CHAPTER ONE

“Are you sure about this?”

I turned around from the mirror, the wedding gown I was inspecting rustling around my ankles.

Celeste was sitting on my bed, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.

“Celeste…”

“I mean…come on, Margaux. We knew that man was a monster.” She continued, “After everything we’d learned about him, the reports from the capital…”

“I knew what he was.” I smoothed down the silk, twisting my back to see how it looked from another angle. “That’s why I was doing this, isn’t it?”

Alpha George, Celeste’s father, stepped away from the window and turned to us with a frown on his face. “Margaux…I was still deeply concerned about this, even though I knew you had a good reason to go ahead with your plan.” His eyes found mine. “I had no idea the type of monster that man was when I agreed to the marriage alliance between him and Celeste five years ago.”

No, he didn’t.

Until they found me in the forest a few months later and took me in.

When Alpha George investigated my claims, he was utterly disgusted with the things Aldric had done beyond killing my family, and was almost about to cut off his engagement with Celeste—until I saw an opportunity.

I had begged for months to take Celeste’s place instead, until they both agreed.

“I knew you two were worried,” I said as I stepped away from the mirror and went to sit beside Celeste, “but this was my chance. Our chance.”

“It was suicide,” George said flatly.

“It wasn’t. We had been planning this. You knew we had. Yes, there would be casualties, but should I lay low and ignore everything he’d done and was still doing? All I needed was one year to study his patterns and access his records. This marriage was the only way I could get close enough to him.”

“What if he discovered who you really were?” Celeste’s voice shook. “If he realized you weren’t me?”

“He wouldn’t. He’d never seen either of us.” I took her hands. “This worked because he didn’t care. To him, you were just another alliance, another political move. He wouldn’t look close enough to see the difference.”

George crossed his arms. “You were gambling your life on his arrogance.”

“I was counting on it.” I squeezed Celeste’s fingers. “I needed to do this. For my family. For everyone suffering under his rule. He killed them like they were nothing—like they were animals he could just dispose of. Someone had to make him pay.”

“Let someone else—”

“There was no one else.” The words came out harder than I intended. “He murdered my parents. My little sister. He didn’t get to keep breathing while they were in the ground. But this wasn’t just about revenge. Someone had to step up and stop his reign of terror. Too many innocents were dying…people who were as helpless as I was.”

They didn’t say anything for a few seconds. Finally, George’s shoulders dropped. “One year. And if you couldn’t get what we needed by then—”

“I would.”

“If you couldn’t,” he continued firmly, “you would extract yourself. Do not try to play heroics. You would come home.”

Home.

That was what this place had been for the past five years. Although it took me time to adjust…to find a will to live in a world where my entire family didn’t exist, Alpha George had sheltered me ever since they found me near their borders.

Took care of me like a daughter and gave me more care than I had ever received in my life as just a worthless Omega.

One of the things that really hit me was how different this place was from the home I ran from.

Here, there were no Omegas, no slaves.

Everyone lived peacefully and was equally respected, unlike back home where your status determined the quality of your life.

It could be better…and I had made that my vision, my purpose. The only reason I hadn’t killed myself to join my family in the underworld.

“Thank you,” I said. “For everything. For taking me in when I had nothing. For giving me this chance.”

Celeste pulled me into a hug. “You’re my sister, Margaux. In every way that mattered, and I loved you.”

My throat tightened. “I loved you too.”

George cleared his throat roughly. “Carriage is waiting. Best not to keep a king waiting, even a bastard like Aldric.”

I pulled back, adjusting my veil one final time. The beadwork obscured my face, in a way it used to for Omegas back home, but this was different. This one wasn’t the shameful covering of an Omega I had to wear back home.

Here the veil represented a woman’s honour. Every unmarried woman had to keep her face covered until she stepped into her husband’s home.

⸻

The carriage lurched forward, and I watched through the window as George’s territory disappeared behind me. Celeste waved until she was just a speck, then nothing.

After four hours of endless riding, we finally got into familiar landscapes that made my chest ache.

I knew these roads. Used to run through these fields.

My fingers found the bead bracelet on my wrist—clumsy, uneven, made by my twelve-year-old sister who thought she had all the time in the world to get better at crafts.

I was coming home, Janey. Finally.

The capital rose ahead, and my stomach clenched. The walls were higher than I remembered, and there were more guards.

The gate opened slowly, and we rolled through into streets I used to know by heart.

Everything looked the same. That bakery where Mama bought bread every Sunday. The square where the spring festivals happened. The training grounds where—

I yanked the curtain shut, pressing my palm flat against my chest. My heart hammered against my ribs.

Breathe. Just breathe.

But it was painful trying to breathe, especially with all the memories now filling my head.

My sister’s laughter. Mama’s smile.

Nothing might have changed, but I’d never see my mother again. I’d never see any of my family again, or hear Father’s stern voice…or Janey’s laughter.

She would have been seventeen this year.

They killed my family like cattle. Slaughtered them in their own home and didn’t even have the decency to make it quick. My father died trying to protect my sister. My mother died reaching for something—probably me. Probably hoping I was somewhere close enough to save.

I wasn’t.

But I was here now.

The bracelet dug into my wrist as I squeezed it. I’d make this right. I’d restore balance. No more treating people like garbage just because they were born Omega.

Finally, the carriage stopped, and before I could get myself together, the curtains were pulled open and a woman was standing at the entrance with a warm smile.

From how stunning she looked—her emerald silk and the way her dark hair was swept up elegantly—I could tell she was not a mere maid.

She stepped forward as a footman opened my door.

“Princess Celeste.” She dipped into a curtsy. “Welcome. I’m Lady Vera, the King’s cousin. His Majesty and the council were assembled inside, waiting to receive you.”

I took her offered hand, stepping down carefully.

“We’d heard such things about your beauty,” Vera continued, studying what little she could see through my veil. “Even veiled, I could tell the rumors didn’t do you justice.”

“You’re kind.”

She gestured toward the massive doors. “If you’ll follow me—”

“Princess Celeste.”

Everything stopped.

That voice. Low, smooth, edged with something I couldn’t name. A voice that used to whisper promises in the dark to me, the same voice that had mocked me…reducing me to nothing.

My spine locked.

I refused to turn even as I heard footsteps approaching from behind.

“Please, allow me to escort you inside.”

It seemed like I had no choice. Besides, I couldn’t hide forever.

So with a small smile, I turned around, hand extended in greeting.

My heart dropped when I saw Klaus standing three feet away, taller than I remembered, broader through the shoulders. His dark hair was longer now, touching his collar. But his eyes—those hadn’t changed. Still that impossible shade of amber.

He reached for my hand.

The moment his fingers touched my arm, lightning cracked through my veins. My wolf—silent for five years, dormant and broken—suddenly roared to life.

MATE.

No. No, this wasn’t—this couldn’t—

Klaus’s eyes went wide. His grip tightened. His lips formed a single word, barely a whisper:

“Margaux?”