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The Unchosen Alpha Drama GoldReelTV
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00:00I threw my body into the woods, no funeral, no grave, just crows, and that was the second time I
00:05died for him.
00:05In my world, being blind is a defect, not a wolf, I'm a mother, I'm a mother, at the very
00:10bottom of the pack, I'm a lucky, no strength, no shifting, no healing.
00:14A normal wolf that's stuck, heals and moves, give me a paper cut, and I'll bleed for days, but I
00:20have something more in this life, I don't see faces, I see souls,
00:23toxic green, deep, oily black, in my last life, I used it to build a king, Lucian, a forgotten fifth
00:29son, I picked him, I made him, I put him on the throne.
00:33On the day my sister Celeste died, he grabbed my jaw so hard I heard it crack, forced a wolf's
00:39vein tincture down my throat.
00:41You blind freak, you knew I never wanted you, Celeste should have been mine from the start, and because of
00:45you, she ended up with Marcus, they tortured her to death, it was your fault.
00:51I died in agony, he gave Celeste's corpse a royal burial, he gave me the woods, but the hate, deceit,
00:59it was so consuming it dragged me right back from the dark, it opened my eyes, 17 again.
01:05Night, he made him hope, Lucian walked straight past me and took Celeste's hand, like he was afraid someone might
01:09stop him, the bastard came back too, and he remembered everything, he is terrified I'll choose him again.
01:14Honestly, I couldn't care less, I swept my blind gaze across the back of the room, in a sea of
01:19dark, rotten souls, a soul so pure at roads like liquid gold, the man in the wheelchair, the true outlaw.
01:25I choose Celeste, as my mate.
01:27Lucian's voice cracked through the hall like a whip.
01:29She is my one and only Luna.
01:31He walked toward my sister with eyes full of a tenderness I knew was performance, the room went silent, then
01:35the whispers hit me like a wall.
01:37No heir in their right mind would want her.
01:39A blind Omega who couldn't even shift? What a joke, why is she even here?
01:43Where? Trash like her should be in the kitchen, not at a mating ball.
01:48I am an Alpha's daughter born blind, when I came up there to my wolf.
01:51The world was in teeth and clothed, that is not just people, that is a death sentence.
01:56Being wolf-less, that makes you a joke.
01:58My sister Celeste is the golden child, born with a siren song.
02:03A voice that can calm even the most violent alpha in the world.
02:06The family treats her like a goddess.
02:08They treat me like a mistake they can't take back.
02:10Wishing dropped to one knee in front of her.
02:12Accept my mark Celeste.
02:14I will make you, the most powerful woman alive.
02:17And as he spoke, he threw one look back at me.
02:19Not an apology, a warning.
02:21He thinks he can take the throne without me this time.
02:24He thinks I was what held him back.
02:25He has no idea what he just flew away.
02:27I didn't awaken the world to make my page.
02:30I got something much more dangerous.
02:31The soul line.
02:35Jealousy is toxic green.
02:36Hate is a bottomless black.
02:38Love is pink.
02:39And the deeper the feeling, the darker it burns.
02:41In my last life, I kept him alive with this.
02:44I spotted assassins before the moon.
02:46I told him who to trust, who to kill.
02:48But this time, I am going to let him have exactly what he wanted.
02:51And watch him realize too late that he at me, he is not.
02:55And I really hope, for his sake, he doesn't end up crawling back to me, begging for a mercy
02:59in her life.
03:01The moment Lucian's announcement landed, every eye on the ring found me.
03:04I'm just a blind girl.
03:06I'm not worthy of a man like Lucian.
03:08Celeste is the perfect match for him.
03:10At least you know your place.
03:11He stepped closer.
03:12An Omega with no wolf?
03:13I wouldn't choose you, if you were the last woman breathing.
03:17Crawl to me on your knees.
03:19My mother Marilyn made a sound beside me.
03:21A sharp inhale, like she was about to say something she shouldn't.
03:24I squeezed her hand.
03:25She went quiet.
03:26I slipped the wound from the soul line.
03:28Muggies, murky charcoal, cool underneath the surface.
03:30The other airs, muddy swirls of greed and want.
03:33In my last life, I chose Lucian because his soul looked cleaner than anyone else's in the room.
03:37It was a mask.
03:38I didn't see what was underneath until the day he killed me.
03:40The rottenness, he hurt the blood.
03:42We didn't just hate what it was.
03:44I hate her.
03:44I was blind in my last life in more ways than one.
03:47Never again.
03:48Celeste blighted to her.
03:49They surranged into the perfect picture of a loving older sister.
03:52Don't be sad.
03:53Go ahead.
03:54I'll let you have whoever you want.
03:56Your soul was turning toxic green, edge to edge.
03:58Pure jealousy.
03:59Barely holding its shape.
04:01Since no one's going to claim you anyway, you can always beg me for work.
04:05Celeste will need a personal maid.
04:06With CFS smithing floors, scrubbing floors all a wolfless Omega is good for.
04:09I didn't blame you.
04:10I didn't even bother.
04:11None of them were worth the energy.
04:13And then, the sound of wheeling.
04:15The chatter died.
04:16Then the room shifted.
04:18Kyle Ravenscroft had arrived.
04:20Uninvited.
04:21Unannounced.
04:22And completely unmoved by the spectacle.
04:24He sat in that wheelchair like a predator at rest.
04:26And then I saw.
04:27My breath popped.
04:28His soul was gold.
04:30Pure.
04:30Shimmering.
04:31Blind in gold.
04:32The mark of the moon goddess herself.
04:34The mark of a true king.
04:35I clenched my fist so hard my nails broke the skin.
04:39Last life.
04:40Picked the wrong man.
04:41I defied the moon goddess.
04:42Put a monster on the throne.
04:44And everyone paid for it.
04:45Not this time.
04:47I stood up.
04:48I walked past Lucian without a glance.
04:50Past every arrogant alpha heir in the room.
04:51I stopped in front of Kyle's wheelchair.
04:53I choose him.
04:54The hall went dead silent.
04:56Then it exploded.
04:57Lifed up.
04:58From every direction.
04:59All it was.
05:00The blind girl and the cripple.
05:02Neither of you has a wolf.
05:04You really are a perfect match.
05:08Zaya.
05:09You can't see.
05:11You don't understand.
05:12He's in a wheelchair.
05:13She glanced at the crowd.
05:15Milking every second of it.
05:17I'll pretend I didn't hear that.
05:19Choose again.
05:20And if you truly can't find an alpha willing to have you.
