I always imagined being summoned to a royal palace would feel like a fairytale.
It didn't.
It felt like being caught in someone else's story — one I was never meant to enter.
The car that came to take me to the castle looked like it had been designed by gods and built by ghosts. Sleek, low, and blacker than ink, it gleamed with liquid sheen under the mid-afternoon sun. Its doors opened without a sound, and the air smelled faintly of ozone and pine.
Two men stepped out.
The first was tall and precise, dressed in a charcoal-gray coat with navy lapels and a silver pin of the Dravyn crest — the Alpha's insignia — at his collar. His expression was calm, kind, unreadable. His eyes were honey-brown and sharp behind a pair of thin glasses. He held himself like a man who rarely raised his voice — because he never needed to.
"You must be Serenya," he said. "I'm Kaleb."
The second was already grinning. Blond hair swept messily across his forehead, a black coat unbuttoned, boots scuffed, sunglasses pushed up into his hair.
"And I," he announced, "am Maximilian. But you can call me Max. Everyone does. Except Kael. He calls me annoying."
"Is he wrong?" Kaleb asked mildly.
"Only on Tuesdays."
I blinked at them, overwhelmed already.
"Uh… hi."
Kaleb stepped forward and opened the car door for me himself. "You're with us now. No pressure."
"Plenty of pressure," Max added brightly as I slid inside. "But with snacks."
The ride was smooth, almost too smooth. I couldn't even hear the tires against the road. The interior was dark leather with soft golden lighting under the seats, and an interface projected quietly across the windows — security scan, destination route, atmospheric conditions.
Kaleb sat next to me in silence for a while, until I finally worked up the courage to speak.
"Elion," I said softly. "He seems... happy. I didn't realize—"
Max chuckled from the front. "Oh, he's a riot when he wants to be. But getting him to that mood? Rough."
Kaleb's gaze stayed forward, but I saw the shift in his expression — just the smallest tightening of his jaw.
"He's doing better," Kaleb said. "He's young, but he remembers more than people think."
"What happened?" I asked, hesitant.
Kaleb answered quietly. "Two months ago, both his grandparents — the former King and Queen — were killed during an attack on the Western Court. Elion was close to them. They raised him alongside us. After they died, he stopped sleeping. Nightmares. Panic."
My heart clenched. "I'm sorry."
Max's voice was softer than before. "He started screaming in his sleep. Wouldn't let anyone touch him. Wouldn't eat."
"And now?" I whispered.
Kaleb looked at me then, and something in his gaze thawed a little.
"Now he smiles. Around you."
And that's when it clicked.
The gentle authority. The quiet protectiveness. The way Kaleb had looked at Elion — like the sun rose and fell by the boy's heartbeat.
"You're…" I blinked. "You're his father."
Kaleb nodded once.
I winced, guilt blooming in my chest. "In the car earlier, I made a stupid comment. I said he seemed sweet, like I didn't think he could be. I'm sorry. I didn't mean—"
"You didn't know," Kaleb said, cutting me off gently. "And you weren't wrong. He is sweet. But sweet doesn't protect you from grief."
I swallowed hard and sat in silence the rest of the ride, my fingers curled around the hidden pendant beneath my shirt.
A secret no one else knew.
Not even them.
The castle was more breathtaking than I expected.
Not ancient stone or gothic towers — but modern majesty: glass and steel, silver and shadow, built into the cliffs of Vareth like it had grown from the rock itself. It shimmered in the light, humming faintly with protective wards and AI drones that hovered overhead in near-silence.
The moment I stepped inside, I felt it.
Magic.
Not active, not like mine.
But aware.
And then—
"SERA!"
I didn't get a chance to react before I was tackled around the legs by a tiny whirlwind in moon-and-star pajamas.
Elion.
He hugged me like I'd just returned from war.
"I waited and waited and I told uncle Kael that you were coming and now you're here!"
I laughed, kneeling to his level. "I told you I would be."
"Come see my stars!" he demanded. "Come on!"
I glanced at Kaleb, who smiled and nodded.
"Go," he said. "He's been rehearsing this all day."
Elion's room was a universe.
Stars dotted the ceiling, glowing softly even in the light — hand-painted constellations connected by glowing thread, each labeled with names he'd clearly invented himself. Plush animals lined the shelves, and there was a canopy bed covered in navy blankets and space-themed pillows.
He pulled me by the hand and pointed up.
"That one's the Wolf Queen," he said proudly. "And that one's the Star Witch."
I swallowed.
"Oh?"
"She saves the wolves. From bad things. She has a pendant that glows and wings made of starlight."
"Sounds powerful," I murmured.
"She's like you," he said matter-of-factly.
I didn't answer.
Couldn't.
He tugged me down onto the bed beside him, curling up immediately with his head on my arm.
And that's how Kael found us.
The Alpha King stood at the door like a storm waiting to break.
He was dressed in dark slacks and a soft black dress shirt, sleeves rolled up to the elbows, a black ring on one finger. His hair was tousled just enough to make him look like he hadn't slept — and yet he still looked terrifyingly perfect.
His silver eyes didn't move.
Just stayed fixed on me, and the boy sleeping in my arms.
"I didn't mean to let him fall asleep here," I said quietly. "I'll move him to his bed."
"You don't have to."
His voice was low. Careful.
"I just—" I hesitated. "I didn't mean to overstep."
"You didn't."
The tension in my chest didn't ease.
But then he stepped inside, crossing the room slowly, and knelt beside the bed.
His hand brushed Elion's hair back with surprising gentleness.
"I haven't seen him sleep through the night since the attack," he murmured. "Until now."
I didn't move.
"I won't get in the way," I whispered.
His eyes lifted to mine — and there was something strange in them.
Not warmth. Not yet.
But pull.
Like he didn't want to look away.
"You already are," he said.
And then he rose and walked out.
Leaving me confused.
And just a little more afraid of him than before.
That night, Leira brought me to a suite directly beside Elion's.
"You'll hear him," she said. "He cries out sometimes. If he comes to you... just let him."
"I will," I said softly.
I couldn't sleep.
I sat on the bed, turned over the pendant in my hands — still warm from my skin. A tiny silver disc etched with the crescent moon and twin stars. A symbol no one should recognize. A gift from my real parents before the fire.
No one knew I had it.
Not even the wolves who burned the castle.
But I wore it always.
Not for magic.
For memory.
It was past midnight when the door creaked open.
Tiny feet padded inside.
A blanket dragging.
A small voice trembling.
"Sera?"
I sat up. "Elion?"
"I had a dream. Bad one. About the fire again."
"Come here."
He climbed into the bed and curled against me, blanket over both of us.
"Can you tell me another story?" he asked sleepily.
So I did.
About the starlight witch and her invisible crown. About a moon that never stopped watching her. And a wolf who didn't know he was waiting for her.
He fell asleep halfway through.
So did I.
Sunlight streamed in the next morning.
And I woke to find Kael standing at the door.
He was dressed for court now — jacket, collar, gold insignia pinned at his shoulder. And those eyes. Always those eyes.
I sat up fast, blinking sleep from my lashes.
"I'm sorry," I said quickly. "He came to me, I didn't know if I should—"
"You did the right thing."
"But if someone thinks I—"
"They won't," Kael said. "Because I decide what's right in this house."
Then his gaze dropped — just for a second — to the edge of my shirt, where the pendant had slipped slightly into view.
I instinctively pulled it back.
His eyes lingered.
But he said nothing.
And something in me whispered:
He doesn't know.
Not yet.