I Returned as Royalty to His Wedding

I hid my bloodline and lived as an unclaimed Omega with Caelan Blackthorn.

The day I learned I was carrying his pup, he spoke without warning: The Grand Advisor Alpha's eldest daughter and I are to be mated in three days.

I'm actually the Alpha heir of the Blackthorn Pack. She and I are a proper match in rank. The bonding gifts have already been delivered to the Ashveil estate, and... she and I have already consummated our union.

When he saw me frozen in place, he added, "I'll set you up in a residence. You and the pup will want for nothing."

I stared at him in disbelief. "So I'm to be your kept Omega, hidden away for the rest of my life. Is that it?"

Caelan turned his face away. "She's a proper and virtuous mate. As long as you don't cause a scene in front of her, I can give you and the pup everything except the title."

A sharp sting hit the bridge of my nose. I never imagined I meant so little to him. Something deep inside me, something wolf and raw, went very quiet, the way a creature goes still before it understands it has been wounded.

"What if I told you my rank could match yours?"

Caelan went still for a moment. A long silence passed before he spoke.

"Seraphina Silvercrest, I know it was wrong of me to hide my identity and take another mate. But there are no what-ifs in this world. The only she-wolf in all the Silvercrest Dominion who matches my standing is the Grand Advisor Alpha's eldest daughter."

"You and I lived as mates at the foot of this mountain for three years. I know exactly who you are."

But he had hidden his identity. How could he be so certain I hadn't done the same? His nostrils hadn't even flared when he said it. He was that sure. That blind.

I looked around. The den we'd built with our own hands. The moonflower beds we'd tended together, their pale petals still catching the light. I wanted so desperately to believe all of it had been real.

"Caelan, I'm carrying your pup. Can't we go back to the way things were? Please don't mate with her."

My eyes locked onto the man before me. If he would just say yes, I was willing to forgive everything.

But all he did was press his lips together and say, his voice flat, "She and I have already consummated our union. I have a duty to her."

My eyes burned red. My body wouldn't stop shaking. "And what about me? You don't owe me anything? You don't owe this pup anything?"

Caelan reached out and brushed the tears from my cheek, his eyes full of tenderness.

"Seraphina, listen. I'm only taking a mate. I'm not abandoning you."

"There's a walled estate on the outskirts of the territory. I've already secured it. If you like the quiet life, I'll have someone plant moonflower bushes and herb gardens in the grounds for you. Whatever you want, I'll make it happen. Trust me."

I stepped back, shaking my head over and over.

"I won't be locked away in some back den as your mistress. I won't let my pup and me live in the shadows for the rest of our lives."

But Caelan simply walked toward me, his expression unchanged, his tone calm. His scent rolled ahead of him, charred oak and bitter iron, and for the first time it didn't smell like home. Something underneath it had gone sour.

"I've never thought of you as a mistress. As long as you don't make trouble in front of the lady of the pack house, you'll still be my mate there. Isn't that enough?"

I kept shaking my head. "No. I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying right here."

This place held every tender moment Caelan and I had shared over three years. I wanted to wait here for our pup to be born.

"Seraphina, you know this. My mating ceremony cannot have a single flaw. I have to erase every trace of our past. It's the only way you and the pup will be safe."

Before the shock had even left my face, he raised his hand. The guards behind him stepped forward with torches and set the grounds ablaze.

In an instant the fire roared to life, swallowing the timber den, the boundary fence, the entire yard. The moonflowers curled black in the heat and were gone.

I clutched my belly and screamed. "No! Stop! Make them stop!"

Caelan pulled me to him and pressed my trembling body against his chest.

He held me there and let me pound my fists against him.

"Be good. When the time is right, I'll make you my recognized mate. The pup can carry the name of a legitimate heir. Everything will be the way it was before."

But Caelan, I am a daughter of the Silvercrest bloodline. The Supreme Alpha's own pup. How could I ever be your equal mate?

The den was gone. And we could never go back.

Three years ago, I had a fight with my father and fled the Silvercrest Den in a fit of anger, determined to chase my dream of a quiet life far from the pack.

I shook off every one of his scouts along the way, masking my scent with crushed moonroot and bitter sage until not even the sharpest tracker could follow. I settled at the foot of this mountain, deep in the borderlands where rank and bloodline meant nothing.

