Mag-log inThen I whispered, “She woke because of truth.”Nicholas’s POVTruth.The word cut deeper than any blade.Watching Esther’s wolf awaken, seeing that glow ripple through her, was like watching dawn break inside my own ribs. Norman howled in joy, circling like a storm.Mate. Whole again.I wanted to re
Esther’s POVThe moon hung low over the palace courtyard, pale and thin as if it too had been hollowed out by truth.I hadn’t slept in days. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Carl’s face in that hospital bed, the IV line glowing red with Nicholas’s blood, a thread connecting them that could never b
I couldn’t stay. Not then. Not with the room spinning around the truth.I turned on my heel and left.Outside, the evening had turned cold. The palace gardens stretched wide and silent, shadows long across the stone. I made it halfway to the fountain before the first surge of fury hit, hot and wild
Nicholas’s POVIt was supposed to be an ordinary morning.A quiet one, even the kind where the palace felt less like a fortress and more like a home. The smell of breakfast bread drifting through the halls, the faint laughter of children somewhere near the east courtyard.Then came the scream.High.
I turned the page without a word.Inside, the fragile hope I’d been nurturing began to splinter.Nicholas found me near noon.He stormed in, half out of his formal jacket, eyes dark and wild. “Who leaked this?”“You’re asking me?” I said.“I’m asking everyone.” His voice was a snarl. “They’re saying
Esther’s POVThe palace had never been this bright.Golden banners fluttered across the courtyard, musicians tuned lutes and violins, and trays of sugared fruit glimmered beneath the sunlight. All of it, the music, the laughter, the illusion, was for Sofia.My daughter. My little girl who had someho
He froze. The truth landed like a slap.“I thought Nicholas was the cruel one,” I whispered, tears spilling hot down my cheeks. “But at least he never looked at me and saw someone else.”Kevin’s mouth opened, then closed again. He looked suddenly smaller, older, like a man stripped of all his justif
Esther’s POVRain came early that morning, as if the sky couldn’t stand the weight of my silence anymore.It washed the palace roofs, turned the gardens into mirrors, and ran like veins through the cobblestones. Inside my chest, it echoed perfectly, a steady, empty rhythm where purpose used to live.
Esther’s POVThe gossip spread faster than wildfire.By the next morning, every corridor of the palace buzzed with whispers: The healer rejected the Alpha King. The Alpha humiliated his mistress. The Blue Lake Alpha proposed to his lost love.Every word was a dagger turned in my gut.By noon, servan
My hand flew before I even thought about it. The slap cracked through the courtyard, echoing off the marble.He didn’t move.“Don’t you ever,” I whispered, shaking, “speak for me again.”For a heartbeat, no one breathed.Then Nicholas’s face hardened. The fury in his eyes shuttered into something co







