Crede’s coronation goes by in a foggy blur. Words are spoken, promises made, and the new King of Summer is crowned. My gut twists and a slight pang of jealousy slams into me. Because even when I’m queen, I will never truly have a home again. My people - Noble’s pack, will never be mine and they will never honor me the way the lions respect Crede.

The day of my ceremony teases closer now that Crede rules Summer, and I know on my day I will stand before a pack that loathes me, beside a husband that is suspicious of me. He’s remained true to his word and has kept me safe, with Oren keeping my shadow company.

I know it’s meant to reassure me, to make me feel secure in my surroundings, but all it serves is a constant reminder that I do not belong. That actualization drills further into my brain the longer I stay in Summer, where once I stepped into the courtyard, I am not only welcome by my old pride, but celebrated as some sort of hero.

“We should go,” I say to Noble.

He tenses, and the separation between us seems to grow tenfold. “Aren’t you having fun? Your ladies seem quite happy to serve you, and your people do nothing but praise your presence.”

The sarcasm in his tone isn’t lost on me, but still I reach for kindness. And hope.

“They’re not my ladies or my people. Please, Noble, take me back home.” Loneliness drapes its familiar arms around my body, reminding me once again I don’t have a home.

“Crede wishes to have a final word with me before I go.” His bushy brows furrow and I rub a thumb over the bridge of his nose, smoothing out the creases. He takes my hand and kisses my finger. I melt into him the way I always do when he’s intimate with me.

“You don’t have to entertain him, my king. We’ve done our part in coming here. He treated us with disrespect when we first arrived, but despite that we stayed. There is nothing else required of us.”

He draws back, and his face hardens as he builds up his shield against me, his wife, again. “So eager to go back to your self-proclaimed prison, Liana?” he scoffs.

I sigh. “I’m eager to get back to our lives. Maybe then you’ll realize I’m not your enemy.”

He towers over me, with his face so close his breath falls on my face. I put a hand to his chest where I feel the erratic beat of his heart. He leans into me further, his arms go around me, caging me in. The knot in my gut twists tighter as the rest of me comes undone.

He means to intimidate me but when I jut out my chin, he unravels. His lips brush over mine, tasting and teasing and stirring up the passion and affection I harbor for only him.

My Noble.

It should terrify me how easy it is to lose myself, lose my resolve when Noble touches me. How easily I’d give in just to be in his arms.

Crede wasn’t wrong when he said he no longer recognized me. This woman who’d give everything up for a man as intolerable as he is good. I don’t know who I’ve become or how I got here, but I’m not ashamed of myself, either. Although Crede and my mother would disagree, I know I’m not weak, but stronger because of the chaotic feelings Noble stirs within me. And because of the chaotic feelings I stir in Noble.

If we could only come together in more ways than just lust…

“You are my wife,” he says on a growl against my lips. “I’m doing what’s right for you, so I’ll let Crede have his say and then we’ll be on our way.”

I run my hands over his back and through the fabric of his clothes I feel his muscles twitch in response. “And when we get back home, will you take me to bed?”

His lips dance and spread into a brilliant smile. “If that is what my wife wishes.”

“It is,” I purr.

“Our vows.” He rushes the words on a single breath. “Our marriage, I mean. You want to make that work?”

“Yes.” I sigh, hope flittering behind my ribcage. “More than anything, I want us to be more than husband and wife on paper. I want it in here.” I press my palm against his chest. “I want to know what it’s like to be loved by you, Noble, and I want you to know what it’s like to be loved unconditionally, in every way that I can.”

The smile that crosses over his face and spreads to his ashen eyes makes my heart stutter. Again, he presses his lips to mine and then trails kisses over my face and eyes. A few ladies beside us giggle at the show of emotion, but that doesn’t stop either of us.

“There will be no more secrets between us,” he says but it comes out sounding like a question. A lone, slender finger grazes over the wedding ring he returned to me and I capture his hand with mine to press it over my heart.

“No more, I swear it.”

He smiles and my heart soars. “When we get home,” he promises between kisses, “I’ll show you how loved and cherished you are. Every day, Liana.”

