The only name worth calling

"Tell me you did not just leave," Mira said.

I left.

Silence on the line. Then a sharp breath. Sera.

I need you to meet me outside the east gate. Bring my bag. You know the one.

She did not ask questions. That was the thing about Mira. Seven years of watching me live inside that house and she had been packed and ready before I ever was.

I hung up and kept walking.

The pack grounds were quiet at that hour. A few wolves doing perimeter checks in the distance. No one stopped me. No one ever paid that much attention to me inside Voss territory, which was ironic, because I had kept more of this pack running than Damon ever acknowledged.

I did not look back at the house.

My wolf was fully awake now and she did not want to look back either.

Mira was already at the gate when I got there. She had my black duffel over one shoulder and her jaw tight and her eyes moving over my face the way they did when she was reading damage.

How bad, she said.

Celeste, I said.

Her mouth opened. Closed.

Years, I said. He said years, Mira.

She put the bag down and hugged me hard, the kind of hug that does not ask permission, the kind that just lands. I let myself have three seconds of it. Then I pulled back and picked up the bag.

Luca is not mine, I said. Biologically.

Sera.

I know.

That is not something you just say and keep walking.

I know that too. I started moving. But I have fifteen days and I cannot afford to stop.

She fell into step beside me without being asked. Of course she did.

It took me two more minutes before I told her about the letter. I pulled it from my pocket and held it out without slowing down. She read it while walking, which was very Mira, and I watched her expression shift from grief to confusion to something wide and stunned.

Lycan Princess, she said.

Yes.

You.

Apparently.

She handed the letter back. King Aldric's daughter.

His only surviving heir, according to the council.

She was quiet for a moment. I could hear her processing it the same way I had, in layers, each one landing harder than the last.

Damon knew, she said. It was not a question.

He had to. My wolf pressed against my ribs in agreement. Why else would he have chosen me? I had no title, no pack, no connections. He picked me out of nothing and now I know exactly what he was looking for.

He used your bloodline to win votes.

And kept me just small enough that I would never figure it out.

Mira was quiet again. Then, very softly: "I told you something was wrong. Three years ago I told you."

I know.

You told me I was being dramatic.

Mira.

I am just saying.

I almost smiled. Almost.

We reached the edge of pack territory and I felt it the moment we crossed the boundary line. The invisible pressure of the Voss mark lifted off my skin like something physical. I had not even noticed how heavy it was until it was gone.

My wolf exhaled.

Where are we going, Mira asked.

Rhys territory.

She stopped walking. Caden Rhys.

Yes.

Sera, that man is the most feared Alpha in the election.

I know.

He has not taken Luna in thirty-one years of life. He does not do alliances. He does not do politics by partnership. He operates alone and everyone who has tried to negotiate with him has walked away with less than they came in with.

I have something he cannot get anywhere else, I said. A royal bloodline and a legitimate throne claim. If he allies with me, he does not just win the election. He becomes King beside a Queen. That is not a negotiation. That is the best offer anyone in that election has ever received.

Mira stared at me.

You planned this in the last forty minutes, she said.

I planned this in the last twenty.

She picked her jaw up and started walking again. Okay. Okay, I can work with this version of you. I have been waiting for this version of you.

Do not make it sentimental.

Too late. I am fully emotional. You cannot stop me.

I let her be emotional. I needed someone to be, because I could not afford it yet. There was a specific grief sitting in my chest with Luca's name on it and I had locked it behind something firm and practical and I knew it would not stay there forever. But it needed to stay there for now.

My real son was out there somewhere. The letter had mentioned it, one line, almost in passing, like a detail the council assumed I already knew. A child placed for safekeeping at birth. Location to be disclosed upon throne claim.

Placed for safekeeping.

Someone had known who I was long before I did. Someone had taken my son and called it protection.

I was going to find out who. And I was going to find him. But first I needed the crown, because without it I was just a woman with a letter and a destroyed marriage and nothing to stand on.

Rhys' territory appeared in the distance as the road curved. The boundary markers were different here. Darker stone. Older. The kind of markers that said this land has been held for generations and will be held for many more.

I stopped at the outer gate.

The guard at the post looked at me. He was large and still and his eyes held the particular blankness of someone trained not to react.

I need to see Alpha Rhys, I said.

Do you have an appointment?

No. Tell him Sera Calloway is here. Tell him I am King Aldric's daughter. Tell him I have a proposal that will win him the election. I held his gaze. He will see me.

The guard studied me for a long moment.

Then he reached for his radio.

I stood at those gates and I did not fidget and I did not look away and my wolf stood straight inside me for the first time in seven years.

The radio crackled.

The guard looked up.

Alpha Rhys says to bring her in, he said.

He did not sound surprised. And that was the part that should have reassured me.

It did not.