05:23You're welcome to follow our caravan.
05:26Serve Lucian and me.
05:28At least you won't go hungry.
05:29I'm not anyone's servant.
05:31And I'm not astray you take in out of pity.
05:33Kyle hadn't said a word through any of it.
05:35He just put his chair forward until he was right in front of me.
05:38He took my hand.
05:39His palm was large and rough.
05:41A full of calluses.
05:42He found you only get from the most hard use.
05:47He took my hand and guided it to his knee.
05:49No flinching.
05:50No excuses.
05:52If he was lying.
05:53He didn't want pity for it.
05:54I left my hand there.
05:55I could feel the heat of him through the fabric and tents.
05:58Alive.
05:58Then a jolt.
05:59It shot through my fingertips.
06:01Raced up my arm.
06:02And hit my chest like a beast.
06:03This wasn't the soul line.
06:05It was something else entirely.
06:06My blood was screaming.
06:08I don't have a wolf.
06:09I was never supposed to be a mate-balled.
06:11But there it was.
06:15Kyle's whole body locked up.
06:16I looked into his soul.
06:17Warm, pink, threading through shame and gold.
06:20I leaned in close and smiled.
06:21He took two nuts.
06:23Lucian's face went ugly.
06:24The mating ball isn't over.
06:26And you're out here making promises you can't keep?
06:28If you fail to heal him, the Alpha Council will have your head.
06:31Can you actually do it?
06:32I didn't answer right away.
06:34I let my fingers crawl slowly along this piece to five.
06:37I can.
06:38But it'll require a very specific kind of contact.
06:41He understood immediately.
06:42The tips of his ears went red.
06:44He turned his head away.
06:45Couldn't quite bring himself to look at me.
06:47In my peripheral vision, Lucian's soul ignited.
06:50A roaring wall of green fire.
06:52Jealousy.
06:53A cold laugh rose in my chest.
06:54Jealous of what?
06:55Except Lucian.
06:56You are the one who poured poison down my throat.
06:58The moment I stepped inside the hall, the world tilted.
07:01The white hot pain detonated behind my eyes.
07:05Like something was being driven through my skull from the inside.
07:08That is the cost.
07:09Every time I leave the soul eye on that many people at once, I was pained.
07:12I pressed my freezing fingers to my temples.
07:14The cold always came after.
07:16After the ball, Lucian got to work.
07:17He pulled up everything from our past life.
07:20Her favorite flowers.
07:21Her secret hiding spots.
07:22Every word she'd been waiting her whole life to hear.
07:25He played her like he'd been practicing for years.
07:27That same day,
07:28A mating contract arrived at my door on heavy old parchment.
07:33I accept you as my mate.
07:35I will hold and protect you in this life and the next.
07:37Not even death will part us.
07:38The handwriting was deep and certain.
07:40No hesitation in a single stroke.
07:42It felt exactly like him.
07:43Foth weddings were set for the same morning.
07:45The night before,
07:46Celeste walked into my room like she owned it.
07:48She didn't knock.
07:49Her maid tossed something at my feet.
07:51A tattered gray shawl.
07:52A kind worn by the lowest ranking on megas.
07:55A mark of total submission.
07:57You're a blind freak, Zara.
08:01No real alpha will ever claim you.
08:04She leaned in.
08:05Voice honeyed and vicious at the same time.
08:08Lucian and I are being generous.
08:10We're keeping you on as a servant.
08:12But on the day of the ceremony,
08:13no carriage for you.
08:15You'll wear that and walk behind the caravan.
08:17Servant sentience.
08:18Don't embarrass us.
08:19The morning came.
08:20I left the shawl on the floor where it landed.
08:23I put on the dress Kyle had sent instead.
08:25White silk,
08:26thousands of diamonds sewn into the fabric.
08:28Small enough to look like starlight.
08:30At the estate gate,
08:31two carriages waited.
08:33One was extraordinary.
08:35Draped in thumb-sized pearls.
08:36Built like a throne that happened to have wheels.
08:39The other was plain standard black.
08:41Nothing remarkable.
08:43Celeste didn't hesitate for a second.
08:45She walked straight to the pearl carriage
08:47and stepped inside.
08:49The head guard turned.
08:51His expression didn't waver.
08:52You're in the wrong carriage.
08:54This was commissioned by Alpha Kyle
08:56for his Luna and no one else.
08:58He didn't get her time to argue.
09:00Guards didn't provide the hands and the head guard.
09:02She caught her fear on her skirt
09:03and went down hard for her face into the dirt.
09:07Lucian arrived just in time to see it.
09:10Celeste scrambled up and threw herself at him
09:12while crying.
09:15It's Zara!
09:16She planned this!
09:18She can't stand that I'm the one becoming a Luna!
09:21She turned to the crowd gathering around,
09:23eyes whistling.
09:24Please, don't hate her.
09:26She's struggling.
09:27I know we're in love, Lucian,
09:29but I begged you to keep her safe.
09:32I pleaded for months just so she could be our servant
09:34and I not starve on this street.
09:37She's a blind, Omega.
09:38She should be grateful anyone even bothered to take her in.
09:41To pull a strut like this on her sister's wedding day?
09:43It's thetic.
09:44The crowd was vicious.
09:45They always are when they smell wetness.
09:48Lucian's soul was drowning in black.
09:50Thick, suffocating, ink dark.
09:51He pulled Celeste against his chest and turned on me.
09:55You're an Omega, Zara.
09:57You have no right to wear white.
09:59Take that dress off right now,
10:01or I'll shred it off your back myself!
10:04Celeste buried her face in his chest,
10:06but I could see her soul.
10:07She was smirking.
10:08Lucian,
10:09you don't have me watching the back this time.
10:12What's coming for you tonight isn't a wedding.
10:16It's a funeral.
10:18Celeste, we foiled that I'd struck her.
10:20How can you curse him like that?
10:22Just because he didn't choose you?
10:24You dare curse an Alpha heir?
10:27Guards, seize her!
10:29The soldiers started needing me.
10:31Think carefully.
10:32You're laying a hand on Alpha Kyle's mate.
10:35Make sure that's a consequence you're ready to live with.
10:37Lucian laughed, jagged, ugly.
10:39Kyle?
10:40The cripple isn't even here.
10:42Probably hiding in his chambers,
10:43too embarrassed to show his face.
10:45He's using you for sport, Zara.
10:46Nothing more.
10:47He stepped forward,
10:48close enough that his shadow fell over me.
10:49Neil,
10:50beg Celeste's forgiveness.
