The morning air bit at my cheeks as I stepped out of the house. The pack yard behind me felt smaller somehow, as if the walls that had contained my life were shrinking away. Snow stirred beneath my skin, coiled and alert, brushing against the pull of Kai inside the King.
He is near. He is aware, Snow whispered.
Levi rode at the front of the escort, his human form calm and commanding, but I could feel the power beneath the surface—Kai, his wolf, coiled and ready. Our connection hummed faintly, instinct threading through the air, a reminder that he had claimed me as his mate, though I still could not trust it fully.
Trust is earned, Snow reminded me. Do not let instinct fool you.
The carriage waited, polished wood and iron glinting in the frost-light. I stepped forward cautiously, every muscle tensed. My father's glare burned into me, his hands twitching with anger, my brother's jaw tight with fury. Neither could hide what they truly feared: that I was slipping from their control.
Inside the carriage, the world seemed both smaller and infinitely larger. Each mile carried me farther from the home I had known, from the cruelty I had endured, and closer to something uncertain: the palace.
Snow whispered again, senses flaring at the subtle pulse of Kai inside Levi. The King had claimed me, but his patience and careful observation were still a mystery. Every instinct told me to remain guarded.
The road stretched ahead, silent and white under the frost. I clenched my hands in my lap, heart hammering, aware of every detail—the chill air, the sound of the horses' hooves, the subtle, steady pull from Levi that Snow translated into cautious anticipation.
Watch. Learn. Protect, Snow murmured.
I nodded inwardly. My gaze remained lowered. I would survive this journey. I would survive the palace. And I would not let myself be caught unprepared.
For the first time in my life, the world felt vast, unpredictable, and dangerous—and I was moving into it fully awake. The palace awaited, and with it, challenges I could not yet see.
But Kai was aware. Snow was ready. And somehow, against every instinct I had been taught, a flicker of something else—a faint thread of trust—pulled at me.