That was when I met Caelan Blackthorn. He was on horseback, his cloak whipping in the wind, a smile playing at the corner of his mouth. One look was all it took. I fell for him completely.

I hid my identity from him, and he told me only that he was a lone wolf roaming the territories. We exchanged vows beneath the open sky, with the Moon Goddess and the wild earth as our witnesses.

We had no ceremonial furs or pack feasts, but we had each other. He hunted the forests while I kept our den, and we were happy.

Now the den was destroyed, and I was locked away in a side chamber of the Blackthorn estate.

The only glimpse of the outside world I could steal was through a crack in the wall.

A few women passing by were whispering about the Blackthorn mating ceremony.

"Did you hear? The young Alpha heir petitioned the Supreme Alpha himself for the mating rites. He traded his military honors for the Silvercrest Moonstone Circlet, the one reserved for Alpha-blooded brides!"

"Well, his intended mate is the Grand Advisor's legitimate daughter. She deserves that kind of ceremony."

"They're perfectly matched in rank. What a striking pair they'll make."

The Moonstone Circlet they spoke of had been my favorite treasure in the Silvercrest Den. I'd never worn it only because I hadn't yet come of age for a mating ceremony, so my father never bestowed it on me.

On my own mating night with Caelan, the only thing on my head had been a wreath of wildflowers he'd woven with his own hands.

He'd said to me then: "My Seraphina deserves the finest things in this world. Even a pack princess's circlet wouldn't be too good for you."

And now he had traded his military honors to give that very circlet to Sable Ashveil.

That evening, Caelan came carrying a whole box of my favorite pastries.

He sat across from me, his expression perfectly composed. "Eat something. The pup must be hungry."

Only then did I pick up a piece and take small, careful bites.

But watching him act as though nothing had happened filled my mouth with bitterness no pastry could mask.

"When did it happen?"

Caelan froze. He poured me a cup of tea to cover his discomfort, then said in a flat voice, "On your Moon Blessing Day."

The ground dropped out from under me. A moon cycle ago, on my Moon Blessing Day, Caelan had vanished without a word. I searched for him the entire night, up the mountain and down, calling his name until my voice gave out. My wolf had paced inside me, restless and whining, sensing something wrong long before I let myself believe it.

He didn't come back until the next morning, dusty and disheveled, claiming he'd gotten lost looking for a gift for me.

Then, like a boy presenting a treasure, he pulled a snow lotus from behind his back.

I hadn't slept all night, but seeing the effort he'd gone through, I couldn't bring myself to scold him. I took the flower and carefully potted it.

Now he was telling me that on my Moon Blessing Day, while I was searching every trail in the dark, he had been in Sable Ashveil's bed. My stomach turned. Something deep in my chest curdled, and my wolf went still in a way that frightened me more than her pacing ever had.

Even so, thinking of everything we'd shared, I couldn't stop myself from offering him one last chance.

"Caelan, can you just not mate with her?"

He turned the teacup in his hands, over and over, his brow furrowed tight.

"Not mate with her? Mate with you instead?"

"Do you really have to force me to say it plainly?"

"She is the Grand Advisor's legitimate daughter. And you? A borderland wolf who knows nothing but foraging herbs and keeping a den. How could you possibly be fit to stand beside me as the recognized mate of a Pack Alpha Heir?"

The color drained from my face. I refused to let it go. "Do three years of what we had really mean nothing unless I have the right bloodline?"

A searing pain tore through my lower abdomen. I pressed both hands against my stomach, but I kept my eyes on him, waiting for his answer.

"In noble packs, bloodline and rank matter above all else. The line between a recognized mate and a kept wolf is absolute."

He paused, guilt flickering across his face.

"Sable might be carrying a pup."

The room tilted. I stared at him, unable to process what I'd just heard.

"Seraphina, her pup has to be recognized as the firstborn heir. That's the only way you'll be safe."

The pain in my belly twisted like a knife. Cold sweat beaded across my forehead. Out of the corner of my eye, I glanced at the box of pastries. A faint wrongness clung to them, something my wolf had nudged at when Caelan first set them down. I hadn't listened.

"Caelan, this is your pup too. How could you bear to..."

Caelan's eyes reddened. He apologized again and again.

"I'm sorry, Seraphina. She knows you exist. By the timing, your pup is further along than hers. She won't allow you to give birth to the firstborn..."

So he laced my favorite pastries with the drug, and I ate them without a second thought.

