Chapter 23 Mila
TWENTY-THREE
MILA
The scent of pine and woodsmoke drifted through the cabin as morning light peeked through the curtains, casting everything in a golden haze that felt almost magical. Mila stirred against the warmth of Cade’s body, her muscles pleasantly sore from their marathon of passion the night before.
Every surface, she thought with a secret smile, remembering how they’d christened the dining table, the kitchen counter, even the bathtub.
Her body hummed with contentment as she traced the new luminescent mark that glowed faintly on Cade’s chest, right over his heart—proof of their bond sanctioned by ancient magic.
This was peace. Real, honest-to-goodness peace.
No council politics breathing down their necks.
No pack expectations weighing on their shoulders.
Just them, wrapped in each other’s arms in this cozy retreat deep in the Ice Mountain wilderness, where the only sounds were the crackle of dying embers in the hearth and Cade’s steady breathing beneath her cheek.
For a few blissful moments, Mila let herself believe everything was finally settled.
They’d survived the Moonfire Trial with flying colors.
The council had given their blessing for marriage.
She would become the High Sovereign Queen, and together they’d restore the human-shifter alliance that had been destroyed.
We’re unstoppable, she thought, her fingers dancing over the warm mark on his skin. The connection between them felt stronger than ever—electric and profound, like their souls had finally clicked into perfect alignment.
A sharp, piercing buzz shattered the morning tranquility.
Cade’s communicator vibrated insistently on the nightstand, its blue light flashing in urgent patterns that made Mila’s stomach clench with dread.
Of course, she thought bitterly. Why wouldn’t duty call and ruin this perfect moment?
But even as frustration flickered through her, Mila understood the reality of loving a king.
Cade’s responsibilities didn’t take vacations, no matter how much they both needed this respite.
He’d been doing an admirable job balancing duty and desire this past week, but that balance was precarious at best.
Can I really accept this? The question whispered through her mind like a cold wind. A life where quiet moments like this are rare treasures instead of everyday occurrences?
If she actually became queen, her own duties would multiply exponentially. Building bridges between humans and shifters, making Nova Aurora welcoming to Earth visitors, convincing three proud wolf packs to embrace change—it was a tall order. Maybe even impossible.
Cade groaned, his arm tightening around her waist as he buried his face deeper into her hair. “Ignore it,” he mumbled, his voice rough with sleep.
The communicator buzzed again, more insistently.
“You need to answer it,” Mila said softly, though every fiber of her wanted to throw the damn thing out the window. “They won’t stop calling.”
“Fine,” Cade growled, his green eyes flashing with alpha irritation as he reached for the device. “But only if we can have sex again after the call.”
Despite her growing unease, Mila couldn’t help but smile at his priorities. “That sounds good to me.”
Cade’s expression darkened the moment Lyra’s face appeared on the screen. His sister looked frazzled—none of her usual bubbly energy in evidence. Her dark hair was disheveled, and her green eyes were wide with something that looked suspiciously like panic.
“Cade, I’m so sorry to interrupt your celebrating with Mila,” Lyra said, her words tumbling over each other in her haste. “But you need to be at the council building for an emergency meeting. Now.”
Mila’s blood went cold. The contentment of moments before evaporated like mist, replaced by a creeping dread that made her skin crawl.
“What happened?” Cade’s voice carried a sharp edge, his alpha instincts snapping fully awake.
Lyra’s expression twisted with disgust and fury. “Zarik is claiming Mila cheated during the Moonfire Trial. He says the council’s blessing should be revoked because she manipulated the ancient magic with her ancestral blood—some kind of spell to sway the Moonfire energy in your favor.”
What? Mila’s mind raced wildly. The words didn’t make sense. How could she have cheated?
She didn’t understand what had happened in that cave, let alone know how to manipulate the ancient magic.
But as she looked at Cade’s face, her heart nearly stopped. His jaw was clenched, his green eyes burning with fury—but underneath the anger, she caught a flicker of something else.
Doubt.
Oh my God, she thought, nausea rolling through her stomach. He actually thinks I might have cheated.
