06: Break His Heart

Evren dragged a hand down his face and stood abruptly.

The room suddenly felt too small, too warm, like the walls were pressing in, inching closer every time he breathed.

“So,” he said slowly, voice low and flat. “If I refuse the throne, I die. If I accept it, I’m leashed. And either way, my mate is a bargaining chip.”

Neither Holden nor Leander said anything.

That was answer enough.

“You shouldn't have brought her,” Leander said quietly. “Embermoon isn't befitting for her.”

Evren’s eyes snapped to him, something red flashing there. “Say that again.”

Leander lifted both hands. “I’m not insulting her. I’m stating fact.”

Holden shifted, watching Evren carefully now. “Your uncle and father already know about her heat. That means—” He trailed off.

Something cold slid down Evren’s spine.

“He won’t touch her,” Evren said, more command than belief.

Holden’s smile faded. “He doesn’t need to. He just needs your father to see her as inconvenient.”

Silence sat thick between them.

Evren turned on his heel and left without another word.

The walk back to the room felt longer than it should have. Corridors twisted, branched, doubled back, all stone and torchlight. He felt watched, catalogued.

When he pushed open the door to their quarters, warmth hit him immediately. Scent hit harder.

Eira.

She was buried deep in the bed, cocooned in blankets and his clothes, hair a dark spill across the pillow. Her cheeks were flushed, lips parted.

Heat clung to the room, thick and heady, sweet enough to make his wolf stir restlessly under his skin.

Evren locked the door behind him.

He crossed the room in three strides and sank onto the bed, pressing his forehead to her shoulder, breathing her in like air. She shifted, murmured his name without waking, fingers curling weakly into his shirt.

That almost broke him.

“They’re watching us, Eira,” he whispered, more to himself than her.

Eira frowned in her sleep, brow creasing, and he smoothed it away with his thumb.

He stayed there longer than he should have, until the knock came.

Evren straightened instantly, every muscle coiling.

“Yes?” he called.

“Alpha heir,” a voice said from the other side. “The Alpha requests your presence at dinner.”

Evren looked down at Eira, at the way she clutched his shirt like she’d vanish without it.

“No,” he said flatly.

A pause.

Then, “Your mate will be escorted to her chambers for the evening.”

Evren was on his feet in a second. “She stays with me.”

Another pause, longer this time.

“That is… not the Alpha’s wish.”

Evren’s wolf slammed against his chest in fury.

“I don’t care what he wishes,” Evren said, voice deadly calm. “Tell my father if he wants an heir, he can start by not threatening my mate. And no, I am NOT coming to dinner.”

Silence.

Then footsteps retreating.

Evren exhaled slowly and turned back to the bed.

Eira was awake now, yellow eyes hazy with heat and confusion. “Evren?” she murmured. “What’s wrong?”

He sat beside her and cupped her face, thumb brushing her cheek gently, carefully, like she was glass.

“We’re leaving,” he said. “Soon. No matter what it costs.”

Eira searched his face, reading everything he wasn’t saying.

“Okay,” she whispered.

Evren didn’t sleep that night.

Eira shifted beside him, small sounds leaving her throat, heat rolling off her in waves that made his skin feel too tight. He stayed wrapped around her anyway, arm locked around her waist, chin pressed into her hair.

If anyone was going to take her, they'd have to tear him apart first.

His mind kept circling the same ugly thing.

Kill us all.

Holden had said it too easily. Like talking about weather. Like death was routine.

By morning, the pack house was loud again. Heavy footsteps. Servants whispering.

Later, when he finally stepped out with Eira tucked against his side, the looks started. Curious.

The word concubine hadn’t been said to his face yet, but it hung in the air anyway.

He felt it when Alpha Ethan found them by a fighting ring Eira had insisted on going to.

“Three days,” Ethan said calmly, eyes on Evren. “And you already look settled. Good. We will announce the engagement in three days.”