10:52And maybe,
10:53maybe,
10:54I'll still find a use for you.
10:55Then a voice cut through everything.
10:57Who is threatening my mate?
10:58A crowd spilt.
10:59Kyle moved through them like they weren't there.
11:00Sharp black suit.
11:02Not a single piece out of his face.
11:03Even seated.
11:04His presence was second here.
11:05The moment he appeared,
11:06the street went silent.
11:07Beside him,
11:08Lucian suddenly looked at the boy's end.
11:12Kyle came straight to me.
11:13He took my hand and folded it inside his
11:15large, warm, unheard of.
11:20His eyes fixed on Lucian
11:21like a blade finding its mark.
11:23Let's try that again.
11:24Who was it that told my mate to come in?
11:26The temperature in the street seemed to drop.
11:28No one walked.
11:29No one breathed.
11:30He didn't shout.
11:31Didn't signal his men.
11:32He just watched Lucian
11:33the way a predator watches something
11:34it has already decided to deal with later.
11:36I'll remember that.
11:37I'm an alpha heir,
11:39same as you.
11:40Who the hell do you think you are?
11:41Who the hell do you think you are?
11:42A forgotten fifth son
11:44trying to give orders to my mate.
11:46You're not a rival, Lucian.
11:48You're a fit note.
11:49The color drained from Lucian's face.
11:51This isn't over.
11:52Lo and me.
11:53You'll both regret tonight.
11:55I gave you a chance, Zara.
11:57When you come crawling back,
11:59and you will,
12:00don't expect mercy.
12:01I looked at his soul,
12:02muddy green,
12:03murky and small.
12:04He genuinely believes he is the chosen one.
12:06He thinks the throne is already his,
12:08and that I was just dead weight holding him back.
12:10He has no idea what is waiting for him.
12:12Without me clearing his path,
12:13he won't last the season.
12:14He'll be lucky to still be breathing
12:16by the time the leaves turn.
12:17Oh, our first night as mates was quiet.
12:19Just the two of us,
12:20and the fire crackling low between us.
12:23We shared whiskey,
12:24amber,
12:25and slow burning on the way down.
12:27I could feel his eyes,
12:29heavy and silver warm against my skin.
12:31My pulse wouldn't settle.
12:32Even sitting across from me in that chair,
12:34his presence filled the entire room.
12:36You said you could fix my legs.
12:39How?
12:41Help me with something first.
12:44I've never seen this room.
12:46Describe it to me.
12:48Then he started talking.
12:49The fires glow.
12:51The oil paintings.
12:52He told me their textures,
12:53not just their subjects.
12:54The velvet curtains,
12:55deep and heavy.
12:56On the shelf above the nightstand,
12:59there's an old book.
13:01The cover is faded.
13:02My hand stilled around the glass.
13:04That shelf was high,
13:05nearly at the ceiling.
13:07From a wheelchair.
13:08The top of that book
13:09was completely out of sight.
13:10There was no way he could know
13:11the cover was faded.
13:12I didn't say a word.
13:14I just took another sip
13:15and filed that detail away somewhere.
13:16I wouldn't forget it.
13:18I stood up with my glass in hand,
13:19then let it slip.
13:21It hit the carpet with a dull thud
13:23and rolled toward the sofa.
13:25Kyle's body moved
13:26before his mind could stop him.
13:27His chest surged forward.
13:29The muscles in his thighs
13:30locked and coiled,
13:31dense as iron cables.
13:33For a single and guarded second,
13:35he was about to stand.
13:36Then he caught himself
13:37and settled back into the leather
13:38as if nothing had happened.
13:39But I felt it.
13:41That reflex was all the confirmation I needed.
13:43He didn't say anything.
13:44Not yet.
13:45There's one more way to be sure.
13:49I stepped in close.
13:50And I straddled his lap.
13:52Kyle stopped breathing.
13:54The heat from his hands
13:56soaked straight through the silk.
13:57It burned against my skin like a brand.
13:59My heart was slamming.
14:00I ignored it.
14:02I raised my hand
14:04and let my fingertips trace
14:05from his jaw down to his chest.
14:07Hard as stone beneath the shirt.
14:08Not the body of a man
14:10who hadn't used his legs in seven years.
14:11I looked into his soul.
14:12A storm deep crimson,
14:14soft pink.
14:15Something more tender
14:16than he'd admit.
14:17And threading through both.
14:18A sharp streak of dark green panic.
14:21He knew I was getting close.
14:22I leaned down.
14:27My lips barely grazed the corner of his mouth.
14:30Not a kiss.
14:31Question.
14:31His breathing came apart.
14:33And then I took his hand
14:34and pressed his palm flat against my chest.
14:36The silk between us was nothing.
14:37My face was burning.
14:39Because in that moment,
14:40his body gave me the most honest answer in his head.
14:43His body reacted before his mind could stop it.
14:46I felt the shift in his mouth.
14:48The sudden brace through his thighs.
14:49The instinctive drive upward.
14:51A man who hadn't used his legs in seven years
14:53would move like that.
14:54Hold back just enough.
14:56Let the smile come slowly.
14:57Your legs are fine.
14:58That much, I know.
15:00Kyle closed his eyes.
15:01His throat moved as he swallowed.
15:03Then he stood up.
15:04One hand stayed at my waist.
15:05The other still pressed against my chest.
15:08He lifted me and I felt just how much of him there was.
15:10Nearly six foot tall.
15:12All of it muscled.
15:13My whole world was suddenly just him.
15:15How did you know?
15:16I just smiled and gave him something vague enough to pass.
15:19He set me down gently on the edge of the bed.
15:21Then stepped back.
15:22The hand that had touched my chest was shaking.
15:24I'm sorry, I shouldn't have.
15:26Don't.
15:26I'm the one who put your hand there.
15:28He looked at me for a long moment.
15:30A real laugh.
15:32Warm and unguarded.
15:32Like seven years of tension finally giving way.
15:35Seven years.
15:36Seven years fooling everyone.
15:38The whole damn world.
15:40And my blind mate catches me on the very first night.
15:42We didn't go any further that night.
15:44We ended up on the rug in front of the fire.
15:46The bottle of whiskey between us and we just...
15:48talked.
15:49He told me about the night his parents were killed.
15:51They called it a rogue wolf attack.
15:54Everyone knew what it actually was.
15:56The Alpha King had ordered it.
15:57He was 15 years old.
15:58Standing at their funeral.
16:00And he made a decision.
16:01He would become the cripple.
16:03Invisible.
16:04Unthreatening.
