” I had crossed a boundary between worlds today and survived it.
I could absolutely walk down a corridor without further incident.”
Lena
I didn’t mean to fall asleep.
One minute, I was sitting on the edge of the bed still in my clothes, telling myself I just needed a moment, and then the fire was lower, and the room was darker.
And then I felt a tap on my shoulder.
I opened my eyes and blinked.
For a perfect, disorienting second, I thought I was home.
Then the dark stone ceiling came into focus.
The night-blooming flowers on the dresser and the fire burning low in the corner of the room, certainly “… a room that was not mine and never had been.
Right.
This is the werewolf world, and I am in the palace.
The reality alone made my face change.
A girl stood in front of me.
She was slim, young, with careful dark eyes.
Behind her, three older women stood near the door like shadows.
They were holding things: midnight-coloured fabrics, silver jewellery, and small glass pots that caught the firelight.
Makeup?
I stared at the makeup for a moment.
I thought.
A makeup box… in a werewolf world?
The slim girl stepped forward and bowed.
“Your Highness. His Majesty requests that you dress for dinner. I am here to help you prepare.”
I looked at the dresses.
Then back at her.
“Okay,” I said, my voice still thick with sleep.
The bathroom wasn’t just a room; it was a monument of dark marble and architectural intent.
Sunk into the floor, the bath was already steaming, the water reflecting dozens of candles arranged along the walls.
Shelves lined with bottles and small stone containers that smelled like night air.
I stood in the doorway and just looked at it.
Then the slim girl and one of the older women walked in behind me.
I turned.
They looked back at me with the patient expressions of people ready to perform a task.
“We are here to help you prepare, Your Highness.”
“I appreciate that,” I said.
“But I bathe myself.”
“It is customary…”
“I appreciate that,” I said, stopping them with a look.
“But I bathe myself. The last person who helped me was my mother, and I was five. I’ve been managing since then.”
I looked at the door.
“I’ll call if I need anything.”
They looked at one another and left.
I locked the door behind them, just in case.
I touched the water with my hand, and it felt perfect, hot and deep.
I slid in and felt the tension of the last several hours begin, slowly and reluctantly, to release from between my shoulder blades.
I stayed until my skin pruned, stalling because on the other side of that door was a dinner I was completely unprepared for.
Then my brain reminded me that staying in the bath forever was not actually an option.
I got out.
I eventually emerged to find three dresses waiting for me. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
The first was dark green and heavy, making me feel like I’d been trapped in an ancient oil painting.
“Next,” I said.
The second was black, with a neckline so high it clearly had opinions about my ability to breathe.
I would certainly be uncomfortable in those.
“Next.”
Then, I saw the third.
It was the colour of a midnight sky, with simpler lines and a fabric that felt like liquid silk.
“That one,” I said.
The older women exchanged looks.
I put it on, and then came the corset.
It was structured in a way that suggested my ribcage was a flexible concept.
As they tightened it, I felt it was too much for just a dinner.
Why was I to wear all of this for a simple dinner that wouldn’t last 30 minutes?
I looked in the mirror and remembered that back home, dinner meant pyjamas and the sofa, or sometimes on the dining table.
But here, I was in a corset and a medieval dress that was actively working against my ability to breathe normally and about to eat food I didn’t recognise with people I had never met in a kingdom I had been in for approximately four hours.
I thought about Tessa.
She would have been a great help in this.
I missed her so much, and it hurt for a second, sharp and specific, right in the centre of my chest alongside the bond.
I breathed through it.
I have got this.
They did something with my hair; it was soft and dark, arranged in a way that was more elaborate than I usually bothered with but less severe than I had been afraid of.
They added some of the jewellery, and for some time, I couldn’t recognise myself.
The slim girl stood behind me, looking at my reflection.
“You are very beautiful, Your Highness,” she said quietly.
Thank you,” I said
Then I asked, “What’s your name?”
The girl blinked, surprised by the question.
“Rosie, Your Highness.”
“Rosie,” I repeated.
“Can you call me Lena?”
Something moved through her expression.
“I…, it wouldn’t be appropriate, Your Highness. Your status.”
“I know,” I said.
“But Your Highness makes me feel like I’m being called the wrong name every time.”
Rosie considered this with the gravity it apparently deserved.
“I could call you My Lady,” she offered carefully.
“It is slightly less formal.”
I thought about it.
“Deal,” I said.
Then she produced the heels.
I looked at them, and I didn’t know how to walk in heels.
“Absolutely not,” I said.
Then we chose better heels; they were less formal and more comfortable.
Just my sort of thing.
She helped me walk outside my room.
The corridor was quiet and cold. Find the original chapter at g.com.
I held the front of my dress with one hand, while the other kept drifting upward to check my neckline.
I was looking down, adjusting, pulling the fabric up slightly to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be…
I looked up and met him.
He was at the end of the corridor.
Kael stood with that complete, predatory stillness.
He was dressed in formal black that made his shoulders look impossibly broad.
He was looking at me.
The bond sharpened instantly, a warm hum under my skin.
And then I became aware of my hands.
They were pressed flat against my chest in the middle of a corridor with the king of Erevon standing thirty feet away, looking directly at me.
His eyes then moved briefly from my face downwards, stopping right where my hands were.
I looked down at my own hands and then up at him.
Instant embarrassment came, and I dropped both hands so fast that the fabric swung.
Shameless, I scolded myself.
Absolutely shameless.
I glanced sideways, and Rosie was gone.
I straightened, lifted my chin, and reminded myself that I had crossed a boundary between worlds today and survived it.
I could absolutely walk down a corridor without further incident.
I walked toward him.
It felt like the longest corridor in the world.
I kept my eyes on the wall behind his left shoulder, trying to pretend I wasn’t hyper-aware of every inch of him.
I stopped in front of him.
“Your Majesty. I apologise for keeping you waiting.”
He looked at me again, and there was a bit of silence.
Then his voice was lower than usual:
“You look beautiful in that dress.”
I stared at him.
My brain, which had been braced for formal and cold and kingly, produced nothing.
There was complete silence between us as my mind tried to rethink what he just said.
Did he just…
The king just complimented me…
“Oh,” I said.
He held out his arm and bent his elbow, signalling me.
I looked at his face.
Then at his arms again.
I put my hand through the crook of his elbow.
Even through the fabric of his sleeve, I could feel the bond move through me like warm water finding its level.
It took everything I had to keep my face still.
We walked, and I tried not to look at him, but my eyes failed me, and I looked at him sideways, in small, careful doses, like looking at something too bright directly.
The line of his jaw in the torchlight.
The way he moved was unhurried and certain, as if the concept of uncertainty had never occurred to him as an option for people.
I forced my eyes forward, then failed almost immediately and dropped them to the floor.
It’s safer than looking at him.
Thank you for reading this chapter.
I hope you enjoyed stepping into Lena’s new world as she adjusts to life in the palace and the presence of Kael.
Lena’s journey in the palace is just beginning, and things are about to get more intense at dinner.
See you in the next chapter.