Roderic
Alpha King Eldric of House Eldarion strode into the assembly hall the way a storm enters a valley.
He was a large man.
A head taller than every lord in the room with shoulders like a battering ram and a beard streaked with grey that did nothing to soften the raw animal power radiating from him.
His Bloodright wolf wasn’t just present; it filled the hall, pressing against every wolf in the room.
Lesser lords with common wolves instinctively lowered their gazes.
Even Lord Aven, who was born with a Crested Wolf, shifted uncomfortably.
Alpha Eldric had earned his reputation with blood.
The Southern Kingdom of Ceranthia had once been the weakest seat of power on the continent.
A fractured mess of rogue packs, each one too proud to kneel and too small to stand.
Eldric had united them under one banner, the only way he knew how: by conquering every last one.
Pack by pack, battle by battle, until the rogues either bent the knee or stopped breathing.
By the time he was done, Ceranthia commanded over a hundred million soldiers under a single banner.
No kingdom in their right mind would go to war with him.
And he was standing in my hall, scanning the room with narrowed eyes, looking for his daughter.
“Where is my daughter?” His voice boomed off the stone walls.
The lords froze, the whispers died, and everyone turned to me.
Princess Esmira was supposed to be in today’s assembly as her first introduction to the court of Valdren, but she wasn’t.
Every eye pivoted between Eldric and me.
“I asked you a question, Roderic.” Eldric planted his feet and fixed me with a stare that had made warlords surrender.
“Where is Esmira?”
At that moment, Lord Aven rose from his seat and moved to him, saying in a gentle tone.
“Alpha, please — at least take a seat. We are in the middle of an assembly, and your daughter is perfectly fine.”
While Aven was still talking, I felt the mindlink between Caelan and me open, and Caelan’s voice floated into my mind, filled with urgency.
The High Priestess is heading toward the assembly hall.
She’s insisting on the Bloodright blessing of union.
What do I do?
My blood went cold.
If the High Priestess walked through those doors and demanded to perform the blessing rite, it would require Esmira — Enora to appear before the entire court.
And if she appeared before Eldric and he took one look at her face and didn’t recognise his own daughter…
Stop her, I sent back.
Whatever it takes.
Tell her the queen is ill and cannot appear.
Tell her we will arrange the blessing on a later date.
But she cannot enter this hall.
If the fake Esmira shows up here, we’ll end this day preparing for a war.
The mindlink closed, and I turned my attention back to the hall.
Lord Aven was still speaking to Eldric, trying to guide the man to a chair, but Eldric was resisting, even though Aven’s words were smoothing the edges of his impatience.
Without thinking much about it, I shot to my feet and said the first thing that came to my mind.
“It is my fault.”
The hall went silent.
Lord Aven’s pale eyes stared at me with suspicion.
I swallowed, feeling the heat crawl up my neck at the next words that flitted into my mind.
“I was…consumed with passion last night.” I cleared my throat loudly, avoiding every pair of eyes in the room.
“I overexerted the Luna Queen on our wedding night. She woke this morning with low energy, and the healers insisted she rest. I’m sorry. I should have said so from the beginning.”
The hall went silent for almost five seconds, then Eldric burst into laughter.
He crossed the hall in three strides, reached the dais where I was and thumped both hands on my shoulders.
“Why didn’t you say so from the beginning, boy?” He grinned, his eyes bright with approval.
“You had me thinking something terrible had happened. Don’t worry, my Esmira is a strong girl; she’ll recover!” He thumped me again.
“Good man!”
I cleared my throat again, lowering my gaze.
“I was ashamed of my own…enthusiasm.”
Eldric roared with laughter, and several lords in the hall joined in.
Some genuinely, some nervously, all of them relieved that the tension had broken.
Lord Aven seized the moment and also announced, inclining his head at Eldric.
“The office of the Luna also confirmed the ‘Proof of Red’. Alpha, you raised your daughter well.”
Eldric’s chest swelled with pride.
He clapped his hands together and left the dais, settling into the chair Aven had offered him, his mood transformed entirely.
“I’d just come back from eliminating a rogue pack in the southern reaches,” he said, accepting a cup of wine from a servant.
