The consequences of my actions.

Winter's POV

I smiled sheepishly as I stepped into the room, balancing the tray carefully in my hands.

"I've been promoted from Alpha?"

Sabrina didn't answer. I look over her shoulder. She had been rearranging the bandages on her shoulder without looking at me, clearly assuming whoever had entered was someone she knew. But now she had gone completely still.

Slowly, almost mechanically, she turned toward me.

Her expression remained blank.

Then I noticed it.

Her nose twitched.

Once.

Then again.

A tiny movement.

So small I might have missed it if I hadn't been watching her. I would've probably missed it if I'd blinked.

The silence stretched between us as I waited for her to laugh. Or at the very least, smile.

She didn't.

Sabrina does none of those things.

Instead, the color seemed to drain from her face.

"...Winter?"

I frowned.

"Last time I checked."

Her eyes narrowed, not in suspicion but in concentration. She inhaled again, longer this time, and whatever she found made her shoulders stiffen.

The words escape her mouth before they can be filtered. "...Gods."

She stared at me for another long second before rubbing both hands down her face.

"No..."

she muttered quietly. She took a deep breath again, as if daring her senses to lie to her again.

"No, that can't be right."

I shifted awkwardly, suddenly aware of every inch of my own skin. I get flashbacks from the days my father would use the Purgation to "cleanse" me from my sins as I lay in the town center for any and all to watch. I bite my lip to reduce the anxiety.

"Sabrina?"

She doesn't answer.

She looked at me again.

Not at my face.

At me.

As though she was trying to reconcile two things that refused to fit together.

At least, she seems to regain some of her senses.

"...Close the door."

Something in her tone made me obey without question. Seeing her like this was off-putting.

The click of the latch sounded unnaturally loud in the silence between us.

My eyes caught the moonlight spilled through the windows, silvering the room and catching the steam rising from the tray in my hands. The scent of herbs lingered beneath everything else.

Everything except...

Keon.

I saw the exact moment Sabrina accepted that she wasn't imagining it.

She leaned back against the pillows and let out a slow breath.

"And I'd been hearing whispers all afternoon. Stupid of me to assume they were nothing more than that."

I frowned.

"What kind of whispers?"

She finally laughs, though it's not the usual Sabrina special that makes you join in as well. This one has me checking for goosebumps.

"The sort wolves think no one else can hear."

A humorless smile crossed her face.

"They forget my hearing is better than most."

She rubbed thoughtfully at her jaw before continuing.

"I kept catching fragments."

Her gaze drifted toward the window as she recalled them.

"'Did you smell it?'"

"'Poor Prince Derrick.'"

"'The Alpha...'"

"'How could she...'"

She shook her head. I bit my lips deeper as each whisper is recalled.

Dammit.

She continued.

"I dismissed it."

"You did?"

"I assumed the servants were inventing another ridiculous palace rumor."

Her eyes found mine again.

"I didn't realize the rumor was standing in front of me carrying dinner."

My fingers tightened around the tray. For some reason that hit different. Maybe the feeling of being on the receiving end of Sabrina's anger was getting to me.

Without thinking, I reached beneath the collar of Derrick's oversized shirt until my hand found the necklace resting against my chest. My thumb brushed over the familiar metal, grounding me against the sudden wave of panic rising inside me.

Sabrina noticed.

Of course she noticed.

She noticed everything.

For several long moments she said nothing, and somehow that frightened me more than if she had started shouting.

When she finally spoke, her voice was quieter.

"I'm trying very hard to separate Sabrina from Gamma right now."

I swallowed.

"...What do you mean?"

She exhaled slowly.

"As your friend..."

Her expression softened.

"...I want to ask whether you're alright."

Then the softness disappeared.

"But as the Gamma..."

She looked directly into my eyes.

"...I'm wondering how this palace hasn't torn itself apart."

I blinked.

"What?"

"You smell unmistakably like the Alpha."

She didn't accuse me.

She stated it like a military report.

"Not faintly."

"Not enough that only someone paying attention would notice."

She gestured vaguely toward me.

"This is obvious."

She let the words settle before continuing.

"If I mistook you for Keon before I even looked up, every wolf in this palace has already noticed."

The weight of those words settled heavily in my stomach.

"Wolves are territorial by instinct," Sabrina continued, her thoughts now moving with the careful precision of a strategist assembling a battle plan. "We're possessive. Protective. We read the world through scent before we ever trust our eyes."

She shook her head slowly.

"The Crown Prince's intended and bound mate is walking through the palace carrying the Alpha's scent."

Her brow furrowed as though she still couldn't quite believe what she was saying aloud.

"In another kingdom, that alone could split a ruling family."

She counted the possibilities almost absentmindedly.

"Nobles would choose sides. Guards would begin questioning orders. Rumors would become factions. One careless challenge between loyalists could turn into a blood feud before sunset."

She looked at me again, genuinely bewildered now.

"And yet..."

Her voice trailed off.

"Derrick hasn't challenged Keon."

"The council is still functioning."

"The patrols are still changing shifts."

"No one has drawn a weapon."

She stared at me in open disbelief.

"...How?"

I opened my mouth.

Closed it again.

Partly in ignorance, partly because I genuinely did not know. I had known the millions of possibilities the consequences my actions with him would've and could have happened if I did it but I still...I didn't push him away.

Maybe I should've pushed him away.

"I... don't know."

"I don't either."

She leaned back against the pillows, looking more troubled than angry.

"That's the part I can't understand."

Her fingers tapped thoughtfully against the blanket.

"I know Derrick."

"So do I."

"Exactly."

She gave a short, incredulous laugh.

"That's why none of this makes sense."

She shook her head again.

"If what everyone's smelling is true..."

Her voice grew almost thoughtful.

"...then Derrick is displaying a level of restraint I've never witnessed in a dominant wolf. Ever."

Another silence settled over the room.

Finally she sighed.

"I need to speak to Rowan."

Almost immediately she frowned.

"No."

"I need to speak to Keon."

Another pause.

"...Actually, I need to speak to both of them."

She looked exhausted already.

"Because if the entire palace has noticed and no one has acted..."

Her eyes met mine again.

"...then everyone is waiting for someone else to make the first mistake."

She exhaled slowly.

"And that's far more dangerous than if they'd already started fighting."