Chapter 163 — So You Knew

Chapter 163: Chapter 163 — So You Knew

~ Raven ~

Raven stared at him, trying to decide whether he was actually serious.

"The Alpha Queen?"

Even saying it aloud sounded absurd, and Dante’s widening smile only made her more certain she wanted no part of whatever conclusion he had just reached.

"No."

Dante laughed, and Raven’s frown deepened. "What?"

"You already know."

Her stomach tightened. "I know nothing."

"Rivers." His laughter faded, but the satisfaction remained as he studied her face. "You didn’t even ask what I meant."

Raven opened her mouth to argue, then stopped when she realised he was right. Anyone hearing that for the first time should have been demanding an explanation, yet she had gone straight to denying it.

Fuck.

Raven looked away, and the way Dante’s expression sharpened told her she had probably given him more of an answer than she intended.

"When did you find out?"

"I didn’t."

"Then who told you?"

"Nobody."

Dante watched her for a moment before realization crossed his face.

"Cassian."

Raven stayed quiet.

"Of course it was that bastard." He dragged a hand through his hair, some of his earlier excitement giving way to irritation.

Despite herself, Raven almost smiled. "He didn’t tell me. Not exactly."

Dante’s hand dropped as he looked at her. "What does that mean?"

"He figured something out, I figured out what he was thinking, and that’s all you’re getting."

Dante gave her a look, but after a moment he let it go, apparently deciding something else bothered him more.

"Why haven’t you said anything? If Blade knows and you’ve already considered it yourself, why are you still walking around here like nothing happened?"

"Because nothing has happened."

"Raven, if the Crown knew what you might be, the Alpha King himself could oversee your training and education. You’d have protection, access to the old records, whatever resources you needed. Your status would change overnight."

"No."

Dante paused. "No?"

"I’m not doing that."

His brows pulled together. "Why?"

The answer came with the memory of a white room and a man whose face she still couldn’t see.

The Dreamwalker already knew too much about her, and Raven couldn’t shake the possibility that this was one of those things.

He had been inside her mind more than once, digging through memories she had never willingly shown anyone, and the last time they fought she had felt his fear the moment her wolf turned on him. Maybe all he had discovered was that Raven could resist him.

Or maybe he had realised exactly what she was becoming.

For all Raven knew, the bastard already suspected she was the Alpha Queen while she was still trying to decide whether she believed it herself.

Until she knew how much he had seen and what he intended to do with it, announcing herself to the rest of Valerius would be fucking stupid.

"I don’t want everyone knowing yet."

Dante’s frown remained. "Why?"

"Because I don’t."

"That isn’t much of an answer."

"It’s the one you’re getting."

He watched her for another second, clearly unsatisfied, but Raven merely shrugged.

"Besides, maybe I enjoy being low-key."

Dante stared at her before laughing again.

Raven’s eyes narrowed. "What?"

"You declared you were taking Second Seat in front of half the dining hall this morning," Dante said. "You’ve threatened both Blackthorn heirs in public, and Bellringer has spent most of the day talking about you."

Raven folded her arms. "The first was necessary, the second was deserved, and Bellringer is hardly my fault."

Dante’s grin only widened. "Exactly my point. You are many things, Rivers. Low-key is not one of them."

"Are you finished?"

"For now."

Raven rolled her eyes and let the subject drop, because what had happened minutes earlier was considerably more important.

The heat beneath her skin had mostly faded, yet she could still remember every part of Dante’s sequence with unsettling clarity. More disturbing was the fact that she had somehow ended in his final stance without remembering moving at all.

She looked at him. "How did you know?"

Dante’s amusement faded into something more thoughtful. "I’d already noticed you and Blade disappearing together, keeping things from everyone and acting like the two of you knew something the rest of us didn’t."

Raven’s brows drew together.

"I knew something was going on. I just didn’t know what." Dante paused. "Then I remembered your assessment."

Raven frowned. "What happened during my assessment?"

"You copied one of my movements."

Her brows drew together. "I did?"

Dante nodded. "The move itself would’ve looked ordinary to anyone watching, but the variation wasn’t. I changed the footing years ago because it suited the way I fight, and I’ve never taught it to anyone. You watched me do it once and used it perfectly."

Raven searched her memory, but nothing useful came back. "You thought I copied you?"

"I thought you got lucky." Dante paused, then smiled. "Then we went riding."

Raven groaned as soon as she realised where this was going.

"You barely knew what you were doing when we started," he continued. "You were trying to make the horse stop and move at the same time."

"I figured it out."

"The horse figured it out. You eventually caught up."

Raven gave him a look, which only made his smile return.

