CHAPTER SIX (KAIRI'S POV)

The scent of the council chamber was familiar: old polished wood, expensive whiskey, and the sharp, metallic tang of dominant Alpha pheromones. I should have been elated. For years, my father had negotiated with Moonrise Pack, and now, their crown princess, Bianca, was here. In my territory. Sitting across from me at the long oak table, her posture was regal, her smile practiced and perfect.

This was the alliance I’d dreamed of, a political masterstroke that would cement my pack’s power for a generation. Yet, my mind was a thousand miles away. Or, more accurately, a few miles away, in a shabby little apartment above a bakery.

“Alpha Kairi?” Bianca’s voice was like wind chimes, pulling me from my thoughts. “Do you agree with the proposed terms for the border patrol rotations?”

I blinked, forcing my focus back to her composed, beautiful face. “The terms are acceptable,” I said, my voice thankfully steady and authoritative. “My head of security will liaise with yours on the details.”

She nodded, a graceful dip of her chin, and the negotiations continued. But I was lost again. I kept seeing another face, not porcelain-perfect like Bianca’s, but alive with a fire that could either warm or burn. Sze.

What is wrong with me? The question was a drumbeat in my skull, synced with my pulse. Bianca was here, everything I had worked for, the embodiment of a strategic dream. Yet, my thoughts were a traitorous current, always pulling me back to her.

The substitute mate. That’s how it had started. My father had hired a new substitute mate for public ceremonies, someone of a similar build to take my place during the more tedious parts of the full moon run. I’d barely paid attention. It was just another piece of pack logistics.

Then I saw her face.

It was after a long, rain-drenched patrol. I was tired, caked in mud, my mood as black as the sky. I’d rounded a corner near the training grounds, and there she was, laughing with one of the junior guards, wiping sweat from her brow. The setting sun, breaking through the clouds, caught the elegant line of her neck, the stubborn set of her jaw, the startling intelligence in her dark eyes. She wasn’t just pretty; she was a force. A vibrant, untamed spirit in a world of calculated obedience.

In that moment, a primal certainty, deeper than strategy, older than politics, slammed into me. Mine.

This must be the influence of the Mate bond. A force I’d once dismissed as a fairy tale for lesser wolves. I’d scoffed at Alphas who spoke of being helpless before its pull. I wasn’t helpless. I was in control. Or so I’d thought.

I really can't resist her temptation. Even now, sitting across from a princess, my blood heats at the memory of her. The way a stray curl always escapes her braid to kiss her temple. The defiant lift of her chin when she challenges me, a breathtaking audacity that should have earned her banishment but instead ignites a fire in my gut. The soft, breathy sound she makes only in her sleep, when her guard is down and she unconsciously curls toward me. Our interactions are a battle and a ballet. She speaks her mind, a rarity that infuriates and enthralls me. She pushes, and I push back, and the space between us crackles with a tension so potent it feels like the air before a lightning strike.

So when Beta Kelra asked me later, in the privacy of my study, his question was one I’d already asked myself a thousand times.

“The alliance with Moonrise Pack is secure, Alpha,” he said, pouring two fingers of amber liquid. “The marriage to Princess Bianca… it is the final, necessary step. Do you intend to proceed?”

I didn’t hesitate. I couldn’t. The path was set. “The person I want to marry is Bianca.” The words were ash, but they were true. For the pack. For the future I was duty-bound to secure.

But that wasn’t the whole truth. It couldn’t be. “But I won’t let Sze go either.” The declaration was possessive, final. She was mine by a law far older than any pack treaty.

Beta Kelra’s eyebrows rose slightly, but he said nothing. He was a practical man.

“Not to mention she gave birth to a child for me,” I continued, the thought of Elisse softening the hard edges inside me. “When the lovely Elisse hugged me and called me ‘dad’, I was… happy.” The word felt inadequate for the strange, swelling warmth that filled my chest, a feeling so pure it was almost painful amidst all my political calculations.