16:05Off the king's list entirely.
16:07It was the only way to stay alive.
16:09I told him about Lucian.
16:10All of it.
16:11What he was underneath.
16:13I didn't choose you because I had no other options.
16:15I chose you because you were the only one worth choosing.
16:19I watched his soul begin to shift.
16:21The gold bleeding slowly into a deep and glowing lake.
16:24Late into the night, I came back.
16:26The splitting pain behind my temples.
16:28Like an axe working its way through a bone.
16:30I tried to keep my hands still.
16:32They were shaking anyway.
16:34Kyle stopped mid-sentence.
16:35Your head.
16:36Before I could deflect, his thumbs were already at my temples.
16:39The pressure.
16:40Exact.
16:41Like he'd map the pain before he touched it.
16:42My mother used to get them.
16:44I've known what to do since I was a boy.
16:46The pain didn't ease.
16:47It vanished.
16:47We shared the same bed.
16:49His arm lay heavy and warm across my waist.
16:51My head settled against his chest.
16:53I listened to his heartbeat through my soul lie.
16:55I watched his soul settle.
16:57The gold softening, deepening, into a rich and quiet pain.
16:59For the first time in two lifetimes, I felt safe.
17:02The ocean's wedding ring was on the card.
17:03In my last life, a maid tried to spike his wine with wolf's pain.
17:07I caught her before she could get close.
17:09I read the murder in her soul.
17:10Swapped the glasses.
17:11Had her detained before he'd taken a single seat.
17:14This time, I did nothing.
17:15Celeste wouldn't notice.
17:16She wouldn't know a threat if it sat down beside her and introduced itself.
17:19The next morning, Kyle and I arrived at the Alpha King's estate.
17:23No sign of Lucian.
17:24No sign of Celeste.
17:25The corridors were alive with hushed, urgent voices.
17:28The air was poisoned in his own chambers.
17:30He hasn't woken.
17:31The healers say the dose was enough to drop a grizzly.
17:34I kept my face perfectly still.
17:35But underneath, I was smiling.
17:37Lucian's fall had started.
17:38And this time, I wasn't going to stop it.
17:41The carriage had barely rolled to a stop when Celeste appeared at the gates.
17:44She looked like she hadn't slept in days.
17:46Zara!
17:47You poisoned him!
17:49Give me the antidote right now!
17:52I felt the temperature inside the carriage shift.
17:54Kyle went very still beside me.
17:56I placed a hand on his arm.
17:57Oh, goodness.
17:58I leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek.
18:01Then I stepped out into the morning air.
18:03Antidote?
18:04I don't have one.
18:06Whatever happened to Lucian has nothing to do with me.
18:09Liar!
18:11Then how did you know he'd be dying on his wedding night?
18:14I tilted my head.
18:16That's a serious accusation.
18:18Where's your proof?
18:19Did you catch the killer?
18:21Did you find the poison?
18:22I already knew she hadn't.
18:23The spy mark ascent was a professional.
18:26Without my soul eye, she was a ghost.
18:27By now, she was likely across the border, untouchable.
18:30Celeste stood there, mouth open, nothing coming out.
18:33If you keep causing a scene on my land, my warriors will remove you.
18:38Her eyes dropped to my neck.
18:40She saw the red mark Kyle had left there.
18:42You actually slept with him?
18:44A blind girl and a broken man?
18:46I suppose trash finds its own level.
18:48I suppose trash finds its own level.
18:49I thought about last night, the fire, the whiskey.
18:52The long silence after he finally stood up and I felt the full weight of him for the first time.
18:55Kyle wasn't broken.
18:56He was ten thousand times the man Lucian would ever be.
18:59I laughed.
19:01What is so funny?
19:02I stopped, looked at her.
19:04We're close enough to it.
19:04I'm laughing at how blind you are.
19:06Lucian is going to die.
19:08And when he goes down, he'll take you with him.
19:11If you want to survive what's coming, sever the bond now.
19:14While you still can.
19:15That was it for her.
19:16She swung at my face.
19:18Wide, furious, telegraphed from a mile away.
19:20I shifted my weight and stepped aside.
19:22We hit nothing but air.
19:23The momentum carried her forward and she went down hard.
19:25Palms and knees in the dirt.
19:26I looked down at you.
19:27Remember this?
19:28Because the next time you raise a hand to me I won't step aside.
19:31She stared up at me from the ground, trembling.
19:33For the first time in her life she was actually afraid of me.
19:36The blind girl she used to torment wasn't there anymore.
19:38Someone else had taken her place.
19:40Kyle was waiting when I stepped back into the carriage.
19:42He just watched me with those gray eyes.
19:44And in them, not worry.
19:45Not pity.
19:46Admiration.
19:47He trusted me to handle my own affairs.
19:48That respect landed heavier than any shield he could have raised.
19:51He turned to his leave guard and spoke low.
19:53No one from Lucien's pack crosses onto my land again.
19:56For any reason.
19:58Ever.
20:00After Celeste was escorted out, he turned to the business of leaving.
20:03We were heading for Thorn Harbor.
20:05The courtyard filled with people and supplies controlled chaos.
20:07We knew all of it.
20:08My soul I found a single target.
20:10A guard named Vaughn.
20:11The soul was a muddy treacherous gray.
20:13I leaned close to Kyle's ear.
20:14Who is that man?
20:17Vaughn.
20:18He's been with me since I was 15.
20:20Saved my life twice.
20:21I pulled back and watched him.
20:22Kyle, do you trust me?
20:23His soul flushed deep and dark all at once.
20:26You're my mate.
20:27Of course I do.
20:28He's a traitor.
20:29We changed the route to Thorn Harbor.
20:31And we tell no one.
20:33My last one.
20:34This is where I don't think of Kyle.
20:35I ambushed on the road to the harbor.
20:37Wounds that never healed.
20:38He died defending the city walls.
20:40I finished speaking.
20:41Let my lips brush his cheek.
20:43Kyle's arm came around my waist immediately.
20:45Pulling me in.
20:46Across the yard I felt Vaughn watching us.
20:49He clocked how close we were.
20:50He looked away fast.
20:51Kyle pressed his face into the curve of my neck.
20:53His breath was warm against my skin.
20:55Are you trying to fix my legs again?
20:56Because I'm happy to wait until tonight.
20:59Or we can start now.
21:00The next morning, Vaughn was gone.
21:02Kyle sat beside me at breakfast.
21:04Cutting my steak into careful pieces without being asked.
21:07You were right.
21:08Vaughn was Marcus' man.
