Masuk
Serena's pov
I bathed myself in another cloud of lavender-his favorite scent.
Today my mate, my alpha forever , was coming back home, draped in victory and merits. My wolf swelled with pride
Smoothing over the little wrinkles on the bed, a smile played over my lips.
For 3 years I have held up the fort, managing pack affairs and keeping everything afloat.
"When I come back..." I slowly recalled his promise from 3 years ago, "I will make you mine truly fully mine.." I brushed over the shadow mark on my shoulder.
I told him I was ready for a real one, he refused saying anything could happen in the battlefield and he didn't want me moping forever.
Silly Caden, like I could even dream of loving someone that was not him.
Very few knew about his arrival tonight, that was intentional on my part. I wanted to have him to myself before I would have to share him with the pack, to add to the surprise I even told the warriors to the deceive him that I was unfortunately out of the pack for a territorial meeting with the alpha and Luna of our neighboring Pack then-
The screeches from hinges turning on the door made me jolt up, I zipped through the room with my insane speed that was known through the continent and hid in the wardrobe waiting to surprise him.
I had no idea that he would beat me to it.
The door flew open, first I caught a Caden scent but here's was not the only one in our bedroom chamber, there was a softer feminine one entangled in his.
My heart shot up to my throat, breath seizing for a moment.
Was this some kind of nightmare? And if it wasn't, how was the man I had waited for leading another woman into our bedroom?
Denial kept me planted in place, feeding me excuses that didn't fit as my heart hastened faster.
"Caden I'm scared, are you sure she won't show up?" Her voice, it sounded so dainty and fragile like she was on the verge of snapping.
"Don't worry I've asked the servants and the warriors they all said she was going for a meeting or something she won't be back for another 3 days at least," Caden said in a husky voice, something once reserved for only me.
I cupped my palm over my cheek as tears trickled over them.
This was the man I waited three years for, yearning for the day I would be in his embrace once more. His letters from the war front told me that my feelings were not one-sided, that my absence created a wound that no physical blow could measure up to.
The tears intensified as their lips molded into each other, hands explored and my wolf growled, demanding I tear them apart.
But I remained hidden even as he carried her into the bed we shared, stroking off her auburn hair from her face.
I needed to know just how far he had gone with her.
His lips came to her throat, and her screams shook the walls as he did so his fingers traveled between her legs while my heart split into two
The Caden I knew was not fond of foreplay, it wouldn't even be an exaggeration to say he despised it.
"We're not teenagers anymore, Serena." He would say while messaging his brow like he was explaining his displeasure to me as if I was a petulant child. "Besides..."He would continue not facing me, "Couldn't you be focused on your true responsibilities?" That's not so subtle a reminder that I had failed again and again to produce an heir for Thornblood would clip any complaints I had about our bedroom life.
He said all that yet had another woman squirming under him in OUR bed.
It was already devastating enough but if this was just a one time thing-a mistake yes- maybe I can for-
"I can't believe I'm finally here with you..." Caden said, it was a murmur in her ears but my Luna senses picked it up like he'd said it in mine.
The woman gasped as he tore off her skirt, "Caden, You're in such a rush! Easy...I already let you have me in the car, didn't I?"
My throat closed up
"I've had you almost everyday for the past three years and it's not close to enough," he breathed out. My tears were now blurring my vision.
He was about to dive in for another kiss then she pushed him back, her palm spread, her voice suddenly serious.
"Caden I'm scared, what if your pack doesn't accept me as their Luna?"her voice began to cracked
"You'll be perfect."
I was reaching my limit.
"Please don't flatter me, I know I could never compare to your true Luna and mate..." She started to cry, hiding her face. He pulled her hand away and said; "she's not even a fraction of a problem, just a placeholder that I would have tolerated for the rest of my life. Liana, she doesn't hold a candle to you."
That was where my patience snapped. I stormed out of the closet, both pairs of eyes jerked over to me, made a pretentious attempt to reach for the duvet but it was clear that she was giving me a good show of all the love marks he had left spread over her body.
Caden planted himself between us already protectively propped in case I let out my anger on her which only inflamed me.
"Caden!" I had so much to say but it just broke out in intense emotion, he was already down to his boxers yet he told me; "this isn't what it looks like."
My muscles became taunt, "are you sure because it definitely looks like you are taking another woman to town on our bed!"
"Serena, calm yourself, this is not befitting of a Luna!"
"And I suppose dragging a common w**** to our bed is what is benefiting an Alpha?"
His mouth went short then just before he could speak the woman she just called Liana clutched to him and said;"Caden the pup is coming.”