“That’s ridiculous,” Cade snarled, but the words lacked conviction. “Mila doesn’t know any magic spells.”
“Are you sure?” Lyra’s voice was careful, almost gentle. “Brother, you’ve admitted yourself that her ancestral powers aren’t fully understood. Maybe she—“
“Stop,” Mila interrupted, her voice sharp with betrayal and hurt. “Just stop talking.”
She scrambled out of bed, wrapping the sheet around herself as she faced them both. Cade’s doubt felt like a dagger being twisted into her heart, making her chest ache with the kind of pain she hadn’t felt since her mother died.
He thinks I manipulated him, she realized with growing horror. He thinks I used some mystical spell to make our mate bond unbreakable.
“Mila—“ Cade started.
“No.” She held up a hand, her eyes blazing with wounded fury. “Don’t you dare try to explain this away. I can see it in your face, Cade. You’re actually wondering if I cheated. If I used some ancestral magic to trick you into thinking we were true destined partners.”
The silence stretched like a chasm. Cade’s expression was carefully controlled, but she could feel his uncertainty through their deepened bond—a cold, questioning energy that made her want to scream.
“We’ll be there soon,” he finally growled into the communicator, ending the call with vicious efficiency.
The air between them grew thick with dread and doubt as they dressed. Mila pulled on her clothes with mechanical precision, her mind spinning with the implications of Zarik’s accusation.
Used my ancestral blood to create a spell? She wanted to laugh at the absurdity, but the sound would probably come out as a sob. She didn’t know any magic. Hell, she’d barely understood her own lineage until a few days ago.
But somehow, her ancestral connection had made her a scapegoat in this twisted game Zarik was playing. The man simply couldn’t accept his defeat in the duel, couldn’t let them have their peace and happiness.
God, this guy just can’t let it go, she thought bitterly as they walked outside to the royal car. He can’t stand that we’re going to lead the territory together toward a better future.
Cade drove faster than was safe down the winding mountain path, his knuckles white against the steering wheel. The silence was suffocating, filled with unspoken accusations and fears that neither dared voice aloud.
Mila stared out the window at the purple forests rushing past, her reflection ghostlike in the glass. Everything she’d thought was settled, everything she’d believed was solid ground beneath her feet, had just crumbled away.
Welcome to being the future queen, she thought grimly. Where even your own mate questions your integrity.
The morning air bit at Mila’s skin as she stepped out of the car, but the chill was nothing compared to the ice forming around her heart. Cade moved to her side, his powerful frame radiating tension as he reached for her arm.
“Mila, we need to—“
“Don’t.” She jerked away from his touch, the movement sharp enough to make him freeze mid-step. “Just don’t, Cade.”
His eyes flashed with hurt, but underneath she caught that same flicker of uncertainty that had gutted her back at the cabin. The doubt that whispered maybe she really did manipulate the trial.
“You don’t understand the position we’re in,” he said, his voice dropping to that commanding tone she usually found irresistible. “We have to present a united front in there.”
Mila laughed, the sound bitter as the winter wind. “United? You think I might have actually cheated, Cade. I can feel it—that cold questioning energy rolling off you in waves.”
“I never said—“
“You didn’t have to.” She turned toward the imposing council building, its crystalline spires catching the light of Nova Aurora’s twin suns. “Your face said it all.”
She soon was upon the chamber doors, carved with those ancient wolf symbols that seemed to mock her human heritage.
This is what I get for believing I belonged here, she thought, squaring her shoulders. For thinking I could be more than ordinary.
The moment they stepped into the council chamber, Mila felt dozens of eyes upon her.
The circular room buzzed with tension, pack members and council elders gathered in tight clusters, their conversations dying as she entered.
Some stared with open suspicion, their wolf senses no doubt picking up her fear.
Others looked at her with something worse. Pity.
“That’s her,” someone whispered loud enough for her to catch. “The cheater.”
Mila’s stomach lurched, bile rising in her throat. The urge to turn and run crashed over her—to sprint back to that wormhole portal and disappear to Earth where she was merely invisible instead of actively despised.
