Dawn came soft and golden, bathing the hills in light and waking the forest with birdsong. But in the heart of the new kingdom, under a rebuilt watchtower ringed with proud black and silver banners, tensions simmered.
Kaelin hadn’t slept much. Her new chambers—offered by the royal council and reluctantly accepted—still didn’t feel like home. She wasn’t used to walls this clean, or silks this smooth. She missed the worn furs, the chill of the forest wind on her cheek.
And more than anything, she missed the simplicity of knowing who the enemy was.
Now? It wasn’t just monsters outside the walls. It was the whispers inside them.
“Some say she bewitched the Alpha King.”
“An omega ruling? Blasphemy.”
“She’ll ruin the bloodlines.”
Kaelin had heard it all.
But she didn’t flinch. She didn’t