Serena’s POVThe medical wing grew quieter after the first full day of enforced rest. The tests had been repeated and confirmed. The physician’s restrictions remained in place, but the panic that had followed the faint on the dais had settled into a watchful routine. Guards rotated at the outer doors. Reports arrived in measured intervals. Alaric spent as many hours in the chamber as the running of the palace allowed, and when he could not stay he left the bond open between us like a second presence in the room.On the second evening he came in after the last of the council summaries and dismissed the remaining attendant with a short look. The door closed. The lamps had been turned low. I was sitting upright against the pillows, the heavy formal gown long since replaced by something simpler, the residual dizziness gone enough that the world no longer tilted when I turned my head.He sat on the edge of the bed without ceremony. For a time neither of us spoke. The bond carried the stead
Serena’s POVThe full confirmation came before the light left the medical chamber windows.The physician returned with the measured calm of a man who had already chosen his words. The tests aligned. Early pregnancy. Weeks rather than months. No sign of the complications that sometimes followed strain or residual toxin. The faint on the dais had been the body’s blunt demand for attention after too many days of treating every symptom as another pressure of the palace.Alaric listened without interruption. When the physician finished and left us alone again, the silence that settled was different from any that had come before. He remained standing at the side of the bed for a long moment, one hand still wrapped around mine, his eyes fixed on some point beyond the far wall as if the future had become a physical space he was required to map.“A child,” he said at last. The words were quiet and testing, as if he needed to hear them in his own voice before they could become real.“Yes,” I an
Serena’s POVSound returned in pieces.First the close, urgent voices above me. Then the scrape of boots on the polished floor of the dais. Then the wider murmur of the great hall as the court reacted to the break in the ceremony. I was lying on the raised surface with the heavy gown still tangled around my legs and Alaric’s hand locked around mine hard enough to hurt. His face was the first clear thing I saw. For the first time since I had known him the fear in it was public, unguarded, and sharp enough that even the nearest stewards had gone still.“Serena.” His voice was low and rough. “Look at me.”“I am here,” I managed. The words came out thin. The heat that had taken my balance still sat behind my eyes, but the worst of the narrowing light had eased.The royal physician pushed through the circle of guards that had closed around the dais. He dropped to his knees on my other side without waiting for formal leave and began his examination with the same efficient calm he had used t
Serena’s POVCoronation day arrived under a sky so clear it felt deliberate.The palace had been transformed overnight. Banners in the deep crimson and black of the Obsidian line hung from every gallery. The great hall had been opened to its full length, the floor polished until the light from the high windows ran across it in long pale sheets. Musicians held the upper galleries. The scent of ceremonial incense and cut greenery filled the approaches. From the outer courts to the inner doors the household moved in the strict order of a day that would be recorded in the archives for as long as the throne stood.I woke before dawn with the bond already carrying Alaric’s focused calm. He had slept little. Neither of us had. The confirmation paperwork had been sealed in the night after the last witnesses signed. The default clause no longer opened a path for Kieran. On the surface the day belonged to the formal acknowledgment of the bond and the completed standing of the treaty. Under the
Serena’s POVAlaric did not wait for the next council session to be formally convened.He issued the royal order overriding every secondary hold on the coronation paperwork before the study lamps had burned much lower. The stewards of ceremonies and the archive clerks were summoned to the private receiving hall within the hour. The petitions that had sat under quiet administrative delay for weeks were placed on the table in front of them with the king’s seal already affixed to the instruction that no further secondary mark would be recognized.“You will advance this sequence under direct royal authority,” Alaric said. His voice carried the cold precision of a man who had finished tolerating the long way around a blade. “Witness requirements are to be met from the senior household and the available council members already inside the capital. The archive seal follows as soon as the witnesses are recorded. There will be no further interval.”The senior steward of ceremonies looked as if
Serena’s POVGale returned from the wine cellar before the afternoon light had shifted across the study floor. He carried two ledgers and a thin sheaf of schedule copies, and the expression on his face told me the anonymous tip had not been empty noise. Alaric cleared the table with one movement of his arm. The ledgers landed in the open space between us with a solid sound that felt heavier than paper and binding had any right to feel.“There is a discrepancy,” Gale said. “And it is not clerical.”He opened the wine cellar ledger first. The pages recorded cask movements, special reserves, and the withdrawals tied to formal household events. Most of the entries were ordinary. One cluster was not. Over the past five weeks a series of small, precise withdrawals had been logged against a reserve that was normally touched only for the highest state ceremonies. The quantities were modest. The timing was not.“Now the coronation schedule,” Gale continued. He laid the steward of ceremonies’ c
Caden's pov I thought she would beg to stay. Yes. Lilliana still had to take the Luna Chambers to begin solidifying her position but I thought Serena would put up a fight, then I'd offer her the basement, a bit of dusting here and there and it would be fine. Instead she decided to be petty. St
Serena's POV Hearing your own mate talk about falling in love with another 'woman' was an out of body experience. But that was the last thing I needed to hear to completely dissolve the rest of my feelings. Instantly I was emptied of all the burning passion I had for him, and I dumped the ashes
Serena's POV "We're here to see Liliana Rosemary."Even her name sounded gentle and sweet, it didn't match the conniving image that was her. My mother-in-law grabbed my arm again leading me from the receptionist counter after we had been told where to find Lillian My mate's mistress It was such
"Pup, what pup?!" I roared from within, utterly inflamed eyes shifted between my mate and his mistress. Liliana's face scrunched with pain as she folded over Caden's thigh, in a single breath he scooped her from the bed like she was made of ice. "My moonlight..." He said looking into her face as







