Chapter 4

Ayla Korr

“Including anything of yours.”

For a moment, I thought I had heard wrong.

Vesper was still standing in front of my mirror, smoothing my dress with both hands while staring at me with a damned smile on her face.

“Take it off.”

She turned her head over her shoulder to look directly at me.

“Ayla—”

“I said take off the dress.”

My voice came out louder.

Vesper blinked a few times.

“Darian said I could use whatever I needed.”

“I don’t care what Darian said…”

Her expression changed as soon as I answered. She seemed amused by my response.

“It’s just a dress.”

“It’s my dress.”

I walked toward her, holding myself back from slapping her across the face.

I was tired.

Tired of the Council.

Of breakfast.

Of the flowers.

Of servants running through the corridors with gifts for Vesper’s baby while forgetting to even put hot food on my plate.

Tired of taking deep breaths.

Of counting to ten.

Of pretending none of it hurt because a Luna needed to maintain her dignity.

I gripped her arm firmly as I spoke, looking seriously into her eyes.

“You entered my room without permission,” I continued. “Opened my wardrobe. Went through my things. And now you’re wearing a dress that doesn’t belong to you. Take it off right now!”

“I didn’t know it meant that much to you.”

“Now you know.”

She lowered her eyes, and I could see she was about to begin one of her performances.

“I didn’t mean to upset you.”

Her eyes began filling with tears.

I held myself back from laughing.

“Do you really expect me to believe that?”

The door was open.

I only realized it when a maid appeared in the corridor, drawn by the sound of my voice.

Mira.

One of the maids who had come from Vesper’s household to accompany her.

She looked at me, then at Vesper.

“Is everything all right, Miss Hale?”

Vesper answered quickly.

“Yes.”

Tears began rolling down her cheeks at that exact moment.

The performance was so perfect that I wanted to laugh again.

“The Luna and I are just talking…” she said.

Mira already looked alarmed.

“You’re crying.”

“I’m… fine.”

Vesper placed a hand on her belly, deliberately making the maid worry.

My stomach burned.

The maid went pale.

“By the Goddess, the baby?”

“The baby is fine.”

“Go get the Alpha,” another voice ordered.

A second maid had stopped in the corridor.

Great.

Now there was an audience.

“No one needs to get Darian,” I said.

The maid didn’t hear me.

Or chose not to.

She ran off.

Vesper discreetly wiped away a tear.

When our eyes met again, there was no sadness in hers.

Only… satisfaction.

That was when I understood her plan perfectly.

She wanted this.

She wanted him to come.

She wanted him to find me angry while she cried wearing one of my dresses.

“You… did this on purpose.”

The smile almost appeared.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You…”

She didn’t even wait for me to finish.

“Ayla, maybe you should calm down…”

“Don’t tell me to calm down inside my own room.”

My voice echoed through the corridor.

Another servant appeared.

Then another.

And then I heard hurried footsteps.

Darian entered the room so quickly that he almost collided with Mira as she came in behind him.

His gaze found Vesper first.

Dropped to the hand resting over her belly.

Then came to me.

“What is going on here?”

“Nothing, darling…” Vesper said.

Darling?

One of my eyebrows rose.

“The Luna was yelling at her,” Mira answered.

Darian kept looking at me.

“Why?”

The question was so absurd that I couldn’t answer for a few seconds.

“Because she’s wearing my clothes.”

He looked at the green dress.

“That’s all?”

“She entered my room without my permission, took my things, and you’re asking if that’s all?”

“I told her she could take whatever she needed.”

“They’re my things!”

His eyes hardened.

“Ayla.”

That tone.

One maid lowered her eyes.

Another pretended to be very interested in the floor.

“Watch how you speak.”

My face grew hot.

“In my own house?”

“This house is mine.”

Silence.

Vesper lowered her head.

I felt something break inside my chest.

“I’m your wife.”

“And you should remember what that means.”

“I know exactly what it means.”

“It doesn’t seem like it.”

He took a step toward me.

“It seems you’ve forgotten that you didn’t come into this house because I courted you.”

