Violet
The drake’s scales shimred beneath as I guided it through the outer district’s wider streets using the reigns. I had finally gotten the hang of directing the creature since I didn’t have the mind link to direct it. But this was what I could do at most.
The wolf Kael had assigned to shadow kept a respectful distance, trailing far enough behind that I could pretend I didn’t notice him. I did, though. His presence was a constant awareness at the edge of my senses.
I didn’t mind it. After everything that had happened, having soone watching my back felt more practical than suffocating.
Especially now that there were foreign visitors.
What I hadn’t expected were the looks from the other wolves.
Today was the first ti I had left the castle in over a month. Ever since what happened in the red woods.
As I had walked through the castle this morning and crossed the courtyard, multiple wolves stared. The usual wariness was still there, but the barely concealed hostility and surprise I had grown used to was gone. Sothing else had replaced them entirely.
Admiration.
To my horror, so had even inclined their heads slightly as I passed. A gesture of respect I still didn’t quite know how to process.
It honestly felt strange. Wrong, sohow.
Even if it was them respecting my strength, it was odd.
The drake slowed to a trot and I touched my chest where the pendant was hidden behind my shirt. Kael had found it in the woods while sweeping through it shortly after the hunt. And he had the tal polished and attached to a fine tal chain.
I hoped to never lose it again.
’But I had felt sothing else there, not just —’
A sudden burst of noise snapped from my thoughts.
The city itself had transford over the past few days. It now vibrated with busy energy. Colourful banners and decorations hung from buildings to flutter in the breeze. The vendors had multiplied, a lot of them occupying the residential streets now rather than just the market places. Their stalls overflowed with goods I had never seen before.
Wolves from other nations moved through the crowds, their clothing and mannerisms making them stand out from the Capital’s residents. So wore elaborate robes in both rich and dull colours I had never seen in Fresna. Others dressed in practical leather and fur. A few even had decorative markings on their faces of painted symbols or what might have been permanent ink.
The city was welcoming its guests, and the atmosphere reflected it. Music drifted from street corners where perforrs had gathered. The scent of cooking food mingled with incense and perfus.
I was just returning from Ila’s orphanage, and my chest still felt tight from what I’d seen there.
I wasn’t sure how to feel about Aster. He had more flesh than I rembered, but his eyes still carried that haunted quality that made my heart ache. But at least he was clean, well fed, and surrounded by other oga children who didn’t look at him like he was less than nothing.
What had shocked was learning how many of them weren’t actually orphans.
Most of them had run away. Escaped from families who treated them miserably, with quite a number of them having walked days to get to the Capital. Others had been brought in by sympathetic pack mbers.
I guided the drake around a corner and into the marketplace near the castle.
The crowd here was even denser, the press of bodies making my skin itch with discomfort. I dismounted carefully, and the drake huffed softly as I secured its reins to one of the designated posts. The wolf attending to the drake station ca to handle things and I left.
There were more foreign wolves here. Three Supre Alphas had arrived so far, each bringing their own entourage of advisors, guards, and political representatives from every pack in their nation.
Kael had told they usually left one beta behind to manage things and most of the Alphas remained in their ho nation.
I hadn’t asked about more details. And more than ever, I had no interest in exploring the castle either. The thought of accidentally running into so delegate or being pulled into conversations I had no business being part of made my stomach twist uncomfortably.
I especially did not want to encounter that rotten egg.
An uncomfortable feeling settled in my stomach as I took in the scenery before . The summit was real. Actually happening. And sowhere in this crowd, Damon was walking around.
I was passing through when I heard it.
A grating voice. Familiar in the worst possible way.
"Oh, this is interesting. Do you think it’s real pearl or just clever glass?"
I went completely still.
No. No, it couldn’t be.
’You suspected she might be here, why are you still surprised?’
But when I turned my head, searching for the source of that voice, I saw her.
Elena.
She stood at a vendor’s stall so distance away, examining so jewellery with an expression of morbid curiosity. Her dark hair was elaborately styled, woven with silver threads that caught the sunlight. The dress draping her fra made my eyes widen.
She was wearing sothing that belonged to his mother?
And beside her, wearing an expression of bored irritation as he shifted his weight from foot to foot, was another patrol wolf.
Recognition slamd into like a physical blow and the sensation that was boiling in my stomach lurched to my chest.
My fists clenched.
I knew that face. At the very least, I knew what his wolf looked like. He was one of them. One of the patrol wolves that had tried to kill that night.
The mory crashed over with startling clarity.
That painful night. The surrounding wolves. The casual cruelty in their voices as their captain discussed what to do with . The way this particular wolf’s eyes had glead with excitent at the opportunity to rip apart.
The rage in my chest bubbled, hot and imdiate.
I tensed, my muscles twitching under my skin.
’Control yourself!’
Kael had warned against interacting with the wolves from Shadowpine, but as if sensing the intensity of my stare, Elena glanced up.
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