"Caelan, my stomach hurts so much. I just ate them, there's still time. Please, go find a healer."

He didn't move. My voice cracked raw with panic. "I won't mate with you, is that what you want? I just want my pup. I'll take her and leave, go far away. I won't be in your way, I swear."

No matter how I screamed and begged, Caelan didn't flinch.

He held out his arm. "Bite down on this. It won't hurt as much."

I shoved his arm away. "Go find a healer. I'm begging you, Caelan."

"Seraphina, don't be ridiculous. No pack healer is going to treat someone of your standing."

"The wolfsbane's already taken effect. It's too late. Be good. Once Sable gives birth to the legitimate heir, we can have another pup."

I seized his hand and held on with everything I had. "Caelan, listen to me. I am a princess. Princess Seraphina Silvercrest. Go get the healer. Save this pup."

But he thought I was lying. He wrenched his hand free, anger flashing across his face.

"You've truly disappointed me. If you're going to lie, at least make it believable. This is the Silvercrest Dominion's capital territory, not your little borderland den. One wrong word here can cost you your head."

He flicked his cloak and stormed out.

"A pup loss won't kill you. Look after yourself."

I watched his retreating figure until it disappeared. Every last shred of hope in me went with it. Deep in my chest, my wolf went silent. Not howling, not keening. Just silent, as though the part of her that knew how to make sound had been cut away.

I curled into the corner, the pain splitting me open. I could feel it, every moment of it, the pup slipping away from my body.

The pup I had longed for day and night, killed by its own father on the very first day he learned of its existence.

I was unconscious through the night. The furs beneath me soaked through with blood. The scent of it filled the small room, iron and salt and something sweeter underneath that I couldn't let myself name.

The door crashed open with a kick. Sable Ashveil strode in, flanked by several older den workers. Her scent hit me before I could focus my eyes: overripe plum and that cloying sweetness that never quite covered the sharper thing underneath.

She glanced at me, drenched in blood from the waist down, then settled into a chair by the table and poured herself a cup of tea as if she had all the time in the world.

"Don't blame me. The pup in my belly has to be the firstborn heir. That's the only way I'll have any standing in the Blackthorn Pack. Surely you understand."

I braced myself against the wall, barely upright. "So you had my pup killed."

Sable let out a short laugh. "Now that's unfair. Caelan was the one who laced the food. Caelan was the one who didn't want it. All I did was mention it in passing."

I stared at her, unblinking. My nails dug into my palms until the skin split.

She rose and walked over to me, one hand resting on her belly.

"Besides, you should count yourself lucky. Even if your pup had survived, it would have been taken from you and raised under the recognized mate. Better this way, really."

"Bring the tincture over. Make her drink it. Help her recover."

The den workers pried my jaw open and forced the liquid down my throat. I recognized the taste. Bitter and acrid, burning like poison. Concentrated wolfsbane tincture. The kind that kills the womb.

I thrashed, tried to spit it out, but they pinned me down and held my mouth shut. My wolf surged once, a single desperate lunge against the inside of my ribs, and then the wolfsbane reached her too. She collapsed somewhere deep inside me, and I felt the exact moment she went still.

Sable crouched beside me and patted my cheek, slow and deliberate, every touch a humiliation. "Can't have you bearing more pups down the line. All that squabbling over heirs gets so tiresome."

"My mating ceremony is in two days. I still need to go try on my jeweled ceremonial crest. If you'll excuse me."

As she stood, she let her robe fall open just enough to reveal the moonstone pendant at her waist.

Caelan's moonstone pendant. He told me once that his mother left it to him, the only thing he had of hers. And he had given it to Sable.

She was nearly at the door when she paused, as though something had just occurred to her. "Oh, one more thing. Caelan transferred this property into my name. I hear you're fond of the simple borderland life, so by all means, keep living here. Just remember, it's my territory now. My rules."

My whole body went rigid. When Caelan burned down our den, he told me he bought this place for me. Told me I could fill the grounds with moonflower bushes and herb gardens.

He never intended to give me anything. Not from the very beginning.

"Sable."

I called after her, my voice scraped hollow.

"Miss Ashveil, have you ever heard of Princess Seraphina Silvercrest?"

Sable froze for a beat. "What, are you going to tell me that reclusive princess has something to do with you?"

