- 11 minutes ago
The Unchosen Alpha
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🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00I threw my body into the woods, no funeral, no grave, just crows.
00:05And that was the second time I died for him.
00:07In my world, being blind is a defect.
00:09Without a wolf, I'm another. I am an omega, the very bottom of the pack from a monkey.
00:14No strength, no shifting, no healing.
00:17A normal wolf gets tired, heals and needs.
00:21Give me a paper cut, and I'll bleed for days.
00:24But I have something no one needs to do.
00:25I don't see faces, I see souls of jealousy, toxic green, pink, deep oily black.
00:31In my last life, I used it to build a king, Lucian, a forgotten fifth son.
00:36I picked him, I made him, I put him on the throne.
00:40In the day my sister Celeste died, he grabbed my jaw so hard I heard it crack.
00:46Forced a wolf's vein tincture down my throat.
00:49You blind freak, you knew I never wanted you.
00:52Celeste should have been mine from the start.
00:54And because of you, she ended up with Marcus.
00:57They tortured her to death!
00:59It was your fault!
01:02I died in agony.
01:04He gave Celeste's corpse a royal burial.
01:07He gave me the woods.
01:09But the heat, his fate, it was so consuming it dragged me right back to the top.
01:14It opened my eyes.
01:16Seventeen again.
01:18Night, the maiden had.
01:19Lucian walked straight past me and took Celeste's hand, like he was afraid someone might stop him.
01:24The bastard came back too, and he remembered everything.
01:27He is terrified I choose him again.
01:29Honestly, I couldn't care less.
01:31I swept my blind gaze across the back of the room.
01:34In a sea of dark, rotten souls.
01:37My soul so pure it glowed like liquid gold.
01:40The man in the wheelchair.
01:41The true alpha.
01:43I choose Celeste as my mate.
01:45Lucian's voice cracked through the hall like a whip.
01:48She is my one and only Luna.
01:49He walked toward my sister with eyes full of a tenderness I knew was performance.
01:53The room went silent.
01:55Then the whiskers hit me like a wall.
01:57No heir in their right mind would want her.
01:59A blind Omega who couldn't even shift?
02:01What a joke.
02:03Why is she even here?
02:05Trash like her should be in the kitchen, not at a mating ball.
02:09I am an Alpha's daughter born blind.
02:11When I came of age, my wolf-less.
02:14A wolf-less.
02:16That is not just weakness.
02:18That is a death sentence.
02:20Being wolf-less.
02:21That makes you a joke.
02:22My sister Celeste is the golden child.
02:25Born with a siren song.
02:28A voice that can calm even the most violent alpha in the room.
02:31The family treats her like a goddess.
02:33They treat me like a mistake they can't take back.
02:36Lucian dropped to one knee in front of her.
02:39Accept my mark Celeste.
02:41I will make you the most powerful woman alive.
02:45And as he spoke, he threw one look back at me.
02:47Not an apology.
02:49A warning.
02:50He thinks he can take the throne without me this time.
02:53He thinks I was what held him back.
02:55He has no idea what he just threw away.
02:57I didn't awaken the wolf when I came of age.
03:00I got something much more dangerous.
03:02The soul line.
03:06Jealousy is toxic green.
03:08Hate is a bottomless black.
03:10Love is pink.
03:11And the deeper the feeling, the darker it burns.
03:14In my last life.
03:16I kept him alive with this.
03:17I spotted assassins before they moved.
03:20I told him who to trust.
03:21Who to kill.
03:22This time.
03:23I am going to let him have exactly what he wanted.
03:25And watch him realize too late that without me.
03:28He is nothing.
03:30And I really hope for his sake.
03:32He doesn't end up crawling back to me.
03:34Begging for a mercy on the one I have.
03:37The moment Lucian's announcement landed.
03:39Every eye in the ring found me.
03:41I am just a blind girl.
03:43I am not worthy of a man like Lucian.
03:46Celeste is the perfect match for him.
03:48At least you know your place.
