"I'm here for my mate," Kaeren announced.
Drodd and Imogen exchanged a look of pure malice like they weren't the ones who sent me to the palace in the first place.
"Your mate?" Drodd asked, his voice thin with false concern. "Oh, sir... if you mean Waverly, there's been a mistake. The Moon Goddess must be testing you. That girl is a slut. She sleeps with every pack member who has a spare coin. She's dirty, she's violent—she even slept with one today!"
"Exactly!" Imogen chimed in. "Now, our Tasha... she's a gem. Pure. Elegant. She's the one who should be by your side."
I'm going to kill them, I thought, my knuckles turning white as I gripped the wooden shard. I almost stood up. I almost burst through that door to scream the truth—that Tasha was the one sneaking out every night while I worked.
But I froze. If I went out there, I was confirming I was his. I was confirming my death warrant.
"The Shamans on TV said it!" Drodd added, leaning in. "They said the Moon Goddess is flexible now! She lets you reject a bond for a 'second fated mate' if the first one is... well, damaged goods. Take Tasha. We'll sign the papers, and you can forget that orphan even exists."
Kaeren stood up.
The movement was so sudden, so full of raw, unfiltered power, that my foster parents scrambled backward, tripping over their own feet. He didn't look at Tasha or the greedy monsters in front of him.
He turned his head toward the back hallway. Toward the closet.
"Enough," Kaeren growled.
The sound made Pia howl in my head in submission. "I don't care about your TV shamans, and I don't care for your lies."
He took a step toward the hallway, his golden eyes locking onto the cracks in my closet door.
"Waverly. I know you're in there. Stop hiding in the dark and come out."
My heart stopped. He knows.
"Come out," he repeated, "before I tear this shack down to bring make you."
The wood of the closet door didn't feel like a shield anymore.
His voice didn't just reach my ears; it vibrated in my marrow.
"He's not asking, Wave," Pia whimpered, her ears pinned back in my mind. "He's claiming us. If you don't move, he's going to level this place."
I looked at the blood on my dress. I looked at the jagged shard of wood in my hand. I was a mess—a violent, dirty glitch—and he was a Prince who had just been offered a "pure" alternative.
Yet, he was standing there, staring at a closet door.
I pushed the mattress aside. My legs felt like lead, but I forced myself to stand. I reached for the handle and pushed the door open.
The hallway was dark, but he was a beacon of golden light at the end of it. My family had huddled into the corner of the living room, faces full of shock as I stepped out into the dim light of the single flickering bulb.
"Waverly!" Imogen hissed, her eyes darting toward Kaeren. "Tell the Prince the truth! Tell him you're a nobody! Tell him you're leaving!"
I ignored her. My gaze was locked on Kaeren. Up close, without the baseball cap, he was terrifying. His power felt like a physical weight, pressing the oxygen out of the room.
"I'm not a nobody," I bellowed, forgetting the chaos in my chest.
I walked into the living room, standing in front of the man who had just proposed buying my freedom. "And I'm not a slut."
I looked at Tasha, who was still pouting on the floor, then at Drodd. "You spent my wages on jewelry and portfolios while I scrubbed floors. You tried to sell me to a miner for a gambling debt. And now you're trying to sell me to a Prince like I'm a piece of faulty equipment."
"How dare you—" Drodd started, but a single look from Austin silenced him.
I turned to Kaeren, finding my spine. "What do you want with me? You don't know me, and I certainly don't belong in your world."
He looked at me with an expression that was terrifyingly unreadable. "I'm taking you back, of course. After all, you ran off on me in Spain. I don't like losing things that belong to me, Waverly."
Huh? Does he really think I was the girl he met in Spain?
I blinked, the confusion overriding my fear. "Spain? I've never even been past the border of the Outer District. I don't even have a passport, let alone—"
"Spain," Kaeren repeated, eyes flashing me a warning. "Don't be modest. We both know what happened."
By the moon, he really believed I was the same girl he met over there.
"Or could he be telling you to play along?" Pia chipped in.
Judging from his stern expression, I didn't think so. This loosehead Prince really believed a girl from the shack was the same woman he had met in Spain!
"Wait, wait!" Drodd interjected, stepping forward with his hands outstretched as if he were trying to catch a falling bag of gold.
"If you're taking her... if she's really going to be a Luna... we need to be compensated! We've spent a fortune on this girl!"
WHAT?
"A fortune!" Imogen repeated, her eyes wide with greed. "Do you know how much it costs to feed a growing wolf? We gave her the best cuts of meat while we ate scraps! We spent thousands on her education, her clothes—look at that dress! It's silk!"
"It's polyester and it costs five credits at the thrift market," I snapped, my face heating up with embarrassment. "Moreover, it belongs to Gramps, and I paid for it with the money I made scrubbing the latrines while you took my wages for Tasha's shoes!"
"Lies! All lies! We spend at least five hundred credits a day on her upkeep! We deserve a settlement! A big one!" Drodd shouted.
"Everyone, just shut up! I'm not just taking Waverly. The whole family is leaving this shack." Kaeren dropped a bombshell that caused jaws to drop.
What?