed hand and that fleeting, impossible kindness.

“Tomorrow,” I said finally. “I will go to the Alpha. I will accept the bargain”

Kellan exhaled like a man unhooking himself from a noose. For the first time since I’d known him, his expression became raw and the armor dropped. “You will be received by the King’s envoy on the third day,” he said. “You will learn to survive in new ways.”

“And you?” I asked. “What will you do while I leave?”

His mouth curved in something unreadable. “I will keep this place from burning,” he said. “And I will find Rowan.” I saw trust and honestly in his eyes

I wanted to believe him. I wanted to fill my ribs with the warmth that his words promised,but I also felt the keen, metallic edge of fear: a bargain made with a king never comes free. It never does

As I left the study, Kellan called my name back like a tether. “Ivy,” he said. “Do not trust the crown’s smiles.”

I tucked that warning into my pocket like a coin.

Outside, the pack moved on as if nothing had changed,but everything had. I had been offered as a sacrifice and as a shield in the same breath. The blue scrap burned under my mattress like a secret about to combust.

When I closed my eyes that night, I tried to imagine a future in which I did not have to choose between exile and death. I failed. The last thing I saw before I slept was Rowan’s silhouette — or maybe a trick of memory — moving through a gray morning, a single blue scrap tied to his belt like a promise I had to keep.

Tomorrow, the King’s envoy would arrive to receive the pack’s offering. Tomorrow, I would speak before people who could buy and sell lives with a nod.

Tomorrow, everything either burned or began anew.