03:50He stepped closer.
03:51An Omega with no wolf?
03:52I wouldn't choose you.
03:54If you were the last woman breathing.
03:56How do you make you crawl to me on your knees?
03:59My mother Marilyn made a sound beside me.
04:01A sharp inhale.
04:02Like she was about to say something she shouldn't.
04:05I squeezed her hand.
04:06She went quiet.
04:07I swept the room with my sirloin.
04:09Marcus.
04:10Murky charcoal.
04:11Cruel underneath the surface.
04:13The other airs.
04:14Muddy swirls of greed and want.
04:16In my last life I chose Lucian.
04:18Because his soul looked cleaner than anyone else's in the room.
04:21It was a mask.
04:22I didn't see what was underneath until the day he killed me.
04:25A rotten, pink, purple black.
04:27He didn't just hate what it was.
04:28He hated me.
04:29I was blind in my last life in more ways than one.
04:32Never again.
04:33Celeste glided toward me.
04:35Face arranged into the perfect picture of a loving older sister.
04:38Don't be sad.
04:40Go ahead.
04:41I'll let you have whoever you want.
04:43Her soul was turning.
04:45Toxic green.
04:45Edge to edge.
04:46Pure jealousy.
04:48Barely holding its shape.
04:50Since no one's going to claim you anyway.
04:52You can always beg me for work.
04:54Celeste will need a personal maid.
04:56With CSF's smitchy floors.
04:57Scrubbing floors all a wolfless Omega is good for.
05:00I didn't work.
05:01I didn't even bother.
05:02None of them were worth the energy.
05:03And then, the sound of wheels.
05:06The chatter died.
05:08Then the room shifted.
05:10Kyle Ravenscroft had arrived.
05:12Uninvited.
05:13Unannounced.
05:14And completely unmoved by the spectacle.
05:17He sat in that wheelchair like a predator at rest.
05:20And then I saw.
05:21My breath caught.
05:22His soul was gold.
05:24Pure.
05:25Shimmering.
05:25Blinding gold.
05:27The mark of the moon goddess herself.
05:29The mark of a true king.
05:31I clenched my fists so hard my nails broke the skin.
05:34Last life.
05:36I picked the wrong man.
05:37I defied the moon goddess.
05:39Put a monster on the throne.
05:40And everyone paid for it.
05:42Not this time.
05:44I stood up.
05:45I walked past Lucian without a glance.
05:48Past every arrogant alpha heir in the room.
05:50I stopped in front of Kyle's wheelchair.
05:52I choose him.
05:54The hall went dead silent.
05:56Then it exploded.
05:57Lifed up.
05:58From every direction.
05:59All at once.
06:00The blind girl and the cripple.
06:03Neither of you has a wolf.
06:05You really are a perfect match.
06:10Zaya.
06:11You can't see.
06:13You don't understand.
06:14He's in a wheelchair.
06:16She glanced at the crowd.
06:18Milking every second of it.
06:21I'll pretend I didn't hear that.
06:23Choose again.
06:25And if you truly can't find an alpha willing to have you.
06:28You're welcome to follow our caravan.
06:31Serve Lucian and me.
06:33At least you won't go hungry.
06:35I'm not anyone's servant.
06:37And I'm not astray you take in out of pity.
06:40Kyle hadn't said a word through any of it.
06:42He just put his chair forward until he was right in front of me.
06:45He took my hand.
06:47His palm was large and rough.
06:49Thick with calluses.
06:50The kind you only get from the most hard use.
06:57He took my hand and guided it to his knee.
06:59No flinching.
07:01No excuses.
07:02If he was lying.
07:03He didn't want pity for it.
07:05I left my hand there.
07:06I could feel the heat of him through the fabric and tense.
07:10Alive.
07:10Then a jolt.
07:11It shot through my fingertips.
07:13Raced up my arm.
07:14And hit my chest like a beast.
07:16This wasn't the soul line.
07:18This was something else entirely.
07:20My blood was screaming.
07:22I don't have a wolf.
