The kiss happened so fast, so naturally, that she didn’t have time to think. One moment, Caius was pulling her close, his voice low and rough, telling her she was beautiful. The next, his lips were on hers, soft at first, then insistent, like he was claiming something he’d wanted for years. It felt right.
Inevitable. A story that had been writing itself since she was eight years old. Then she heard the footsteps. She pulled back, breathless, her heart pounding.
Caius’s eyes were bright, warm, satisfied. He looked like he had just won something. But the air had shifted. She turned her head toward the door, and her blood went cold.
Bane stood in the shadows of the room, his pale eyes fixed on them. On her. On the rumpled bed. On the shirt she was wearing — his brother’s shirt.
He didn’t say a word. He just stared, his jaw tight, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. Then he turned and walked away. Ivy scrambled out of bed, calling after him, her voice cracking.
But he didn’t stop. He walked through the cottage, out into the pale morning light, and disappeared into the trees. The day before, Ivy had been normal. Living in the cottage at the edge of the forest with her mother, spending her days gathering herbs, helping with births, and trying not to think about the two boys who had left her a month ago without a proper goodbye.
Bane and Caius. The two wolf pups she had saved from a bear when she was eight years old. They had grown into men, her best friends, her whole world. And then they had vanished back into the world they came from, leaving her with nothing but a promise and a broken heart.
Caius had promised to come back. He had come back. And what they had done last night — the kissing, the touching, the falling asleep wrapped in each other’s arms — had felt like the beginning of something. The beginning of everything.
But Bane had come back too. And Bane was furious. He stood at the edge of the forest now, his back to her, his shoulders rigid. Ivy ran after him, her bare feet slipping on the dew-wet grass.
She grabbed a pine cone and threw it at the back of his head, out of pure frustration. He spun around so fast she stumbled backward. The look on his face stopped her cold. “What do you think you’re doing?
” he snarled. “I just wanted you to stop running! ” she shouted. “You’ve been gone for a month!
You didn’t say goodbye! And now you’re walking away again? ”
“Yes,” he said, his voice flat and hard. “Well, it needs to stop.
You and Caius. That needs to stop. ”
Ivy’s chest burned. “That is not up to you.
”
“Oh, no? ” He stepped closer. “And what are you going to do when you become pregnant, Ivy? We’re in love,” she said, her voice breaking.
“We’re in love. ”
“So what? ” Bane snarled. “There’s no future there.
Caius isn’t for you. And you are not for him. You can’t be together. ”
“Why not?
” she demanded, tears slipping down her cheeks. “Why can’t I be with him? ”
“Because it’s impossible,” he shouted. “What are you talking about?
” Ivy’s voice rose into something desperate and raw. “What happened to you, Bane? You were my best friend. We were —”
“I’m the king, Ivy.
”
The words hit her like cold water. She stared at him, not understanding. “I’m the king,” Bane repeated, quieter now, but no less sharp. “I have the power to decide your future.
Including who you marry. And I will never approve of you marrying my brother. ”
She felt like the ground had dropped out from under her. “That’s not fair.
”
“No,” Bane said, and his voice cracked slightly. “It isn’t. ”
Before she could respond, Caius crashed through the trees, his eyes blazing, protective and fierce. “Enough, brother,” he said, stepping between them.
Bane stared at him, and there was something broken behind the rage. “How could you? ” he asked, his voice low and devastating. “How could you do this?
”
“She’s mine,” Caius said, pulling Ivy against him. “Ivy is my mate and my future wife. ”
Bane laughed, a hollow sound. “And you think the king will allow it?
”
And then Bane was gone, walking away into the trees, and Ivy was left standing there in the dawn, watching the only world she had ever known fall apart. Caius held her face in his hands. “Ivy, I want you to be my wife. ”
“But before you say yes,” he said, his voice shaking, “there’s something you need to know.
About who I am. About who we are. ”
“We’re wolf shifters,” he said. “We’re princes.
And the man you just screamed at is the king. ”
“I come before you to present Ivy of the forest’s edge, my intended,” Caius said, his voice formal and careful, echoing through the massive throne room. “I seek your blessing for our union. ”
Ivy stood beside him, her hands trembling inside her skirts.