But something deeper suddenly stirred within her, a whisper of strength that felt older than her own memories. Her ancestral blood hummed with quiet power, reminding her of the women who had stood beside wolves before her, who had bridged worlds with courage instead of cowering.
Be strong, the ancient voice seemed to say. You are more than they know.
Mila lifted her chin defiantly, forcing her spine straight as she walked beside Cade toward the head of the circular table. She wouldn’t let them see her crumble, no matter how much their judgment sliced through her confidence.
Cade took his seat at the head, his commanding presence filling the space. “This emergency session is now in order.”
But before he could say another word, Zarik rose from his seat like a predator emerging from the shadows. The Shadow Moon king looked smugly satisfied, his icy blue eyes glittering with malicious triumph as he surveyed the room.
“Thank you for coming so quickly,” Zarik said smoothly. “Though I wish we were here under better circumstances.”
The bastard was actually enjoying this, Mila realized with growing terror. He stood tall and confident, working the room like a master puppeteer as murmurs of agreement rippled through the crowd.
“Yesterday’s Moonfire Trial was meant to prove the sacred bond between our High Sovereign and his chosen mate,” Zarik continued, his gaze sliding to Mila with calculated disdain. “Instead, something far more troubling took place.”
“Get to the point, Zarik,” Cade growled, his alpha energy crackling through the air.
Zarik’s smile was sharp as winter ice. “The point, my king, is that your human mate used her ancestral blood magic to manipulate the ancient energies. She cast a spell within that sacred cave, tricking the Moonfire into blessing a false bond.”
The chamber erupted into chaos. Voices rose in anger, confusion, and fear as pack members turned to their neighbors, debating whether such a thing was even possible. Several council elders nodded gravely, their faces creased with concern.
“That seems impossible,” Elder Grimm called out, but his voice lacked conviction.
“Is it?” Zarik replied with venomous intent. “We all know humans once walked among our ancestors, practicing their ‘moon magic’ alongside our wolves. Who’s to say she hasn’t inherited those same abilities? Who’s to say she didn’t use them to ensnare our king’s heart and corrupt the trial’s purity?”
Mila felt the room turning against her. Every face she looked at reflected the same growing suspicion, the same willingness to believe she was capable of such deception.
“Furthermore,” Zarik continued, his voice growing stronger as he fed off the crowd’s energy, “the human’s scent corrupted the Trial’s sanctity from the moment she entered that cave. The Moonfire energy wasn’t pure—it was tainted by her presence.”
More nods around the chamber. More whispered agreements that felt like daggers in her back.
Cade shot to his feet, his tall frame radiating barely contained fury. “You accuse your king and the Moon goddess herself of being deceived?”
Zarik’s smirk widened. “I accuse your mate of being a manipulative cheater. The Moon goddess may forgive your weakness and poor judgment, but I will not. And neither should this council.”
Every eye in the chamber fixed on Mila. The air grew suffocating as the collective weight of their judgment pressed down on her. She opened her mouth to defend herself, but the words came out weak and hollow in the echoing space.
“I didn’t do anything,” she said, hating how small her voice sounded. “I don’t know any magic.”
But even as she spoke, she could feel the doubt spreading through the room like poison. The human among predators, trying to convince them of her innocence when everything about their nature told them not to trust her kind.
Cade stepped forward, his voice thundering with alpha authority. “Enough! I will not have my mate’s honor questioned by—“
But Mila barely heard his defense. All she could focus on was the growing distance in his eyes when he looked at her, and the way his certainty flickered like a candle in the wind. Their deepened bond carried his emotions straight to her heart, and the cold touch of his doubt felt like dying.
He’s going to reject me. He’s going to choose his kingdom over our love, just like I always feared he would.
The chamber spun around her, faces blurring together in a kaleidoscope of suspicion and judgment. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t bear another second of their collective hatred.
“I can’t,” she whispered, backing toward the door. “I can’t do this anymore.”
And then she ran.