07:23I was never supposed to feel a mate moment.
07:26But there it was.
07:30Kyle's whole body locked up.
07:31I looked into his soul.
07:33Warm pink threading through shimmering gold.
07:36I leaned in close and smiled.
07:38He took two nights.
07:39Lucian's face went ugly.
07:41The mating ball isn't over.
07:43And you're out here making promises you can't keep?
07:46If you fail to heal him, the Alpha Council will have your head.
07:49Can you actually do it?
07:51I didn't answer right away.
07:53I let my fingers trail slowly along his test file.
07:56I can.
07:58But it'll require a very specific kind of contact.
08:01He understood immediately.
08:03The tips of his ears went wild.
08:05He turned his head away.
08:06Couldn't quite bring himself to look at me.
08:08In my peripheral vision, Lucian's soul ignited.
08:12A roaring wall of green fire.
08:14Jealousy.
08:15A cold laugh rose in my chest.
08:17Jealous of what, except Lucian?
08:19You're the one who poured poison down my throat.
08:22The moment I stepped outside the hall, the world tilted.
08:25White hot painting detonated behind my eyes.
08:30Like something was being driven through my skull from the inside.
08:33That is the cost.
08:35Every time I used a full eye on that many people at once, I pressed my freezing fingers to my
08:41temples.
08:41The cold always came after.
08:43After the ball, Lucian got to work.
08:45He pulled up everything from our past life.
08:48Her favorite flowers.
08:49Her secret hiding spots.
08:51Every word she'd been waiting her whole life to hear.
08:54He played her like he'd been practicing for years.
08:57That same day, a mating contract arrived at my door on heavy old parchment.
09:04I accept you as my mate.
09:06I will hold and protect you in this life and the next.
09:08Not even death will part us.
09:10The handwriting was deep and certain.
09:12No hesitation in a single stroke.
09:14It felt exactly like him.
09:16Both weddings were set for the same morning.
09:18The night before, Celeste walked into my room like she owned it.
09:22She didn't knock.
09:23Her maid tossed something at my feet.
09:25A tattered gray shawl.
09:27A kind worn by the lowest ranking omegas.
09:30A mark of total submission.
09:32You're a blind freak, Zara.
09:38No real alpha will ever claim you.
09:40She leaned in.
09:42Voice honeyed and vicious at the same time.
09:45Lucian and I are being generous.
09:48We're keeping you on as a servant.
09:50But on the day of the ceremony, no carriage for you.
09:54You'll wear that and walk behind the caravan.
09:57Servant's entrance, don't embarrass us.
09:59The morning came.
10:00I left the shawl on the floor where it landed.
10:03I put on the dress Kyle had sent instead.
10:06White silk, thousands of diamonds sewn into the fabric.
10:09Small enough to look like starlight.
10:12At the estate gate, two carriages waited.
10:16One was extraordinary.
10:18Draped in thumb-sized pearls.
10:19Built like a throne that happened to have wheels.
10:22The other was a final standard one.
10:25Nothing remarkable.
10:28The lest didn't hesitate for a second.
10:30She walked straight to the pearl carriage and stepped inside.
10:35The head guard turned to me.
10:37His expression didn't waver.
10:39You're in the wrong carriage.
10:41This was commissioned by Alpha Kyle.
10:43For his Luna and no one else.
10:46He didn't get the time to argue.
10:48The guards took her by the arms and pulled her out.
10:50She caught her heel on her skirt and moved on hard-faced face into the dirt.
10:56Lucien arrived just in time to see it.
11:00Celeste scrambled up and threw herself at him, already crying.
11:06It's Zara!
11:07She planned this!
11:10She can't stand that I'm the one becoming a Luna!
11:14She turned to the crowd gathering around them, eyes listening.
11:17Please, don't hate her.
11:19She's struggling.
11:21I know we're in love, Lucien.
11:23But I begged you to keep her safe.
11:26I pleaded for months just so she could be our servant and I not starve on the street.