I forced a bitter smile. "I heard the Pack Princess adores moonfire flares. If we could make her smile and convince her to attend your mating ceremony, wouldn't that bring honor to the occasion?"

Sable eyed me with suspicion. "How would a worthless wretch like you know what the Pack Princess likes?"

"Believe it or don't. If it turns out to be false, it's no loss to you either way, Miss Ashveil."

After Sable left, I curled into the corner of the bed, my body burning with fever, my lower abdomen seized with stabbing pain. No one came. My wolf lay somewhere deep inside me, too weak to even whimper, just a faint tremor of warmth that kept guttering like a candle in wind.

Looking back now, meeting Caelan Blackthorn was the single greatest regret of my life.

Through the haze of unconsciousness, I caught a blurred glimpse of moonfire flares drifting past the window, their silver and violet light bleeding through the dark.

Only then did I let out a breath and smile.

Long ago, my father and I had made a pact: whenever moonfire flares were lit, it meant I was in danger, and someone would come to take me away.

At some point, Caelan appeared. He sat at the edge of my bed for a long time. I could smell him before I saw him, that charred oak and bitter iron, and something in my chest flinched away from it.

When he saw me open my eyes, he touched my forehead. "The fever's broken. Come on, sit up and have some porridge."

I struggled upright. "Sable came. She forced an entire bowl of that concentrated wolfsbane tincture down my throat. Did you know?"

Caelan's expression faltered for a moment. He lowered his gaze. "I knew."

"You knew?"

I clenched every muscle in my body to keep the tears from falling.

He reached for my hand. I pulled away.

"Seraphina, she was only protecting herself. If you'd given birth to the pup, where would that leave her and her child? It's only natural."

I let out a hollow laugh. Natural. What a convenient excuse.

Caelan set the bowl down and continued. "After Sable went home, she had terrible stomach pains. It's possible our pup's spirit unsettled her..."

He looked at me, hesitating, then pressed on.

"There's an elder at the Moonstone Shrine. Go to him and ask him to perform rites for the pup's soul. Then climb all nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine steps of the Wolf's Fang ascent on your hands and knees, one bow per step, and bring back a Moon Goddess blessing token for Sable. Do that, and we can put this whole matter behind us. Alright?"

I stared at him, my eyes burning red.

"Caelan Blackthorn, you and I are finished. If you want a blessing token, go get it yourself."

I dragged myself off the bed, trying to leave this wretched place.

He blocked my path.

He scooped me up, ignoring my thrashing, and threw me onto a horse. He rode hard until we reached the foot of the Moonstone Shrine.

"Take her up the mountain."

Two guards seized me by the arms, one on each side. I hauled my broken body forward, dropping to my knees and pressing my forehead to the stone with every step. The wolf inside me had gone silent. I couldn't feel her at all.

Two days without food or water, fresh from losing the pup. I passed out and woke and passed out again along the way.

I don't remember how I obtained the blessing token. All I know is that when I finally saw Caelan at the bottom, my legs gave out and I collapsed.

He caught me and gathered me into his arms.

"Seraphina, you've suffered so much. I promise, even after I mate with Sable, you'll be the only one in my heart."

I closed my eyes slowly. Three days ago, I might have believed those words. Now they made my stomach turn.

"I got you your blessing token. Let me go."

He ignored my plea and carried me back to the cottage.

"Seraphina, don't be stubborn. The mating ceremony is tomorrow. Sable has agreed to let you keep living in the cottage afterward. You'll stay out of each other's way. Alright?"

Before leaving, he added one last instruction: "The Pack Princess may come to observe the ceremony tomorrow. Stay in the cottage and don't cause trouble."

Shortly after he left, my father's secret agents found me. I caught their scent before I saw them, cedar heartwood and mountain granite carried faintly on their clothes, and something inside me that had been clenched for days finally loosened.

I looked in the direction he had gone, then at this little cottage that had never truly been mine, and a quiet smile crossed my lips.

I hope tomorrow, you won't regret this.

On the day of the mating ceremony, the Blackthorn estate was draped in ceremonial banners, every corner bursting with celebration. Caelan stood in his formal mating attire, Sable at his side.

They were about to begin the bonding rites when a voice rang out from beyond the gates: "Her Highness, the Pack Princess of the Silvercrest bloodline, has arrived!"

The ceremonial silk in Sable's hands trembled. A smile curled at the corner of her mouth. She hadn't expected the Pack Princess to actually come.