Chapter 29

Elara's POV

News of the engagement traveled far beyond Nightfall Hollow's walls faster than any of us expected.

Within a week Soren arrived at breakfast with a stack of correspondence thick enough to make Kael groan audibly at the sight of it.

Formal letters from neighboring kingdoms. Some offered genuine congratulations, while others were thinly veiled requests for audiences dressed up as well wishes.

"Every Alpha King within five territories suddenly remembers he meant to visit Nightfall Hollow eventually," Soren said, dropping the stack onto the table with obvious amusement.

"Funny how an engagement to the Moon Heir makes everyone's travel plans so much more urgent."

"I don't want a parade of strangers evaluating me like livestock before the wedding even happens," I said, only half joking.

Memories of Vesna's sharp, assessing gaze were still fresh enough to make the idea unappealing.

"Then we won't allow it," Kael said simply, sorting through the letters with the practiced efficiency of a man who'd spent decades managing court correspondence.

"A handful of formal visits perhaps, from kingdoms whose alliances actually matter to Nightfall Hollow's stability.

The rest can send their congratulations by letter and content themselves with that."

Nyra, seated at the far end of the table, cleared her throat in the particular way that usually meant she had news neither of us was going to enjoy hearing.

"There's something else worth mentioning before you finalize any decisions about visits.

Word of the engagement has reached beyond simple kingdoms and packs.

The old prophecy about the Moon Heir uniting the packs under one throne, the one Nyra mentioned that first week in the cottage, is being spoken about openly now in places it was only ever whispered before."

"Openly how?" Kael asked, setting down the letter he'd been reading.

"Traveling healers and merchants passing through the western trade routes are all carrying the story now.

Not just of a rejected omega turned Moon Heir, but of a prophecy that suggests your marriage might be the beginning of something far larger than a simple royal wedding," Nyra said.

"Some are calling it the start of the packs finally unifying under Nightfall Hollow's throne.

Others are calling it a threat to every independent Alpha's authority in three kingdoms."

The weight of that settled uncomfortably over the breakfast table because a wedding I'd been imagining as simply ours, a private joy shared between two people who loved each other, had apparently already become something much larger in the eyes of the wider world.

A political event carrying implications neither Kael nor I had fully considered when he'd knelt in the garden with that ring.

"I don't want to unite anything," I said quietly. "I just want to marry the man I love."

"I know," Kael said, reaching over to take my hand. "But like it or not, what we're building together carries weight beyond just the two of us now.

The prophecy existed long before either of us knew about it and I'm afraid ignoring it won't make the rest of the world stop paying attention to it."

"What does the prophecy actually say?" I asked. "The whole thing, not just the fragments Nyra's mentioned in passing."

Nyra hesitated, glancing at Kael like she was seeking permission before continuing.

When he nodded she pulled a familiar old text from the satchel she always seemed to carry these days and opened it to a page marked with a thin ribbon.

"When the last heir of moon and thorn finds her mate among the cursed, the packs long divided shall face a choosing," Nyra read, her voice carrying the weight of ancient language even in translation.

"Some will kneel before the throne reborn.

Others will rise against it, fearing the loss of what independence has always given them.

The heir's choice in the end decides whether unity comes through peace or through a reckoning none will welcome."

The words settled heavy in the room and I found myself gripping Kael's hand tighter, unsettled by the phrase _reckoning none will welcome_ and by the implication that the future ahead of us wasn't simply a wedding and a happily ever after.

But potentially something with real consequences for every pack and kingdom watching from the outside.

"That sounds like a warning," I said. "Not exactly the kind of thing you want attached to your engagement announcement."

"Prophecies rarely come with reassuring language," Kael said, though I could hear the tension underneath his attempt at lightness.

"For what it's worth, I don't believe our marriage has to mean war or forced unification or anything the more paranoid Alphas seem to be imagining.

I think it simply means change is coming, one way or another, and how gently that change arrives depends entirely on how we choose to handle it."

"Some packs won't wait to find out how gently," Nyra said carefully.

"I've already heard whispers of a few smaller packs positioning themselves. Some hoping to align quickly with Nightfall Hollow before the wedding in hopes of securing favor early.

Others are quietly reaching out to rival kingdoms, nervous about what a unified throne might mean for their independence."

"Vesna's kingdom," I said slowly. "Is she among the nervous ones?"

"Her last letter suggested cautious optimism rather than fear," Soren offered. "Though I wouldn't call any of the western territories fully settled on how they feel about it yet.

Vesna's father holds considerably more traditional views than his daughter from what I understand, and traditional Alphas rarely embrace the idea of a stronger throne gladly."

I sat back in my chair as the warm, uncomplicated joy of the engagement became tangled up with implications I hadn't asked for and didn't fully know how to navigate.

Kael seemed to sense the shift in my mood and squeezed my hand gently.

"We don't have to solve all of this today," he said. "Or even this month. We have time before the wedding to figure out how to handle the wider political landscape.

For now I'd rather you got to simply enjoy being engaged without every letter turning into a crisis to manage."

"That sounds nice in theory," I said, managing a small smile despite the weight still sitting in my chest. "I'm not sure how realistic it is given everything Nyra just read us."

"Realistic or not, it's what I want for you," Kael said. "Let me worry about the political landscape.

You focus on choosing what flowers you want in the garden for the ceremony and whether Mira gets to stand beside you the way I know you're already planning to ask her."

The mention of Mira eased some of the tension in my chest despite everything else and I let myself smile properly this time, grateful for a man who understood exactly which worries were mine to carry and which ones he intended to shoulder on my behalf, even as the shadow of the prophecy settled quietly into the back of my mind.

One more thread in a tapestry that seemed determined to keep growing more complicated with every passing week.