11:32She's a blind Omega.
11:34She should be grateful anyone even bothered to take her in.
11:37To pull a stunt like this on her sister's wedding day?
11:40It's thetic!
11:41The crowd was vicious.
11:42They always are when they smell wetness.
11:45Lucien's soul was drowning in black.
11:48Thick, suffocating, ink dark.
11:50He pulled Celeste against his chest and turned on me.
11:53You're an Omega, Zara.
11:57You have no right to wear white!
11:58Take that dress off right now!
12:01Or I'll shred it off your back myself!
12:04Celeste buried her face in his chest.
12:07But I could see her soul.
12:08She was smirking.
12:11Lucien, you don't have me watching your back this time.
12:15What's coming for you tonight isn't a wedding.
12:19It's a funeral.
12:22Celeste, we foiled like I was struck.
12:24How can you curse him like that?
12:26Just because he didn't choose you?
12:28You dare curse an Alpha heir!
12:32Guards! Seize her!
12:35The soldiers started moving in.
12:37Think carefully.
12:39You're laying a hand on Alpha Kyle's mate.
12:42Make sure that's a consequence you're ready to live with.
12:45Lucien laughed.
12:46Jagged.
12:46Ugly.
12:48The cripple isn't even here.
12:50Probably hiding in his chambers, too embarrassed to show his face.
12:54He's using you for sport, Zara.
12:55Nothing more.
12:56He stepped forward, close enough that his shadow fell over me.
12:59Kneel.
13:00Beg Celeste's forgiveness.
13:03And maybe, maybe, I'll still find a use for you.
13:06Then a voice cut through everything.
13:08Who is threatening my mate?
13:09The crowd spilt.
13:10Kyle moved through them like they weren't there.
13:12Sharp black suit.
13:14Not a single piece out of his face.
13:16Even seated.
13:16His presence was suffering.
13:18The moment he appeared, the street went silent.
13:21Beside him, Lucien suddenly looked at the boy wearing his arms.
13:26Kyle came straight to me.
13:27He took my hand and folded it inside his.
13:30Large, warm, unhurried.
13:32Are you ready somehow?
13:34Then he whipped up.
13:35No.
13:36His eyes fixed on Lucien like a blade finding its mark.
13:39Let's try that again.
13:40Who was it that told my mate?
13:42The temperature in the street seemed to drop.
13:45No one walked.
13:46No one breathed.
13:48He didn't shout.
13:49Didn't signal his men.
13:50He just watched Lucien the way a predator watches something it has already decided to deal with later.
13:55I'll remember that.
13:56I'm an alpha heir.
13:58Same as you.
13:59Who the hell do you think you are?
14:01Who the hell do you think you are?
14:03A forgotten fifth son?
14:04Trying to give orders to my mate.
14:07You're not a rival, Lucien.
14:09You're a fit note.
14:11The color drained from Lucien's face.
14:13This isn't over.
14:15You'll both regret tonight.
14:18I gave you a chance, Zara.
14:21When you come crawling back, and you will, don't expect mercy.
14:25I looked at his soul.
14:27Murky and small.
14:29He genuinely believes he is the chosen one.
14:31He thinks the throne is already his, and that I was just dead weight holding him back.
14:35He has no idea what is waiting for him.
14:38Without me clearing his path, he won't last the season.
14:41He'll be lucky to still be breathing by the time the leaves turn.
14:44Our first night as mates was quiet.
14:47Just the two of us, and the fire crackling low between us.
14:51We shared whiskey, amber and slow burning on the way down.
14:56I could feel his eyes, heavy and silver warm against my skin.
15:01My pulse wouldn't settle.
15:02Even sitting across from me in that chair, his presence filled the entire room.
15:07You said you could fix my legs.
15:11How?
15:13Help me with something first.
15:16I've never seen this room.
15:19Describe it to me.
15:21Then he started talking.
15:23The fires glow.
15:24The oil paintings.
15:26He told me their textures, not just their subjects.
15:29The velvet curtains, deep and heavy.
