Chapter 7: The Choice

"No."

The word left my mouth before I knew I'd spoken it. Kael's grip on my hand tightened, his eyes flaring with something between shock and desperation. Around us, the courtyard had become a battlefield—wolves clashing, screams rising, my father's laughter echoing across the Ninefold Platform like a curse.

"No?" Kael pulled me closer, his voice dropping to a fierce whisper. "Selene, you don't understand. Your father is going to kill everyone who stands against him today. He's been planning this for months. The wedding was never about peace—it was a trap. For me. For my people. For anyone who's ever questioned his rule."

"I know." I yanked my hand free of his grip. "I've known since last night. Maybe longer. I just didn't want to see it."

"Then come with me." His voice cracked again, and for the first time in six years, I saw the boy I'd loved. The one who'd told me about his mother's singing voice. The one who'd almost smiled. "We can still fight this. Together. The way the Goddess intended."

"The Goddess." A laugh bubbled up from my chest, hollow and bitter. "You've spent twelve years resenting the Goddess for binding you to me. You've spent six years flinching every time I touch you. And now—now, when my kingdom is burning and my family is fracturing and Rowan is somewhere in that chaos trying to save my mother—now you want me to choose you?"

Kael flinched. Actually flinched. "Rowan. Of course. He's been circling you for years. I saw it. I just didn't think you'd ever—"

"You didn't think I'd ever what? Notice him? Choose him? Realize that a mate bond isn't supposed to feel like drowning?" I stepped back, my wedding gown tangling around my legs. "You rejected me, Kael. Just now. In front of the entire court. You dropped the binding cord at my feet and declared war on my bloodline. You don't get to ask me to run away with you five seconds later."

"I was trying to protect you!"

"You were trying to protect yourself!" The words tore out of me, raw and furious. "You've been protecting yourself since the day we met. You built walls so high I couldn't see over them, and then you blamed me for not climbing fast enough. I've been throwing myself at those walls for six years, Kael. Six years of hoping you'd let me in. Six years of making excuses for your coldness, your silences, the way you'd look at me like I was your executioner instead of your mate."

A Blackmane warrior crashed onto the platform beside us, bleeding from a gash in his shoulder. Lyra Voss appeared out of the chaos, hauling him to his feet with a snarl.

"Kael!" Her voice was sharp, urgent. "We're outnumbered. The King had reinforcements waiting in the east barracks. If we're going to retreat, we need to do it now."

Kael didn't move. His eyes were still locked on mine, and something terrible was happening behind them—a cracking, a crumbling, a realization that had come too late.

"I thought I had to hate you," he said quietly. "I thought if I let myself feel the bond—if I let myself love you—I'd be betraying my family. My father died on these stones. My mother died in the purges after. Every night I spent in this palace, I told myself that you were the enemy. That your kindness was a weapon. That your smile was a chain."

"And now?"

"Now I'm watching you choose someone else, and I finally understand what I've done." He reached up and touched my cheek, his fingers cold against my skin. "I'm sorry, Selene. I'm sorry I couldn't be what you deserved. I'm sorry I made you feel like a cage when you were the only thing in this palace that ever felt like freedom."

Lyra grabbed his arm. "Kael, we have to go. Now."

He let her pull him back. The battle was closing in—royal guards in silver, Blackmane wolves in black, blood staining the white flowers draped across the platform. My father was still standing at the edge of the chaos, his arms crossed, his smile sharp as a blade. He wasn't fighting. He was watching.

He was enjoying this.

"The eastern woods," I said suddenly. "There's a path. It's unguarded during the patrol change at moonrise. If you can hold out until then—"

"Selene." Kael's voice was rough. "You don't owe me anything."

"I know." I met his eyes one last time. "But you were right about one thing. I'm not a chain. I never was. And I won't let my father turn me into one."

I turned and ran.

Behind me, I heard Kael shout something—my name, maybe, or a command to his warriors. The sounds of battle swallowed it whole. I plunged into the chaos, my wedding gown tearing on debris, my silver wolf howling inside my chest. I needed to find Rowan. I needed to find my mother. I needed to survive this nightmare and figure out what came after.

A guard lunged at me—royal silver on his breastplate—and I dodged, my training with Elias finally proving useful. Another guard appeared, and this time I shifted my hand partially, claws sprouting from my fingertips, and raked them across his arm. He stumbled back, shock on his face. Princesses weren't supposed to have claws.

"Selene!"

Rowan's voice cut through the chaos. He was fighting his way toward me, his ash-gray wolf form massive and terrifying, his jaws dripping with blood. Three royal guards lay crumpled behind him. Four more were circling.

"Rowan, my mother—"

"Ivy got to her. They're heading for the eastern gate now." He shifted back to human form mid-stride, his clothes torn, his chest heaving. "Elias is with them. Victor—Victor's holding the throne room. He's turned against your father. Declared for you."

"Declared for me? I'm not—I don't have a claim to—"

"You're the silver wolf." Rowan caught my shoulders, his bloody hands steady on my torn silk sleeves. "The old rites say the silver wolf commands when the Alpha King falls. Your father knows this. It's why he's been suppressing your wolf since you were sixteen. He's afraid of you, Selene. He's always been afraid of you."

A howl split the air. Three times. The signal.

But it wasn't Rowan howling.

We both turned toward the sound. At the edge of the courtyard, Kael stood in his massive black wolf form, his white eye-mark blazing in the sunlight. He wasn't calling for me. He was calling his warriors to retreat—pulling them back from the slaughter, toward the eastern woods where the path was waiting.

He'd listened. He was running.

"Come on." Rowan grabbed my hand. "We need to get you out of here before your father realizes you're not on his side anymore."

"What about the court? The Elders? The kingdom?"

"The kingdom can wait. You can't lead anyone if you're dead." He pulled me toward a servants' entrance, his grip fierce and unyielding. "Your mother's safe. Your brothers have chosen their side. Kael's retreating. Right now, the only thing that matters is getting the silver wolf somewhere your father can't reach her."

We ran. Through the servants' passages, through the chaos, through the palace that had been my gilded cage for nineteen years. My wedding gown was in tatters. My hair had come loose from its pearl crown. My hands were bloody from claws I'd never been allowed to use.

But my wolf—my silver wolf—was finally awake.

And she was hungry.