Stellan's POV:
"Your Majesty, if you could just meet Lady Helena, I'm certain you'd find her." "No." I cut off Chancellor Dorian mid-sentence, not stopping to look at whatever noblewoman he was trying to throw at me this time.
Dorian's smile never wavered, but I saw the flash of anger in his eyes. Okay. Maybe he'd finally stop this crazy matchmaking. "Sire, you must understand the council's worries. You've been king for five years without picking a mate. The nobles are getting restless." The nobles can mind their own business." I turned to face him fully, letting my alpha power roll off me in waves. Lesser wolves stepped back unconsciously. "I didn't earn this throne through marriage politics, Dorian. I won't start now." "Of course, Your Majesty." He bowed, red-faced. "I only thought." "You thought wrong."
I walked away before he could reply, heading toward the balcony. I needed air. The Royal Solstice Ball was suffocating too many people, too many fake smiles, too much wine and laughter, honoring a holiday I'd never understood.
The Winter Solstice was meant to be magical. The longest night of the year, when the Moon Goddess blessed true bonds and gave wishes to the faithful.
I'd stopped believing in that fairy tale years ago. "Stellan!" A happy voice made me pause. Lord Blackwell, drunk already, stumbled toward me with his arm around some laughing woman. "Come join us! The night is young!" "Some of us have work tomorrow." I moved past him. "Work, work, work! That's all you ever do!" He laughed too loudly. "They don't call you the Ice King for nothing!"
I didn't answer. Let them call me whatever they wanted. I'd rather be ice than weak.
The deck was blessedly empty. I gripped the railing, looking out at the main city spread below. Thousands of lights twinkled in the darkness: lanterns, candles, magical displays. Everyone was celebrating like tomorrow wasn't just another day.
My phone buzzed. A text from Celeste: How's the torture chamber?
I smiled despite myself. My sister always knew how to lighten my mood.
Surviving. How are you?
Bored. Wish I could be there.
No, you don't. Trust me.
Liar. I want to see you scare lords. It's my favorite sport.
I was typing an answer when movement below caught my eye. In the courtyard area, someone was running. No being chased.
I squinted. Two guards were dragging a small person toward the east wing. The guy fought, but the guards were stronger.
Something felt wrong.
I headed back inside, moving through the hall quickly. Nobody stopped me; they knew better than to get in my way when I looked like this. "Your Majesty!" Dorian appeared at my side like a shadow. "Where are you going? Lady Caroline was looking for a dance" Later." I didn't slow down. "But, sire, "I said later, Dorian."
I followed the path I'd seen from the balcony, my wolf senses sharpening. The east wing held storage rooms and documents. Why would guards be pulling someone there during the ball?
A servant passed by, bringing empty wine bottles. I grabbed his shoulder. "Did you see two guards come through here?" "Y-yes, Your Majesty! They went toward the old storage passage. Said they caught someone listening where they shouldn't."
Eavesdropping. On what?
I ignored the servant and continued deeper into the east wing. The sounds of the party faded behind me. These hallways were older and less maintained. Cobwebs hung in corners.
Then I heard it, muffled crying.
I followed the sound to a locked storage room. The door had a sealing spell on it, glowing slightly with magic. "Hello?" I called out. "Is someone in there?"
The crying stopped. A moment of quiet, then a small voice: "Please. Please let me out."
Female. Young. Terrified.
I checked the seal. Standard security magic, nothing complicated. With a flex of my alpha power, I broke it. The lock clicked open.
I swung the door wide.
A girl sat on the floor, hugging her knees. Dark hair hanging around her face, uniform dirty, one hand bleeding. She looked up at me with wide, scared eyes.
Something in my chest tightened. "Are you alright?" I stepped inside, keeping my voice gentle. Years of military leadership had taught me when to be hard and when to be soft. "I was informed someone locked a staff member in here."
She stared at me like I was a ghost. "You... you came yourself?" "The guards should have reported this quickly." I offered my hand. "Come on. Let's get you."
Movement burst behind me.
Someone put a cloth over my face from behind. Chemical sweetness burned my nose and throat. My training kicked in I grabbed my attacker's wrist, twisting hard. Bones cracked. A man's scream.
But there were more of them. Two grabbed my arms while a third pressed the drugged cloth harder against my face.
No. Not like this.
I fought with everything I had. Threw one attacker into the wall. Broke another's nose with my elbow. But the drug was already in my system, making my arms heavy and slow.
Through blurred vision, I saw them grab the girl. She screamed, fighting, but they covered her face with another cloth. "Sleep well, Your Majesty." A woman's voice, familiar somehow. "When you wake up, everything will be different."
Lady Vivian stepped into view, her perfect face twisted with victory.
Vivian. Should have known.