15:31On the shelf above the nightstand,
15:35There's an old book.
15:37The cover is faded.
15:39My hands stilled around the glass.
15:41That shelf was high, nearly at the ceiling.
15:44From a wheelchair, the top of that book was completely out of sight.
15:48There was no way he could know the cover was faded.
15:50I didn't say a word.
15:52I just took another sip and filed that detail away somewhere.
15:55I wouldn't forget it.
15:57I stood up with my glass in hand, then let it slip.
16:01It hit the carpet with a dull thud and rolled toward the sofa.
16:05Kyle's body moved before his mind could stop it.
16:08His chest surged forward.
16:10The muscles in his thighs locked and coiled, dense as iron cables.
16:15For a single, unguarded second, he was about to stand.
16:18Then he caught himself and settled back into the leather as if nothing had happened.
16:23But I felt it.
16:24That reflex was all the confirmation I needed.
16:27I didn't say anything.
16:29Not yet.
16:30There's one more way to be sure.
16:34I stepped in close.
16:36And I straddled his lap.
16:38Kyle stopped breathing.
16:41The heat from his hands soaked straight through the silk.
16:44It burned against my skin like a brand.
16:47My heart was slamming.
16:48I ignored it.
16:51I raised my hand and let my fingertips trace from his jaw down to his chest.
16:56Hard as stone beneath the shirt.
16:57Not the body of a man who hadn't used his legs in seven years.
17:01I looked into his soul.
17:03A storm deep crimson.
17:04Soft pink.
17:06Something more tender than he'd admit.
17:08And threading through both.
17:09A sharp streak of dark green panic.
17:12He knew I was getting close.
17:14I leaned down.
17:20My lips barely grazed the corner of his mouth.
17:23Not a kiss.
17:24Not a question.
17:25His breathing came apart.
17:27And then I took his hand and pressed his palm flat against my chest.
17:31The silk between us was nothing.
17:33My face was burning.
17:34Because in that moment, his body gave me the most honest answer I had.
17:39His body reacted before his mind could stop it.
17:42I felt the shift in his balance.
17:44The sudden brace through his thighs.
17:47The instinctive drive upward.
17:48A man who hadn't used his legs in seven years wouldn't move like that.
17:52I pulled back just a moment.
17:55Let the smile come slowly.
17:56Your legs are fine.
17:58That much I know.
17:59Kyle closed his eyes.
18:01His throat moved as he swallowed.
18:03Then he stood up.
18:04One hand stayed at my waist.
18:06The other still pressed against my chest.
18:09He lifted me and I felt just how much of him there was.
18:12Nearly six foot tall.
18:14All of it muscle.
18:15My whole world was suddenly just him.
18:17How did you know?
18:19I just smiled and gave him something vague enough to pass.
18:22He set me down gently on the edge of the bed.
18:25Then stepped back.
18:26The hand that had touched my chest was shaking.
18:28I'm sorry I shouldn't have.
18:30Don't.
18:31I'm the one who put your hand there.
18:33He looked at me for a long moment.
18:35I laughed.
18:36A real laugh.
18:37Warm and unguarded.
18:39Like seven years of tension finally giving way.
18:42Seven years.
18:43Seven years fooling everyone.
18:45The whole damn world.
18:47And my blind mate catches me on the very first night.
18:50We didn't go any further that night.
18:52We ended up on the rug in front of the fire.
18:54The bottle of whiskey between us.
18:56And we just.
18:57Talked.
18:58He told me about the night his parents were killed.
19:01They called it a rogue wolf attack.
19:04Everyone knew what it actually was.
19:06The alpha king had ordered it.
19:08He was 15 years old.
19:10Standing at their funeral.
19:11And he made a decision.
19:13He would become the cripple.
19:15Invisible.
19:16Unthreatening.
19:17Off the king's list entirely.
19:19It was the only way to stay alive.
19:22I told him about Lucian.
19:24All of it.
19:25What he was underneath.
19:27I didn't choose you because I had no other options.
