Chapter 3

By the next morning, word of my broken engagement had swept through every corner of the Beast Realm.

Public opinion was completely one-sided, and not in my favor.

Nobody believed I was serious. Everyone had written it off as a ploy.

After all, in their eyes, Kael was the pinnacle of what a beastkin male could be, pure-blooded dragon and highest-born young male in the realm.

"Did you hear? The pure-blooded white wolf is trying to break off the engagement! I'm crying. Does she even know what she has?"

"Right? Outside of that bloodline of hers, what does she have over Ivy? Kael being willing to look at her at all is already doing her a favor. And she has the nerve to play hard to get?"

"She probably thinks if she makes enough of a fuss, Kael will distance himself from Ivy for her sake. What an idiot. She's completely out of her depth with him."

I heard every word, clear as day.

And then Kael arrived, Ivy on his arm, riding the wave of everyone's flattery.

He spotted me across the crowd, his arrogance barely contained. "Vivienne, one round of playing hard to get is enough. So you cancelled the engagement — what of it? Where else are you going to go? Stop wasting your time. In the end, you'll come crawling back and beg me to take you. You don't have any other options."

Ivy chimed in right on cue, her voice all soft concern. "Vivienne, stop gambling with your own future. I know you're upset because of me. If you take back what you said about breaking the engagement, I'll disappear — I'll stay out of your way, I promise. Can you really bear to push away someone as perfect as Kael over something like this?"

She was playing peacemaker on the surface. Underneath, she was painting me as petty, unreasonable, and impossible to satisfy, chipping away at what standing I had left in Kael's eyes and in everyone else's.

But this life, they couldn't touch me.

Kael had expected me to crumble, to cry, to beg. Instead I gave him nothing.

That emptiness, the absence of the reaction he'd counted on, shattered his ego like a dropped vase.

He spun around looking for somewhere to direct his fury, and found it: Victor, Louis, and Domi, walking out of the council chamber.

All the spite he couldn't aim at me, he turned on them.

Everything petty and vicious about him came spilling out at once — the small man's instinct to punch down, all bluster and borrowed power with nothing real underneath.

"You three worthless half-bloods! Who said you could use the main entrance?" Kael stormed toward them and kicked the stack of official documents out of Louis's arms with a single brutal sweep. His eyes were vicious. "You're nothing but mistakes my father made while he was drunk. Not even full-blooded. You really think you have the right to breathe the same air as me? Get on your knees and lick every one of those papers off the ground."

All three brothers clenched their fists so hard their knuckles went white. But under the weight of Kael's status and the realm's brutal hierarchy, they had no choice but to bite down and endure.

"That's enough."

My voice came out sharp. I stepped in front of them without hesitation.

I could let go of what Kael said about me. But I refused to stand there and watch him grind these three under his heel.

The memory from my previous life flooded back: the frenzied horde, the moment Kael threw me to them, and these three charging in without hesitation, fighting through it all to reach me, dying there.

I might not have understood my feelings for them yet. But I could not walk away.

"Kael." I met his furious glare without flinching. "You are an embarrassment. You call yourself heir to the throne, but you have no integrity, no leadership — just a talent for throwing your weight at people weaker than you. Is that really the best you've got?"

"You dare talk to me like that?" Kael's eyes went wide. "I have no talent? I took first place at the Autumn Hunt. My border management proposal was praised by my own father. What do you know about any of it?"

"A great deal, actually." I let my voice go cold. "I married him in my previous life. I know exactly what was in his files."

"Your first place at the Autumn Hunt — that was Victor's kill. The Abyss bear he hunted alone. You stole the carcass from him. Your border defense plan — that was Louis's work. Three sleepless nights and those were his maps. And that tax reform you're so proud of? That was Domi's draft. You took it from him and put your name on it."

The silence in the courtyard was total.

All the blood drained from Kael's face. He couldn't work out how I knew. Every one of those secrets, he'd been so certain they were buried.

"You're lying. Prove it!"

Ivy was already crying beautifully, dabbing at her eyes. "Vivienne, please stop spreading lies! I know you're doing this to win Kael back. But you're going to ruin him. If you stop this right now and reconcile with him, I'll leave the royal city — I'll be your servant — just stop hurting him, please."

She performed the perfect martyrdom. Kael's protective instincts kicked in exactly on cue.

"Ivy, don't beg her!" He pulled her close, turning on me with open contempt. "You made all that up just to drive her away. It won't work. And I won't forget this."

I took one slow breath. Then I raised my voice so no one in that courtyard could miss it.

"I'll say this once more. I will never choose Kael as my husband. From this moment forward, nothing about him is any concern of mine."

The words hit him like a slap. His pride couldn't take it. He dragged Ivy away, throwing back one last threat as he went: "You'll regret this."

The crowd thinned. I turned around.

Victor, Louis, and Domi were still standing there, quiet, watching me with complicated expressions.

I walked over to them and said, low but steady: "You are sharper, stronger, and more capable than he will ever be. Why do any of you take orders from someone like that?"