7. The succession is suspended

Elle

Dominic’s hand remained suspended beside my neck while our breaths mingled. My wolf pushed hard beneath my skin, desperate for him to close the final inch. I wanted his palm on me. His mouth back where it had been.

Instead, his fingers curled into a fist and dropped.

“What I believe,” I said, forcing my thoughts away from his mouth, “is that Soren betrayed me. He wanted Moonlight more than he ever wanted me, and he has been lying to my family for a long time.”

“He is involved with another woman?” Dominic asked.

I had watched Soren kiss Rosalie after arranging my parents’ deaths and heard them celebrate while my body cooled beside the road. But in this life, I had memories instead of evidence and three months to change the future.

“I will never marry him. I do not care what our families expected or what the bond once felt like. He does not get my name, my body, or my father’s pack.”

Nothing in me wanted Soren. The woman who loved him had died with her illusions. I had not.

Dominic moved back to the table. “Used to feel like?”

“I cannot feel him anymore.”

That stopped him. Fated bonds did not vanish. Rejection could weaken one, and death could tear it apart, but a healthy wolf did not wake to find it gone. Soren had never been what I believed; I just did not know how he fooled my wolf.

“When did it vanish?” Dominic asked.

“Today. When Soren proposed, my wolf felt nothing.”

“Yet you told me he is your fated mate.”

“He was. Or I believed he was.” I rose, still wrapped in Dominic’s coat. “I rejected him in front of our pack. The marriage will not happen, and Dad withdrew his consent. Investigate every witness there, but do not seal Soren’s claim.”

Dominic reached for the pen.

The scratch of its nib sounded far too ordinary for something that changed my future. He wrote across the Registry notice, signed it, and pressed the royal stamp into the ink.

“The succession is suspended. Soren will not be approved as Alpha. Your father may submit another successor after the Crown’s review.”

Relief weakened my knees. I caught the chair as memory swallowed the suite—Dad trapped behind the wheel, fire beneath the car. Then it broke. He was alive. Mom was alive. Soren would not own Moonlight. I had changed something.

“Eleanor.”

Dominic’s voice pulled me back. He was watching my hand shake.

“Elle,” I said. “Call me Elle.”

His eyes held mine. “Elle.” My wolf went still to listen.

“Thank you,” I said. “For believing enough of it.”

“I believe your father withdrew the petition. The rest still needs proof.”

I preferred Dominic’s honesty to Soren’s soft lies. I texted Dad that the succession was suspended. He answered immediately.

Thank the Goddess. Your mother is waiting up. Drive carefully.

My throat tightened. I locked the screen before Dominic saw.

“I should leave.”

“You should.”

Neither of us moved.

I had won the battle that mattered. The sensible thing was to walk out, let the physician deal with the drug, and forget how my body answered him. I began to take off his coat.

“Keep it.”

Dominic had come around the table again. His attention settled on the marks around my wrist where he had grabbed me in the dark.

“The drug explains that,” he said. “It does not excuse it. I am sorry.”

Most Alphas treated regret as weakness. Dominic apologized without losing authority.

His pupils were still wide. The shower had cooled his skin, but heat gathered beneath his collar, and his wolf watched through the gold in his eyes.

“The drug isn’t gone,” I said. “You need the physician.”

“The physician is not the only thing I need.” His gaze dropped to my mouth.

He stepped closer and placed a hand at my waist, slowly enough for me to stop him. I did not.

“One night. No throne or promises. You stay because you want to, and you leave at dawn.”

“You still think Soren is my mate.”

“You told me the bond is gone.”

“You barely know me.”

His fingers tightened. “I know how you taste, and my wolf has reached for yours since you walked in. The drug makes the wanting harder to hide. It did not create it.”

If this were only the drug, I could go home. But I hadn’t touched the bourbon, and my wolf had no excuse.

Dominic watched me. “The door is behind you. I will not stop you.”

Instead, I put my hand on his chest and felt his heart hammer.

“One night,” I said.

He kissed me.

This time he knew my name and still pulled me against him as if the space between us offended him. I opened for him, tasting bourbon and his last restraint.

His arm locked around me as he backed me against the table, one hand sliding beneath my dress. Heat tore through me when his body pressed between my legs.

“Dominic.”

He stopped just enough to look at me. “Tell me no.”

I caught the front of his shirt and dragged his mouth back to mine.

His control broke. He lifted me onto the table and kissed down my throat. My wolf surged toward him while his teeth grazed the place a mate would mark.

The phone rang.

Dominic froze against my neck.

He looked at the screen. The heat in his expression softened into affection, followed by an apologetic glance at me.

“My daughter.”

The two words turned my blood cold.

I slid from the table and closed the coat. Of course it was Rosalie. I had forgotten who he was to her, and the reminder felt like a warning.

“Rosalie?”

“Dad, I found him.” Her voice burst through the quiet room, bright with excitement. “I found my mate.”

Dominic looked at me once, perhaps remembering everything I had just told him about bonds disappearing. “Are you certain?”

“My wolf recognized him immediately. I have never felt anything like it.”

“Who is he?”

“His name is Soren. He is staying with the Moonlight Pack.”

The room went silent.

Dominic’s eyes met mine.

Lies and affairs existed, but every wolf knew one man could not have two fated mates. If Rosalie’s wolf claimed Soren, everything I had said made me a liar.

“You are sure of his name?” Dominic asked.

Her laugh dragged me back to the black car and my family’s bodies.

“Of course I am. Soren is here with me now.”

He had gone straight to her after my rejection. No grief. No shame. Exactly the man I remembered.

“I will call you back,” Dominic said.

“Can I bring him to meet—”

“Tomorrow, Rosalie.”

He ended the call with careful control. The man who turned to me was the king again, his coldness edged with fury.

“Did you know?”

I could have lied and escaped with his trust intact. But I was done letting Soren turn me into someone I despised.

“I knew there was another woman,” I said. “I suspected it was Rosalie.”

Dominic’s face hardened. “You knew my daughter was involved, yet you came into my bed and said nothing.”

“I came for the succession. Accusing a princess without proof would have warned them both.”

“So you used me instead.”

The words struck harder than they should have. “No.”

“You lied your way into my suite, blocked the man my daughter claims as her mate, then agreed to my bed. What have I misunderstood?”

“Soren is a lying piece of shit who destroys anyone between him and power. Your daughter is not safe because her wolf wants him. I thought the same once.”

“Do not speak about Rosalie as if you know her.”

“I know him.”

“Can you feel your supposed bond to him now?”

I reached for Soren out of instinct and found the same blank silence that had greeted me at the party.

Dominic saw the answer in my face.

Disgust filled his eyes. Minutes ago, his mouth had been on my throat. Now every touch between us looked like another lie.

“Dad’s withdrawal still stands,” I said. “You confirmed his identity. Whatever you think of me does not change that.”

“It will be honored.” His voice was flat. “You have what you came for.”

I stared at him. “Is that what you think happened between us?”

His jaw tightened, but he did not answer.

His silence hurt more than it should. He was Rosalie’s father and a danger I should avoid, but the ache beneath my ribs did not care.

I walked toward the door before he could see it.

Dominic opened it for me. Royal guards waited at the far end of the hall, but neither looked our way.

I stopped beside him. “I told you the truth about Soren.”

“You told me the pieces that served you.”

“Because the whole truth would sound fucking impossible.”

For one reckless second, I nearly gave him the road, the explosion, my mother’s body, and Rosalie’s laughter. Then I swallowed it.

Dominic stepped back as if even my scent were unwelcome.

“Leave,” he said. “And never appear before me again.”