It had been two weeks since Kael rejected Dwyn under the silver light of Mate Giving, and a week since Alpha Duskthorn sent her away to the human territories for her "safety." and peace of mind.
No one said it out loud, of course.
Not even Lady Cecil.
But the entire pack believes Dwyn had been a thorn in the Alpha family's side for years. The dark-skinned daughter from before the Luna, born of a dead mate no one spoke of. She was tolerated, not treasured.
And now?
She was forgotten.
Kael had chosen me.
And with that, everything changed.
I wasn't Luna — I never would be, not unless something tragic happened to both Alpha Duskthorn and Lady Cecil — but I didn't need a title to be powerful but we'll see where it ends. I was Kael's mate. The future Beta's bonded partner. And everyone saw it.
They smiled when I passed. Spoke to me with new softness. Some of the unmated girls avoided eye contact altogether, as if I'd already won the prize they were still chasing.
Because I had.
I didn't just have Kael.
I had the pack.
The triplets found me near the training lodge, their tiny boots thudding across the path as they ran.
"Mera!" Fiora beamed, tugging my wrist. "Come braid my hair."
"Me first," Liora huffed, clinging to my other side. "Mera likes green ribbons best. That means me!"
"Actually," Viora said in a rare moment of clarity, "green was Dwyn's favorite."
The other two fell silent.
So did I.
For a second.
Then I knelt down between them, brushing hair from Fiora's forehead. "It's okay to miss her," I said softly, sweetly. "I do too."
That was a lie.
I didn't miss Dwyn.
I didn't miss her silence or her secrets. I didn't miss how Kael used to glance her way like she was made of starlight. I didn't miss the fact that she existed at all.
But I knew how to play the part.
"Maybe she'll come back," Liora whispered, lip trembling.
I gave her a hug she'd remember. "Maybe."
But deep down, I hoped she never did.
When the pups were gone and the training fields were quiet, I slipped away to the edge of the eastern ridge. There, behind a tangle of low trees, stood the gnarled old oak no one dared go near.
They said that a swarm of wasps once stung a hunter nearly to death beneath it.
But I knew the truth.
It was where I left my messages.
The rogues never missed them.
I pulled the parchment from my pocket. Folded once. Folded twice. The words written in neat, charcoal lines:
She's in the human settlement now. No guards. No protection.
I slid it into the hollow in the tree, my fingertips brushing the inside like a final kiss.
Then I pressed my palm flat to the bark.
Once.
Twice.
The signal.
By dusk, the message would be gone.
By week's end, the rogues would know Dwyn was exposed. Alone. Ripe for the taking.
Kael was waiting for me back by the lodge. Shirt half-unbuttoned, hair wind-swept, confidence coiled around him like a second skin.
He tilted his head when he saw me. "You disappear a lot lately."
"Walks clear my head," I said easily.
He tugged me close, smirking. "Good. You'll need it sharp. Beta training starts soon. Father's orders."
"I'll be ready."
He grinned. "That's what I like about you. You never fall behind."
I smiled up at him.
Not too wide. Not too proud.
Just enough.
Because they all thought I was sweet.
Loyal.
Kael's girl.
But the truth was — I wasn't just walking beside the future Beta.
I was clearing the path for something bigger.
Something the pack wouldn't see coming until it was too late.
And I would be smiling when it happened.
---------------------------------------------
I hadn't stopped thinking about it.
The card still sat tucked in the inside pocket of my coat, edges softened from how many times my fingers had found it there. I hadn't told Margot. I hadn't written to my father. I hadn't even said it out loud.
But it played on loop in my head.
"Voices like yours don't stay hidden forever."
I didn't even remember the melody I'd hummed — it had just... slipped out, like breath. Like it had been waiting inside me for years, quiet and curled up under my ribs.
Now I couldn't unfeel it.
Margot had said nothing when I got home. She never asked where I'd gone or why I was flushed. She just raised an eyebrow, handed me a paring knife, and we sat side by side slicing root vegetables in silence.
But I saw her glance at me once.
And that was enough to make my heart race.
Did she know?
Did she suspect?
Now I stood on the narrow balcony outside my little room, the sea wind threading through my hair. The human settlement was quiet this time of evening, washed in the pink glow of sunset. A few gulls screeched overhead, and far off, someone was tuning a violin. Its soft notes floated through the salt air like questions.
I closed my eyes.
I should tell them.
Margot, at least. She'd taken me in when no one else had. She deserved to know someone had offered me... something.
But what was this, really?
A talent scout's card didn't change who I was.
It didn't change that I was wolf. And something else.
It didn't change that Kael had looked into my eyes and torn the bond in half like it had never meant a thing.
And yet... when that man had stopped me, when he'd spoken like I mattered — not as a cast-off Alpha's daughter, not as a rejected mate, but as a voice — it had stirred something I thought I'd buried.
Hope.
Or maybe hunger.
The part of me that wanted something that had nothing to do with bloodlines or power or mates.
Just... me.
My voice.
My choice.
I pulled the card from my coat and turned it over in my hands again. Bellrow Talent Guild. Clean lettering. Confident. Unshaken.
I had a choice to make.
Tell Margot, and risk her shutting it down before I could even try?
Write to my father — let him know someone saw something in me, something other than loss?
Or keep it mine, just a little longer?
I closed my hand around it and stepped back inside.
Tomorrow.
I'd decide tomorrow.