Chapter 4

Aidan's POV

“Six years, Aidan. Enough.” My father stood by the window, leaning on his cane. “Your mate is dead. You’ve spent long enough living in the past. It’s time to move on and claim what is rightfully yours.” He turned to face me. “The Lycan crown.”

“You forgot one small detail. The Council won’t give me the crown unless I take a Luna.”

I dropped into the chair across from his desk.

“Then take one.”

I gave him a flat look.

“Don’t look at me like that, Aidan. You know exactly who I mean. Seraphina has stood by your side for six years. She helped you raise your daughter. Asta already sees her as a mother.”

He crossed to the sideboard and poured two glasses, the amber liquid catching the light. I noticed the slight tremor in his hand as he lifted the bottle.

“The Council and I have reached a decision.” He held one of the glasses out to me. “I’m stepping down in a month.”

I didn’t take it.

“What?”

“I’m tired, Aidan. And the Lycan Council sees it too.” He lowered himself into the chair opposite me, slow and careful in a way that made something in my chest ache to watch. "The rogues aren't what they were a year ago, Aidan. You’ve seen the same reports I have."

"They're better organized."

"They're better at everything." His jaw tightened. "Better organized. Better disciplined than any rogue force has any right to be. That doesn't happen on its own. Like someone is leading them — training them, feeding them intelligence, deciding where we're weakest before we know it ourselves."

"And?"

“And the packs need a better Lycan King, too.” He set his glass down without drinking from it.

I already knew what was coming before he said it.

“The Council will accept you. But only with the right Luna by your side. Preferably one from a high-ranking Lycan bloodline.”

I leaned back in my chair. "I have managed perfectly well without one."

"As an Alpha, perhaps." His eyes hardened, the warmth of the light doing nothing to soften them. “But you won’t always be just an Alpha, Aidan.”

I could see the trap closing around me.

"If you refuse the crown, it does not simply disappear. It passes to another bloodline. Thaddeus will bargain with them if it preserves his own power," Father said quietly. "Silas will try to burn everything in his path until there's nothing left worth ruling."

"And you think I'm the better choice."

"I know you are." His answer came without a single beat of hesitation.

Then my father reached into the inner pocket of his coat and set a small velvet box on the table.

He opened it. My mother's ring.

"She said she wanted her ring to belong to someone worthy of your heart."

I gave a bitter laugh. "Then perhaps you should keep it."

"Aidan."

I pushed away from the chair and crossed to the window instead of answering.

“As you already pointed out, my mate is dead.”

The words dragged me back six years.

Declan, Bran, and I had found the healer’s house in some forgotten town at the edge of the pack lands after nine months of searching for her.

We were too late. The healer told me the woman I’d been looking for was dead.

She showed me the veil she had worn that night. Her scent still clung to it. I could remember it even now.

Then she showed me the freshly dug grave.

And finally, she placed a newborn girl in my arms.

Tiny sparks of fire danced over the baby’s fingers without burning her skin.

There had been no question. She was my daughter.

I quickly wiped the corner of my eye before turning back to him.

There was a long silence.

“You’re probably glad she’s dead.”

My father didn’t even try to deny it.

“I’m glad she can no longer weaken you. A woman who could suppress your fire was dangerous, Aidan. To you. To your power. And to the crown that will soon be yours.”

I turned to look at him.

“She was lucky to die when she did,” my father said wearily.

My jaw tightened.

His expression softened then, a faint smile touching his lips.

“The one good thing she did—the one thing I’ll always be grateful to her for—was giving you Asta.”

My father closed the velvet box and held it out to me. I took it.

"Stop living in the past, my son. Look at what is in front of you, instead of spending the rest of your life destroying yourself over someone who was only in it for a single day."

I tightened my fingers around the ring box. It felt heavier than simple gold and stone.

"Your mother would want you to live."

I swallowed against the tightness in my throat.

Father continued before I could find an answer. "Seraphina is your future. Accept her. Accept the crown, and become Lycan King."

"And what about my curse? I can't even touch Seraphina without risking burning her alive. My wolf doesn't accept her." I looked at him.

“We may have a solution.”

I frowned.

“The priestesses have found a possible way. If it works, your wolf may finally accept hers.” He paused. “It may even help you control the fire.”

I stared at him.

“May?”

“Nothing about your curse comes with guarantees.”

He stepped closer.

“She is a good woman, Aidan. Propose to her today, and tomorrow you and your Luna can save our packs.”

I looked down at the box in my palm.