Courtiers lined the hall, their eyes drilling into her. She was wearing a beautiful dress, a stranger’s dress, and felt like a peasant girl playing dress-up. She looked up at the dais, at the man on the throne, and her heart stopped. Bane was wearing a crown.
He was the king. Not Caius’s father. Bane. He stared at them with complete detachment, his pale eyes empty and cold, as if he had never known her.
As if they had never held the same blanket as children. “No,” Bane said. The word dropped like a stone into water. “I do not give my blessing.
This union is not approved. ”
The throne room erupted in whispers. “Bane, you can’t! ” Ivy shouted before she could stop herself.
Gasps rippled through the crowd. “You will address His Majesty properly,” an older courtier snapped. “His Majesty is being an ass! ” Ivy yelled, her voice echoing across the marble.
The scandal was immediate. Shrieks and whispers, scandalized faces turning toward her. Caius grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the throne room, through a side door, into an empty alcove behind a pillar. “You can’t speak to him like that,” he hissed.
“Not here. Not ever. ”
“He’s your brother! ” she shouted.
“He’s the alpha, Ivy,” Caius said, his voice strained. “In a pack, that means everything. More than being brothers. And he’s the king.
Your king. Who he is in private, my brother Bane, and who he is in public, the king, the law — they are different people. ”
A month passed. Ivy learned the court’s rules, the curtsies, the endless protocols.
She memorized the forms of address, learned which fork to use, how to smile without her face showing what she truly felt. She did it because she had to, because Caius had promised her a future, and because Bane had said she had three months to prove she could belong in this world. She tried to talk to Bane once. She stepped toward him in a corridor, heart pounding, her mouth opening on his name.
A courtier appeared instantly, cutting her off like a blade. “How dare you address His Majesty so familiarly? Step back. Know your place.
”
Ivy’s face burned. She looked at Bane, waiting for him to say, “No, she’s allowed. She’s always been allowed. ” But he didn’t even look at her.
His gaze slid over her like she wasn’t there. Like she was nothing. She stepped back because she had to. And Bane let her.
The days blurred into a painful routine. Caius was warm, patient, wonderful, helping her navigate the treacherous waters of court life. But Bane was everywhere and nowhere, always in the room and never looking at her. At night, she lay awake and thought about the way he used to laugh, the way he used to look at her when they were children, fierce and protective and present.
She missed him. She missed him with an ache that had no name. At the ball, the gossip was relentless. “Is that her?
” “The peasant girl? ” “I heard she’s a nobody from some cottage in the woods. ” Ivy kept her chin up and her eyes forward, but inside, she was drowning. And then a woman with auburn hair and clever eyes approached her.
Margo. She was funny, sharp, sympathetic. She whispered court gossip that made Ivy laugh, asked questions, listened. Bolstered by champagne and loneliness, Ivy talked.
She talked about missing the forest, about missing Bane, about not understanding why he was so cruel, why he was so cold. “I have a friend who’s been wanting to meet you,” Margo said, leading her through a side door into a dim, empty corridor. “He’s very influential. ”
Ivy found herself alone in a small sitting room with a man she didn’t know.
Lord Garrett. He smiled and blocked the door. “You’re even lovelier up close,” he said. “Prince Caius is a lucky man.
”
“Thank you,” Ivy said, stepping back, trying to move around him. “But I really should —”
His hand caught her wrist. “Stay a moment. Just to talk.
”
“Let go,” Ivy said, her stomach dropping. “Don’t be coy,” he said, his grip tightening. “You came here with me. You knew what that meant.
”
“I didn’t know you existed until five minutes ago,” she snapped, yanking her wrist free and heading for the door. He grabbed her arm, spun her back. “You little tease,” he snarled. “You followed me here.
You led me on. ”
“I did no such thing! ” she shouted. “A young lady alone with a man in a private room,” he said coldly.
“Everyone will assume —”
“Assume what? ” said a voice like ice. Bane stood in the doorway. His shirt was unbuttoned, sleeves rolled up.
He looked less like a king and more like a predator. Lord Garrett’s face went white. “I was just escorting Lady Ivy back to the ballroom,” he stammered. “She came on to me rather insistently.