“Heard the royal wedding was done almost in secret with barely any guests, no feast, no celebration whatsoever. I was worried something had happened to my girl.”
“She’s perfectly well,” I assured him.
“There was nothing to worry about.”
“The wedding was kept small by design,” Lord Aven added.
“Out of respect for your absence, Alpha. We felt it would be improper to hold the full celebration without the bride’s father present.” He paused, letting the flattery settle.
“Now that you are here, the king and the court were just discussing a seven-day feast to celebrate the union properly.”
Eldric’s eyes lit up.
If there was one thing the man loved more than fighting, it was feasting and women.
“Seven days?” He nodded enthusiastically.
“Now that’s more like it. You honour me, Valdren,” he said, his gaze shifting to me and the corners of his eyes crinkling with smiles.
“This peace treaty between our kingdoms is the best decision I’ve made all year.”
I watched Lord Aven’s face as Eldric drank and laughed and everything fell into place.
No one had talked about a seven-day feast.
As usual, Lord Aven had decided without informing me.
This feast, the delayed presentation, and the fake queen installed hours before the wedding were all part of the same design.
Lord Aven had replaced the real Esmira with a commoner not to protect the alliance, but to create a weapon he could deploy whenever he chose.
When the time was right, he would reveal the deception that he created, present the real Esmira, and I, the king who couldn’t tell the difference between his own wife and a servant, would be humiliated before both kingdoms.
House Sorvane would emerge as the saviours who uncovered the fraud, and his grip on the throne would become stronger.
This was all the proof I needed.
Enora Hale was telling the truth.
~~~
I quickly descended the dais, my expression neutral, my mind on fire.
When I exited the hall, I saw Lord Aven waiting by the exit.
He bowed stiffly.
“A word, Your Majesty.”
I stopped.
The hall was emptying behind us, lords filing out in clusters of whispered conversation.
I moved towards the corner with Lord Aven, who started speaking immediately.
“The Eastern Kingdom,” he said, his voice low.
“I’ve been thinking about their rejection of our trade terms. You wouldn’t happen to have the backing of House Vaelis in that particular venture, would you?”
“How could I have power over anything?” I met his gaze.
“Or are you saying you’re losing your touch, my lord?”
His pale eyes held mine, and the silence between us stretched until he sighed and nodded, speaking again.
“You wanted to be done and over with Princess Esmira both yesterday and this morning, and now you’re acting like a true lover, blushing before the court and defending her honour. What is your intention, Roderic?”
I smiled.
“Perhaps sharing my bed with Esmira has made me realise a lot of things.”
He studied me for a long moment, then chuckled dryly.
“Don’t mistake a night in a warm bed for solid ground, boy.” His smile faded.
“And don’t ever think you’re standing tall enough to grow wings. I’ve clipped them before. I’ll do it again.”
“I wouldn’t dare, Lord Aven,” I said sweetly.
He held my gaze one more time, then turned and walked away.
The moment he disappeared around the corner, the smile fell from my face, and Caelan materialised beside me.
“The High Priestess has been handled,” he said quietly.
“I gave her your message, and she agreed to postpone but said the Bloodright blessing must be performed within seven days or it will bring a bad omen upon the union and the kingdom.”
Seven days.
The same window as the feast.
I turned to Caelan.
“This is our opportunity. The one we’ve been waiting for. Lord Aven has overplayed his hand, and I believe Enora Hale.”
“What do you need?”
“Evidence. I need you to investigate everything she told us. Her family, her village, how long she’d been at the palace. If her story holds, we’ll have what we need to bring Lord Aven before the tribunal.”
Calean nodded.
“And if her story doesn’t hold?”
“Then we’ll know it was a trap, and we’ll have lost nothing but a day’s ride.”
Caelan studied me for a moment and spoke.
“And the girl?
If everything checks out, what would happen to her?’
“I’ll protect her,” I said with determination.
“And make her a ticket to my freedom.”
“Fine, I’ll ride at dawn,” Caelan said.
As Caelan left, my wolf, suppressed by years of Lord Aven’s cruelty, shifted; it was beginning to remember what it felt like to fight.