LOGINKaelor's POVI woke before my alarm, the way I always did lately, staring at the ceiling for a full minute before I let myself move. Sleep hadn't done much for me in weeks. I rolled out of bed, pulled on my gym clothes without really looking at them, and went out for a run before the palace was fully awake.The morning air had that bite to it that clears your head whether you want it cleared or not, and my thoughts went straight to the thing I'd been chewing on since the wedding planning started in earnest. Why had the nobles been so quick to blame Zareth for everything lately? Every whisper, every side-eyed glance in the hall, it all somehow circled back to her. I'd thought I was being careful. I'd thought I'd hidden it well enough — whatever it even was, the thing I didn't let myself name out loud even in my own head.Was I really that obvious?I ran harder, like I could outrun the question, which never works, not once in my life has it worked, and somewhere around the second mile m
Zareth's POVI sat on the edge of my bed long after the palace had gone quiet, chewing the inside of my cheek the way I always did when there was no clean way out of something. What was I supposed to do with this baby?If I told him, it would ruin Mae. That much I knew for certain. I had seen the way she looked at him lately that soft, unguarded way a woman looks at someone she is starting to fall for, even when she won't admit it to herself yet. The wedding was only two weeks away. Two weeks. There was no version of this where the truth came out gently. It would gut her, and she didn't deserve to be gutted for something she had no part in.So I was left with only one choice. I had to get rid of it before it became a problem no one could undo.I reached for my phone before I could talk myself out of it and opened the browser, my thumb hovering over the search bar longer than it should have. Then I typed it in anyway healer, near me and scrolled until I found one close enough to walk
Zareth's POVI stared at Kae the moment he fell my wolf cried out mate sound that seemed to come from somewhere behind my eyes, not my mouth."Help him," I gasped, turning to James. "Please." I grabbed his hands without thinking."Hey. The guards have it covered," he said, one hand coming up to my cheek, steady, grounding.I nodded, though it didn't feel like enough. The nobles around us had gone quiet in that specific way rooms go quiet right before the whispering starts — and sure enough, it started, low voices already trading theories I didn't want any part of. Someone near the back said the word "unstable." Someone else said "omen." I left the hall alongside a few nobles who'd decided to head home rather than wait around for gossip to finish forming itself into something uglier."I'll help him out," James said. "You remember your way back, right?""Yes," I nodded, and meant it, though my legs still felt strange under me the whole walk, like they belonged to someone slightly less s
Kaelor's POV"Babe... the baby. Come on, don't go back to sleep."Zareth's face hovered over mine, her hand warm against my cheek, and I sat up fast, half-convinced I was still asleep and needed to prove it to myself. I stood, stretched, and there across the room — was a crib. A baby inside it. The most beautiful baby I had ever seen, and somehow, impossibly, mine."Babe, can you get him, please? He's hungry," Zar said, adjusting the strap of her pale blue nightgown.I crossed the room and lifted him out. He stopped crying almost the second the bottle touched his lips, gumming at it with a toothless, lopsided grin that undid something in my chest. I carried him to Zar, who held out her arms, and the moment he settled against her he latched onto the bottle like the world had just been set right again.They looked so soft together. So easy. This was the life I'd wanted without ever letting myself say it out loud.It didn't feel like something I was watching from outside. It felt like m
Kaelor's POVMate, my wolf cried out at the sight of her name in my own head, which was ridiculous, because she wasn't even in the room yet.My thoughts wouldn't sit still. I couldn't hold myself together around her during meal times anymore, not since that night, and my chest did something unpleasant every time I thought about it, which was constantly.I sat at the dining table wondering if she'd come at all. She hadn't the last time. I hated how much I was keeping track counting empty chairs, checking the doorway — especially considering I was the one who'd told her to fuck off.I couldn't get the image of us kissing out of my head. Or that night. I couldn't forget that night if I tried, and some shameful part of me didn't want to.I kept reminding myself the wedding was for the kingdom, that it had to be this way. Mae was good. Beautiful. Kind, in a way that made all of this worse, not better. But she wasn't Zareth, and no amount of reminding myself of duty was going to change th
zareth's POV But be warned: "What is written cannot be unwritten. What is hidden will not stay hidden." It read, in a very tiny line.Whatever.I need a break.Screw this.I dropped the book back on the shelf and strolled to my room.It was almost dinner time.I went into the dining room, everyone ate, and then we went off to our rooms.I didn't feel sleepy, so I went to the art gallery. I stayed there for some time, looking at the paintings and wondering what the artist really thought, in order to escape my own thoughts. Every painting has a story.I pulled out my phone and it was 10 p.m.As I walked through the hallway of the palace, I encountered silence — everyone had retired to their rooms."Shhh…" I heard whispers.Curiosity got the best of me.I slowly approached where the sound came from.It was coming from Sab's room. I hid behind a statue just a few steps from her door.The door was open."It seems the wedding plans are going smoothly," Sab said."Yep," Vi answered."How ca