”
“That’s a lie,” Ivy said immediately. “The young lady seems confused,” Lord Garrett said quickly. “Perhaps she had too much to drink. ”
Bane’s eyes flashed silver.
“You found Lady Ivy alone, and rather than immediately escort her back to the ballroom, you brought her to a private room. And knowing that she is my brother’s intended, you thought it appropriate to compromise her reputation? ” He took a step forward. “I want you gone from court.
And if I hear that you’ve spoken one word about this evening, I will make it permanent. Do you understand? ”
Lord Garrett fled. The room fell silent.
“Thank you,” Ivy said quietly, her voice shaking. Bane turned to face her. “You fell for an obvious trap. This is exactly what I warned you about.
”
“I had it under control,” she said. “Did you? ” His voice was scornful. “Alone with a man twice your size who was about to force himself on you.
”
“I fought off a bear for you when I was eight years old. I think I can handle one entitled lord. ”
“This isn’t the forest,” he snapped. “So that’s what this is,” Ivy said, tears burning her eyes.
“You looking through me for weeks, letting them insult me. You hate that I’m here. You’ve always thought me beneath you. ”
“You not deserving him?
” Bane’s voice cracked, and he stepped closer. “Is that what you think? That I —” He stopped, stared at her. “It’s him who doesn’t deserve you.
He never has. ”
His hand came up, thumb brushing her bottom lip. “Neither of us do. ”
“Stop,” Ivy said, but the word came out breathless.
“Why? ” he asked, his eyes dark and intense. “Because it’s true? ”
And then he kissed her.
Furious and desperate, like he had been holding himself back for years. And Ivy kissed him back because she had been starving for it without knowing. The world narrowed to heat and breath and his hands in her hair, and then the reality crashed back, sharp and cold. “No,” she gasped, shoving at his chest.
“No, we can’t. ”
Bane pulled back immediately, but he didn’t step away. “I know. ”
“I’m supposed to marry Caius,” she said.
“I’m in love with you,” Bane said. “I’ve been in love with you my whole life. ”
And Ivy ran. She ran down the corridor, away from him, away from the impossible truth she couldn’t face.
Because if she looked back, she might turn and go straight back to him. She spent the next day locked in her room. The next, too. And then Caius came to her, with bread and cheese and fruit he knew she liked.
He sat on the edge of her bed, and he told her the truth she had been too blind to see. “Did you know he was in love with me? ” she whispered. Caius’s expression was pained but resigned.
“We both knew we loved you. It’s hard to hide between brothers who can smell each other’s emotions. ”
“And you kissed me anyway? ”
“He has the throne, Ivy.
” Caius took her hands. “Bane always said this life wasn’t for you. That court would destroy you. And I believed him.
But then he became king, and I thought — if he can’t have you because of it, why shouldn’t I? ” He swallowed hard. “Soon, Bane will marry some princess. She’ll bear him an heir, and I’ll truly be free.
I’m sorry you have to remain here until then. ”
The thought made Ivy want to scream. Bane married. Bane having children with someone who wasn’t her.
Bane trapped in a cage, miserable and alone. She loved Caius, too, with her whole heart. But now that she knew about Bane, all of it was different. Nothing could be the same.
The tension between the brothers became impossible to miss. Bane’s jaw tightened every time Caius touched her. Caius went quiet every time Bane entered a room. And the longing for Bane was a constant ache, a pull she couldn’t ignore.
“Leave him,” Bane said one night, his hands on her waist in a dim corridor. “Leave my brother. ”
“I can’t,” she whispered. “It’s either his heart or mine,” he said, his voice low and rough.
When she returned to her chambers, her cheeks pale, her skin still burning where his hands had been, Caius was waiting by the window. He looked at her for a long moment. His smile faltered. “You smell like him,” he said softly.
That night, she told him the truth she had been hiding from herself. “I love him,” she whispered. “And I love you. I love you both, and I don’t know what to do.
”
Caius stood very still. “I won’t share you,” he said finally. “And neither will he. ”
She chose Caius.
She stood in their small sitting room, and she said the words, her chest breaking: “I choose you. ”
Caius closed his eyes for a beat, pain and relief colliding on his face. “Thank you,” he breathed. Then there was a knock at the door.
