Arin's POV
Arin woke up screaming.
Not loud. Her voice came out broken and panicked. Her eyes snapped open to darkness and for a second she couldn't remember where she was. Couldn't remember what was real.
Then she remembered everything.
The ritual. The fall. The explosion of golden light. The bond that had seized her and changed the entire shape of her life.
She was sitting up in bed, her heart hammering, when servants rushed in with candles. Three of them. All moving quickly to light the chamber. None of them looking at her face.
"You're safe, my Luna," one of them said. Her voice was flat. Professional. Empty of any actual care.
The chambers around Arin were massive. Gold and white and so impossibly beautiful that she wanted to cry. Windows looked out over palace gardens she could barely see in the darkness. There was a bathing chamber through one door. A sitting area with furniture that probably cost more than everything she'd ever owned.
This wasn't real.
"Where am I?" Arin whispered.
"The Luna's chambers, my Luna," the servant said. She still wasn't looking directly at Arin. "The Alpha King ordered you brought here immediately after the ritual."
Arin looked down at her hands. They were shaking. Everything was shaking. The bond in her chest was quiet now but she could still feel it. A constant presence that wasn't her own. The Alpha King's presence.
Kael Thorne.
"What time is it?" Arin asked.
"Nearly dawn, my Luna. The Alpha King has requested your presence at breakfast. I'll bring you clothing."
The servant was already moving toward a wardrobe so large it was like an entire room dedicated to clothes. She pulled out a dress that made Arin's breath catch. It was gold and white and fitted perfectly even though they'd never measured her.
"How did this fit?" Arin asked.
The servant didn't answer. Just left the dress on the bed and walked out without another word.
The other servants followed her.
Arin was alone in the massive chambers.
She climbed out of bed on legs that felt like they didn't belong to her. Went to the window and looked out at the dawn breaking over the palace gardens. The sun was rising over territory that hated her. Over a kingdom that was probably waking up right now whispering about the girl who had trapped the Alpha King.
Gold digger.
Saboteur.
Common trash.
She could hear the whispers even though no one was speaking. They seemed to live in the walls of the palace. In the stone and the gold and the history that went back centuries.
Arin washed her face in the bathing chamber. Stared at herself in the mirror and didn't recognize the person looking back. She looked like a Luna. The dress fit like it had been made for her. Her silver-blonde hair caught the light in a way that almost looked royal.
But her eyes were still terrified.
She made her way through the palace corridors toward the breakfast chambers. Servants scattered out of her way when they saw her coming. Like she was something they didn't want to touch. Some of the younger ones actually turned and walked the other direction rather than be near her.
The nobles were worse.
She passed a group of them near one of the main staircases. Their conversation died the moment they saw her. She watched them exchange looks. Watched one woman actually turn her back deliberately.
The message was clear.
Nobody wanted her here.
Kael was already at the breakfast table when she arrived.
He sat at one end of an impossibly long table that could seat fifty people. The food was spread out in front of him. Bread and fruit and meat and things she couldn't identify. But he wasn't eating.
He was waiting.
His grey eyes looked up when she entered the chamber. He watched her walk the entire length of the table toward the seat beside him. His expression was carved from stone. Cold. Unreadable. Like he was looking at a stranger.
Like he was looking at a problem he had to figure out how to solve.
Arin sat down slowly. Carefully. Like if she made too much noise, she might break something. The chair was so high that her feet barely touched the ground.
"Good morning," Kael said. His voice was polite and empty. Like he was speaking to a council member he didn't particularly like.
"Good morning," Arin whispered back.
He set down his cup of tea and actually looked at her. Not just with his eyes. She could feel him looking through the bond too. Observing her. Measuring her.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
It was a formal question. The kind people asked to be polite. Not because they actually wanted to know.
"Fine," Arin lied. "I'm fine."
He picked up some bread and began eating. Slowly. Methodically. Not tasting anything. Just going through the motions of being the Alpha King at breakfast with his new Luna.
Arin tried to eat too. Put some fruit on a plate. Lifted it to her mouth. But her throat was closed. She couldn't swallow. Every time she looked at him, she felt like her entire body was going to catch fire.
This man had caught her when she fell. This man had held her while the world exploded. This man could feel everything she felt through the bond.
And he was treating her like she was nobody.
The coldness in his expression. The distance he was keeping even though he was sitting right beside her. It made her understand something terrible.
He had been bound to her by accident. Just like she had fallen into the ritual by accident. He had never wanted this. Never wanted her. He was just making the best of a situation that had destroyed his life.
She set down her fork and couldn't pick it back up.
"You should eat," Kael said. Still that formal tone. Still that distance.
"I'm not hungry," Arin said.
"You will be the face of the kingdom now. People will notice if you look weak or ill. You need to maintain your strength."
There was nothing kind in the way he said it. Nothing gentle. Just facts. Just the Alpha King explaining a problem to a servant who didn't understand her new role.
Arin forced herself to eat. Chewed bread that tasted like ash. Swallowed fruit that felt like choking.
Kael watched her do it with an expression that didn't change.
"There will be council meetings this week," he said. "Formal presentations. You will need to learn protocols. A servant will be assigned to teach you."
"Okay," Arin said quietly.
"Your chambers have been stocked. If you need anything, tell a servant. They answer to you."
"Thank you," Arin whispered.
He set down his cup and finally looked at her directly. Really looked at her. His grey eyes were shuttered and distant and so alone that it made her heart break.
"I need you to understand something, Arin," he said. Her name in his mouth was just a word. Not tender. Not warm. Just information. "The kingdom will accept you because I will force them to. But that doesn't mean they will trust you. It doesn't mean they will like you. It doesn't mean anything beyond the fact that you are bound to me and therefore you have status now."
"I understand," Arin said even though she didn't.
"Do you?" He stood up from the table. "Do you understand what it means that you're bound to the Alpha King? That everyone in this kingdom now sees you as either a threat or an asset? That people will try to use you? That people might try to kill you? Do you understand any of that, girl who was invisible three days ago?"
Arin's eyes filled with tears.
"I didn't ask for this," she said quietly.
"Neither did I," Kael replied. And there was something in his voice then. Something raw. Something that sounded like pain beneath the coldness.
Then he turned and walked away from the table.
"A servant will bring you to meet with the protocols instructor at midday," he said without looking back. "Don't be late."
Arin sat alone at the massive breakfast table and felt the bond in her chest thrum with his anger and his fear and something else she didn't understand.
Something that felt almost like he cared what happened to her.
Even though everything about the way he was treating her said he didn't care at all.
She pulled her hands into her lap and tried not to fall apart.
Because now she understood the real danger.
It wasn't the kingdom that wanted to kill her.
It was the fact that she was starting to understand the Alpha King. And if she kept trying to understand him, if she kept wanting to reach through the bond and touch that pain she'd heard in his voice, she would lose the very thing that was keeping her safe.
His indifference.
Because if he started to care about her, if he started to want to protect her, then they would both become targets.
And neither of them would survive that.