Chapter 7: THE STRANGER INSIDE THE PALACE

Elias had barely finished speaking when the royal guard reached for the sword at his waist. The movement was quick, almost instinctive, but Cassian noticed it immediately. The king stepped between Elias and the guard, his expression turning so cold that the soldier froze with his fingers wrapped around the hilt.

“Drop that weapon, and you will lose the hand holding it,” Cassian warned.

The guard released his sword and dropped to one knee. “Your Majesty, I meant no disrespect. I was only surprised by the accusation.”

“What accusation?” Adrian asked, moving toward the door. “Elias has not accused anyone. He said he saw something through his connection to the ancient bloodline. If you have nothing to hide, you should have no reason to fear what he saw.”

“I have nothing to hide, Prince Adrian.”

“Then you will not mind telling us who admitted the messenger into the palace.”

The guard hesitated for just long enough to make Elias suspicious. His eyes shifted toward the corridor, and although he quickly lowered his head, Elias caught the movement.

“The Queen Mother's personal guards escorted him inside,” the soldier finally admitted. “She ordered that he be brought directly to the old audience chamber. I was assigned to inform the king.”

Cassian's jaw tightened. “And you decided to enter my private quarters without first checking whether the man had been searched?”

“The messenger was already under Her Majesty's protection.”

“This is my palace,” Cassian replied. “No one enters it under my protection or anyone else's without my knowledge.”

The guard bowed lower, but Elias was no longer paying attention to him. The words from his vision continued to echo in his mind. Bring my brother alive. The stranger had known Elias was watching him, and the confidence in his voice suggested that he had been expecting this moment long before Elias learned the truth about his own birth.

If the young man really was his twin, why had he waited twenty-three years to find him? And why had he entered the palace instead of meeting Elias at the northern border?

“Take us to the audience chamber,” Elias said.

Cassian turned toward him. “You are not walking into a room with an unknown Alpha who has threatened to take you in chains.”

“He is already inside your palace, Cassian. If he wanted to kill me, he could have attacked the moment he arrived. Instead, he sent a message demanding that I be brought to him. I need to hear what he wants.”

“You also need to stay alive long enough to hear it.”

“Then protect me without treating me like a prisoner.”

For several seconds, the two men stared at each other. Elias knew he was challenging the king in his own home, but he had spent too much of his life being kept in the dark. His parents had hidden the truth about his heritage, the royal family had buried the history of his bloodline, and Cassian had rejected him without giving him the chance to understand why. He would not allow fear to become another excuse for people to control him.

At last, Cassian nodded once. “You will stay beside me. If anything happens, you follow my orders until we are out of danger.”

“I will decide what to do when danger comes,” Elias answered, then walked toward the door.

Adrian coughed into his hand, clearly hiding a smile. Cassian shot him a warning glance before following Elias into the corridor.

The palace had changed since the night of the Moon Ascension Ceremony. Guards stood at every intersection, and servants hurried away whenever the king approached. Whispers followed Elias as he walked beside Cassian, though no one dared speak loudly enough for him to hear. Some stared at the pendant visible above his collar, while others quickly lowered their eyes when they noticed the ancient symbol engraved on its surface.

Elias had never felt so exposed. Only a few days earlier, he had been an ordinary young man whose greatest concern was understanding why his fated mate had rejected him. Now the entire royal household seemed to recognize something about him that he did not understand himself.

As they passed a row of tall windows, a strange pressure settled over his chest. He stopped walking.

“What is it?” Cassian asked.

Elias looked toward the eastern wing. “Someone is watching us.”

The king immediately signaled two guards to check the nearby rooms, but Elias shook his head.

“Not from one of those rooms. It feels as though someone is standing behind a wall, listening to us.”

Adrian's expression lost its amusement. “The old audience chamber has a concealed passage. It was built for the royal family before the Dravens took the throne.”

Cassian turned sharply toward his brother. “How do you know that?”

“Because Father showed it to me when I was a child. He said it was sealed, but I remember the entrance being near the eastern gallery.”

“Why did you never mention this before?”

“I did not know it mattered.”

Cassian ordered two guards to search the gallery and seal every passage leading into the audience chamber. Then he turned back to Elias, studying his face with an intensity that made the bond between them stir uncomfortably.

“You sensed someone behind the wall,” he said. “Was it the same feeling you had during the attack on your family's estate?”

“Not exactly. At the estate, I felt danger coming toward me. This time, it feels like someone already knows me.”

Cassian's expression darkened, but he did not question Elias further. Instead, he took his hand.

The contact sent warmth through Elias's fingers, and for one brief moment, the mate bond responded with a rush of relief that did not belong to either of them alone. Elias pulled his hand away before the sensation could deepen.

“Don't do that,” he said.

Cassian lowered his arm. “Do what?”

“Touch me as if we are lovers when you have not even apologized properly for what you did.”

Pain crossed the king's face, but he did not argue. “You're right. I am sorry, Elias. I cannot undo the rejection, but I will not use our bond as an excuse to demand anything from you.”

Elias wanted to believe him. That was the most dangerous part of their connection: despite everything Cassian had done, some part of Elias still responded to his voice, his scent, and the quiet concern he tried so hard to hide. He hated that his body remembered a bond his heart was not ready to forgive.

