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If you aren’t around, the pack can keep her safe.

It’s not the pack’s job to keep her safe! It’s ours!

Then protect her!

The lycan’s fury surged through me, threatening to take control.

I shoved him down and locked him away in a cage deep within me.

I was unwilling to battle his rage on top of everything else going on.

There were no answers to Kylie’s condition, no solutions laid out before me, and that left only one brutal choice—to decide my next move.

If she couldn’t regain her strength, if her weakness put the kingdom at risk, then rejecting my mate might be the only path forward.

A harsh truth, but one I might have to face.

Kylie had brought happiness into my life that I didn’t know was missing.

Just knowing she was upstairs waiting for me was enough to lift my spirits.

Thinking of her gave me the drive to push through everything standing between us so I could get back to her.

It had been that way from the moment I brought her home, and the thought of losing her was something I couldn’t stomach.

But as king, the weight of tough choices rested solely on my shoulders, whether I wanted it to or not.

That was the dilemma. If I went through with this, it would be the hardest choice I’d ever have to make.

Fated mates were rare—a bond not easily discarded—and rejecting one wasn’t a decision to be made on impulse.

Yet, keeping Kylie bound to me just to sustain her, just to give her enough strength to survive, felt just as dangerous.

Neither path was simple, and neither could be taken lightly.

Either path meant sacrifice. No matter which way I turned, something or someone would be lost. If I kept Kylie tethered to me just to sustain her, I would weaken not only her but also the kingdom’s faith in its queen.

And if I let her go, I would lose the mate I had barely known.

A month was nothing, a blink, yet it had already reshaped everything.

There was no simple answer, no clear direction forward. The weight of responsibility pressing down on me demanded that I make a choice no one should have to face.

I exhaled sharply as the scent of coconut drifted through the air.

Why did Nova have to come in now? She strode in like she owned the place, sinking into the chair with practiced ease.

The little clothing she wore left much to the imagination.

There was only a small scrap of fabric wrapped tightly around her chest, and the skirt rode so high that it barely qualified as clothing.

The curve of her bare skin was impossible to ignore.

She shifted seductively in a deliberate display that only aggravated my mood further.

“What do you want, Nova?” I said through my teeth.

This wasn’t something I had time for. Two hours had passed since I left the room, and the bond pulled at me, demanding I return to Kylie.

But ignoring it came easier than I expected.

I had other matters to handle, and pushing aside the instinct to be near her wasn’t the struggle I had anticipated.

I’d heard that the bond’s intensity faded over time, that the craving for proximity eventually dulled—but for it to feel so effortless already? That was unsettling.

Maybe I didn’t want this bond as much as I thought I did. My lycan wasn’t demanding to see her, either. After I put him in the cage, he seemed content to be away from her.

What is wrong with me?

“Trouble in paradise already, my king?”

I snarled in her direction before pulling the laptop closer to me. The need to destroy the evidence of what I was searching for came to mind. I didn’t need anyone rooting through my records and discovering how weak Kylie really was.

“Not at all, Nova. Anything else bothering you?”

She had her hands on the arms of the chair, her chest puffed out to draw my attention. Instead, I stared past her and trained my face to look bored. Maybe if it didn’t look like I cared, she would get the point. It was bad enough that I had doubts. I didn’t need her knowing that I did.

“It’s bothering me to see my queen getting so tired. Tell me, my king, is our queen in need of something?”

I let loose a deep growl as a warning. If Nova could see something was wrong with Kylie, could the rest of the pack see it, too? What did everyone else think of her?

“I need to get back to my mate—that’s all. Before I can do that, I need to tend to the kingdom first.”

Nova reached into her chest to hold on to her necklace, running the crystal moon along the chain.

She baited me to look by doing this, but I knew better than to give in to that urge.

Nova had been playing this game for a long time.

My lycan didn’t trust her, and right now, he was snarling inside me.

“The kingdom that’s falling apart without you having a strong mate by your side?”

That wasn’t true. The data from the reports didn’t lie. Since Kylie became part of the pack, there hadn’t been much of a difference in the reports. A few more rogue sightings occurred, and a pack neighboring the rogue lands was attacked. That was it. Did Nova know something more than I did?

“Nothing in the reports reflects that, Nova. Nice try.”

“Hmm,” she moaned as she twirled her necklace around some more. “The pack isn’t too happy about your choice to accept Kylie as your mate. As someone that many pack members like to confide in, I can tell you that none of us is happy with it.”

That was a lie, plain and simple. Eli had always been the one the pack turned to in my absence, a role he stepped into naturally.

My father had trained me to be the same, shaping me into a leader who understood the pulse of the kingdom.

Pack members constantly filtered in and out of my office, voicing their concerns or sharing what they appreciated about our way of life.

Not once had anyone come forward to complain about Kylie as luna.

If anything, the omegas welcomed her presence.

They spoke highly of her approach to organizing the chore rotations.

There was no fear or resentment. They only expressed approval.

I wouldn’t entertain fabricated whispers of dissatisfaction.

“I don’t know what you are talking about, and neither do you. You are trying to make me doubt my mate. Maybe I need to find a different pack for you to reside with instead of continuing to allow you to stir the pot.”

She leaned forward, a smile playing on her lips like she knew something I didn’t. “Sure, believe that. We both know you’re doubting how you feel about her. We can all feel it in the bonds. Just as we can feel the weak link within the pack. If we can feel that, so can the rest of the packs.”

Fuck. That was true. The power of the pack bonds meant being able to sense the needs of everyone in the pack. The alpha could feel it better than anyone else, but it wasn’t just them who could sense things through the bonds. It also informed everyone if someone died within the pack or was injured.

She leaned in again, the smile dropping from her lips. “I told you mating her would be a mistake. Now, the whole pack can sense how weak she is. They’ll blame you if something goes wrong. Remember that, my king. This is the only warning you’ll get from anyone.”

“Is that a threat?” I snarled through clenched teeth.

“No. It’s not.”

Nova stood from her seat and swayed her hips as she walked out the door.

The coconut scent lingered and soured my stomach.

If Nova was correct, it meant the pack was shielding me from their true feelings about my mate.

If they didn’t believe I was strong enough to lead the pack and kingdom, someone would challenge me for the throne.

This throne has been in my family since the beginning of time.

I couldn’t disappoint my entire lineage over anyone or anything.

Rejecting Kylie might be my only hope of keeping the pack safe.