The Fiancée Problem

Elena didn't sleep.

She spent the night on the edge of a bed that was far too soft, listening to her son's breathing and the quiet, patient steps of the guards outside the door.

At dawn, someone knocked.

"Breakfast is served in the main hall," a servant said. "Alpha Blackthorn requests your presence."

"Requests," Elena muttered. "Right."

She dressed in the clothes someone had left, black trousers and a plain cream blouse, and tied her hair back. She told herself she wasn't looking for him in the mirror.

She told herself a lot of things.

The main hall was a cathedral of glass. A long table stretched down the middle, set with silver and white flowers. Adrian sat at the head, a dark suit, a cup of black coffee, a face like carved stone.

Beside him sat a woman.

She was beautiful in the way that took work. Honey-gold hair, pearl earrings, a gown the color of champagne. She had one hand resting lightly on Adrian's forearm, as if she had every right to be there.

She looked up when Elena entered. Her smile was perfect.

Her eyes were not.

"Elena Vale," she said. "At last."

"Do I know you?"

"Not yet." The woman rose gracefully. "Seraphina Rowan. Adrian's future Queen."

The words landed like a slap.

Elena felt her face go still. She had learned, long ago, to hide pain behind a calm expression.

"Congratulations," she said.

"Seraphina," Adrian said, in a warning voice.

"I'm only introducing myself." Seraphina's smile widened. "After all, it's not every day the Alpha King's traitor walks into breakfast."

A few Council members seated down the table stopped chewing.

Elena set her jaw. "I'm not a traitor."

"The Council says otherwise."

"The Council hasn't asked me."

"Then perhaps now's the time." Seraphina turned to Adrian, soft and reasonable. "My love, you know what the law says. A woman accused of treason against the Crown must stand before the Council. Not in your tower. Not under your private roof. Before the Seven."

My love.

Elena's fingers tightened around the back of a chair.

She hated how much that hurt. She hated that she had walked into this room wanting something.

Adrian had not touched his coffee.

"She is a guest in my house," he said.

"She's a fugitive."

"She's under my protection."

"Protection from whom?" Seraphina's voice stayed sweet. "From the people she betrayed?"

Elena stepped forward before she could stop herself. "I am standing right here. If you have something to say to me, say it to me."

Seraphina's gaze sharpened.

For the first time, Elena saw something under the polish. It wasn't just jealousy. It was fear.

"Very well," Seraphina said. "Where have you been for five years, Elena? Who is the father of your child? And why did you come back now, the same week the Council voted on the succession?"

The room held its breath.

Elena felt every eye on her. She felt Adrian's gaze, heavy and intent, waiting for her answer.

She couldn't tell them about the rogues. She couldn't say Warden. Not until she knew who had sent those wolves, and the tag on Lucas's table said it was someone in this very room.

So she lifted her chin and said, "I came back because my son was in danger."

"Your son," Seraphina said. "Or his?"

The silence turned razor-sharp.

Adrian rose.

He didn't raise his voice. He didn't need to. The temperature in the hall dropped. Wolves along the table lowered their eyes.

"Enough."

"Adrian..."

"I said enough." He looked at the Council members one by one, until each of them looked away. "Elena Vale will not be handed over. Not today. Not to the Seven, not to anyone."

"The law," said an elder with a gray beard, "does not permit..."

"The law permits it," Adrian said, "under the Old Clause. A person under the Alpha's personal protection answers to him alone, until he chooses to release them."

Seraphina's smile thinned. "The Old Clause is for family."

"Yes."

"Or a Queen."

"Yes."

Elena's stomach dropped.

Adrian turned to her. In front of the entire hall, in front of the Council, in front of the woman who called herself his future wife, he said, steady and clear:

"Elena is mine to protect. By my right as King, from this moment, any harm to her is harm to me."

Gasps went around the table.

Seraphina's face went white.

"You can't," she whispered. "That declaration makes her..."

"I know what it makes her."

Elena stared at him. Her heart was pounding so hard it hurt.

She wanted to be furious. She wanted to say, You don't get to claim me. You banished me. But the fury wouldn't come. All that came was the memory of his hands on her skin last night, careful and shaking.

"Why?" she said, barely audible.

He heard her anyway. His eyes found hers, gold and fierce and unreadable.

"Because I've already lost you once," he said quietly. "I won't do it again."

Seraphina made a small, strangled sound. Then her mask slid back into place, smooth as glass. She stepped close to Elena and lowered her voice, so only Elena could hear.

"Be careful, little wolf," she murmured. "You don't know what you've just stepped into."

"What do you mean?"

Seraphina smiled.

"Ask him who told the Council your marriage existed."

Elena's blood froze.

"Only three people knew," Seraphina whispered. "Three. And I'm not one of them."

She swept out of the hall, her heels clicking like a countdown.

Elena turned to Adrian.

He was already looking at her. His expression was careful. Guarded.

And in that single, stretched-out moment, she understood two things.

The first was that Seraphina had told the truth.

The second was that Adrian had known it the whole time.