Elara’s POV

"I think my mommy is nearby."

The words drifted across the lane like smoke. Soft. Certain. Devastating.

My lungs forgot how to work.

Through the crack in the cart’s wooden slats, I watched my five-year-old son’s face. His dark gold eyes burned with a focus that didn’t belong to a child. He stood perfectly still in the middle of the road, chin raised, nostrils flaring with each slow, measured breath.

He wasn’t guessing. He knew.

"Down," Finnian breathed. His hand found the back of my neck and forced me flat against the cart floor. Straw poked through my cloak. The musty smell of the wool filled my nose. "Stay down. Don’t move. Don’t breathe."

I pressed my face into the rough planks and bit my tongue until I tasted copper.

Above me, Finnian shifted. I heard the soft click of the reins being gathered. The cart creaked as he adjusted his weight.

Through the slats, I could still see fragments. Valerius’s small boots on the cobblestones. The hem of his academy tunic. The nanny crouching beside him, her hand on his shoulder.

"Come now, dear," the nanny said gently. "Your mommy isn’t here. Let’s get you home before supper gets cold."

Valerius didn’t move. His boots stayed planted. "She’s here. I can feel her. She smells like winter and the white flowers in Papa’s garden."

The nanny laughed—a warm, practiced sound. The laugh of someone accustomed to managing a child’s imagination. "Sweetheart, you say that every time we pass this district. Remember last week? You thought you smelled her near the bakery."

"This is different." His voice dropped. Quiet. Absolute. "This is real."

My fingers curled into the straw. A sob built behind my ribs, pressing against bone. I swallowed it whole.

He remembers my scent.

After all this time. After everything. He remembers.

"Ela," Finnian whispered. Barely audible. "I’m going to move us. Stay flat."

The reins snapped softly. The cart lurched forward.

I clamped both hands over my mouth. The wheels groaned against cobblestone. Each rotation carried me further from my son—from that small, determined figure standing in the road with his father’s eyes and my stubbornness, searching for a mother who was hiding just steps away like a coward.

Through the slats, I caught one last glimpse.

Valerius turned his head sharply toward the sound of the cart. His gold gaze tracked us. For one terrible, endless heartbeat, I could have sworn he looked directly at me through the gap in the wood.

Then the nanny’s hand found his. "Come along, sweetheart. The carriage is waiting."

A pause.

"Okay," Valerius said. Small. Reluctant. The word of a boy who knew no one believed him.

The cart turned a corner. The oak tree disappeared. The academy lane fell away behind us.

And I shattered.

The sobs came like a dam breaking. My whole body convulsed against the cart floor. I curled into myself, knees to chest, fist pressed against my mouth so hard my teeth cut into my knuckles. The sounds that escaped were barely human—raw, guttural, ripped from somewhere so deep inside me I didn’t know it existed.

Finnian drove faster. The cart rattled and bounced over uneven roads. He didn’t slow down. Didn’t speak. He just drove, jaw locked, knuckles white on the reins, putting as much distance as possible between us and the boy who could sense his mother’s blood.

Sovereign bloodline.

The words echoed through my fractured mind like a curse.

Of course. Of course. Valerius wasn’t just any child. He was Kaelen’s son. The son of an Alpha Emperor. His senses weren’t developing the way normal children’s did. They were sharpening. Accelerating. The sovereign blood running through his veins gave him abilities that shouldn’t manifest for years yet.

And those abilities had locked onto me like a compass finding north.

If he told Kaelen—

My stomach heaved.

If Valerius went home tonight and told his father that he’d sensed me near the academy, Kaelen wouldn’t dismiss it. He wouldn’t pat the boy’s head and call it imagination. Kaelen would listen. Kaelen would believe him. And then Kaelen would tear apart every building within five miles until he found me.

Not because he loved me.

Because I was his. Because I had dared to leave. Because an Alpha Emperor did not lose what belonged to him.

The cart stopped.

I didn’t move.

"We’re home," Finnian said quietly. "Ela. We’re at the house. You can get up."