Duty had always been simple. Find the threat. Kill it. Protect your pack. This was different. But maybe it shouldn’t be. Maybe Father was right.

***

Elara's POV

“There! There it is!”

Will, my dear son, jumped off the seat beside me and rushed toward the carriage door. The carriage jolted, sending him stumbling over Mira’s feet before he caught himself against the door and pressed his face to the window.

“Will!” Mira yelped, pulling her feet back.

“Sit down,” I said, grabbing him by the back of his coat before the next bump sent him flying.

"But Mama, look!"

"I can see perfectly well from here, thank you."

"No, you can't. You're not even looking."

I pulled him back onto the seat. His dark brown hair had fallen over his forehead again, and I brushed it aside.

He'd gotten that from me.

Or rather, from the woman I used to be.

My hair had been the same dark brown until the morning after I gave birth to Will. I still remembered staring into the mirror, barely recognizing the woman looking back at me. My hair had turned white-blonde overnight. Even the burn scar I'd hidden beneath a veil for most of my life was gone, leaving smooth skin in its place.

Mira had laughed when she'd first seen me and said giving birth had quite literally made me a new woman.

I had never found it quite as funny. My son had been born healthy. My daughter hadn't.

The midwife had let me see her before taking her away. I barely had the strength to hold her, but I remembered her tiny face and the small red birthmark on the bottom of her heel.

Will had one just like it.

For a long time, I couldn't understand how two babies who had grown inside me together could have been born so differently. One healthy and strong. The other gone before I ever got to know her.

But that wasn't the only strange thing about that night.

When I woke the next morning, something about me had changed too.

The burned, scarred skin that had stretched from my temple across my cheek was smooth again.

Even the hair the fire had taken had grown back. But instead of its old dark color, it was white-blonde.

I thought it was a punishment. A mark from the Moon Goddess for what I believed my body had done.

Somehow, I believed I had taken my daughter’s life force and used it to heal myself.

I turned toward the window.

The castle rose above the mountains like something carved out of the sky itself. Dark stone towers cut into the pale, cloud-streaked afternoon, their banners snapping hard in a wind I could feel even through the carriage walls.

His mouth fell open. "That's a castle?"

"Yes."

"It's huge." He pressed both small hands flat against the cold glass.

I had to agree. I’d grown up in a werewolf Alpha’s household, but this Lycan castle was huge.

"Mira, maybe they'll have work for you too," I said, glancing over at my friend.

“I asked a few friends who work there as maids to put in a good word for you with the housekeeper. But there was only one position open.”

“As a nanny, right?” I asked.

"To a sweet but very difficult five-year-old girl." Mira smiled like she'd been waiting for me to ask.

"How difficult?" I asked, already suspicious.

"She's had ten nannies in the last year."

I stared at her, certain I'd misheard. "Ten?"

"So I don't envy you." Mira's mouth curved, unbothered and a little smug. "But the pay's good. You'll survive."

The carriage jolted over a rut in the road.

"I wish you could stay here with us. I don't know what I'll do without you."

"Don't worry." She squeezed my hand once, quick and certain. "The moment they need another maid, I'll come running. Maybe I'll even bring Eric."

"I can hear you," Eric called down from the driver's seat, his voice muffled through the wood and the wind.

Mira didn’t even glance up. “Although, why would we need him? I hear the castle’s already full of handsome men. Starting with their Alpha.”

“What about him?” I asked, more out of habit than real curiosity.

“Apparently Aidan is ridiculously handsome, but he doesn’t let anyone close. They call him the Hot Untouchable, if you can believe that.”

Aidan. It was a nice name, but it meant nothing to me.

I laughed. “Strange. Alphas usually have plenty of women around them.”

“Exactly.” Mira gave me a pointed look. “And maybe you should start paying attention to some of them.”

I groaned. “Not this again.”

“Yes, this again. You’ve spent six years thinking about one Lycan who never came back.”

“Mira!”

“Will is the best thing that came out of that night. But you’re still young, Elara. You’re allowed to live your own life too.” She smiled. “And if this castle really is full of handsome Lycans, I’d say you’ve come to the right place.”

“I’m coming here to work.”

“Of course you are.”

The carriage began to slow, wheels dragging against stone instead of packed dirt.

“We’re here!” Will shouted.

The carriage rolled through the gates.

Maybe Mira was right. Maybe it was time I stopped thinking about the Lycan who had held me for one night, promised to come back, and never did. Six years was long enough to wait for someone.

Maybe it was time for me to move on too.