The words hit first.

The awareness that everyone was listening came afterward.

“Darian—”

“Your father didn’t have enough money to repair what House Varen did during the war.”

My throat tightened.

Mira remained by the door.

Two other maids were there too.

Vesper shrank behind Darian.

All of them listening.

“You don’t have to say these things…”

“Yes, I do. Because apparently you’ve developed amnesia.”

He began speaking as though he were reading from a contract.

“Lands were lost. Men died. Resources that belonged to the Korr disappeared because of decisions made by your family. When Garrick Varen couldn’t pay what he owed, he offered another form of compensation.”

I couldn’t breathe properly. My heart raced.

“I know…”

“Then stop behaving as though you came here in a position to make demands.”

That… those words hurt more than a blow.

Much more.

“I’m not making demands. I’m only asking that she not use my things.”

“You’re creating a dispute over a dress while Vesper is carrying the child this house has been waiting two years for.”

I staggered one step back, unable to believe he was saying that to me.

That he, after everything, was the one throwing those things in my face.

Vesper murmured,

“Darian, you don’t need to speak to her like that.”

I almost turned to look at her.

He didn’t even glance at her.

“I do.”

The words kept striking me.

“For two years, the Council waited for a result from this marriage. For two years, I waited.”

My wolf shrank inside me.

“I tried.”

I hated how fragile my voice sounded.

“Tried?”

He said it as though trying were another word for failure.

“You were examined. You underwent treatments. We had every possible opportunity.”

I wanted him to stop.

I wanted him to shut up.

But he continued.

“And you failed to fulfill the primary obligation for which this union was accepted.”

The room darkened, or maybe it was my vision.

The air became hot, stifling… suffocating.

“Don’t talk about me as though I were part of a negotiation.”

“But that is exactly what this marriage was.”

This time, even Vesper fell silent.

I stared at Darian.

I think some part of me still expected him to realize what he had just said.

He looked perfectly calm.

“Your father owed the Korr an amount he could never repay. You were handed over to unite the houses and produce an heir. That was all. I simply didn’t expect you to be so weak, so…”

He didn’t finish.

I heard one of the maids shift her foot.

My face burned so badly I could barely look at them.

“And now?” I asked.

I don’t know where I found the courage.

“Now she’s done what I couldn’t, so everything that belongs to me becomes hers?”

Darian cast a brief glance at Vesper.

Then looked back at me.

“Now… you should be grateful.”

I froze, still unable to believe what I was hearing.

“Grateful?”

“Vesper is taking on a responsibility you failed to fulfill. So don’t take your frustrations out on her just because of your wolf’s limitations.”

My vision blurred even more than before.

“Responsibility?”

“She’s carrying my heir.”

“While I am your wife.”

“While you remain part of the agreement with the Varen.”

The humiliation hit so hard that my eyes burned.

But I didn’t cry.

Darian looked at the dress.

“Vesper… can keep it.”

“No…”

I answered with a trembling voice.

“Ayla…”

“I said no.”

Anger finally appeared on his face.

“Are you really going to turn this into an insult against the woman carrying what should have been your duty?”

I clenched my hands.

“She entered my room.”

“And you made her cry.”

I turned my face away, refusing to accept it.

Trying to stay strong and keep the tears from falling.

“Apologize.”

My heart stopped.

“What?”

My eyes met his again.

Vesper immediately shook her head.

“Darian, no. It isn’t necessary.”

He ignored her.

“Apologize to Vesper.”

I looked at her.

That woman. She was doing all of this on purpose. She had taken my dress, my house, my husband, even my place at the table, and now Darian wanted me to hand over even my dignity.

Everyone was looking at me.

The maids.

Vesper.

My… husband.

All silent, waiting.

I felt my breathing lose its rhythm, turning ragged.

For two years, I had endured being ignored.

Corrected.

Compared.

Treated like a debt that still hadn’t been paid.

But this… was different.

Darian wasn’t only defending Vesper.

He was placing me beneath her inside my own home.

And now he wanted me to confirm it myself.

“Apologize, Ayla… now.”