“Every day, Noble, until my heart beats no more.”

He kisses me again and when he spins on his heels to find Crede, I touch everywhere his lips had caressed. Hope grows stronger and I bite my bottom lip to keep the smile from taking over my face.

As Noble stalks off to speak to Crede, my mother clasps a hand over my arm while my father stands behind her. I go into my mother’s open arms and breathe in the familiar scent of cedar that clings to her like expensive perfume. For the first time since my wedding day, I turn to my father and am taken aback when tumultuous eyes greet me.

“What is it?” I ask.

My mother frowns and flips a nonchalant hand in my father’s direction. “Your father is being dramatic. Shall we go to my room and talk?” She smiles, a calculated lift that I know from childhood.

I nod and extend a hand to my father, who immediately clings on to my fingers. His hands are sweaty and shaky while he tries to keep an impassive expression on his face. And it is the calm he tries to summon that scares me most.

We leave the great room before I have time to make eye contact with Noble to let him know I’m stepping out, and walk briskly through the hallways. The sound of my mother’s heels clacking on the hardwood floor follows us until we arrive at their bedroom door.

Looking to the side, my father opens the door for us and ushers me inside with a press of his hand to my back. I shoot him a confused look, but he simply shakes his head, and resigned he sits on the couch furthest from us.

My mother guides me to her bed where we both sit. She brushes stray strands of hair from my face.

“My Liana.” She hugs me. “I’ve missed you so.”

“I’ve missed you too, my lady,” I reply with a soft kiss to her cheek. “But Father is making me nervous. Can you please tell me what’s wrong?”

My mother sends him an annoyed sideways glance. “Nothing you need to fret about, dear one. Everything is being taken care of.”

Anxiety grips my throat and I do my best to swallow past it. “What is being taken care of?”

She pats my cheek, her eyes alight with whatever secret she means to keep from me. So many secrets. All of them ending poorly.

“Tell her.” My father’s voice slices through the room.

My mother, still a queen in her own right, sends him a chilly look. “My lord,” she argues with a bow of her head.

“Tell your daughter what you’ve done!”

I shudder in a breath, my vision dancing from my mother to my father. On wobbly legs, I stand and walk to the base of the bed. I grip the bedframe until my knuckles whiten, and I close my eyes, trying to focus on noise just outside their open window. It’s a nonsensical task, one that does nothing to calm me.

“It was you.” I open my lids, fighting back the threatening tears. “You killed the king wolf, Noble’s father. You had him murdered, for me?” I question, unable to stop the trembling in my voice.

“For you, my daughter. For you, I’d kill a hundred kings to see you take your rightful place on the throne.”

She takes my hand in hers and I throw her grip off me. Clutching my aching heart, I take a few steps back. “I didn’t ask it of you,” I say. “I never wanted…”

“You’d have settled to be Princess of Wolves.” A humorless laugh spills from her lips and I taste her disappointment. “You must know I couldn’t have that, Liana.”

“It wasn’t your decision to make, Mother! You and Father asked me to marry a wolf for the better of our pride and I did. How was killing the king wolf better for our pride? You’ve brought on a war between two realms my father wished to unite so we could fight the human hunters.”

“We will be united. You are still our gateway to peace. As we speak, Crede is imprisoning Noble for attacking him and his guards.”

Her confession steals the electricity in the air.

“Attacking? Noble wouldn’t attack Crede without justification. I want to see him. I want to see my husband,” I demand.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible.” My mother stands, elegant and stoic with every movement she makes. “Your husband is being charged for high treason. It would be wise of you to remember that, Liana, so that when you and Crede go back to Winter as the new king and queen of both realms…”

“King and queen?” I interrupt.

A small smile flits across her face. “Yes, Liana. You shall be wedded to Crede immediately. Your coronation will take place soon thereafter. Then, you will ride to Winter and let the people know they are now under your ruling. We,” she looks to my father with a satisfied gleam behind her light eyes, “are one, just as your father wished us to be.”

