POV - Kieran
I was losing my mind, and I didn't care.
That was the first sign that everything had changed. I used to care about power. Control was everything—it kept me safe, kept me strong, kept me from becoming my father. But for three months, I'd been throwing power away, and it felt like freedom.
Every night, I went to her.
It became the most important part of my day. Meetings with area leaders? Boring. Dealing with Council politics? Pointless. Training my warriors? Just something I had to finish so I could get to her. My entire life had rebuilt itself around the two hours I could spend in Elara's arms.
"You're distracted," my second-in-command, Marcus, said during a meeting about territory borders. "You're making mistakes."
I didn't even reply. Let him think what he wanted. Let everyone think what they wanted.
Because Cassian had been right that morning in Elara's room. The rite was awakening. I could feel it in my bones—a link trying to activate between me and my cousin, something that had been dormant since we were children. It burned and ached and pulled at my soul every second I was away from Elara.
And it made me feel like I wasn't alone for the first time in my entire life.
"The Council is getting impatient," Victoria's messenger said during another meeting. "They want the engagement news soon. The political union is necessary to keep them from absorbing our territories."
I barely listened. I kept thinking about Elara's face, the way she looked at me like I was worth something. Like I wasn't scary. Like I was just a person instead of a weapon.
That night, I went to her early.
She was waiting for me, always waiting, and it made something in my chest crack open every single time. I pulled her close and breathed her in.
"I need to tell you something," she said, her voice shaking.
My heart stopped. Was she leaving? Had someone told her about Victoria? Had she figured out that I couldn't give her what she deserved?
"I love you," Elara whispered. "I'm totally in love with you, Kieran. And I know that's not what you do. I know you don't do forever. But I needed you to know that this isn't just physical for me anymore. You're everything."
I couldn't move.
"Don't say that," I said, but not because I didn't want to hear it. I said it because hearing it made me want impossible things. Made me want to actually keep her. Made me want to choose her over everything else.
"Why not?" she asked. "It's true."
I held her face in my hands and looked into her eyes. For three months, I'd been telling myself this was temporary. That when this phase finished, I'd go back to my rules. Back to my power. Back to the life I'd built.
But I didn't want to go back.
"Because if you love me," I said quietly, "then you need to know what you're getting. I'm dangerous, Elara. My father made sure of that. There are things in me that are broken. Violent. Things that can't be fixed."
"I don't believe that," she said.
"You should," I told her. "But you don't because you don't know me. The real me. Not the Alpha everyone's afraid of. Just... me."
"Then show me," Elara said. "Tell me everything."
So I did. For hours, I told her about my youth. About my father's training and the rituals and the magic that had been poured into my bones to make me strong. About the emptiness that had defined my life until three months ago. About the loneliness of being an Alpha—no one to trust, no one to love, no one who would ever choose me for me.
"You were choosing," she said softly. "Every single night, you chose to come back to me."
"Yes," I admitted. "I chose you. I keep picking you."
I lay in her bed thinking about asking her something impossible. Something that would change everything. Something that would force me to betray the Council and refuse Victoria's marriage and risk everything I'd built.
I thought about asking her to be my real mate. Not just my secret. My real mate. My wife. The woman I'd spend my life with.
The thought should have terrified me. Instead, it felt like peace.
"I need to talk to you about something serious," I said the next night.
Elara stressed. "Is something wrong?"
"No. Yes. I don't know," I said. "But I've made a choice. The Council has been pushing for the political marriage, but I'm going to refuse. I'm going to tell them that I can protect our areas without sacrificing my life."
"Kieran, you can't refuse the Council," she said. "They'll declare war—"
"I know," I said. "But I don't care anymore. Not if it means I can keep you. Not if it means I can build a future with you instead of with Victoria."
Elara started crying—happy tears that made her beautiful in a way that hurt to look at.
"I'm going to ask you something," I said, my heart racing. "I'm going to do it officially in the assembly so everyone knows. I'm going to kneel in front of the entire pack and ask you to be my mate. My real mate. Will you say yes?"
"Yes," she said before I even finished. "Yes, of course yes."
I held her, and for the first time in my entire life, I felt like I'd won something that mattered. Not territory. Not power. Just her.
But the next morning, everything burst.
I was in a Council meeting when the messenger arrived. His face was pale. He whispered something to the High Council leader, and suddenly everyone was looking at me.
"The High Council has made their decision," the elder announced. "Victoria Ashcroft will arrive this afternoon. The engagement will be revealed at the afternoon assembly. It's not a discussion, Alpha Kieran. It's an order."
My blood went cold.
"I won't marry her," I said instantly. "I refuse."
"Then you lose your territory," the elder said coldly. "And every pack that refuses to back you will be absorbed by Council lands. Your people will suffer war because of your selfish feelings."
Thousands of lives. Thousands of people counting on me to choose the territory over my heart.
That's when I understood what my father had been trying to teach me all along. That love was a tool. That picking someone made you weak. That everything I felt for Elara was going to kill her and my entire pack.
I had three hours before the gathering. Three hours to figure out how to tell her that I'd just chosen politics over our future.
And as I was leaving the meeting, Cassian appeared in the doorway.
"Don't do it," he said, his voice raw. "Don't marry Victoria. Don't throw Elara away."
"How do you know about Elara?" I asked.
"Because I feel her through our bond," Cassian said. "And Kieran, the routine isn't just waking up. It's fully active now. Maya is already—"
But he stopped talking because his eyes went wide. He was looking at something behind me.
I turned and saw a young woman I didn't recognize. She was holding a positive pregnancy test in her shaking hands.
It took me three seconds to realize it was Elara's best friend Sara.
"She wanted me to tell you," Sara said, tears running down her face, "that she didn't plan this. That she's scared. That she's carrying your—"
But I was already going. I was already running toward Elara's rooms, already understanding what this meant, already knowing that everything was about to fall apart in the worst possible way.
The pregnancy test wasn't from Elara.
It was from the High Council's daughter.
Victoria was pregnant with my child.