Velia stood in the center of the great hall and understood that she was about to lose everything. The entire court had assembled to watch her. She had spent eighteen years hiding what she truly was, keeping her shift locked so deep inside that no one ever suspected. Now, she could feel it clawing its way out of her, and she could not stop it.
Lord Ambrose stepped forward. “This girl has served at court for years. Now we will see if she can bring forth her wolf. See if she is worthy.
”
The whispers rippled through the hall. They thought she was wolfless. They thought she was about to be humiliated. They had no idea what they had done.
The pressure beneath her ribs flared. She met the eyes of Alpha King Cailen at the far end of the hall and silently begged him to forgive her. Then the shift took her. She felt her bones crack and reform.
When she opened her eyes, she was no longer standing on two legs. She rose on heavy lion paws, a serpent tail coiled behind her, scaled and powerful. The court recoiled in horror. Screams filled the hall.
She turned toward Cailen, waiting for his face to twist into the same disgust she had seen from her own family eighteen years ago. Instead, his face went white. His eyes unfocused. He swayed on the dais and fell to the marble floor.
—
Eighteen years ago, Velia had been a young girl full of excitement when her first shift took her. Her mother had been there, gently encouraging. When it was over, her mother’s love died in the space of a heartbeat. Velia saw the horror in her family’s eyes.
Screams followed. Fire. Pitchforks. They came after her, trying to kill her.
She ran and never looked back. Cailen, then just a crown prince of ten, had found her curled against a tree in the woods, half wild from running. He wrapped her in his cloak and brought her back to the palace. “I’ll protect you,” he said.
He believed her lie that she was a wolfless orphan, rejected by her family. And for the next eighteen years, she hid in plain sight, working as a maid, letting everyone call her wolfless because being underestimated was safer than being feared. Three guards cornered her one day, bored and cruel. “That’s her.
The wolfless one. Not like she’s pretty enough for anything else. ”
Cailen appeared behind her, leaning against a wall with that infuriating ease. He dismissed the guards with barely a word.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” she scolded. He only blinked at her with all innocence. He was a nightmare, always had been. He told her everything, every thought, every ridiculous idea, because he called her his friend.
She had loved him for ten years, quietly, impossibly. But she was made to hide, and he was made to be seen. “So,” he said, falling into step beside her. “I have news.
I’m getting married. ”
Something carefully constructed in her chest fell apart. The princess of Aldara had broken off their arranged engagement to marry her fated mate. But Kaelan was still getting married, just not to the princess.
“There’s no other woman for me,” he declared, taking her hand. “Not anymore. Not ever. ”
She asked who she was, forcing her voice flat.
He laughed, nervous and shy. “I think for almost my entire life, really. ”
“Congratulations,” she forced out. Then she walked away before he could see her face break.
—
The dress arrived the morning of the ball. Silver silk embroidered with thread that caught the light like stars. A note pinned to the bodice in Kaelan’s careless scroll: “Wear this tonight. Please.
”
She went, and the room was magnificent. Lord Ambrose found her first, telling her about his contingency plan to put forward his daughter, Dolores, as the king’s bride. He asked Velia to help him push Dolores as the best viable option. She felt sick but nodded.
Then another voice cut through her thoughts. Princess Lena, Kaelan’s sister, beamed at her. “You look beautiful. I knew that dress would be perfect.
Kaelan wouldn’t shut up about it. ”
Then she saw him. He crossed the room, the crowd parting around him, until his hand closed around hers and he pulled her up the steps of the dais. “My lords and ladies,” he said, his voice carrying across the hall.
“I am honored to present to you my intended bride. ”
He turned and faced her. The whole room followed his gaze. Her.
The room erupted in applause, scattered and uncertain. “The maid? ” someone asked. “Has he lost his mind?
”
She ripped her hand free and ran. He followed her out to the terrace, where she was already crying. “Is this a joke to you? ” she demanded.
“Why did you just tell an entire ballroom we were getting married? ”
“Because we are,” he said, sounding lost. She told him she was a maid. Nobody.
He argued that he had told her he loved her. She told him he had never said it to her, that she assumed he meant somebody appropriate. “Who else would be appropriate? ” His voice cracked.
“You really didn’t understand I was talking about you? ”
He stepped closer and brushed the tears from her cheeks. “I’ve loved you since the minute I found you. ” Then he dropped to one knee.
“Will you do me the honor of being my wife, Velia? And my queen? ”
She said yes. He kissed her until she forgot her own name.
