تسجيل الدخولLENORAOrion stood there unmoving, his expression carved into something I no longer recognized. Not anger. Not softness. Not even confusion. Just control, layered over whatever he refused to show me anymore.And something inside me finally broke at the sight of it.“You don’t get to act like that,” I said quietly at first, my voice shaking despite my effort to steady it.His gaze shifted slightly. “Act like what?”“Like you care,” I snapped, louder this time. The words cut through the courtyard air sharply enough that even distant guards paused in their movements. “Like you have any right to stand there and get jealous over who I speak to.”Orion didn’t react the way I expected. He didn’t deny it.He didn’t even look offended.Instead, his voice came out flat, cold in a way that made my stomach tighten. “I don’t care.”I blinked, and I almost thought I misheard him. Then he repeated it, slower this time, like he wanted me to fully understand. “You can do whatever you want.”Something
LENORAOrion stood there unmoving, his expression carved into something I no longer recognized. Not anger. Not softness. Not even confusion. Just control, layered over whatever he refused to show me anymore.And something inside me finally broke at the sight of it.“You don’t get to act like that,” I said quietly at first, my voice shaking despite my effort to steady it.His gaze shifted slightly. “Act like what?”“Like you care,” I snapped, louder this time. The words cut through the courtyard air sharply enough that even distant guards paused in their movements. “Like you have any right to stand there and get jealous over who I speak to.”Orion didn’t react the way I expected. He didn’t deny it.He didn’t even look offended.Instead, his voice came out flat, cold in a way that made my stomach tighten. “I don’t care.”I blinked, and I almost thought I misheard him. Then he repeated it, slower this time, like he wanted me to fully understand. “You can do whatever you want.”Something
LENORAI did not remember walking away from the garden.One moment I had been standing there, watching Xarian smile like she had carved my heart out with her bare hands, and the next I was in my room with the door shut so tightly behind me that the sound echoed through my skull like a punishment.My hands would not stop shaking.I pressed them flat against the edge of the table, forcing myself to breathe evenly, but every inhale felt wrong, like my body had forgotten how to survive something like this. The bond between Orion and me still pulsed faintly beneath my ribs, stubborn and cruel, as if it refused to accept what my eyes had already seen.I closed my eyes tightly, but it did not help.Because I still saw it; Orion did not push her away and that single thought repeated itself until it became noise I could not escape.A knock came at the door sometime later, soft but deliberate.I did not answer immediately. “Lenora,” a voice called carefully from the other side. “It’s Eagen”I e
LENORAThe wedding preparations began before the echo of my rejection had even fully faded from my bones.I stood in the grand tailoring hall of the western wing, surrounded by bolts of silks in ivory, gold, and silver, while seamstresses moved around me with forced cheerfulness that did not reach their eyes. The air smelled faintly of lavender dye and heated iron from the pressing tables, but all I could focus on was the tightness in my chest that refused to ease no matter how still I stood.Xarian sat elegantly on a raised chaise near the center of the room, one leg crossed over the other as she flipped through design sketches like she was selecting art pieces rather than planning a life I had once foolishly allowed myself to believe could be mine. Her voice carried smoothly across the hall, calm and confident, every instruction delivered like it had already been approved by fate itself.“Extend the neckline slightly,” she said without looking up, tapping one of the sketches with a
LENORAThe moment the words left my mouth, the air between us changed.“I, Lenora Starline, reject Orion, the Alpha Prince, as my mate.”Silence crashed over the balcony so heavily it nearly suffocated me.Orion stared at me like he physically could not process what he had just heard. The storm winds howled violently around us, throwing my hair across my face while distant victory cheers still echoed faintly from the lower estate.But up here, everything felt frozen and the pain tore through my chest.I gasped sharply as the bond reacted instantly, burning beneath my ribs like someone had driven silver through my heart. Tears sprang into my eyes before I could stop them, but I forced myself to stand still through it.Orion didn’t move.His silver eyes remained locked on mine with terrifying intensity as though he was waiting for me to laugh and admit this was cruel joke.“You don’t mean that,” he said finally.His voice was low and dangerously calm.Every instinct inside me screamed t
DAVIESThe eastern archive smelled like dust, candle smoke, and secrets that should have stayed buried.I stood near one of the massive stone shelves while Ethan flipped through another stack of ancient records beside me, his expression growing darker with every parchment he opened. Rain hammered relentlessly against the narrow tower windows overhead, turning the entire archive cold enough to seep into my bones.We had been down here for hours.And the deeper we searched, the worse everything became.“These records make no sense,” I muttered, dragging a tired hand across my face.Ethan didn’t look up. “They were never meant to.”The candlelight flickered across the table between us where dozens of documents now lay scattered in complete disorder. Ancient wolf dialect. Ritual records. Elder testimonies. Fragments of histories that had clearly been hidden deliberately.My eyes landed again on the same sentence that had been haunting me since morning.*The chosen vessel must possess seal







