Chapter 19

Freya 

   Osric arrived four days after Ember Night with mud on his boots, exhaustion in his posture, and the kind of face that suggested he had spent most of his life outdoors.

Travelers passed through Thornfield often enough, though not many stayed longer than a night. Thornfield sat in an awkward place between territories and roads, useful to people who wanted shelter but inconvenient to people who wanted status.

Osric seemed perfectly comfortable with inconvenience and by the time dinner started, Helga had already decided she liked him entirely because he complimented her stew before taking a single bite.

“Smart man,” she declared.

“I enjoy surviving,” Osric replied gravely, which earned him an approving grunt.

He was broad shouldered and weathered in the way men became after years of riding through every kind of season. His cloak still smelled faintly of rain and horse, and his gloves sat drying near the fire while he ate like someone who hadn’t seen a proper meal in days.

Travelers always carried news and Osric wasn't any different. It usually leaked out of them naturally after enough food and warmth.

By the second bowl of stew, Osric had already told three different stories involving broken wagon wheels, a drunken merchant, and a border argument that apparently ended with somebody losing their pants.

The hall had relaxed around him completely and even I found myself smiling once or twice. Then he mentioned the capital.

The shift inside me was immediate and involuntary and I didn't miss the moment Eliza lifted her head. Osric on the other hand, was completely oblivious to all of this as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before speaking again.

“Council’s been ugly lately,” he said casually. “Too much posturing and too many men trying to sound important.”

“That narrows it down terribly,” Mira muttered into her drink.

A few people laughed, while Osric grinned. “Fair point.”

“What’s the latest?” someone farther down the table asked.

“Well.” Osric leaned back slightly against the bench. “Alpha Thorne made a formal declaration three days ago.”

My fingers tightened around my spoon before my mind caught up with the movement. Beside me, Caden went still so subtly most people wouldn’t have noticed it.

“He stood before the full council chamber and announced that his bonded luna is carrying his heir.” Osric continued talking, unaware. “Said she left the pack without authorization and needs to be returned before the succession ritual deadline.”

The room around me dimmed strangely, like the sound of the hall had suddenly moved farther away.

“What was the council’s response?” Mira asked evenly.

“They acknowledged the claim.” Osric tore another piece of bread apart. “ and put it into official record before the session ended.”

A cold heaviness settled beneath my ribs as realization settled in my bones. Official record, not rumor nor gossip. Instead, it had been documented, like ownership written neatly onto paper.

“And the king?” someone asked.

“Didn’t say a word.” Osric snorted softly as something sharp flickered through my chest.

“He sat there through the entire thing,” Osric continued. “He simply listened and made no objection.”

The words landed harder than I expected them to.

“The court’s treating the claim as unchallenged now,” he added with another shrug. “As far as the capital’s concerned, the matter’s settled.”

My spoon touched the table carefully and I realized a second later that everyone near me had gone quiet. Not the whole hall, but just the people closest enough to notice I hadn’t moved.

Caden glanced sideways at me. He didn't push me to speak or anything, but his eyes were definitely checking to see if I was okay.

I stared down at the wood grain beneath my hands and forced myself to breathe normally.

Inside me, Eliza was awake and pacing. She was panicking. Instead, she was furious but controlled and that almost frightened me more.

Osric, oblivious to the tension he’d dropped into the room, had already moved on to another story involving a dispute between two traders over stolen horses.

I barely heard him after that. I tried to stop it, but my ears rang faintly with fragments of everything he'd said in the last minute. 

Bonded luna, his heir and the record being official and unchallenged.

Every word felt like another hand closing around my throat, not because I believed any of it, but because they had already decided it without me.

I stood abruptly enough that the bench scraped lightly against the floor.

“I need some air,” I said and luckily for me, no one tried to stop me.

The cold outside hit my skin immediately, sharp enough to sting my lungs as I stepped away from the hall.

Night had settled fully over Thornfield now. Smoke curled upward from chimneys into the dark sky, and somewhere deeper in the settlement someone laughed loudly before being shushed.

I stopped near the edge of the fence and folded my arms tightly across myself.

“Breathe in.” I muttered the words to myself. “Breathe out.” 

I repeated the process over and over again, until I heard the door behind me open a few minutes later.

Mira didn’t speak when she joined me. She simply stood beside me quietly, her shoulder almost touching mine as the cold wind moved through the trees.

For a long while, neither of us said anything. Then finally, I spoke.

“They are already naming my child.” My voice sounded calm, too calm and it was scary to even me 

“They’ve already decided whose it is.” I stared out toward the dark tree line. “What it will be used for.”

“I haven’t even given birth yet.”Mira stayed silent A as I continued, and I was grateful for that. 

For some strange reason, the anger inside me no longer felt wild. It wasn’t burning out of control anymore. It was concentrating and condensing into something harder.

I could also feel Eliza moving beneath my skin like a low growl wrapped around my spine.

“They don’t care what I want,” I said quietly. “They never did.”

“No,” Mira agreed softly. “They didn’t.”

I laughed once under my breath, not because anything was funny, but because suddenly I understood something with terrifying clarity.

All this time, I had thought survival was the goal. I told myself I needed to endure long enough, to stay small enough, be agreeable enough, and maybe eventually the cruelty would pass over me.

But it had never mattered how obedient I was. They had always intended to use me. First my father, then Thorne and then the council.

Even now, they spoke about my child, like property waiting to be inherited. Something inside me hardened completely and beside me, Mira looked over carefully, studying my face in the silence, and I saw the exact moment she noticed it.

The exact moment she realized something fundamental had shifted, like she had been waiting for someone to finally step forward from underneath all the damage.

“There she was,” her eyes seemed to say silently. “There is the woman they were afraid of.” 

And she was right, because they had no idea what they'd just unlocked.