21:10Buried so deep I never suspected him once in seven years.
21:13It took some...
21:15Persuasion to get him to talk.
21:17He looked at me.
21:19How did you know, Zara?
21:20I looked into his soul, gold and pink.
21:22Wound together.
21:23No suspicion.
21:23No fear.
21:24Lucky guess.
21:25The words were barely out when the pain hit.
21:27White.
21:28Hot behind both temples at once.
21:30My hand went to my head before I could stop it.
21:32Kyle didn't say a word.
21:33He just moved his chair flush against mine.
21:35Un in hand kept cutting my food.
21:36The other reached up and wrapped around the back of my neck.
21:38The pain dissolved.
21:39He has stopped asking why it happens.
21:41He just makes sure he is there when it does.
21:42Corn Harbor.
21:43Kyle's territory.
21:45The land was rough.
21:46Resources thin.
21:47Kind of place the Alpha Council never bothered to look at twice.
21:50The wolves here were loyal to Kyle.
21:52The way wolves are loyal to someone they've chosen.
21:55Out of true devotion.
21:56When I went to the market, they called me Luna and refused my claim.
21:59Every stall, every vendor.
22:00I had to set the money down and walk away before they touched me.
22:03I came back to the estate breathless.
22:05And my maid watched me come through the door.
22:08The Luna is blind.
22:10But she moves faster than any soldier I've trained with.
22:14Kyle heard her.
22:14That night, his fingers found the edges of my eyes.
22:18Zara.
22:19Is it really just...
22:21Nothing?
22:22I nodded.
22:23He pulled me in against his chest and held me there.
22:26It doesn't matter.
22:27I'll be your eyes.
22:28Every sunrise.
22:29Every star.
22:30Whatever you want to see, I'll find the words for it.
22:33I watched his soul through all of it.
22:34The gold was shifting.
22:35Becoming something warmer.
22:36Deeper.
22:37The more time we spent together.
22:38The deeper the gold grew.
22:39Every shared meal.
22:40Every quiet evening beside him.
22:42It only became richer.
22:43But then something strange started happening.
22:45When I was away from him, even briefly, I got restless.
22:47Not just missing him.
22:48It was physical.
22:49A deep, pulling ache I couldn't reason away.
22:50Further I walked.
22:51The worse it pulled.
22:52Until it hurt.
22:53I told myself it was the intensity of a new bond.
22:55But I knew that wasn't it.
22:56I don't have a wolf.
22:57I was never supposed to feel this.
22:59That night when he kissed me, his soul shifted into something I'd never seen before.
23:02A pink so saturated and alive.
23:04It looked like the first day of spring breaking open all at once.
23:07The most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
23:08It didn't last.
23:09The next morning, a piece of encrypted intelligence arrived.
23:12Lucian is awake.
23:13But the damage is permanent.
23:14Intermittent mania.
23:15He has lost control of his wolf.
23:16A slow smile touched my lips.
23:18This was just the beginning of what was coming for him.
23:20But then, the catch.
23:21The Alpha Council had issued a mandatory summons.
23:23Marcus was hosting a banquet.
23:24Every heir was required to attend.
23:25No exceptions.
23:26Kyle had no choice.
23:27We were going back.
23:28Marcus's estate reeked of bad intentions before we even stepped inside.
23:31I swept the ballroom with my soul eye the moment we crossed the threshold.
23:34Oily green for greed.
23:35Thick in every coin of the room.
23:37A deep, sickening crimson for lust.
23:38And underneath all of it, something flat and purposeful that made my skin crawl.
23:42I found Kyle's hand under the table and held it.
23:44Don't eat.
23:45Don't touch the wine.
23:46And don't leave my side.
23:47Not for a second.
23:47Kyle glanced at me.
23:49As you wish, my Luna.
23:50I couldn't explain.
23:51Not here.
23:51But I remembered this night.
23:52In my last life, this banquet ended in blood.
23:55Their souls were a flat, professional gray.
23:57The color of people who had killed before and slept just fine after.
24:00Last time, when the blades came out, I didn't think.
24:02I just threw myself in front of Lucian and took a poison silver dagger to the ropes.
24:06Carried that scar for years.
24:07Once I remember Lucian was already king, I mentioned it.
24:09He looked at me with something close to boredom.
24:12Protecting your mate is your duty, Zara.
24:13You're already Luna.
24:14What more do you want?
24:15I don't make the same mistakes twice.
24:17It happened fast.
24:18The three dancers reached into their silts.
24:20Short blades.
24:21Jagged.
24:21Silver.
24:22And they lunged.
24:23Kyle moved before I could blink.
24:25He didn't care about the secret anymore.
24:27He came half out of his chair.
24:28One arm sweeping me behind him.
24:30And his guards materialized from the dark like they'd been part of the shadows all along.
24:33A wall of bodies between us and everything.
24:35We were safe.
24:36I looked past them toward Lucian.
24:38No one moved to cover me.
24:39The moment the first blade flashed, Celeste screamed and ran.
24:42Straight for the exit.
24:43Didn't look backwards.
24:44Lucian was surrounded.
24:45A silver dagger soaked in concentrated wolfsbane.
24:48Buried itself into his thigh.
24:50Dark blood hit the floor.
24:51He went down hard gasping.
24:53Through the screaming the overturned chairs.
24:55The crushed bodies trying to flee.
24:57His eyes found mine.
24:58He was begging.
25:00His soul was a wreck.
25:01Terror and pain and underneath it all.
25:03A dark green tide of regret.
25:05I held his face.
25:06Kept my face completely still.
25:08Didn't move a single muscle.
25:09I am blind after all.
25:11I can't see a thing.
25:12I didn't make it two steps into the carriage.
25:13The spike hit the moment the door closed.
25:15Red hot.
25:16Straight through the center of my skull.
25:18It was the worst backlash I'd ever suffered.
25:20I killed the entire ballroom.
25:21Every soul.
25:22Every shadow.
25:23Every blade before they struck.
25:24It cost me everything.
25:26The world went black.
25:27My knees folded.
25:28Kyle caught me before I hit the floor.
25:30His arms locked around my waist right on me.
25:32Pulling me hard against his chest.
25:34Zara.
25:34I'd never heard that in his voice before.
25:36Fear.
25:36My head.
25:37Was all I could get at.
25:38He didn't wait.
25:39He pulled me in against him and pressed both palms to my temples.
25:42And something happened that I still can't explain.
25:44It wasn't just pressure.
25:45It wasn't just breath.
