After My Mate Learned I Was Lycan Royalty

The trading post sat on neutral ground between three pack territories. I'd been there twice before, both times running errands for Margaret. She liked sending me to places where other packs' she-wolves gathered. I think she enjoyed the idea of me being seen as Graymist's servant in front of witnesses.

Today I'd come alone. Not for Margaret. For myself.

The post was busy. She-wolves moved between stalls displaying everything from imported fabrics to rare herbs. Most wore the confident postures of wolves with rank, with packs, with names that meant something. I recognized a few faces from pack gatherings over the years. None of them recognized me.

I stopped at a jewelry stall near the back. The merchant was an older she-wolf named Vera. Her hair was silver, her hands steady as she arranged items on black velvet. A moonstone pendant caught the light. It was simple but beautiful, the stone's surface shifting between blue and white.

I reached out, not quite touching it.

"Interested?" Vera's voice was quiet, assessing.

"Just looking," I said.

She nodded and turned to help another customer. I let my fingers hover over the pendant, watching the way the light moved through it. My wolf stirred. She liked it. She wanted it. Not because it was expensive or rare, but because it was beautiful and we were allowed to want beautiful things.

I was still looking at it when I heard her voice.

"What would a packless Omega want with jewelry like that?"

Nina's voice carried. It was designed to carry. I looked up. She stood a few feet away, flanked by two she-wolves I didn't recognize. Her dress was pale pink today, perfectly fitted. Her smile was sharp.

The trading post didn't go silent. That would have been too dramatic. But conversations near us slowed. Heads turned. She-wolves paused mid-transaction to watch.

Nina stepped closer to the stall. "Moonstone pendants are for she-wolves of noble blood. Family heirlooms. Mating gifts." She glanced at me, then at the pendant. "Not for wolves who scrub floors."

I didn't move. My thumb found the inside of my wrist. Once. Twice.

Nina reached toward the counter where the pendant lay. Not grabbing it, but claiming the space around it. Establishing ownership through proximity. "Vera, I'd like to see this piece. My family has a collection of moonstones. I'm sure this would complement them beautifully."

Vera had gone very still.

I watched the old merchant's face. Her eyes were on me. Not on Nina. Not on the pendant. On me.

Something shifted in her expression. Her nostrils flared slightly, like she was scenting something. Her pupils dilated. Then she did something I hadn't expected.

She bowed.

Not a polite nod. A full, deep bow. The kind you gave to an Alpha. Or higher.

The trading post noticed. Conversations stopped now. Actually stopped.

Vera straightened slowly. Her hands were shaking slightly as she lifted the moonstone pendant from its velvet display. She held it with both hands, presenting it to me with the kind of reverence I'd only ever seen directed at my father.

"Princess," she said quietly. "Please accept this with my deepest respect."

The word hung in the air like a gunshot.

I looked at her. She met my eyes steadily, and I saw recognition there. Real recognition. She'd sensed something. My suppressed aura had slipped, just for a moment, and she'd felt it.

I took the pendant. "Thank you, Vera."

My voice was calm. Normal. Like this happened every day.

Vera bowed again. Deeper this time.

I turned and walked away. I didn't look at Nina. I didn't need to. I could feel the shock radiating from her like heat.

Behind me, the trading post erupted in whispers.

I was halfway back to Graymist territory when I felt the mate bond twist. Bodie was agitated about something. The sensation was distant, muffled by three years of practice at ignoring it.

I kept walking.

---

Nina's mind-link must have reached Bodie during dinner.

I wasn't there. I was in my small room, the moonstone pendant sitting on the narrow windowsill where the light could catch it. But I heard about it later from one of the kitchen staff who liked to gossip.

Apparently, Nina had gone pale mid-meal. Her eyes had gone distant the way they did when someone was mind-linking. Then she'd leaned toward Bodie, whispering urgently.

Bodie had laughed.

Loud enough that the whole table heard.

"A merchant bowed to her?" His voice had been full of amused disbelief. "Vera's been running that post for forty years. She's probably confused half the bloodlines on the continent by now."

The wolves around the table had laughed with him. Nina hadn't.

"I'm telling you," she'd insisted, her voice lower now. "Something was wrong. The way Vera looked at her—"

"You're being paranoid," Bodie had said, still smiling. He'd reached over and squeezed her hand. "Scarlet is packless. She has no bloodline, no rank, no connections. A confused old she-wolf's mistake doesn't change that."

The conversation had moved on. Nina had stayed quiet for the rest of the meal.

But when I heard the story, I thought about the look in her eyes at the trading post. The shock. The fear.

She'd felt something shift. She didn't know what it was yet. But she'd felt it.

Good.

I picked up the moonstone pendant and held it up to the light. It shifted between blue and white, beautiful and simple.

One week until the Lunar Summit.

I set the pendant down and closed my eyes, feeling my wolf stir beneath my skin. Patient. Waiting.

Soon.