Damon
Outside, the courtyard stirred with the usual sounds–guards drilling, candidates murmuring in clipped, polite tones. But in my office, the silence pressed in on me like fog, heavy and muffling. The only sound was the sharp scratch of my pen against parchment as I signed off on trial amendments.
It was busywork. Intentional. I hadn’t been able to focus since Elena left.
My gaze drifted to the hearth across the room. The embers had long since dimmed to ash, and I hadn’t bothered to relight them. The cold matched the hollow ache in my chest.
She’d asked to leave. For her mother, she said. And I granted it without question. Without warmth.
Because the moment I saw her in approach–shoulders drawn back but voice cracking–I knew she wasn’t lying about her mother. But I also knew she was lying about something else. I just didn’t know what yet.
My wolf hadn’t stopped pacing since she left. Zane didn’t trust easily, and yet the moment we touched her, he’d gone still. Certain.
Now he circled inside me, frustrated. Hurt. She left with too much of me still in her hands.
A soft knock broke the silence, and I straightened. “Enter.”
The door creaked open and Ronan stepped inside, closing it swiftly behind him. In his hands he carried a plain envelope, sealed with the private sigil of the royal guard. Confidential.
My spine straightened. “Tell me that’s what I think it is.”
He approached without a word, setting the envelope on the edge of the desk like it might burn us both.
“I kept it quiet,” he said. “Per your request. No one else has seen this.”
I nodded once, then broke the seal.
The report was thin–but thorough. Not an official investigation, but a personal one. Tracking inconsistencies. Timelines. A summary of past behavior, public and private. Cross–referenced witness accounts.
The first tremor of unease moved through me.
“You said Vanessa flagged it,” Ronan said quietly. “She said Elena was acting… off. Different from the girl she grew up with. I didn’t give it weight at first. But then we traced a gap in school attendance records. Missing medical reports. A discrepancy in bloodline documentation.”
I flipped through the pages slowly. The deeper I went, the more the tension in my chest coiled tighter.
Elena Ashford’s documentation had holes. And whoever stood before me these past few weeks… filled them too well.
“She’s not who she says she is,” I said, voice low.
“We can’t prove who she is yet,” Ronan replied. “But this version of Elena doesn’t match the original. Personality changes happen as people grow, but not like this.”
Not this completely. Not this deliberately.
A hollow ache grew beneath my ribs. The draft of a letter I wrote her still sat in the drawer beside me. Words about hope and connection and… what must she have done when she read the one lended up sending?
Had she read it and laughed? Or had she cried?
1/3
Chapter 56
Zane was silent now, simmering beneath the surface, more confused than angry. I understood. I felt like a fool. My wolf had wanted her. He still did,
But the King in me… could not afford weakness.
“Keep it between us,” I said. “For now.”
Ronan nodded. “And her father?”
I didn’t answer. Because part of me already knew what this was. A powerplay that I’d fallen for.
I closed the folder and let the quiet return. But this time, it was loaded with the weight of yet another betrayal. And yet, beneath the ache, one question pulsed: If it was all a lie… why did it still feel so damn real?
After Ronan left, I sat for a long while with the report closed and my hands clenched around the edge of the desk. A dozen thoughts circled my mind like vultures, each one more bloodthirsty than the last.
She lied.
She used me.
She never existed at all.
The longer I stared at the folder, the more I wanted to tear it apart and pretend I’d never seen it. But that would make me a fool three times over.
The fire in the hearth crackled faintly now–Ronan must’ve relit it on his way out. But the warmth didn’t reach me. In this moment, it felt like nothing did.
I stood and crossed to the window, bracing my forearm against the frame. Outside, dusk painted the sky in molten pink and shadowed gold. The horizon glowed like a wound refusing to close.
She’d stood there in my arms, in the conservatory garden, surrounded by night–blooming flowers. She’d shown me her heart, her voice trembling like she’d never shared anything so real before.
Had that been the lie? Or was that the truth? I didn’t know anymore.
A knock sounded, low and insistent.
“Enter,” I said without looking.
Ronan again. Back already.
“You should know,” he said, quieter this time. “There’s more. Not on paper. But from what I’ve gathered… some of the staff have started to notice. Not enough to make accusations. But enough to whisper.”
“Whispers become wildfire,” I murmured.
He stepped further into the room, closing the door behind him. “Do you want me to start asking questions? Discreetly.”
“No.” I turned slowly. “I don’t want a public scene. Not yet. Not until I’m sure.”
“You’re not sure?” His tone held surprise. “Damon, that file-‘
“Isn’t proof. Not enough.” I cut him off, sharper than intended. “It’s doubt. But I want more than doubt before I destroy someone.”
Ronan studied me. “You believe her.”
“I believed her,” I corrected. “Now I don’t know what to believe.”
I crossed to the table where the report stint lay, closed tight like I couldn’t bear to examine it a second time. My hand hovered over it, then dropped.
2/3
Chapter 56
“I saw the way she looked at me,” I said. “Felt her hand in mine. And I’m not naive enough to think that means anything on its own. But she was scared. And it wasn’t just fear of failure. It was deeper than that. You can’t fake a weight that heavy”
Ronan didn’t respond, but his familiar presence grounded me.
“I offered her a chance,” I said. “Not a command. A choice.”
“And she made it,” he replied.
“She did,” I said softly. “Which means either I was right… or she’s better at this game than anyone I’ve ever met.”
Ronan didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. I could feel the doubt radiating off him. He was a soldier, trained to act on truth, not gut. But he wasn’t pushing for her expulsion, and that said something.
But my instincts–Zane’s instincts–weren’t so easily dismissed.
“If she’s not Elena Ashford,” I said, “Then who is she?”
“Is that’s what you need me to find out?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Not yet. Let me ask first.”
His brow lifted. “You’re going to confront her?”
“I’m going to give her one more chance to tell me the truth. If she lies–then yes. We’ll proceed.”
And if she tells the truth? Zane stirred, ears pricked at attention.
Then gods help me, I might believe her.
“Understood,” Ronan said after a long pause. “What do you want me to do in the meantime?”
“Keep everyone else out of it. Especially Vanessa. If she thinks I’m turning on Elena, she’ll twist it for her own gain.”
He gave a nod, then left me alone again with the fire, the file, and the ache in my chest.
Because whether the truth was coming or not, I already knew one thing: I didn’t want Elena Ashford. I wanted the girl who danced with me in the dark.
And I had no idea who she really was.
AD