25:46It felt like a hand reaching for the pain and blowing it out in the roof.
25:48Gone completely.
25:49In seconds.
25:50I lay against his chest, dazed.
25:52Listening to his heart pound.
25:53Why does his touch do that?
25:55This isn't comfort.
25:56This is something older.
25:57Something that runs deeper than either of us understands.
25:59And it is starting to frighten me.
26:01While I recovered in Kyle's arms.
26:03Lucian is learning what that blade actually felt like.
26:05The wolf's vein on those daggers was pure.
26:07It doesn't just wound.
26:08It destroys whatever the body would normally feel.
26:10It shredded his body's ability to heal from the inside out.
26:12In my last life.
26:13I took that blade for you.
26:14I felt the silver eat until I flash.
26:16I felt the poison dissolve everything I had.
26:18I survived it barely.
26:19And he never once mentioned it again.
26:21He treated my body like a shield he was entitled to stand behind.
26:24This time he got to find out what it actually costs.
26:26The healers couldn't do a thing.
26:27The damage was permanent.
26:28Lucian would never want to do a thing.
26:29The man who spent his whole life looking down at everyone from a great height is never going to stand
26:33again.
26:34The intelligence reports kept arriving.
26:36One after another like a slow collapse.
26:38Lucian confirmed permanently disabled.
26:40Celeste began her exit strategy the moment he lost his strife.
26:44She spent months petitioning the Alpha Council to dissolve their bond.
26:48Six months later the Alpha King had seen enough.
26:50He stripped Lucian of his inheritance.
26:51No title.
26:52No claim.
26:53No future.
26:54In the werewolf world.
26:55No one pledges their sword to a man who can't leave from a plant.
26:58In our last life, Lucian thought seizing the throne was simply a matter of wanting it badly enough.
27:03He had no idea what was actually for Diana.
27:05He thought those allies followed him by choice.
27:08I made sure they were worthy long before they ever pledged themselves.
27:11The traitors he feared never had the chance to strike.
27:13I silenced them first, and the commanders he trusted with his army were placed there by my hand.
27:18One by one paid for in blood.
27:20Without me, he couldn't have held a border crossing, let alone dwelling.
27:24Celeste didn't mourn.
27:26She stripped his estate queen, jewelry, gold, every coin she could find.
27:30Then she was gone.
27:31She went back to Marcus, but the terms had changed.
27:34He didn't want a Luna this time.
27:35He took her as a mistress.
27:36I ran into her yesterday.
27:38A high-end perfume shop near the harbor.
27:40I was holding a bottle, a rare blend, when she reached over and plucked it straight out of my hand.
27:44I'll take all of these, she told the clerk.
27:46She was draped in diamonds.
27:48Her soul was the same toxic green as always.
27:50She looked me over.
27:51Oh, Zara, she said.
27:53Perfume seems a bit pointless for you, doesn't it?
27:55She leaned in.
27:56Expensive wine in regret.
27:58It's not as if your man can stand up to get close enough to smell it.
28:01A little gasp.
28:02A hand over her mouth.
28:03Eyes wide with performed regret.
28:05That was awful of me.
28:06You don't mind, do you?
28:08I smiled.
28:08Not at all.
28:09I said, take them all.
28:11The clerk looked baffled.
28:12I didn't explain.
28:13There is no point arguing with a woman who is already walking toward her own end.
28:17She just doesn't know the road she is on yet.
28:19It was late.
28:20Thorn Harbor was in a hard rain.
28:22My headguard appeared in the doorway.
28:24His face tight.
28:25Lupin is at the front gate, Luna.
28:27He has been dragging himself through the mud for the better part of an hour.
28:30He won't leave.
28:31I walked out to the entrance and looked through the iron bars.
28:34He was there, soaked, shaking, holding the throat, and rolling.
28:38When he saw me, something desperate ignited in his eyes.
28:41A word should order.
28:42And the bars broke my neck.
28:43He went down into a prison night.
28:45Why?
28:46The words were out of the market and fought on something.
28:48Zara, tell me.
28:50In the last life, you always knew what was coming.
28:52I thought if a blind girl could build a kingdom for me, then all I had to do was take
28:56the credit.
28:56So why did I lose everything?
28:58He started swimming, slamming his fists against his own useless legs.
29:01The sound of it got swallowed up by the thunder.
29:03When he finally ran out of breath, he looked up at me.
29:06He looked small.
29:07The arrogance was gone.
29:08What was left underneath wasn't much.
29:10Zara.
29:11That he said, quiet now.
29:12His voice doing something in approximating humility.
29:15I made a mistake.
29:17Come back.
29:19Come back.
29:21The Luna title, it's yours.
29:22Truly, this time, we can rebuild.
29:25Together.
29:25Like before.
29:27We can take it all back.
29:28I looked at his soul.
29:29Thick, oily green.
29:31Bottomless with it.
29:31He wasn't performing.
29:32He was genuinely drowning in regret.
29:34That almost made it worse.
29:35Lucian, you still don't understand what you had.
29:38I was never your Luna because you became king.
29:40You were only ever king because I chose to stand beside you.
29:43I turned my back on him.
29:45Walked toward the warm lights of the estate.
29:47Lock the gates.
29:49If he sets foot on his land again, you have my permission on permission to seat him accordingly.
29:53The iron gates slammed shut.
29:55The sound cut through the rain like a verdict.
29:57He was still screaming my name when I walked through the front door.
30:00I didn't look back.
30:01That door was never opening again.
30:03Celeste.
30:04The report arrived this morning.
30:06History repeated itself down to the last detail.
30:08Marcus worked on to her as nothing.
30:10And they carried her body out of the estate.
30:12Someone noticed the scent still on me.
30:14I took him and she'd smash it from my hands in that shack.
30:17She was wearing a winter bath.
30:19Lucian friggin' years from his room.
30:20He didn't grieve.
30:21He didn't rage.
30:22Good.
30:23She watched me fall and ran straight to another man's bed.
30:25I gave up everything in this life for her.
30:28And that's how she repays it?
30:29He beat his fists against the wheels of his chair until his knuckles fled.
30:33I never should have poisoned Zara.
30:34I never should have chosen Celeste over Zara.
30:36I was still holding the report when I heard the bedroom door.
30:39I crumpled the paper in my fist.
30:41Kyle walked in.
30:42I turned toward the window.
30:43The sun had gone down.
30:44I was just...
30:45Before I could finish, he reached out and took the crumpled note from my hand.
30:49He smoothed it flat and lifted it to the light.
