00:00everyone always talks about the moment you find your mate like it's a gift they never mention
00:07what it feels like when you've spent an entire year running from yours my name is lyra vance
00:15bastard daughter unmarked wolf and the only person on this continent who knew exactly who
00:23was about to walk through those doors tonight i had spent 12 months in the shadows of every
00:29back road tavern every servant's quarter every cold forgotten corner of this kingdom making
00:36myself invisible because invisible was the only thing keeping me alive he had been looking for me
00:45i knew it the way i knew my own heartbeat through the mate bond that had snapped into place the
00:50night
00:50of last year's solstice ball i had felt him across 300 miles and a mountain range i had felt the
00:57moment
00:58he realized i existed and i had run because lord valerius the alpha king of the obsidian peaks
01:07the warlord who had burned three cities and won four wars before his 30th year
01:12was not the kind of man a bastard girl could survive belonging to my plan tonight was simple
01:19stay in the shadows hold arabella's cloak don't breathe my sister's voice cut through the glittering
01:28crowd like a blade keep your head down rat when he arrives you are invisible you are nothing you are
01:37furniture she dug her manicured nails into my forearm the same four crescent scars she'd been leaving for
01:45years and glided back into her sea of silk and ambition one hour i told myself you just have to
01:54survive one hour
01:57then the doors blew open and every single carefully constructed plan i had collapsed into ash the music in
02:07the ballroom didn't stop gracefully it just died i didn't look i had trained myself not to look i pressed
02:18my
02:18back harder into the cold marble pillar and stared at the floor and breathed but the bond doesn't care about
02:27plans the moment his scent rolled across the room wood smoke ozone the cold edge of a coming storm
02:37my traitorous body went completely still like a prey animal that knows on some primal level that the
02:45predator has just entered its territory he's here he's here don't look don't look don't i looked he was
02:55already looking back across three hundred people over the heads of every powdered lord and desperate
03:03noblewoman in the kingdom the alpha king's silver eyes were locked directly onto mine he had found me in
03:11under four seconds a year of running 12 months of empty roads and borrowed names and sleeping in haystacks
03:22in three different kingdoms four seconds he moved the crowd didn't part for him so much as flee from him
03:34he wasn't walking like a king he was walking like a man who had crossed a desert and just spotted
03:41water
03:42on the horizon i turned for the servant's door don't not a shout a single low word sent through the
03:53bond
03:53directly into the center of my chest my feet stopped before my brain gave them permission
04:00i hated him for that running again little wolf he was closer now i could feel the heat of him
04:08like a
04:08banked furnace i kept my eyes fixed on the door i've been running for a year i said under my
04:16breath
04:16low enough that only the bond could carry it back to him i'm quite good at it not good enough
04:25then a third voice sharp and silver and absolutely furious cut between us your majesty not my father not
04:37arabella lady seraphine duskwood first daughter of the high northern court black hair diamond collar
04:45a smile that could cut glass she stepped directly into valerius's path with the practiced ease of a
04:53woman who had spent her entire life being the most important person in any room we have been expecting
05:00you she said her voice like warm honey poured over a blade your seat at the high table has been
05:06prepared
05:07if you'll follow me she reached out and placed one elegant hand on his armored forearm the alpha king stopped
05:14walking he looked down at her hand the temperature in the ballroom dropped 10 degrees remove your hand
05:24valeria said very quietly before i remove it for you lady seraphine smiled in the waiver but her hand
05:32disappeared he didn't spare her another glance he turned back toward me and i realized with a cold spike
05:39of something that wasn't quite fear and wasn't quite hope that he had walked through the most powerful
05:44woman in the northern court like she was made of smoke for me a girl in a threadbare dress holding
05:52someone else's velvet cloak he stopped in front of me up close the bond was almost unbearable a live wire
06:00pulled tight between my sternum and his vibrating at a frequency that made my back teeth ache
06:07i forced myself to meet his eyes a mistake his silver gaze was completely undone the careful terrifying
06:17control of a warlord king stripped all the way back to something raw and exhausted and young
06:23he had been searching for a very long time too
06:28you knew he said it wasn't an accusation it was almost a question last year you felt it and you
06:40ran
06:41i lifted my chin yes something crossed his face that i hadn't expected it wasn't anger it was hurt
06:55why i almost laughed look at me i gestured to the faded dress the mended hem the four small scars
07:06on my
07:06forearm and then look at yourself and ask me that question again he was still staring at me when my
07:15father's voice exploded across the ballroom your majesty forgive this this girl is nobody she is a
07:23mistake a crack valerius didn't look at my father he didn't draw his sword he simply reached out caught
07:33my father's outstretched wrist mid-lunge and twisted the sound echoed like a gunshot my father hit the floor
07:42screaming my sister's cry of outrage cut off into a strangled silence as valerius turned the full weight
07:49of his silver gaze to the room she is my faded mate he said voice low and absolute she is
07:57the queen of the
07:58obsidian peaks the next person who speaks her name without a title will not speak again then he looked
08:05back at me the room my screaming father my trembling sister none of it existed i am not asking you
08:14to
08:14trust me he said quietly i know i haven't earned it i'm asking you to let me try he unclasped
08:22his heavy
08:23fur mantle and settled it over my shoulders without asking it smelled like wood smoke and winter
08:32it smelled like the bond i stood in the center of the ballroom buried in the cloak of a king
08:41and looked
08:42at the woman kneeling on the floor in the ruins of her crimson gown arabella looked up at me for
08:50the first
08:51time in my life she looked afraid i didn't feel the triumph i had always imagined i would i just
09:01felt
09:01tired valerius offered me his arm i looked at it for a long moment this arm that had just shattered
09:13my
09:13father's bones as casually as snapping a twig this arm attached to a man i had been running from for
09:21a year
09:23this arm that according to ancient magic and blood law and the entire universe apparently belonged to me
09:34i took it we walked out through the center of the ballroom 300 nobles bowed so low their foreheads
09:44nearly touched the floor the cold winter air hit my face when the doors opened valerius stopped beside
09:54his black carriage he turned to face me the violence was gone what was left was just a man
10:06standing in the dark waiting i have one condition he waited
10:17i walk beside you not behind you not a step behind beside a silence
10:32then something shifted in his silver eyes
10:36something that looked dangerously like relief
10:42beside he agreed i looked up at the terrifying king
10:49the warlord who had just detonated my entire world
10:54and i made the first real choice i had ever made in my life
11:00then take me home i said
11:05he didn't kiss me he didn't kiss me he just took my hand
11:11and helped me into the carriage
11:15like i was made of something worth protecting
11:19the door closed the horses moved
11:24and somewhere in that ballroom
11:28i had left every version of myself i had ever been forced to be she ran for a year
11:37he searched for a year
11:40and neither of them was ready for what came next
11:46if you want to know what happens when she finally stops running subscribe
11:55the next chapter is already written
12:01i'll see you in the shadows
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