A guard entered, grim-faced. “Your highness, your brother summons you. The enemies who killed your mother have resurfaced. The council calls for war.
You are both called to arms. ”
At first light, the army assembled at the gates. Caius said goodbye first, mounting his horse with a soft smile. “I’ll come back.
”
Then Ivy searched for Bane. He was already mounted near the front, dark armor, dark horse, crown nowhere in sight. She waited for him to look at her, to acknowledge her, to give her anything. But he never even glanced in her direction.
He rode away with his back straight and his shoulders squared, riding away from her, and she felt the last piece of her heart crack. Three months passed. No word. Ivy moved through court like a ghost, her food left untouched, her dreams full of blood and swords.
Every night she went to bed terrified she would wake to black banners. Then, on a gray autumn afternoon, the cry went up. “The army returns! ”
The relief hit her so hard she nearly collapsed.
She pushed through the crowd, elbows out, desperate to see them, to know they were alive. And then a woman’s voice, quiet and shocked: “A black flag. A royal has fallen. ”
Ivy’s blood went ice cold.
She shoved forward, pushing people aside, her nails digging into her palms, her heart slamming against her ribs. Caius stood a few feet away, muddy, exhausted, but whole. She crashed into him, buried her face in his shoulder. “You’re alive,” she sobbed.
“You’re alive. ”
And then she pulled back, searching his face. “What about Bane? Where is he?
”
Caius’s face fell. “No,” Ivy said, shaking her head. “No. ”
“Ivy,” Caius said softly, and his voice was so sad it made her chest ache.
“I don’t think he wanted to come back. ”
The image flashed through her mind: Bane at dawn, mounting his horse, not looking at her, never once. The last thing he had known was her rejection. Her choosing his brother.
Her choosing the crown he had tried to spare her from. And then the world went gray, then black, then nothing at all. Three months later, Ivy stood by the window while servants fastened the rows of buttons on her emerald gown. The reflection staring back at her was a stranger — pale, hollow-eyed, a ghost wearing expensive clothes.
Bane was dead. She had stopped crying after the first week, stopped eating after the second. All that was left was going through the motions. Caius came to her chambers, already dressed in his coronation robes.
Their wedding was set for a month after the coronation. She took his arm, walked through the corridors, waved mechanically at the crowds lining the streets. She watched Caius kneel before the high priest and receive the crown. “All hail the king.
” And he smiled, bright and genuine, happy for the first time in months. Ivy smiled too, glad to see him find joy after so much pain. Then she realized she couldn’t remember the last time she had been happy at all. At the coronation ball, Caius danced with dignitaries and queens before finally reaching her.
He took her hand, spun her across the polished marble, and she asked him a question that had been burning in her chest for weeks. “When you first kissed me, you said you’d just lost something you’d been wanting your entire life. What was it? ”
“The crown,” Caius admitted.
“The throne. I’d grown up with a ‘maybe. ’ Maybe you’ll be king if your brother falls. Maybe you’ll be needed.
But I never knew who I was supposed to be once the crown was given to its rightful owner. ”
“And how did Bane feel? ” Ivy asked, her voice barely above a whisper. “The night he was crowned?
”
Caius paused. “I never thought to ask him. ”
“I guess I was a little bit jealous,” he admitted. “I probably would have been too in your shoes,” Ivy said honestly.
“You’re right,” Caius said, watching her carefully. “How do you think he felt? ”
Ivy closed her eyes. She imagined Bane in this ballroom, wearing the crown, surrounded by courtiers, trapped behind a role he had never wanted.
She heard his voice in her head: This place is a prison, Ivy. One I’ve always wanted to spare you from. “He felt like me,” Ivy said, opening her eyes. “Profoundly miserable.
”
The realization hit her like a wave. Every sacrifice, every silence, every cold look from Bane — he had known exactly how she would feel here because he felt the same way. He hadn’t forbidden her from marrying Caius out of jealousy or spite. He had done it out of love.
Tears spilled down her cheeks. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “But I can’t marry you. ”
Caius’s eyes filled with grief, but then he nodded, resigned.
“Yes. I thought you might say that. ”
“I can’t marry a king,” Ivy said. “Not any king.
