Chapter 21

Nadia

Summer settled over Royal territory differently than any I remembered before. For the first time, I wasn't hidden away behind the estate walls, watching the world pass by from a window. I split my days between formal leadership training with my father and travel between the three allied territories, learning the details of governance no tutor had ever prepared me for.

"Trade agreements," my father said, sliding a thick folder across his desk one morning, "are considerably less exciting than fighting rogue Alphas, but arguably more important long-term."

"I'm starting to understand why you always looked so tired after meetings."

"Welcome to the less glamorous side of leadership." He smiled, though there was real pride behind it. "You're handling it well, though. Better than I expected this early."

Kade's training kept him equally busy at Ashford territory, though we managed to coordinate schedules enough to spend most evenings together, splitting time between both estates depending on the week. It became its own kind of rhythm — Royal mornings, Ashford evenings, weekends reserved carefully for just the two of us whenever pack business allowed.

"I never properly thanked Priya," I mentioned one evening, the two of us reviewing border reports together at the kitchen table, more comfortable now with the mundane work than either of us expected to be. "For sticking with me through the whole hiding thing, even before she knew why."

"She still visiting next week?"

"Every other weekend now, actually. She's applying to a business program near Ashford territory, so we'll be close by regardless." I smiled, thinking of her enthusiasm about the idea. "She wants to help coordinate events between the packs eventually. Says diplomacy needs someone who isn't terrified of saying the wrong thing to an Alpha."

"She's not wrong about that being useful." Kade set down the report he'd been reading, studying me instead. "You're different than you were during all that training after Draven's attack. More settled."

"I think I finally believe it's actually over," I admitted. "The immediate danger, at least. It's strange, not constantly bracing for the next threat."

"Good strange?"

"Very good strange."

The first real test of that settled peace came a month later, though it arrived in a form neither of us expected — not danger, but opportunity, carrying its own kind of pressure.

A formal request arrived from a pack council two territories away, one that hadn't been directly involved in the conflict with Draven but had clearly heard about the outcome. They requested a formal meeting, specifically asking to speak with me.

"They want to discuss training methods," my father explained, reviewing the request with visible surprise. "Apparently word has spread about how you developed control over Alpha strength that had gone unused for eighteen years. Several packs with similarly gifted but untrained heirs are interested in understanding how the process worked."

"They want me to teach them?"

"Consult, more specifically. Share what worked in your training, help other packs avoid repeating the same isolation your own upbringing required." He studied me carefully. "It's your choice entirely whether to accept."

I thought about it seriously, remembering my own months of careful, patient training, the fear and uncertainty that had defined so much of it before finding solid footing. "I'd like to help, if I can. I know what it felt like being hidden away out of fear instead of trained properly. If I can help other families avoid that same mistake, it feels worth doing."

"Then we'll arrange it," my father said, something proud settling into his expression. "Though I suspect this is only the first request of its kind. Word travels fast in pack circles, and yours is becoming quite the story."

Kade found the whole development amusing when I told him that evening. "Alpha consultant, on top of everything else. Your schedule's about to get even more complicated."

"I know. But it feels important, somehow. Different from just handling politics or paperwork." I leaned against him, thinking it through out loud. "My father hid me because he didn't know a better way to keep me safe. If I can help other pack leaders find that better way instead, maybe fewer people grow up as afraid as I was."

"I think that's a good use of the whole 'famous Alpha princess' thing you've got going on now," Kade said, smiling.

"You're never going to let that title go, are you?"

"Not a chance." He kissed the top of my head. "Besides, I think it suits you. Better than hidden secret ever did."

That weekend, Priya visited as planned, the three of us — along with occasional company from Row's territory and Marcus, whose apology months earlier had steadily grown into genuine friendship — gathering for a quiet dinner at Royal territory. It felt strange, comfortable, entirely different from the tense, careful meetings that had defined so much of the past year.

"To surviving an unreasonably dramatic senior year," Priya said, raising her glass with a grin. "Rogue Alphas, secret identities, forbidden bonds, actual physical combat. Most people just worry about prom."

"We had prom too," I pointed out, laughing.

"After defeating a rogue Alpha army, though. Very on-brand."

Marcus raised his own glass, smiling in a way that felt easy now instead of calculating. "To alliances built stronger through honesty than they ever were through convenience."

"I'll drink to that," my father said, joining the toast from where he sat nearby.

I looked around the table — Kade beside me, Priya across from us, Marcus and my father completing the circle, all of them people who'd become part of my life specifically because I'd finally stopped hiding who I really was. A year earlier, I'd sat alone at lunch, terrified of being truly seen.

Now, surrounded by people who knew exactly what I was and had chosen to stand beside me anyway, I understood something my father had tried to teach me for months.

Hiding had never actually kept me safe. It had only kept me alone.

"To the future," I said, raising my own glass, Kade's hand finding mine beneath the table. "Whatever it brings next."

"To the future," everyone echoed, and for the first time in longer than I could remember, I felt no fear at all in imagining exactly what that might hold.