I couldn’t. My arms were lead. My legs were numb. The sobs had subsided into silent tremors that shook my ribcage in steady, rhythmic waves.

Finnian climbed down. I heard his boots on gravel. Then hands—strong, careful hands—reaching into the cart and pulling me upright.

"Can you walk?"

I nodded. I couldn’t.

He half-carried me through the front door.

Margaret was in the kitchen. The smell of bread and herb soup filled the narrow hallway. She turned at the sound of us, her face bright with the expectation of good news.

The brightness died the instant she saw me.

"Oh." Her hand went to her chest. "Oh, dear. Oh, sweetheart."

She crossed the kitchen in three strides and pulled me into her arms. I collapsed against her. She smelled like flour and lavender and warmth—the smell of a mother I’d never had, given freely by a woman who owed me nothing.

"He sensed me," I whispered into her shoulder. "Valerius. He knew I was there. He could—Margaret, he smelled me. He stood in the middle of the street and told everyone his mommy was nearby."

Her arms tightened. She didn’t say it would be all right. She didn’t offer empty comfort. She simply held me and stroked my hair and let me shake apart in her kitchen.

Behind me, Finnian spoke low to someone. Robert. I heard the front door close. The scrape of a chair being pulled out.

Margaret guided me to the table. Set me down. Pressed a cup of hot tea into my trembling hands. The ceramic was warm against my frozen fingers.

"Drink," she said softly. "Small sips, dear. Just breathe."

I drank. The tea burned my tongue. I didn’t care.

The tremors faded slowly. The room came back into focus. Margaret’s worried face. Finnian leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed, his expression carved from stone. Robert sitting across from me, hands folded on the table, his weathered face grim.

The silence lasted long enough for me to find my voice.

"I can’t stay here."

Margaret’s hand stilled on my back.

"I can’t stay," I repeated. Steadier now. The words tasted like ash. "If Valerius tells Kaelen what he sensed—if Kaelen believes him—he’ll search this entire area. Every house. Every farm. Every barn. He won’t stop until he finds me. And when he does, he’ll find all of you too."

"Ela—" Finnian started.

"No." I set the cup down. Looked at each of them. These people who had taken me in. Fed me. Given me a bed and a hearth and kindness I hadn’t earned. "I will not bring danger to this house. I will not let my problems become yours. You’ve already given me more than I had any right to ask for."

Margaret’s eyes filled. "Where would you even go?"

I’d been thinking about it since the cart ride. Through the sobs and the shaking and the animal terror, the answer had formed with cold, surgical clarity.

"The mortal world."

Robert’s chair scraped against the floor. Finnian pushed off the doorframe.

"Tomorrow morning," I continued. "I’ll go to the waystation. Cross into the human territories. Find clerical work. Rent a small apartment somewhere. Somewhere with no wolves, no sovereign bloodlines, no heightened senses. Somewhere I can simply... disappear."

"The mortal world is no place for—" Finnian caught himself. Swallowed. Tried again. "You’d be alone. Completely alone. No pack. No protection."

"I’ve been alone before."

"Not like this."

"Exactly like this." I met his eyes. "I survived it once. I’ll survive it again."

The kitchen fell silent. Margaret pressed a handkerchief to her face. Robert stared at the table, his jaw working.

Finnian’s throat moved. He looked away, then nodded slowly.

It was Robert who spoke first.

"Then we’ll take you to the waystation ourselves." His voice was rough. Heavy. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Tomorrow morning. Finnian and I will drive you. Make sure you get there safe."

Finnian crouched beside my chair, his expression steady. "We’ll get you there safely, Ela. I promise." 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Margaret let out a small, broken sound. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she reached across the table and took both my hands.

"You listen to me, sweetheart," she said, her voice trembling but fierce. "You are family. Do you understand?"

She squeezed my fingers so hard it almost hurt.

"And our door is always open to you," Margaret whispered, her red-rimmed eyes locking onto mine. "Always."