“No.” I back away further from my mother, a stranger I know too well. “You can’t do this. Don’t do this to me, Mother. Noble is…”

“Is a wolf that you should never have married,” she cuts me off with an abruptness that makes my insides shake. “You were born into royalty. It is high time you acted like the queen I raised you to be instead of the foolish child standing before me.”

I straighten my shoulders, making my back a rigid line while I face off with my mother, the woman I’ve looked up to my whole life. And I send a quiet prayer to the gods that Oren isn’t too far and maybe – maybe he can help us.

“I am acting as the future Queen of Winter and demand you release my husband, the rightful king of my realm.”

My father rises from the couch and with three long strides he stands before me. He braces me with his large hands on my shoulders. “Your mother has started this and Crede has followed her orders. We must see it through.” His tone is apologetic, his eyes encompassing all the sadness and deception I also feel. “If we release Noble and let you go back to Winter with him, you will be in grave danger. Your life is at stake, Liana. The only way out of this mess is to permit your mother to see this through.”

The door behind us opens and I spin to face it, to run through the hallways until I find Noble, but my father’s grip on me tightens. Crede saunters into the room, wiping his hands on a white towel smeared in blood.

I blink at him, and then blink again. “Whose blood is that?”

“This?” He grins, holding the towel out so I can examine it. “That’s your husband’s blood. I’m sure your mother,” he tips his head at her, “told you all about him attacking me.”

“Yet, you don’t have a scratch on you. Perhaps I should rectify that?”

“There’s my lioness. I knew Noble hadn’t tamed her out of you.” He steps into me and I look away.

Without thought, I slap him, digging my nails across his cheek. He growls, his eyes darkening as he trails a finger over the small trickle of blood on his face. With poised movements, I grip his wrist, noting the scrapes on his hand and put his finger in my mouth. I swirl my tongue across the tip and he moans. I drop his hand and move a step closer to him, so our faces barely touch.

“I never loved you,” I tell him, my voice devoid of all emotions. “I loved the idea of you, the idea of ruling with you, but never you. Now,” my tongue sneaks out, “I know why. You taste like everything I hate. You taste like the prison I was freed from when my father betrothed me to Noble. He was my salvation.” I press closer to him so that my chest rests on his. “How does it feel to know you were nothing more than a pawn? That I used you to get what I thought I wanted? And left you without a second thought? How tragic it must be to be you, Crede, King of the Lions, Ruler of all the Realms. You have nothing but a title you don’t deserve and will be wed to women who seek nothing but the throne.”

Crede rests his thumb on my lifted chin and gives me a small smile. “What do you have? You have less than me, Liana.”

On a scream I hardly recognize as my own, I twist his fingers from my chin and leap away from him so that we can no longer occupy the same space. Our eyes crash, anger pulses between us. A muscle on his jaw ticks, making the claw marks on his face dance. A rush of air passes through his nose and I feel it – the enormity of what he’s done, of what my mother has done, of what my father is asking me to accept.

I lean toward Crede and as if by instinct he also inches toward me. His scent, the scent I once recognized as love and devotion, invades my nostrils. I hate it, almost as much as I hate him. Through narrow eyes, I curve in closer and spit on his face.

With an ugly sneer on his pained face, Crede takes out a white handkerchief from the front pocket of his suit and cleans the spittle from his cheek. He then throws it at me and I watch it fall and land at my feet.

“Guards!” he shouts, his eyes never leaving my face.

Two men run into the room and take us in and I wonder if they can sense all the hatred boiling between us. Crede lifts his chin in my direction and they both rush toward me, each on either side, and hold me with both my hands wound behind my back.

“Am I your prisoner now, too, Crede?”

“Silence!” His voice booms in the quiet room. “You will obey me. You will obey your mother and father.”

“Liana,” my father pleads. His voice, the helpless surrender in his tone breaks me. His face has lost all its color and I feel my own blood drain from my face.

Spent, my shoulders slump forward and the guards release me.