Then he murmured against her throat, “And my mate. All mine. ”
She froze. When they mated, he would feel what was inside her.
He would know exactly what she was. She had just agreed to marry the man she loved, and she was going to have to end it. —
She tried to end it all week. But every time she tried, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her senseless.
In the library, outside the council chamber, at breakfast. He gave her his grandmother’s ring. “Stop trying to talk yourself out of this,” he said. “Don’t run from me, Velia.
”
So she stayed. Until one night in his study, when the kiss turned hungry and his mouth found her shoulder. She felt her teeth sharpen, instinct took over, and she bit down on his shoulder. A bond flared to life.
For one devastating moment, she felt his emotions pouring into her. Lust. Love. Joy.
Then his eyes went unfocused. Glassy. A slow, dreamy smile spread across his face. She had seen this before, on the villager she had bitten during her escape.
Her bite had poisoned him. She panicked, pulled away, said they could not get married. “I don’t want this. I don’t want to be yours.
If you love me, you’ll spare me the suffering. ”
“I make you suffer? ” he whispered. She said yes.
He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again they were bright with unshed tears. “All right. If that’s what you want. ”
She walked away and hated herself more than she had ever hated anything.
—
Three days passed. She hid in her chambers. Princess Lena came and begged her to take him back, saying he was a mess without her. She saw him by accident in the corridor, watched him meet her eyes, then look away, hurt and defeated, and keep walking.
That ended her. She had thought she was protecting him. But watching him hurt like this was worse than anything. She had to tell him the truth.
But the days passed, and she could not get an appointment. He was avoiding her. Then Lady Dolores came to her door, offering to help her slip into a council meeting before he left on a weeks-long trip. Dolores even gave her a vial of potion to mask her scent.
Velia drank it without hesitation. It tasted wrong, sharper, bitter. Too late, she realized what it really was. She stepped into the great hall, and the entire court turned to stare.
Lord Ambrose announced, “I present to you the king’s intended bride. A future queen must prove herself worthy of the crown. This includes the traditional shifting ceremony. ”
The forced shift potion was already tearing through her.
Her bones cracked. She fell to her knees. On the dais, Cailen stared at her, hurt and confused. She wanted to run.
But she had decided to tell him the truth. Let him see. Let everyone see. The shift took her.
When it was done, there was silence, then a gasp. She opened her eyes. She stood on lion paws. A serpent tail coiled behind her.
People screamed. She did not look at them. She looked at Cailen, waiting for the horror. But his face was too pale.
His eyes unfocused. Then he swayed and fell. He hit the marble floor. She lunged forward.
Guards drew their weapons. She could smell his scent turning, chemical, poisoned. She looked at the dais where Dolores stood. “He’s been poisoned,” Dolores said, clear across the hall.
Then, to her father’s horror, she confessed. It was their plan all along. A compliance potion to make him sign a wedding contract. A forced shift potion to remove Velia from consideration.
But even drugged, he would not sign. He kept asking for Velia, kept saying he loved her. So they gave him more and more, until the potion in high doses became poison. Velia moved.
Guards raised weapons, but Princess Lena ordered them to let her through. “Let her through. ”
Velia reached him. The serpent tail moved without her conscious thought, positioning itself over his chest, extracting the poison from his blood, neutralizing it with her own venom system.
A biological antidote she had not known she could produce. When it was done, his breathing evened out. Color returned to his face. He opened his eyes and stared up at her, at the creature looming over him.
His hand lifted, trembling, and touched her jaw. Then the potion’s effect wore off, and she shifted back to human. She cradled him in her arms. He was alive.
—
Lord Ambrose and Dolores were arrested. She sat by his bedside for hours, holding his hand. When he woke, he smiled at her. “You saw what I am,” she murmured.
“Do you remember? ”
“Yes,” he said, simply. She braced for the revulsion. Instead, he looked puzzled.
“You thought I would mind? That’s why you broke it off? ”
She stared at him. “I’m a giant monster.
People recoil at the sight of me. Your own guards tried to kill me. ”
He laughed, utterly relieved. “I think it’s fantastic news that you’re a giant beast, my love.
Now you can come with me to all my meetings and people won’t even think to argue. ”
“Kaylen,” she scolded. “I almost died. I might still die if you shatter my heart again,” he said, pulling her into his arms.
“Say you’ll marry me. ”
She kissed his forehead. “Yes. ”
His grin could have lit the entire palace.
He pulled her down into the bed, tucking her against his chest like she belonged there. Like she had always belonged there. When, she supposed, she had.
