LOGINAshton’s POVI couldn’t breathe in that war room. The air tasted like iron and torch smoke and bad decisions. On the table, the rivers were still drawn in neat blue lines. In a few hours they would run gold. Xander’s voice was still in my ears. Flat. Final. "Fine." And Zeth’s hand on his shoulder like they were already celebrating. Mara fell into step behind me without a word. Three paces back, the way she always did when I was about to break something. “The archives,” I said. My voice sounded wrong in the hall. She didn’t ask why, we just went down. The stone stairs spiraled into the east wing, deeper than the kitchens, deeper than the dungeons. With every step the temperature dropped. The sound changed. Footsteps stopped echoing and started getting swallowed. The air turned heavy. Dust and old paper. Cold that sank into your bones. At the bottom were iron doors, black with age, with a wolf’s head hammered into the center. I stopped. “Go,” I told Mara. Her brows pull
Xander’s POVI watched him. The way Ashton’s hand trembled before he forced it still. And I watched Zeth who was still kneeling in the center of my war room. Still bleeding from the fight we had just pretended was sparring. Still smiling like this was all a game he was winning. The entire room was holding its breath. My councilmen. Zeth’s captains. Mara by the door with her hands clenched so tight her knuckles were white. Every single person in Noctaryn was waiting to see what my Consort would do. Ashton stared down at the blade for a long time. I could see the war in him. The need to be polite, to be safe, to not start another war inside this war. And then, slowly, he bent and picked it up. The moment his fingers closed around the hilt, my wolf surged. "Mine. Another alpha’s steel. Another alpha’s scent on him. He’s accepting it" I had told him I would stand by him till the end of the world. And now he was taking gifts from another man. Ashton straightened and t
Ashton’s POVThe council was pressed against the walls, silent, because no one wanted to be the one who spoke and drew the attention of two kings who were circling each other like animals. “Stand down,” I said, and my voice sounded smaller than I wanted it to. Xander didn’t look at me. He was watching Zeth, his jaw tight, blood running from a cut over his eyebrow and down the side of his face. “It’s not a fight,” Xander said without turning. His voice was calm in a way that made me more afraid than if he had been yelling. “It’s sparring.” Sparring. In the throne room. With the entire court watching and knives on the table behind them. Before I could answer, Zeth moved. He was fast, faster than I remembered, and he took Xander by surprise, driving forward with his shoulder and nearly crashing him to the ground. Xander didn’t fall. He swayed at the last second, twisted, and slammed his knee up into Zeth’s ribs with a sound that made several of the councilors flinch. “Nice,”
Ashton’s POVThe first thing I felt was warmth, and it was so foreign after the cold stone of the hall that for a moment I thought I had died and woken up somewhere softer. Just heat, heavy across my chest, and the weight of an arm that had not moved from around me all night. I opened my eyes to white sheets and the dim glow of the hearth. My room. And Xander. He was asleep beside me, still wearing his black coat, his boots discarded by the bed like he had meant to stay only a minute and then never left. His hand was tangled with mine on top of the blanket, his thumb pressed over my knuckles.My throat was dry. My head throbbed, but when I looked at him, the lines that were always carved between his brows were gone.There was only Xander, breathing slow, with his face turned toward me like I was the only thing in the room worth guarding. I moved my free hand, shaky and unsure, and laid it in his hair. He woke the second I touched him. There was no groan, no disorientation. H
Xander’s POVThe pouch was small and gray. Tied with twine and Brenda was holding it up like she’d just pulled a crown from the dirt. Behind her, Lord Merrick stood with his hands folded. The whole hall was watching. Zeth hadn’t moved. "The child that low life omega is carrying isn't yours Xander. That's why he is using the herbs," Brenda snapped. The council members gasped, exchanging looks. One sighed by the corner. Something in me broke.I didn’t look at the pouch. I looked at her. “Jealousy,” I said, my voice didn’t raise. Brenda blinked. “My King, I don’t...” “A bitter bitch with a broken crown,” I said. I stepped down from the dais. One step. The sound of my boot was the only thing in the room. “That’s what you are. Walking into my war council with garbage because you can’t stand that I didn’t choose you.” The word _bitch_ hit the air and stayed there. My council flinched. Zeth’s captains went still. Somewhere, a cup tipped over and no one picked it up. Brenda’
Xander’s POVI saw his hand move.It was a small thing. Half an inch. The barest lift from the table toward Ashton’s wrist.But I saw it.Zeth Aurelian did not touch people without reason. He did not reach. He took. And in that half-second, with wine on his chest and Ashton’s fingers hovering there like they’d been burned, I knew exactly what he was doing.Testing.My jaw locked so hard my teeth hurt.Across the table, Ashton made a sound. Soft. Choked. His hand jerked back like he’d been scalded. Good. Run.“Go,” I said. My voice came out lower than I intended. “Now.”Ashton didn’t argue. He set the decanter down with hands that were shaking too badly to lie about anymore and walked. Fast. Head down. Red coat catching the torchlight with every step.The doors closed behind him. The room exhaled.I did not sit.I kept standing, both hands flat on the table, and I looked at Zeth. He was still leaning back in his chair like he owned the wood beneath him. Wine drying on his chest, over t







