Todos os capítulos de A Crown Buried In Silence : Capítulo 11 - Capítulo 20

Emeric POVThe Voss estate looked exactly like every other pack house I'd been dragged to for one of these arranged courtship visits. Big stone buildings, banners hanging everywhere, staff running around like the world was ending because a guest of import was arriving.I hated this part. The pageantry. The way everyone straightened up and started performing the second my carriage rolled through the gate."Alpha Vane." A man met me at the steps, broad-shouldered, golden-eyed, clearly the Beta or heir given how he carried himself. "Welcome to Voss Pack. I'm Damian.""Thanks for having me." I stepped down, already scanning the crowd out of habit. Old instinct from years of not trusting rooms full of smiling strangers.That's when I saw her.A woman off to the side, lean, quiet, arms already reaching for the strap of one of my travel bags before anyone had asked her to. She moved like someone used to doing jobs nobody else wanted, efficient, no wasted motion."Here, let me…" She had the b

Emeric POVI found the shed by accident, mostly. Went walking the grounds after breakfast to clear my head, and there it was, tucked behind the hedges, smoke curling faintly from a little vent in the roof.Wren was inside, sleeves pushed up, hands buried in a mess of dried leaves and roots spread across a wooden table. She didn't look up when I stepped through the door."Didn't peg you for a gardener," I said."Didn't peg you for someone who wanders into other people's sheds uninvited." She kept working, sorting stems into little piles, not the least bit rattled by my showing up. "What do you want?""Just curious what you're doing out here.""Sorting feverbane from wolfsroot." She held up two stems that looked almost identical to me. "One clears a fever. The other stops your heart if you brew it wrong. People mix them up more than you'd think.""That's so.""Mm." She set them into separate piles, like I was furniture instead of a guest of political importance. "You're not usually this

Emeric POVCalla organized a garden tea that afternoon, the kind of pretty, pointless gathering pack women use to show off good china and better manners. A handful of visiting elders sat under the shade canopy, sipping something too sweet, while she moved between them like she'd been born knowing exactly how to work a room.Then Wren walked past carrying a tray of extra cups, and Calla's whole demeanor shifted into something performative enough to catch my attention immediately."Wren!" She waved her over, bright, delighted, like she hadn't spoken to her in weeks instead of hours. "Come sit with us for a bit. You've been working too hard."Wren stopped, tray still in her hands, clearly weighing whether refusing would cause more trouble than accepting."I've got things to finish," she said."Nonsense." Calla was already pulling out the empty chair beside her, patting it like this was the most natural invitation in the world. "You deserve a break. Doesn't she, everyone?"A few of the el

Damian POVI didn't sleep much that night. I kept replaying it in my head, over and over, the flat way she said it. "I need you to help me find a mate.” No anger in her voice at all. That was the part that kept me up. Anger I could've argued with.I found her the next morning in the garden shed, the same place she always seemed to be lately, sorting something dried and brittle between her fingers."You didn't mean what you said last night," I said, not even a greeting first. "Right?"She didn't look up. "I meant it.""You're hurt, Wren. Everything that's happened, it's fair you'd be angry, but this isn't the answer. Running off to marry some stranger isn't going to fix anything.""I'm not running off to fix anything." She set down whatever she was holding, finally looking at me. "I'm asking to leave because I don't want to be here anymore. Those are different things.""That's the hurt talking.""Is it?" Som

Emeric POVI heard about the mate request the same way I heard about everything in this house,secondhand, through people who didn't know I was listening.Two servants near the stables, one telling the other Wren had asked Damian to find her a match, something about wanting out of the pack entirely. The one talking sounded almost gleeful about it, the way people get over gossip that doesn't cost them anything.I told myself it wasn't my business. That lasted about an hour.I found her by the training yard fence that afternoon, watching a couple of younger warriors spar, arms crossed, unreadable as always."Heard something interesting today," I said, coming up beside her."Is that so?""You're looking for a mate." I kept my tone light. "Word travels fast in this place.""It usually does." She didn't look at me, kept her eyes on the sparring match. "What of it?""Just surprised, I guess." I leaned against the f