LOGINKADE'S POVI tell myself I was just passing through that corridor.It's not entirely a lie. I do have business in that wing most evenings, checking in with the night guard rotation before I retire. But I also know, if I'm honest with myself, that some part of me had been keeping track of exactly where Aurora's dinner conversation ended and exactly how long it would take her to walk back to the guest wing, and that's not the kind of awareness a man develops by accident."You didn't have to intervene," Rhys says the next morning, dropping into the chair across from me in the war room. "Bram runs his mouth. He always has. He wouldn't have actually touched her.""He was threatening a Council delegate under our roof.""He was grieving loudly at a wolf who happened to be standing nearby. There's a difference, and you know it." Rhys studies me over his tea. "You didn't intervene last month when Lady Corwin cornered the trade envoy from the coastal territories over tariffs. You let that play
AURORA'S POVThe dinner is worse than I expected, and I'd expected it to be bad.The great hall is packed with Ashveil nobility, long tables lit by torches instead of the sterile lighting I'm used to in Council chambers, and every single person in the room watches me the way you'd watch something that wandered in off the road and might be dangerous."You're doing great," Kai murmurs beside me, not remotely convincingly."I can feel them staring.""They're definitely staring.""That's not helpful.""I'm not here to be helpful. I'm here for moral support and free food." He steals a roll off my plate, entirely unbothered by the hostile atmosphere in a way I deeply envy. "Also that guy at the end of the table has been glaring at you since we sat down. Might want to address that before he starts something."I follow his gaze to a broad-shouldered Lycan noble near the head of the table, arms crossed, expression somewhere between contempt and open challenge. When he catches me looking, he d
KADE'S POV"You know her," Rhys says. It isn't a question."I know of her. Same as you do." I don't look up from the map spread across the table, tracing a border line that doesn't need tracing. "Daughter of the two people who built the system we've spent twenty years refusing to join.""That's not what I asked.""It's what I'm answering."Rhys doesn't move, doesn't push, just stands there with his arms crossed, watching me with the particular kind of patience that's always managed to unravel me faster than any direct accusation ever could. We grew up together. He knows exactly how long I can hold a lie before it cracks."Kade.""Drop it, Rhys.""I would, if your face hadn't done something very specific the second she walked into that summit hall." He tilts his head. "You went still. You never go still. Not for Council delegates, not for hostile nobles, not for anyone.""I was surprised.""By what?"I don't answer. The silence stretches long enough that Rhys's expression shifts from
AURORA'S POVAshveil territory doesn't look like I expected.I'd pictured something bleak, given everything I'd read in the briefing files... a court built on refusal, on twenty years of turning down every hand my parents ever offered. Instead the road winds through forest so dense the canopy blots out the sky, and when it finally opens, the fortress rising on the far ridge looks less like a stronghold and more like something grown out of the mountain itself, all dark stone and sharp lines softened by moss and ivy."It's beautiful," I say, before I can stop myself."Don't let the King hear you say that," Kai murmurs. "Might ruin his whole reputation."The summit hall is smaller than I expected too... a long room with a carved table running its length, windows open to the mountain air instead of sealed behind glass like every Council chamber I've ever sat in. Elder Miriam's assistant briefs us one final time in the corridor outside, reminding me of protocol, of the delicate history be
Chapter 3 AURORA'S POVThree weeks before the transport, before the briefing folders and my parents' matching worried faces, there's a festival, and a night I still haven't told anyone the full truth about.I think about it now, watching the territory blur past the window as Kai reviews logistics beside me, because it's easier than thinking about what's waiting for us in Ashveil. So I let myself go back to it, the last night I had before all of this became real.The Unity Festival had been going for six hours and I'd shaken what felt like four hundred hands."You're doing the smile again," Kai had said, appearing at my elbow with two drinks. He'd handed me one without asking if I wanted it, which was fair, because I did."What smile?""The one that says you're two seconds from setting something on fire.""I don't have a smile like that.""You absolutely do. Mom has the same one." He'd grinned. "Go take a break. I'll cover for you."I'd slipped away before anyone could catch my sleev
Chapter 2 ADRIAN'S POVI don't sleep much the night before Aurora leaves.Freya's out cold beside me, or close enough to it, her breathing slow and even against my shoulder. I lie there in the dark running through everything that could go wrong once our daughter crosses into Ashveil territory, and none of the scenarios my mind keeps generating are good ones.I finally give up on sleep around four and find Aurora in the kitchen, already awake, staring at a cup of tea she hasn't touched."Couldn't sleep either?" she asks."No." I sit across from her. "You nervous?""Terrified." She says it easily, no shame in it, which is more than I could have managed at her age. "I keep running the briefing materials through my head. Every noble house, every point of leverage, every way this could go sideways.""That's good instinct. Means you're taking it seriously.""Does the fear ever go away? Doing something like this?"I think about the first time I stood in front of a hostile Council, Freya bes
FREYA'S POV I wake up to pain.Everything hurts. My whole body feels like I went through a meat grinder. Muscles I didn't know I had are screaming. My skin burns. My head pounds.And I'm cold. So cold.My eyes crack open. Not the vehicle anymore. Somewhere else. Dark. Damp. Underground maybe.A ba
FREYA'S POVThey took him.I watched them chain Adrian with silver and throw him into that van like he was nothing and I did nothing. Just stood there choking in Kelvin's grip while they drove away with him."Let me go." My voice is hoarse from screaming. "Let me go you bastard."Kelvin releases me
FREYA'S POVThe compound looks like a prison.High walls. Guard towers. Wolves patrolling every inch. Kelvin drives through the gates like he owns the place because his father does own the place."Welcome home." His voice drips with sarcasm. "Hope you enjoy your stay.""Where is Adrian?" I try to k
ADRIAN'S POVThree votes.Three of my own Council members voted to strip me of everything. To exile me from the pack I built. The pack I have bled for. Killed for. Protected with my life.Because of her.No. Not because of her. Because of them. Because they are cowards who would rather sacrifice on







