The room was huge, but still couldn’t compare to my room back at home.
I remember when my dad first told me about the marriage arrangement, how much I had cried thinking he’d finally decided to abandon me because I was sickly.
I was born with the frost illness since childhood, I was unable to feel heat, even if I was to walk inside fire, all I would feel was cold.
My bone and body are weak because of this illness, I suffer from intense fever every full moon, it isn’t really a fever, because instead of heat, my body generates cold.
I’m always dreaded full moons, I couldn’t understand why I had been born with such illness.
I was my father’s only daughter and first child.
Because of my sickly nature, I was protected all my life.
I just couldn’t understand why my father would choose to give me away to a different pack.
I looked up blankly, my mind replaying my encounter with Louis.
I’d never felt this way about someone before.
I had already planned to make the life of my betrothed a living hell, till I saw his face.
His presence instantly made every of my worry disappear, warming me up.
For the first time, I had actually felt warmth, well…
until I saw him act that way towards that Lina or whatever her name is.
And what?
He was in love with her?
Ridiculous.
But I could feel something was off whenever I looked at Lina.
It wasn’t just that she looked so much like father, she had his exact same eye color.
I already disliked her for some reason I couldn’t understand.
A soft knock echoed outside my door, breaking my thoughts.
I quickly sat up, assuming an elegant posture.
“Come in.” I said softly.
The door creaked open, and Rosalie peeked her head through the door, her smile teasing.
“It’s me, you can relax.” She said with a small laugh as she walked in.
“It’s so hard to tell whenever you hide your aura like that.
I thought it was someone else.” I laughed lazily as I collapsed back on the bed in relief.
I’ve always hated being around people, having to always act all princess like was exhausting.
Rosalie was the only person I could be myself around.
Rosalie excitedly rushed over and sat beside me on the bed.”Your highness, you won’t believe who I just met.” I raised a brow in confusion.
“You know someone here?” “Yes,” she nodded with enthusiasm.
“That person I told you about, that saved me from being killed after I escaped from prison…
Lina, I met her.” My eyes widened in disbelief, She had told me about someone named Lina saving her, but it had never once occured to me that it was THIS Lina.
I sat up in a jiffy, my heart racing.
“You mean to tell me she’s the one that saved you?
But she’s a slave isn’t she?
How was an omega able to overpowere several wolves at a time.” Rosalie let out a short chuckle, “what?
You can’t sense her prowess?
She isn’t an omega.” I frowned.
“What do you mean she isn’t an omega?” Rosalie studied my face, her teasing smile fading into something more serious.
“You mean you couldn’t tell?
Her wolf is…” She paused.
“Her wolf is what?” I pressed, my curiosity peeking.
“…royal.” My breath caught.”…Royal?” The word didn’t just sound absurd, it felt impossible.
She was a slave, how could she be royal.
I stared at Rosalie, waiting for the punchline, for that mischievous grin of hers to reappear, or for her to laugh it off as a joke, but she didn’t.
She was dead serious.
“That’s not funny, Rosalie.” I said flatly.There was no way I was believing such crap.
“I’m not joking.” My pulse began to pound in my ears.
“That’s ridiculous.
I would have known.” Rosalie tilted her head.
“Would you?” “Yes.” “Seris.” I stiffened.
She only used my name when she wanted me to stop hiding behind my title.
“You couldn’t even sense her rank,” Rosalie continued calmly.
“Does that not strike you as strange?” “It means she’s well-masked, trying to hide her identity.” “It means she’s sealed.” My fingers tightened against the sheets.
Sealed.
But who would do that?
A bitter taste formed at the back of my throat.
“There are only a handful of wolves whose presence can be completely erased like that,” Rosalie added quietly.
“And almost all of them belong to royal bloodlines.” I shook my head slowly.
“No… no, that can’t be true.” But even as I said it, Lina’s face crept into my mind.
Her eyes, those eyes.
My father’s exact shade.
I had told myself it was just a coincidence, “…Which royal line?” I asked, my voice dropping despite myself.
Rosalie hesitated.
“I don’t know,” she said carefully.
“But when she fought those enforcers… Seris, I felt it.” I swallowed, “felt what?” “She smells just like you.” For a moment, I couldn’t even process the sentence.
“That’s…” My throat tightened.
“That’s not possible.” It had to be a mistake.
A wolf’s scent wasn’t something one misjudged.
It was instinctual, unmistakable, and the most honest thing about us.
Even blood relatives carried only traces of similarity, never identical.
Rosalie shifted closer, her voice calm.
“I didn’t realize it immediately.
Not until I was really close to her.” My pulse began to pound, slow and heavy.
“No,” I whispered, shaking my head.
“You’re mistaken.” “I’ve known your scent my entire life, Seris.I would not confuse it with another’s.” Silence followed, as my thoughts began to collide violently.
A dull, nauseating weight formed in my chest as Lina’s image forced its way into my mind…her guarded expression, those unsettlingly familiar eyes, that strange discomfort I had felt in her presence from the very first moment.
It wasn’t fear or suspicion, it was something far more personal.
“…Say it,” I demanded, though my voice lacked its usual sharpness.
Rosalie hesitated, and that hesitation alone sent my heart into a frantic rhythm.
“Seris…” “Say it.” The air in the room seemed to grow heavier, pressing down on my lungs.
“There’s a possibility,” Rosalie said carefully, “that Lina shares your blood.” “No.” The denial tore from me instinctively, my body rejecting the thought before my mind could even attempt to comprehend it.
“That’s not true.” “I’m not saying it’s certain—” “She’s a slave!” The words burst out of me, edged with panic.
And suddenly, memories I had spent years ignoring began rising to the surface.
Whispers that stopped when I entered rooms.
The strange pitying looks from elders I always got.
My father’s suffocating protectiveness.
Why he never told me about my mother.
my fingers trembled as I pressed them against my chest.
Cold.
A sharp, piercing cold unfurled beneath my ribs.
No, not now please.
Pain shot through my bones like frost cracking from the inside.
I gasped.
Rosalie shot to her feet instantly.
“Seris?” The frost illness surged through my body instantly.
My limbs trembled violently as my internal temperature plummeted, that familiar, relentless cold flooding my veins.
Frost crept across the edges of the window.
Ice crystallized along the bedposts.
My breath turned sharp and visible in the suddenly frigid air.
Rosalie was at my side in an instant, gripping my shoulders as my bones weakened beneath me.
“Damn it… it’s starting early.” I barely heard her.
Because my mind had latched onto one horrifying realization.
If Lina truly shared my scent, if Lina carried royal lineage…then it meant only one thing.
She was my sister.
“Why…” My voice fractured, trembling and weak.
“Why would my father hide something like that…?”