Defeated, I put my face in my hands and fight the unbearable pain that thrums behind my chest. My heart, that poor organ, that weeps every time I think of Noble locked away, unable to be free. Surely, he can’t keep the wolf at bay, and soon Crede will know what lies behind the façade Noble and his parents have carefully built to hide away his secret.

Everyone but me. His wife, who he entrusted with his deepest secret. His wife, who he turned away from when things got difficult. His wife, who no matter the circumstances, he seems to always circle back to.

It was me that was able to speak to the wolf and bring back the man when he battled my father. And it is me that will save Noble from the clutches of the very people I thought I could trust.

I turn and walk to the window, drawing the shades open. A warm breeze flows through the open window and I breathe in Summer, the only home I’ve ever known. The same home I need to flee from. A small rustle from the bushes below draws my attention as I try to drone out the voices of the very people I’ve always turned to. I search the bushes for a solution I can’t find and swallow a gasp when I find a pair of familiar red eyes peering back at me.

Oren, the shadow I’ve begrudged since Noble demanded he look after me, watches me in his wolf form. Anger brims from his eyes and I can only hope he’s heard enough to know Noble’s in danger.

Help Noble, I mouth, and he vanishes from sight.

“No.” I turn, facing Crede and my parents. “I will not stay, I will not be your wife or queen. I am already married to a man I honor. It was your decision to marry me to a wolf for our pride,” I say to my mother. “And it is my decision to stay with him. You’ve not only jeopardized my life by having Noble’s father killed, but jeopardized the life of every soul in our realm. It is now my duty to bring peace between the two realms. You will release Noble.”

“No.” With jerky strides, Crede comes to me, digging his fingers into my arm. “Have you not listened to a word your mother has spoken? If we release Noble and his pack finds out your mother…”

“You will release Noble!” I shout. “And I will tell them myself the treachery that has fallen onto his family by my family.”

“Are you mad? Have you lost all your senses?”

“No, but you have.” I turn from Crede and address my father. “Please,” I plead with him, hoping I can still reach him, “do something.”

“I’m sorry, Liana, but I don’t know what I can do after what your mother and Crede have done. If we release Noble, there will be a war among our two realms.”

“If you don’t release him, there will be a war! Or do you think there will be no retaliation for his unprecedented imprisonment?”

“That is where you come in, my Liana.” Crede caresses my face. When I growl at him, he chuckles. “You will go along with our plan and Noble’s life will be saved.”

“Saved?” I laugh. “Saved to live out his life in a prison cell? How is that any life for a wolf?”

“We are not negotiating terms. Either you agree and help us unite the two realms, or you don’t.”

“And if I disagree?”

My mother inhales a deep breath as worry lines map over her sullen face. The two guards melt into the background, molding their bodies against the walls of my mother’s room.

“Then you are against us,” Crede says.

“I am against you, then. I will not take any part in you bringing down my husband or our pack. Take me to Noble.” I turn from them and when my mother’s cold fingers reach to touch my face, I grip her wrist. “Take me to Noble. Now.”

“Take her.” She waves me away, directing her attention to the two guards. “Torture her wolf until she changes her mind.”

Sorrow strangles me, and my father holds his arms out expecting me to crumble. Instead, I keep myself upright, feeling my soul grow cold. Unsure of everything, but my desire to save Noble, my fight dies as the beginnings of a feeble plan forms. I know how I can save Noble, but it all depends on Oren. On whether he’s able to rescue Noble on his own, or if not, if he’s able to trust me.

Hope. That’s all I seem to have these days. An endless sea of fallible hope.

The web of lies continue to grow and spread on this new foundation I set my feet on.

“That will not be necessary,” I say, setting my plan in motion, hoping it’ll stick. “Let me see Noble one final time. Then I will ride to Winter and demand my coronation. I must be made their queen first. Only then, will your plan to take over Winter work.”

“How do you expect to make the wolves listen to your demands when they hardly tolerate you?”

I stare at him through slit eyes. “I am Liana, destined to be queen of all the realms,” I say.

My mom’s face breaks into a smile that would normally fill me with joy. But today… today, I am numb to everything but my need to save Noble.