19:30I chose you because you were the only one worth choosing.
19:34I watched his soul begin to shift.
19:37The gold bleeding slowly into a deep and glowing ache.
19:41Late into the night it came back.
19:43The splitting pain behind my temples.
19:45Like an axe working its way through Rome.
19:47I tried to keep my hands still.
19:50They were shaking anyway.
19:52Kyle stopped mid-sentence.
19:54Your head.
19:54Before I could deflect.
19:56His thumbs were already at my temples.
19:58The pressure.
19:59Exact like he'd map the pain before he touched it.
20:02My mother used to get them.
20:04I've known what to do since I was a boy.
20:06The pain didn't ease.
20:07It vanished.
20:08We shared the same bed.
20:10His arm lay heavy and warm across my waist.
20:13My head settled against his chest.
20:15I listened to his heartbeat through my soul-eye.
20:17I watched his soul settle.
20:19The gold softening.
20:20Deepening.
20:21Into a rich and quiet pink.
20:23For the first time in two lifetimes I felt safe.
20:25Ocean's wedding pain was long and hard.
20:27In my last life, a maid tried to spike his wine with wolf's bane.
20:32I fought her before she could get close.
20:34I read the murder in her soul.
20:36Swapped the glasses.
20:37Had her detained before he'd taken a single seat.
20:39This time, I did nothing.
20:42Celeste wouldn't notice.
20:43She wouldn't know a threat if it sat down beside her and introduced itself.
20:47The next morning, Kyle and I arrived at the Alpha King's estate.
20:51No sign of Lucian.
20:52No sign of Celeste.
20:54The corridors were alive with hushed, urgent voices.
20:57His hair was poisoned in his own chambers.
20:59He hasn't wakened.
21:01The healers say the dose was enough to drop a grizzly.
21:03I kept my face perfectly still.
21:06But underneath me, I was smiling.
21:08Lucian's fall had started.
21:10And this time he wasn't going to stop it.
21:12The carriage had barely rolled to a stop when Celeste appeared at the gates.
21:16She looked like she hadn't slept in days.
21:18Zara!
21:20You poisoned him!
21:22Give me the antidote right now!
21:25I felt the temperature inside the carriage shift.
21:28Kyle went very still beside me.
21:30I placed a hand on his arm.
21:32Oh God, this.
21:33I leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek.
21:36Then I stepped out into the morning air.
21:39Antidote?
21:41I don't have one.
21:43Whatever happened to Lucian has nothing to do with me.
21:47Liar!
21:49Then how did you know he'd be dying on his wedding night?!
21:52I tilted my head.
21:54That's a serious accusation.
21:56Where's your proof?
21:58Did you catch the killer?
22:00Did you find the poison?
22:02I already knew she hadn't.
22:03The spy Marcus sent was a professional.
22:06Without my soul eye, she was a ghost.
22:08By now she was likely across the border, untouchable.
22:12Celeste stood there, mouth open, nothing coming out.
22:15If you keep causing a scene on my land, my warriors will remove you.
22:21Her eyes dropped to my neck.
22:23She saw the red mark Kyle had left there.
22:26You actually slept with him?!
22:28A blind girl and a broken man?!
22:31I suppose trash finds its own level.
22:33I suppose trash finds its own level.
22:35I thought about last night, the fire, the whiskey,
22:37the long silence after he finally stood up and I felt the full weight of him for the first time.
22:42Kyle wasn't broken.
22:43He was 10,000 times the man Lucian would ever be.
22:46I laughed.
22:49What is so funny?!
22:50I stopped, looked at her, or close enough to it.
22:53I'm laughing at how blind you are.
22:55Lucian is going to die.
22:57And when he goes down, he'll take you with him.
23:01If you want to survive what's coming,
23:03sever the bond now, while you still can.
23:06That was it for her.
23:07She swung at my face, wide, furious, telegraphed from a mile away.
23:11I shifted my weight and stepped aside.
23:13She hit nothing but air.