Not even you. ”
She was choking on the words, but she didn’t look away. “Because being queen would kill me. Slowly, surely.
The same way it was killing him. ”
“I know,” he said quietly, pulling her into his arms. They held each other for a long time, not letting go, because letting go meant letting go of each other. And then they did.
When she finally pulled away, Ivy felt something lift in her chest, lighter than it had been in months. Free. She rode toward home. In the forest, summer had returned, warm and alive.
She breathed deep, felt her lungs expand without the corset of court pressing in. That morning, she had said goodbye to Caius in the courtyard, just the two of them, dawn light soft and forgiving. He had held her for a long time, then helped her mount. “When you get to the crossroads, between your village and the northern lakes,” he’d said hesitantly.
“Go left. To the lakes. ”
“Why? ” Ivy had frowned.
Caius had looked away, jaw working, struggling with something. “It’s my parting gift to you,” he’d said quietly. “Be well, Ivy. ”
Now the crossroads appeared through the trees like a question waiting to be answered.
Ivy stopped her horse. She stared down the left path, where shadows pooled between trees. She had no idea why Caius had sent her that way, and she would go, eventually. Just not today.
Today she wanted to go home. She turned right, started down the familiar path. But something stopped her. A feeling.
A pull low in her chest. Go left, Caius had said, with that look in his eyes. That resignation. Ivy sighed, turned her horse around, and muttered, “This better be worth it.
”
The path to the lakes climbed through forest that grew denser, wilder, more alive the higher she went. The lake appeared like a mirror of sky, still and perfect. She rode slowly around the shore, and then she saw smoke rising thin and gray from the tree line. The house was small and rough-hewn, logs still pale and unstained.
New. Ivy dismounted, tied her horse, and knocked. No answer. The door was locked.
She stepped back, scanning the clearing. A figure emerged from the forest, backlit by sunset, carrying firewood. He stepped closer, into the light. And Ivy stopped breathing.
Those eyes. That jaw. That mouth she had kissed and mourned and dreamed about in the dark. “Ivy?
” His voice shook her. She couldn’t move. She stared at someone who was supposed to be dead, but who was standing here, impossibly real. “Ivy!
” Bane dropped the firewood and moved. And then she was moving, too, colliding with him. His arms wrapped around her, crushing her against his chest. Her arms locked around his neck, holding on like he might vanish.
“You’re alive,” she breathed against his shoulder. He buried his face in her hair, breathing her in. She pulled back just enough to see his face, to touch it, her fingers tracing the line of his jaw. Tears streamed down her face.
“I never wanted to be king,” Bane said, and it sounded like an apology. “And I couldn’t do it anymore. Seeing you with him, I couldn’t —”
She kissed him. He made a sound, broken and desperate, and kissed her back.
Months of grief and longing poured into the press of mouth against mouth. His hands came up to frame her face. Her fingers tangled in his hair. And then he pulled back, his breath ragged.
“What about my brother? ”
“He’s king now,” Ivy said, cupping his face in both hands. “It’s what he wanted, I think. ”
Bane frowned.
“And I couldn’t be queen,” Ivy added softly. “You were right. I couldn’t. ”
Something soft and new moved through his eyes.
“Yes, well,” he said, a smile tugging at his lips, “I’m very often right. ”
Ivy rolled her eyes. “You’re insufferable. ”
“It’s true.
Name one time I wasn’t. ”
She kissed him again, laughing against his mouth. Later, much later, they would lie tangled together in the dark. She would tell him she loved him and confess that a piece of her had died when she thought he was gone.
He would apologize. He would explain how Caius had helped him fake his death, how it had been the only way to set them all free — Caius from being the spare, Bane from the crown. She would realize Caius had known all along, had kept the secret to protect them both, had sent her here as a final gift, hesitant and resigned because he knew what it meant to let her go toward his brother. She would forgive them both eventually.
In about a year, their first child would be born. They would raise her and her future siblings here by the lake, free and loved. And somewhere far away, in a golden palace, a king would rule fairly and well, beloved by his people, happy at last in the role he had not been born for but had finally been allowed to claim. But here, in this small house by the northern lakes, two people who had loved each other since childhood would build the life they had always been meant to have.
Together.