30:52Then he lowered it and looked straight at me.
30:54You're not blind in the way you let everyone believe, are you?
30:58My throat closed.
30:59I couldn't find a single word.
31:00I looked into his soul.
31:02It was burning.
31:03A sharp and a single orange came through.
31:05Don't I deserve the truth?
31:07I marked you.
31:09I made you my mate.
31:10I would have protected you regardless.
31:12Blind, wolfless, it didn't matter.
31:14But for a year, you let me believe I understood you.
31:17And I didn't.
31:18The blind girl and the cripple.
31:20Two people who had made an art form of being something they weren't.
31:23Standing in this room in the dark.
31:24Every mask we'd ever worn was gone.
31:26He turned for the door.
31:27And I felt something I hadn't felt in two lifetimes.
31:30Genuine terror.
31:31I threw myself off the bed and wrapped my arms around him.
31:34Held on.
31:35I could feel the anger in him.
31:37But underneath it, his soul was already shifting.
31:40The orange queen, leading towards something else.
31:42The harder I held on, the faster it faded.
31:45My voice came out small.
31:46I pressed my face against his back and just held on.
31:49His soul turned pink.
31:51His pride hadn't moved.
31:52He was still standing there.
31:53Every muscle locked against me.
31:55But his heart had already answered.
31:57I came around to face him.
31:59Pressed my cheek against his chest and listened.
32:01His heartbeat was fast.
32:03Uneven.
32:03His soul was so pink it was almost blinding.
32:06Kyle.
32:06I steadied my voice as best I could.
32:09That wasn't the only thing I lied about.
32:11This was the secret I'd carried through two lives without telling a single person.
32:14I see souls.
32:15I can read the truth inside people.
32:17He went completely still.
32:18And I know what's coming.
32:20The werewolf world is about to burn.
32:23Thorn Harbor will be under siege.
32:25I looked up at him.
32:26In my last life, you died when the city walls fell.
32:28His breathing changed.
32:29I searched his soul one last time.
32:32Not a flicker of doubt.
32:33Not a trace of fear.
32:34Only gold.
32:36Shimmering gold.
32:37Do you believe me?
32:38I asked.
32:39He didn't answer with words.
32:40He pulled me into his chest.
32:42Both arms no space between us.
32:44And buried his face against my neck.
32:46I believe in you.
32:49That's the only thing in this world I'm sure of.
32:51Hi, viewers.
32:52What is it?
32:52I'm just kidding.
32:53I'm not kidding.
32:54Kyle gave me the Alpha War seal.
32:56And put every warrior in the pack under my command.
32:57And didn't just fold Thorn Harbor.
32:59We took the fight to the Alpha War's fortresses.
33:01Then came the first night.
33:02The Great Siege.
33:03The boss army hit the valley.
33:04The sea flashed where I fall to the wall.
33:07As far as the door was seen.
33:08Kyle sat in his chair at the edge of the fortress wall.
33:10Watching it come.
33:11Then he stood up.
33:12Not in our bedroom.
33:13Not in the dark.
33:14Where no one could see it.
33:14In front of every cell in my head.
33:16He shrugged off the heavy coat he'd hidden behind.
33:18For seven years and let it drop.
33:20His bones began to crack and shake.
33:21And did no more.
33:22He transformed.
33:23A massive silver wolf.
33:24He was huge.
33:25Larger than any Alpha in history.
33:27His fur shimmered like liquid metal in the dark.
33:29He stood on the edge of the fortress wall.
33:30And he let out a howl that shook the fortress wall.
33:32Every wolf on that field.
33:33Ally and enemy alike.
33:34Dropped their heads not from orders.
33:36From something older than orders.
33:37Seven years of buried power.
33:39Of swallowed rage.
33:40Of playing the broken man.
33:41While the world underestimated him.
33:42He snapped his head around before the echo had died.
33:44That silver gaze cut straight through the smoke.
33:47Through the fire.
33:47Through everything between us and found me.
33:49I felt at the moment it landed.
33:51Not just a look.
33:52Something that went all the way down to the bone.
33:54Like a string he taught over two lifetimes.
33:56And finally the rest.
33:57Faded napalm.
33:58He had kept his wolf locked away for seven years.
34:01The bond had been filled before.
34:02But now his wolf was falling away.
34:04And everything he could help back came through at once.
34:07He shifted back.
34:08Dropped to one knee on the stone.
34:09Chest he went.
34:10Hands raced against the ground.
34:11Trumbly.
34:12When he looked up at me.
34:14It was like the first one.
34:15Like he was seeing something he'd been reaching toward without knowing it.
34:18It's you.
34:19His voice was red.
34:20It was always you.
34:23The moon goddess didn't give you to me for your gift.
34:26She gave you to me because you're mine.
34:28I felt the truth within my own hand.
34:30Every piece of it clicking in the place all at once.
34:33The jolt from our fingers first touched at the maiden ball.
34:35The way his hands could pull the pins coming out of my skull.
34:38The suffocating dread every time he wrecked the wound.
34:40I don't have a wolf.
34:41So the bond had come through quietly.
34:43A whisper where it should have been from.
34:45But it had always been there.
34:47From the very first moment when he reached out and touched his knee.
34:49Our blood had already moved.
34:52Take your place as Alpha King.
34:54The Grand Hall was in ruins around him.
34:56Dust still settling from the siege.
34:58And Zara shall be your Luna.
35:01Kyle didn't hesitate.
35:02No.
35:02One word.
35:03It landed in that hall that the stone's object is still there.
35:06I'm issuing two commands.
35:08First, we are establishing a dual kingship.
35:12Zara and I rule together.
35:14As equals.
35:16The silence cracked.
35:17Impossible!
35:18There has never been a woman on that throne!
35:20Kyle stepped up onto the platform.
35:22He looked out across the council.
35:24Every face, every objection.
35:25With the kind of calm that has nothing left to prove.
35:27When Thorn Harbor was under siege, Zara stood on the front lines beside me.
35:32Every wound I took, she felt.
35:35Every sacrifice I made, she had already paid a higher price for.
35:38He brought his hand down flat on the stone table.
35:41Crack of it echoed.
35:42Without her, I'd be in an unmarked grave on the battlefield.
35:45You don't get to erase what she built just because she isn't what you expected!
35:50I am the Alpha King.
35:52And so is she.
35:54Alpha King!
35:55He leaned forward, voice dropping.
35:56If anyone here has a problem with that, step forward now.
35:59No one moved.
36:00I have spent seven years being underestimated.
36:02I have no patience left for it.
