Chapter 47: Prince Rejected, Alpha Redirected

The princess broke.

There was no other word for it. The sound that came out of Estelle Dunestorm wasn’t a scream or a cry. It was the noise a body makes when something fundamental inside it has been ripped out by the root.

Silver light exploded from her chest in a burst so violent it lit the clearing like a second sun, and the force of it buckled her forward. The silver wolf pressed its full weight against her, whining, holding, but she was folding in on herself and the wolf couldn’t stop it.

She fell to her knees, clawing at her own chest. Pulling at her sternum with both hands like she could reach whatever was breaking and stop it from finishing.

Nova was already moving.

She grabbed one arm. Seraphina grabbed the other. No signal. No coordination. They pulled Estelle off the ground together because the ground was not where this girl was going to stay while a prince looked away.

Estelle was gasping still. She couldn’t hold herself. Her legs were shaking so badly that standing was a suggestion her body was declining.

Nova tightened her grip. Seraphina locked her arm around Estelle’s waist. Between them, they held a girl who weighed nothing and carried everything, and neither of them was letting go.

Nova looked across the clearing at Kai Starborne who seemed thoroughly unaffected. The silver wolf that had found him ran back into the fire. He was many things. Many terrible, remote-clicking, head-patting, cloak-throwing, condescending things.

But this was a category she hadn’t placed him in.

Every woman around the fire was either fighting tears or looking at him with absolute revulsion and he wasn’t looking at any of them.

The Dunestorm warriors who had been holding their new mates, had set them down at some point. Every single one was standing at attention, jaws locked, because that was their princess.

"STARBORNE." The Dunestorm Alpha’s voice cracked across the clearing. His wolf so close to the surface that his eyes were solid gold and his canines had already dropped. "YOUR SON JUST REJECTED MY DAUGHTER’S FATED MATEBOND ON SACRED GROUND. YOU HAVE SIXTY SECONDS TO CORRECT THIS BEFORE I CONSIDER IT AN ACT OF WAR AGAINST MY HOUSE AND RESPOND ACCORDINGLY."

The Dunestorm pack was small. There was no universe where they could take Starborne. But the Dunestorm pack now had mates from every pack present, including Starborne, which complicated it and everyone knew it.

Before Alpha Starborne could respond, another silver wolf descended from the flame.

The wolf ran past Kai without a glance, crossing the clearing towards the single Alpha of the Nightbloom pack, ranked two positions above Starborne. A non-slave pack.

A young Alpha who had lost his Luna a few years ago. One who had given his mark already and never thought he would feel a matebond again. One who would eventually have to take a chosen mate, but wasn’t planning on anything this Moonfire.

The Alpha’s eyes flared molten gold on contact, his wolf locking onto Estelle’s scent with the instantaneous, bone-deep recognition of a man whose soul had been waiting for this woman across multiple lifetimes and was furious about the delay.

Something uncovered that wasn’t possible.

His Luna had died and he had lived. That was the cruelest sentence the Goddess had ever written. Until tonight. When she wrote the correction.

He didn’t walk.

He crossed the distance at Alpha speed and picked Estelle up. Arms under her. Full lift. Zero hesitation. Zero doubt. Zero of the hemming and hawing and dramatic hand-wringing that had defined the last three minutes of Estelle’s life.

Her head fell into the crook of his neck. The pained gasps coming from her stopped.

His hands were shaking against Estelle’s back. That was the part that cracked Nova open. A wolf who had already marked a mate finding a second fated matebond was the kind of miracle that rewrites theology. He pressed his forehead against Estelle’s and closed his eyes like a man who had stopped believing in anything and now held the proof that something still believed in him.

The silver wolves circled them both.

Estelle looked up at him, tears still wet on her face, the pain still visible in the tightness around her eyes, and this man was looking back at her like she was the answer to a question he had been asking since birth.

"For the record," he said, loud enough for the clearing to hear, "I would like to formally thank Prince Starborne for his generous donation to my love life. Truly selfless. The air quotes were a nice touch."

Estelle laughed. It was wet and broken and surprised and it came out of her like a hiccup because she had been crying thirty seconds ago. The laugh cracked her face open and the smile underneath it was so real it made the matebond break pain dissolve entirely.

Nova blinked a few times, her eyes burning. Seraphina already had silent tears, running down her face while her jaw stayed locked because she was furious and moved and both at the same time.

The Nightbloom Alpha gave Nova a nod as he carried Estelle back to his pack. The nod said you did this.

Nova had done nothing. She was standing between one princess and an empty space where another princess used to be, in a borrowed cloak, glowing. But she was damn glad Kai had rejected Estelle because that Nightbloom Alpha looked at his mate the way every woman in this clearing deserved to be looked at and Kai Starborne had never once in his life looked at anything that way.

Kai’s eyes drifted to Seraphina. Lingered. The look was calculating in a way that made Nova’s skin crawl, like he was running numbers on a backup plan and Seraphina was the spreadsheet. He seemed to be waiting for a wolf to come for her. Expecting it, almost. Like the Goddess owed him a consolation prize.

Then a new silver wolf ran down from the flame. It found Seraphina.