"During the race, you started adjusting to the way I rode. Same posture. Same timing. You were picking it up while watching me."

Her irritation faded slightly because that part she remembered.

At the beginning, everything about riding had required thought—her hands, her legs, her balance. Then somewhere during the race, something had changed and the movement had simply started making sense.

Raven’s eyes narrowed as the pieces came together. He had been testing her from the moment he realised she could follow the sequence.

"You bastard."

Dante only smiled. "I changed it three times. You still kept up, and by the end you were standing in my finishing stance."

Raven pressed her lips together because, unfortunately, he had a point.

"Fine," she muttered. "Let’s say I can copy you somehow. How does that make me the Alpha Queen?"

Dante’s expression brightened again. "Do you know what made her different?"

Raven thought back to the records Cassian had shown her. There had been plenty about the Alpha Queen that she still didn’t understand, but one thing had come up again and again.

"Her affinity with her mates?"

"There you go."

The satisfaction on his face made her sigh. "Don’t look so pleased."

"So Blade really did tell you."

Raven gave him a look.

Dante’s smile lingered for another moment before he continued. "The Alpha Queen’s connection to her mates was stronger than an ordinary bond. She could draw from what they carried—their strengths, their fighting instincts, and eventually even the elemental power tied to them."

Raven already knew where that part was going. "Fire, Air, Earth and Water."

"Exactly."

That much matched what she had read. Every recorded Alpha Queen had supposedly possessed an affinity for all four primal elements even though everyone else was restricted to one.

Dante stepped closer as he continued. "And the deeper those bonds became, the stronger that affinity grew. Some records even claim she could eventually draw on the Cardinal Lattices themselves."

That caught Raven’s attention.

Her gaze dropped briefly toward the fading red-gold traces near his collar before returning to his face. "The Lattices?"

"For anyone else, impossible." Dante shrugged. "For her, apparently not."

Raven frowned. The assessment, the horse race and what had just happened in this room all had one thing in common.

Dante.

"And you think me copying the way you fight proves that?"

"Not by itself. Your assessment made me curious, the horses made me suspicious, and what just happened made me certain."

"It also explains why my wolf reacts to you."

Raven’s expression changed.

Dante stepped closer. "If your affinity with me is already this strong, then your wolf knows exactly what I am."

"Dante."

"What?"

"You’re enjoying this."

His smile widened. "A little."

Raven folded her arms. "That still doesn’t mean my wolf considers you my mate."

"I think it does."

Her wolf stirred beneath her ribs, which did absolutely nothing to help her argument.

Dante leaned slightly closer. "The only problem is that the pesky thing is taking far too long to make it official."

Raven swallowed.

His smile widened, and suddenly Raven became painfully aware of how little space remained between them.

Less than half an hour ago, she had been worrying about whether she could reach Second Seat before the Concord.

Now she had discovered that she could apparently copy movements she had never learned, Dante was telling her that the same connection might one day allow her to draw on the powers of her mates, and somehow the bastard had still managed to bring the conversation back to whether he was one of them.

Raven was still deciding which part of that irritated her most when the door opened.

Both of them turned.

Isolde Marchmont stood in the doorway.

For a moment Raven simply looked at her before a smile spread across her face.

Finally.

Isolde’s gaze moved from Raven to Dante and then back again. A slight frown appeared when she noticed Raven smiling at her.

"I reserved this room."

Dante immediately frowned. "No, you didn’t. It was free when I took it."

"Then the attendant made a mistake."

"No, she—"

"That’ll be all."

Dante stopped and turned slowly toward Raven, one eyebrow rising.

Raven smiled. "I need a favor."

Suspicion appeared almost immediately. "What favor?"

"I want to speak to Isolde alone."

Dante looked between the two of them before returning his attention to Raven. He studied her expression for a moment, and then his eyes narrowed.

"You’re up to something."

"I have no idea what you mean."

"That smile says otherwise."

Raven made no effort to hide it.

Dante laughed. "Alright. Alright."

He gathered his things and headed for the door. Isolde stepped aside to let him pass, and Dante paused at the threshold long enough to glance back at Raven.

"We’re not finished."

"I’m sure I’ll survive."

His mouth curved before he stepped out and closed the door behind him.

Raven turned toward Isolde.

For several seconds, Isolde simply studied her, her expression unreadable. Then whatever she had been thinking disappeared behind the same cool composure Raven had come to expect from her.

"I’ve lost interest. I’ll leave you to your training."

She turned toward the door.

"Isolde."

She stopped.

When she slowly looked back, Raven was still smiling.

"Did you really think I wouldn’t find out?"

Isolde’s brows drew together. "Find out what?"

Raven opened her mouth.

Isolde’s eyes widened.