They reached the old audience chamber moments later. Two guards stood outside the enormous double doors, their faces pale and their hands resting on their weapons.

Cassian stopped before them. “Has anyone left this room?”

“No, Your Majesty.”

“Has anyone entered?”

The guards exchanged a glance.

“Answer me.”

“The Queen Mother entered shortly after the messenger arrived,” one of them said. “She has not come out.”

Cassian pushed the doors open.

The audience chamber was a vast room lined with dark marble pillars and ancient portraits of former kings. At its far end stood Queen Mother Isolde, dressed in a silver gown, her expression composed as she watched the man standing before the throne.

The stranger wore black traveling clothes, and his dark hair fell across his forehead. A narrow scar ran from beneath his left ear toward his throat, disappearing beneath his collar. His hands were clasped behind his back, and he stood with the careless confidence of someone who believed he had nothing to fear from the most powerful Alpha in the seven kingdoms.

When Elias entered, the stranger turned.

For a moment, neither of them moved.

Elias felt the air leave his lungs. The resemblance was impossible to deny. The stranger had the same grey eyes, the same shape of face, and the same small mark beneath his right eye that Elias had seen every morning in the mirror. Even the way he tilted his head was familiar, as though Elias were watching a reflection that had stepped out of the glass and learned to hate him.

The stranger's gaze dropped to the pendant around Elias's neck.

Something changed in his expression. His fingers curled, and a faint silver light spread beneath the skin of his wrist.

“So,” he murmured, “the dead heir is still alive.”

Elias took a cautious step forward. “Are you my brother?”

The young man laughed without humor. “You have spent twenty-three years living as a free man, and that is the first question you ask me?”

“I didn't know you existed until recently.”

“Of course you didn't. They made certain you were protected while I was left to rot.”

The accusation struck Elias harder than he expected. “Who left you to rot? Our parents were told you died at birth. They believed you were dead.”

“Your parents?” The stranger's eyes flashed. “Do not speak to me about those people. They abandoned me before I could even open my eyes.”

Queen Mother Isolde stepped forward. “That is enough. You came here to discuss the future of the kingdom, not to indulge in family grievances.”

The stranger turned toward her, and the contempt on his face was unmistakable. “You should be careful, Queen Mother. You have spent years teaching this kingdom to forget my family's name. I would hate for everyone to discover how much you remember.”

Cassian moved toward the throne, placing himself between Isolde and the stranger. “You entered my palace without permission, threatened to take Elias in chains, and now you insult my mother in my own audience chamber. Explain why I should not have you arrested.”

The stranger regarded him with open disdain. “Because you would be making a mistake, King Cassian. Your throne stands on a history written by liars, and I am the one person who can prove it.”

“And who exactly are you?”

The stranger slowly reached into his collar and pulled out a silver chain. Hanging from it was a pendant identical to Elias's, bearing the crowned wolf symbol of the First Bloodline.

“I am Kael Vale,” he announced. “First son of Seraphina and Lucien Vale, rightful heir to the ancient throne, and the Alpha who will take back everything your family stole from mine.”

Elias stared at him, his heart pounding. Kael was not merely his brother; he was claiming the crown that Elias had never known existed.

But before Elias could speak, Kael looked directly at him.

“And you, little brother, are the reason I have come.”

“Why?” Elias demanded. “What have I ever done to you?”

Kael's expression hardened. “You were supposed to be the sacrifice that ended the First Bloodline. Instead, someone saved you and left me in their hands. For twenty-three years, I was trained to hate the family that abandoned me, and every lesson ended with the same promise: when I found you, I would take back what belonged to me.”

Elias felt sick. “I was a baby. I didn't choose any of this.”

“Neither did I.”

For the first time, something beneath Kael's anger cracked, revealing a pain so old and deep that Elias almost reached for him. Then Kael's face went cold again, and the moment vanished.

He turned to Cassian. “You have until tomorrow's moonrise to surrender the royal crown and release every territory taken from the First Bloodline. If you refuse, I will expose the truth about your father's coronation and the blood spilled to put your family on the throne.”

Cassian's eyes narrowed. “You are threatening war.”

“No, Your Majesty. I am offering you a chance to avoid one.”

Kael stepped away from the throne and walked toward Elias. The guards immediately moved to block him, but he stopped before reaching them. His gaze remained fixed on his twin.

“I have one more condition,” he said. “Elias comes with me willingly. No guards, no king, and no promises of protection. I want to speak to my brother alone.”

“Absolutely not,” Cassian replied.

Kael smiled faintly. “Then perhaps I should tell him what your mother did on the night we were born.”

The Queen Mother's face drained of color.

Elias turned toward her. “What is he talking about?”

Isolde said nothing.

Kael's smile disappeared, replaced by a cold certainty that frightened Elias more than any threat could have.

“Ask her which one of us she ordered the healer to kill,” Kael said. “Then ask why she kept the surviving child inside this palace for twenty-three years while the other was sent away.”

Elias stared at Isolde, waiting for her to deny it, to call Kael a liar, or to offer some explanation that would make the world feel solid beneath his feet again.

Instead, the Queen Mother sank into the nearest chair, trembling.

And when she finally spoke, her words shattered everything Elias thought he knew about his birth.

“I never ordered them to kill your brother, Elias,” she whispered. “I ordered them to kill you.”