A shadow passed over the memory. “Even though she always tells lies under Sze’s influence.” The kidney disease. The absurd story about Riri and the doctor. It had to be a lie. A manipulation. “Riri has said that this is a natural way for women to compete for attention.” Riri would know. She was loyal. She had reason to be.

My thoughts turned dark. Riri is my good friend’s sister. My chest tightened with the old, familiar guilt. In that past event that I don't want to mention, he was killed to help me lure away those thugs. We were young, reckless. He took the majority of them, drawing them away so I could escape. His dying wish, whispered to me as I cradled him, was for me to take care of Riri, his little sister.

I failed him. In the end, I was also caught. Those hooligans beat me hard, a brutal, agonizing punishment meant to threaten my father. I was broken, bleeding out in the dirt of an abandoned industrial yard, my world reduced to pain and the cold scent of rust.

And then I met my angel.

Bianca saved me. I don't know why she appeared in that forsaken place as a princess, but the necklace on her body is the unique jewelry given to the princess by Moonrise Pack. A silver crescent moon set with a single, pale blue gem. I saw it glinting in the moonlight as she knelt beside me, her face a blur of concerned beauty. She didn’t speak. She just placed a clean cloth against my worst wound, her touch impossibly gentle. Her smile was a fleeting, comforting thing before rough hands pulled her away. Her guards, I assumed. Later, my own guards found me.

She probably has forgotten me, that moment of mercy in the filth. But I will never forget her silhouette against the night sky or that comforting smile. It became a beacon. A promise of something noble and good.

I am willing to give everything for that promise. My freedom. My heart. Even my happiness.

But for now, I still have to continue living with Sze. The thought is a torment and a solace. She is so fragile in her fierceness. She has no powerful family, no political acumen. She can easily be eaten by others if she is not careful. She needs my protection, even from herself. Even if she has become a liar and dares to question my words, we have been together for more than three years. It can be said that she has given me everything. Her body, her trust, a daughter.

My thoughts were interrupted as my car pulled up outside her apartment. I saw him leaving—her stepfather, Jack. He looked at her window with a gaze that made my wolf snarl with primal fury. I looked at him with pure disgust, the man who coveted what was mine. Damn it. I will kill him one day. The thought was not a threat but a certainty.

It must be him who made Sze so disgusted with my touch. His lecherous presence had tainted her, made her shrink from the bond that should be her solace. You know, we are Mates. She should feel weak when she sees me, her blood should sing for mine, just like when I see her.

I found her inside, her face pale, eyes red-rimmed. The money I’d given her was on the table, untouched. The sight of her tears undid me. They flowed silently, catching the lamplight like liquid moonlight. Chasing the moon is the nature of a werewolf. And she was my moon, my pale, sorrowful moon, pulling at the very core of my being.

“I gave you the money,” I said, my voice rougher than I intended. I needed to break this tension, to pull her out of this sadness I didn’t understand. “Mom has a dance party Kelraorrow. Go play. Buy a new dress. Don’t just stay at home like this.” Don’t sit here and mourn something that isn’t happening.

I reached for her, and she flinched. The rejection was a physical blow. I pulled her to me anyway, ignoring her stiff resistance, and half-guided, half-carried her to my car. “No matter what rumors you hear,” I murmured into her hair, inhaling her unique scent of jasmine and defiance, “they’re all fake.”

She finally stopped struggling, going limp in my arms. It wasn’t surrender; it was exhaustion. But I’d take it. Feeling the warmth of her body against mine, the familiar weight of her, a fierce, unshakable resolution solidified within me.

I held her and sat in the car, her head eventually coming to rest against my chest. The steady beat of my heart was a vow she couldn’t hear.

I would marry Bianca. For the alliance. For the debt I owed. For the memory of a smile in the dark.

But I would also keep Sze. For the bond. For our daughter. For the fire that only she could ignite in my soul.

It was the only way. I would have them both. I would build my future with Bianca, and I would shelter my heart with Sze. The path was fraught with danger, a betrayal waiting to happen on all sides. But I was the Alpha. I would bend the world to my will. I would have it all.