2. Casandra
I won’t run.
The urge is there, pulling at my muscles, screaming at me to follow Ilinca into the shadows and disappear. Nikolai has discarded the bond like a piece of refuse, but I will not give the room the satisfaction of seeing me crumble.
I stand in the center of the cafeteria, my chin tilted just high enough to be an insult. The whispers are like wasps, stinging and persistent.
I ignore them all. With a steady hand, I walk to the serving line.
I don’t even look at the trays of food. I just point, gathering two containers of whatever is available.
I can feel Lukas’ eyes burning into my back again, but I don’t give him a second glance.
I walk out of the hall with the grace of a woman who has just won a war, even if my heart feels like it has been put through a shredder.
By the time I reach our apartment in the West Wing, the mask is starting to crack.
I let myself in and I find Ilinca on the sofa, curled into a ball so small she looks like a child. Her soft sobs fill the room, the sound of a wolf whose soul has just been torn in half.
I set the food on the coffee table and sit beside her, pulling her head into my lap. “Hey,” I whisper, stroking her hair. “Breathe, Ili. Just breathe.”
“He’s Nikolai’s Beta, Cassie,” she chokes out, her voice muffled by my jeans. “He’s going to come looking for me. He’s going to find out.”
“Maybe that’s not a bad thing,” I say, trying to find a spark of optimism I don’t truly feel. “He doesn’t look like Nikolai. He looks… broken. Maybe he’s a good man, Ili. You should at least talk to him before you write him off.”
Ilinca sits up, her eyes red and puffy. She lets out a watery, bitter sniff. “And what about you? Are you going to talk to your Prince? He’s your mate, Cassie. The bond… you feel it, don’t you?”
I let out a sharp bark of a laugh. The sound is ugly, even to my own ears.
“My Prince? The one who calls me a fucking vampire in front of three hundred people? No, I don’t think we’ll be having any heart-to-hearts. He made his choice. I’m just a political alliance he decided he doesn’t want to sign.”
“Are you going to tell your parents?” she asks, watching me closely. “If the Alpha King finds out Nikolai insulted a… well, a girl of your standing… he’ll lose his mind.”
I lean back, staring at the ceiling. “Not yet. I’m not running to mommy and daddy for every minor inconvenience. If I can’t handle one arrogant wolf prince on my own, I have no business wearing a crown later.”
Before Ilinca can argue, the door to the back entrance swings open.
“Mommy! Mommy, look!”
The heavy atmosphere of the room vanishes instantly. A three-year-old whirlwind with dark, messy curls and a gap-toothed grin comes barreling into the living room, followed closely by Elena, the royal sitter my father has hand-picked.
Darius doesn’t see the tears on his mother’s face. He only sees his favorite person. He launches himself onto the sofa, nearly knocking the air out of Ilinca as he clambers into her lap.
“Mommy, Elena showed me the cliffs!” he chirps, his little hands gesturing wildly. “And I saw a squirrel, and he had a bushy tail, and I told him my name is Darius, but he didn’t say anything back!”
Ilinca’s entire aura shifts. The fear and the heartbreak don’t disappear, but they are pushed behind a wall of fierce, maternal love. She wraps her arms around him, burying her face in his neck and inhaling his scent.
“That’s amazing, baby,” she whispers, her voice finally steadying.
I watch them, my heart aching with a mixture of love and a sudden, sharp ferocity. Darius is the reason we are here, he is the reason I’ve insisted on the penthouse. Ilinca isn’t ashamed of her son—far from it—but she knows better than anyone that her world isn’t often kind to unplanned miracles.
Coming from a noble family and being an Alpha’s daughter, her reputation is a currency, and a child without a father in the picture is an invitation for the elite to look down their noses.
I have the status to demand walls thick enough to hide his laughter and a private entrance that keeps him away from prying, judgmental eyes.
My name is the only thing standing between Darius and a world that would call him a mistake and his mother a disgrace.
Darius turns his bright eyes toward me. “Auntie Cassie, did you see the squirrels too?”
I force a smile, reaching over to ruffle his hair. “Not yet, little man. I was too busy looking at all the big, grumpy wolves.”
As Darius goes back to explaining the squirrel’s lack of manners, I catch Elena’s gaze. She sees the tension in my shoulders. She knows something has gone wrong.
I look back at Ilinca and her son. Nikolai can hate me all he wants, but if he or his Beta lets a single hair on this child’s head be harmed because of some purity or mate bond nonsense, I won’t just break the alliance.
I’ll burn their fucking pack to the ground.