Chapter 4

The fallout from the broken engagement hadn't even settled when Kael's mother, the Queen, pure-blooded dragon and every inch the imperious royal, summoned me to her chambers.

The moment she laid eyes on me, she gestured at the floor. "Kneel."

Her voice had the weight of someone who had never once been told no.

I stayed exactly where I was. "As the only pure-blooded white wolf in the realm, I kneel before no one."

Since she couldn't get me on my knees, she settled for cutting me down with words. "You really think you deserve my son? Kael noticed you — that's the greatest gift you'll ever receive in this life. And how do you repay that? By defying him in public, spreading lies about him? Who gave you the nerve?"

She wasn't finished. "Go apologize to Kael. Get him to forgive you. Look at Ivy — yes, she's half-blood, but she's respectful to her elders and devoted to Kael. That is what a proper woman looks like. Learn from her. Learn to be a useful, obedient complement to a great man, not a constant source of trouble."

The words brought back memories from my previous life, memories I hadn't let myself revisit.

In that life, this woman had made an art form of tormenting me. In the dead of winter, she had made me kneel outside in the snow all night under the excuse of "tempering my character as a future queen" — until my knees were too numb to feel. When I was pregnant, she had forced me to copy out hundreds of pages of beastkin law every day under the pretext of "prenatal education."

And Kael? Every time he witnessed it, all he said was, "My mother is teaching you discipline. Stop being so sensitive."

But this life, I had never married Kael. I had no reason to tolerate this woman's cruelty for a single second.

I breathed in slowly. I gave her the baseline courtesy her title was owed, but the words I delivered were frost.

"Your Majesty, you're right — I'm not worthy of your son. Which is why I'd appreciate it if your son would stop pursuing me. That would be best for everyone. As for apologizing — that will never happen, because I've done nothing wrong."

I didn't wait to see her face turn purple. I walked out.

The air outside was clean.

I found myself thinking of Victor, Louis, and Domi. They were also the Beast King's sons, but because their mothers weren't the Queen, they had been squeezed and degraded by Kael and his mother for years. The clothes on their backs were rough and worn, edges fraying, the kind you wouldn't see on an ordinary beastkin commoner.

The thought twisted something in my chest.

I went to the market alone and set about finding each of them something decent to wear.

After a long search through a high-end clothier, I found it: a dark silver cloak, the kind that would suit Victor perfectly. I was about to have it wrapped when a hand shot out from beside me and snatched it.

"Oh, how pretty! Kael is going to look amazing in this."

Ivy's voice.

She pressed the cloak to herself with a smug little smile. "Well, well — isn't this the sister who's been so loudly cancelling her engagement? What's this, then? Just came back from getting scolded by the Queen and already running to the market to buy Kael a peace offering?"

She covered her mouth with a little laugh. "No shame at all, is there? Kael doesn't even want you, and you're still clinging to him like a barnacle. Honestly, it's kind of pitiful."

I could have taken that cloak back in an instant.

But as I stood there, I thought: why bother? A piece of off-the-rack fabric, what kind of meaning does that carry? I'd make them each one myself, by hand. That meant something.

"If you want it that much, take it." I let go without a second glance and walked out of the shop.

Ivy, you can have all of that. The cloak. The man. I don't want any of it.