36:03Not for myself, and not for her.
36:05The bond had been a river with no outlet for years.
36:07The night the war ended, the dam broke.
36:09He marked me.
36:10The moment his teeth found the back of my neck, something detonated beneath my skin.
36:13Not pain, or not only pain.
36:15Something that felt like being struck by lightning from the inside.
36:18My bones began to shift.
36:19I screamed.
36:20Kyle didn't let go.
36:21He pulled me harder against his chest and held on.
36:23His soul blazing gold in my sight.
36:25Steady as a thick star.
36:26An anchor in the middle of everything from my heart.
36:28Something that had been wading under my skin for 17 years was finally waking up.
36:31It was never miserable.
36:32It was just too powerful to serve the same time.
36:34It needed something equally matched to call it out.
36:36I shifted.
36:37White.
36:37Pure.
36:37Absolute white.
36:38A wolf larger than any female in recorded history.
36:41Her coat caught the moonlight the way fresh snow catches it from within.
36:44Kyle's silver wolf circled me.
36:45On splice.
36:46Three times.
36:47Then he stopped.
36:48Pressed his massive head against my neck.
36:50And let out a sound so low and so full.
36:52It barely qualified as a sound at all.
36:55The elders hadn't moved.
36:56In the old legends.
36:57The white wolf is the living avatar of the moon goddess.
36:59She hadn't walked the earth in 500 years.
37:02I had never been broken.
37:03My wolf had never been missing.
37:04She was just waiting for the one person strong enough to bring her home.
37:08Kyle shifted back.
37:09He pulled me into his lap and held me there.
37:11Both of us still catching our breath.
37:13The soul.
37:14As I looked at it.
37:14I had no words.
37:16Golden pink.
37:16Woven together so completely.
37:18They'd become a single color.
37:20That didn't exist anywhere else.
37:22I knew.
37:23Said into my hair.
37:23From the moment you chose me at the ball.
37:26I didn't know what you were.
37:29But I knew you were something the world hadn't seen before.
37:32You were just waiting for someone to finally find you.
37:35I never let myself dream this far in my last life.
37:37I was too busy holding someone else to ever look up for myself.
37:40Now I sat at the highest seat in the council hall.
37:42Kyle beside me.
37:44Every elephant growing up his heads.
37:46The intelligence network was mine.
37:47The land rights were mine to grant or revoke.
37:50The power I had spent a lifetime building for someone else.
37:52It was finally in my own hands.
37:54And then they brought in Lushin.
37:56He dragged himself across the stone floor on his hands.
37:58He reached my boots.
38:00And stretched out one trunking hand toward the hem of my waves.
38:03A guard stepped forward.
38:04His sword flashed.
38:05The blade stopped an inch from Lushin's fingers.
38:07Lushin didn't even register.
38:09He just started to move.
38:11This isn't right.
38:12That seat belongs to me.
38:14You were my instrument, Zara.
38:16I promised to make you my Luna.
38:17Why isn't that enough for me?
38:19Get down.
38:19Help me up there.
38:20That's where I'm supposed to be.
38:22I looked at him for a long moment.
38:23I remembered the last line.
38:25The rebel wolves had us surrounded.
38:27He didn't reach for me.
38:28He didn't hesitate.
38:29He turned and ran.
38:30And when they caught him anyway, he offered me up to buy himself another day.
38:33And at the very end, he was the one who forced the wolf's vein down my throat.
38:37He was the one who gave Celeste my title and my burial.
38:39He threw my body to the crows.
38:41And now he was on the floor of my hall, demanding I come down and hand it all back to
38:45him.
38:45I looked at his sword.
38:46There was nothing left to me.
38:48Hold him.
38:49The guards pinned him to the stone.
38:51He crashed.
38:51He tried to bite.
38:52He screamed until his voice cracked.
38:54They forced his jaw open.
38:55And I poured the wolf's vein myself.
38:57A quick death would have been mercy.
38:59And I had none left to give him.
39:01This was something else.
39:02A slow, total erasure.
39:04First, the taste would go.
39:05Then the smell of air.
39:06Then the light, fading at the edges.
39:08Dimming inward.
39:09Then sound.
39:10Then touch.
39:10Then nothing at all.
39:12A living body with no world left inside it.
39:14Trapped in the dark he had always carried.
39:15With nothing for company but his own guilt.
39:17It took a week.
39:18The guard came to me on a quiet morning and delivered the news without ceremony.
39:22Lucian was dead.
39:23Died in total silence.
39:25Total darkness.
39:26Without a single sensation to mark the end.
39:28What should we do with the body?
39:29I didn't look up for my work.
39:30Take it outside the territory.
39:32No rats.
39:33No marker.
39:34Leave nothing.
39:35I gave his remains exactly what he gave mine.
39:38Down to the last detail.
39:39The account was closed.
39:41The fire had burned down to embers.
39:43The room was almost quiet.
39:46Kyle's arms came around my waist from behind.
39:48His breath was warm and even against my neck.
39:53You went to see him today?
39:54I did.
39:56I watched a monster reach the end he earned.
39:58I leaned back into him.
39:59Are you jealous of a dead man, Kyle?
40:02A low sound in his chest.
40:03Not quite a laugh.
40:04He reached up slowly and found the knot of the silk blindfold I still wore in public.
40:08Worked it loose.
40:09Let it fall.
40:10The moonlight came through the window.
40:11Neither of us spoke for a while.
40:13Then he took my hand and guided it to his chest.
40:15Pressed it flat right above his heart.
40:16Zara, tell me what color it is.
40:18I laughed, soft, surprised by it.
40:20I closed my eyes and turned everything I had heard him.
40:22This man who gave me his trust before I deserved it.
40:24Who stood up in front of an army to unmake seven years of his own carefully constructed
40:28lie.
40:28Who fought his way to a throne he didn't want.
40:30Just so I could stand beside him on equal ground.
40:33His soul.
40:33I don't have the words for it.
40:34Even now, a pillar of gold.
40:36Deep and unwavering.
40:37And running through the heart of it.
40:38A tide of pink so rich and so dark, it looked like the last light of a sunset seen through
40:42clear water.
40:42The kind of color time can't bleach.
40:44The most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
40:46And I've seen a lot of ugly things.
40:49His arms tightened around me.
40:51Describe it.
40:52You want to hear it?
40:52I turned in his arms, found his chest, pressed my lips to the place above his heart and held
40:57them there.
40:58I don't think any language has the right words.
40:59I looked up at him.
41:00I have the rest of my life to try.
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