My knees buckled. I tried to shift into my wolf form, but the drug blocked my link to my wolf. Everything was spinning.
The girl fell beside me. Our eyes met for one short second. Hers were brown, frightened, confused.
I tried to reach for her to protect her, though I didn't know why, but my hand fell short.
Darkness took me whole.
Voices in the dark. Chanting. The old language I didn't understand.
Hands lifting me. Dragging me.
Cold stone under my feet.
Someone is putting my hand on something warm. Another hand? Small. Shaking.
A voice ordering me to speak. My mouth was moving, saying words I couldn't control.
Silver light. Burning. Pain in my neck.
A woman's laughter, sharp and cruel.
Then nothing.
I woke slowly, my head beating like someone had used it for drum practice.
Sunlight. Too bright.
I groaned and tried to sit up, but something warm and soft was pressing me down.
Not something. Someone.
My eyes snapped fully open.
A girl lay spread across my chest, fast asleep. The same girl from the storage room. She was wearing a traditional white dress now, covered in Solstice symbols.
Wedding images.
My heart stopped.
I looked down at my left hand.
A silver wedding band circled my ring finger, glowing slightly with magic. Intricate wolf designs carved into the metal, the kind only used in sacred rites.
No. No, this isn't possible.
My neck burned. I touched it carefully and felt raised skin. A breeding mark. Fresh. Still throbbing with power.
The girl stirred, making a small sound. Her left hand moved, and I saw an identical wedding band on her finger.
We were in my private quarters. My bed. The room was decorated with Solstice flowers, as if someone had prepared it for No.
The girl's eyes fluttered open. Brown eyes, now clear of fear but filled with confusion. She looked at me. Looked at her hand. Looked at the dress she was wearing.
Then she screamed.
She scrambled off me so fast she fell off the bed, landing hard on the floor. I sat up, my own fear rising. "What happened?" Her voice was high, scared. "What, why am I where?" "I don't know." My voice came out rougher than planned. "I remember being drugged in the storage room. Then nothing."
She touched her neck, her face going white. "Is this... is this a mating mark?"
I didn't answer. Couldn't answer.
She looked around anxiously and spotted something on my desk. She rushed over, grabbed it, and her hands started shaking so badly she almost dropped it. "What is it?" I asked.
She turned it around.
A marriage record. Official royal seal. Both our signatures at the bottom are correctly registered with the Solstice Council.
According to the document, we'd been married at midnight in the Royal Temple during the sacred Solstice service.
I had absolutely no memory of it. "This is impossible," I whispered. "I would never, I didn't." "Neither did I!" She was crying now, tears streaming down her face. "I don't even know your name!" "Stellan. Alpha King Stellan Voss."
Her eyes went even wider. "Oh gods. Oh gods, I married the king?"
Violent knocking at the door made us both jump. "Your Majesty!" Chancellor Dorian's voice called out, urgent and worried. "The Solstice Council has called an emergency meeting! There are... disturbing stories about last night's ceremony. Reports of an unauthorized marriage involving yourself, and" He stopped. "May I enter, sire?"
The girl and I stared at each other.
This was bad. This was very, very bad.
In werewolf law, marriages made during the Solstice were sacred and binding. But a king marrying a commoner without council agreement was illegal. Grounds for removal from the throne.
Someone had done this purposely. Someone had drugged us, pushed us through a ceremony we couldn't remember, and now they had the perfect weapon to destroy me. "Don't answer," the girl whispered. "Please. I need to think. I need to" Your Majesty?" Dorian knocked again, harder. "Shall I inform the council you're indisposed?"
I looked at the girl, this stranger who was apparently now my wife. She looked frightened. Lost. Like the world had just broken around her.
I knew that feeling. "Get dressed," I told her quietly, pointing to the changing screen. "We need to figure out what happened in those lost hours. Someone did this to us deliberately." "Why?" she asked "Why would anyone?" "That's what we're going to find out. "t." I stood up, ignoring my pounding headache. "Before whoever did this destroys both our lives."
She paused, then nodded. As she moved behind the screen, I heard her say something so soft I almost missed it. "This can't be happening. Not again. Not on the Solstice."
Again?
But before I could ask what she meant, Dorian's words came through the door one more time. "Your Majesty, I must insist. The council is gathering. If you don't appear within the hour, they'll send guards to collect you both. And sire?" His voice dropped lower. "There are already whispers of treason."
The girl emerged from behind the screen, now in a simple servant's outfit she must have found in my closet. Her face was pale but determined. "What do we do?" she asked.
I looked at the wedding band on my finger. At the mating mark, I didn't remember getting. At this girl whose name I didn't even know. "We fight," I said. "But first, we need to know who our enemy is."
And deep in my gut, I already suspected who that might be.