23:15The momentum carried her forward and she went down hard,
23:17palms and knees in the dirt.
23:19I looked down at you.
23:20Remember this?
23:21Because the next time you raise a hand to me I won't step aside.
23:25She stared up at me from the ground, trembling.
23:27For the first time in her life she was actually afraid of me.
23:30The blind girl she used to torment wasn't there anymore.
23:33Someone else had taken her place.
23:36Kyle was waiting when I stepped back into the carriage.
23:38He just watched me with those grey eyes,
23:40and in them, not worry, not pity, admiration.
23:43He trusted me to handle my own affairs.
23:45That respect landed heavier than any shield you could have raised.
23:48He turned to his lead guard, and spoke low.
23:51No one from Lucian's pack crosses onto my land again.
23:54For any reason.
23:57Ever.
23:59After Celeste was escorted out, we turned to the business of leaving.
24:03We were heading for Thorn Harbor.
24:05The courtyard filled with people and supplies controlled for us.
24:08And through all of it, my soul eye found a single target.
24:11A guard named Vaughn.
24:13The soul was a muddy, treacherous grey.
24:15I leaned close to Kyle's ear.
24:17Who is that man?
24:19Vaughn.
24:21He's been with me since I was 15.
24:23Saved my life twice.
24:24I pulled back and looked at him.
24:26Kyle, do you trust me?
24:27His soul flushed deep and dark pink all at once.
24:30You're my mate. Of course I do.
24:33He's a traitor.
24:34We changed the route to Thorn Harbor.
24:37And we tell no one.
24:39In my last time, this was where it ended with Kyle.
24:42Ambushed on the road to the harbor.
24:43Wounds that never healed.
24:45He died defending the city walls.
24:47I finished speaking.
24:48I let my lips brush his cheek.
24:51Kyle's arm came around my waist immediately.
24:54Pulling me in.
24:55Across the yard I felt Vaughn watching us.
24:57He clocked how close we were.
24:59He looked really fast.
25:00Kyle pressed his face into the curve of my neck.
25:03His breath was warm against my skin.
25:05Are you trying to fix my legs again?
25:07Because I'm happy to wait until tonight.
25:10Or we could start now.
25:12The next morning, Vaughn was gone.
25:14Kyle sat beside me at breakfast.
25:16Cutting my steak into careful pieces without being asked.
25:19You were right.
25:21Vaughn was Marcus' man.
25:23Buried so deep I never suspected him once in seven years.
25:27It took some...
25:30Persuasion to get him to talk.
25:32He looked at me.
25:33How did you know, Zara?
25:35I looked into his soul, gold and pink.
25:37Wound together.
25:38No suspicion.
25:39No fear.
25:40Lucky guess.
25:42The words were barely out when the pain hit.
25:44White.
25:45Hot behind both temples at once.
25:47My hand went to my head before I could stop it.
25:49Kyle didn't say a word.
25:50He just moved his chair flush against mine.
25:53Un-in-hand kept cutting my food.
25:54The other reached up and wrapped around the back of my neck.
25:57The pain dissolved.
25:58He has stopped asking why it happens.
26:00He just makes sure he is there when it does.
26:02Thorn Harbor.
26:03Kyle's territory.
26:05The land was rough.
26:06Resources thin.
26:08The kind of place the Alpha Council never bothered to look at twice.
26:12The wolves here were loyal to Kyle.
26:14The way wolves are loyal to someone they've chosen.
26:17Out of true devotion.
26:18When I went to the market, they called me Luna and refused my coin.
26:22Every stall, every vendor.
26:24I had to set the money down and walk away before they touch it.
26:27I came back to the estate reckless.
26:29And my maid watched me come through the door.
26:33The lady is blind, but she moves faster than any soldier I've trained with.
26:39Kyle heard her.
26:41That night, his fingers found the edges of my eyes.
26:45Zara...
26:46Is it really just... nothing?
26:48Nothing.
26:49Time in Copy...
26:50according to my child, picking the dots... No...
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