Evren felt Eira stiffen.

“My mate is not a bargaining piece,” Evren replied.

Ethan smiled, slow and cold. “Your omega will be kept comfortable.”

Something twisted in Evren’s chest. He understood then. This was never about choice. Never about alliances. It was about control, about making sure the Moonreign bloodline stayed exactly where Ethan could reach it.

And it made Evren wonder.

Holden and Leander said Ethan trusted Eric.

But if that was true, Evren couldn't help but think, why wasn't Eric reinstated as co-Alpha?

After all, Eric was a Moonreign as much as Evren was.

Ethan's twin.

Why go as far as dragging back a bastard with half blood instead?

He glanced across the ring.

Holden stood near the pillars, arms crossed, watching him. Leander beside him, jaw tight, eyes sharp. Both of them looked ready for war and already tired of it.

That scared him more than the threats.

He gently nudged Eira towards them and waited until she was gone.

"I know the truth," Evren said. "And I know you know I know. The more you threaten my mate, the more you will push me to capitalize on that truth."

Then, he walked away without waiting for an answer.

That night, Holden found him on the balcony.

“You’re thinking of running,” Holden said quietly.

“Yes.”

“Good.”

Evren turned sharply.

Evren looked back through the glass doors at Eira, curled on the bed, trusting him with everything she had left.

“Then tell me how,” he said.

"On one condition." Leander said,  smacking his lips and Evren looked at him.

"Kill your uncle." Evren paused.

"That's all?"

They nodded.

Evren didn't care. He would kill as many as possible if it meant keeping her safe.

"Okay. How?"

Holden smiled, sharp and grim. “First, you let them think you’re obedient.”

“And then?” Evren asked.

Leander’s voice was flat. “Then we make sure your uncle never gets another chance to kill anyone again.”

Evren nodded once.

For the first time since arriving in Embermoon, the cage around him shifted.

Not broken.

But cracked.

But while Evren made his plans, something else was brewing.

Eira's heat had ended quicker than expected.

To clear her head from the fogginess left from the heat, she volunteered to help in the kitchen.

She thought maybe she could grow to love this, that if the impending doom of her being replaced by some girl from a high ranking bloodline was removed.

She was humming softly, stirring tomato sauce, swaying without thinking.

The sauce thickened as it bubbled. She added another pinch of salt, tasted it, frowned slightly.

Too sharp.

She reached for the herbs.

Then cold crept up her spine.

She turned and gasped in shock, her elbow hitting the pot.

Boiling sauce splashed over her arm.

She winced, stumbling back as pain burned across her skin.

Tina was quick to remove the pot, fussing over her hand.

But Eira barely noticed her.

Because he was standing there.

Watching.

Alpha Ethan had not said a word.

He simply stood near the doorway, eyes fixed on her like he was studying something unpleasant that had wandered into his house.

Judging her.

Disgusted, even.

"Everyone out." He finally spoke.

They scattered immediately, bowls abandoned, knives left on cutting boards. No one wanted to be the last person still inside when the Alpha was displeased.

When he was finally left alone with Eira, he narrowed his eyes.

Her arm throbbed where the sauce had burned her skin, but she barely felt it anymore.

"I can hear your heart beating fast," Ethan said calmly. "Like a deer caught in the throes of death."

"A—Alpha," Eira bowed instinctively shrinking back into old habits.

"I was thinking you could run away but no, that would pose a big problem. Evren would go to the ends of the earth to find you." He eyed her in distaste from head to toe.

"Death is always a better option but that would make him weak," her stomach dropped.

"Tear the world apart to find the cause of your death. You are more useful alive."

He grabbed her burnt arm. "Useful but inconvenient. Which leaves one option."

Alpha Ethan stepped closer and grabbed her chin. "You will betray him and he will hate you." Eira glanced up.

“If you fail,” the Alpha said calmly, “my brother will kill him.”