The caveman entered the Viper’s nest.

Caveman being what she named him in her mind. It didn’t age well.

He was actually very clean-cut, bigger than most alphas. Very young, maybe only a few years older than her.

He was flanked by six men. Six. Not two. Not three. Six. The kind of numbers that meant the man in the middle was either very loved or very expensive to replace.

His scent hit her next. Pine and something darker underneath. Definitely testosterone.

Then she noticed a crown on his head. Unexpected.

The crown she had absolutely not noticed in a dark cave because she had been busy trying not to die. The crown that, in retrospect, would have answered several of her questions had she had the presence of mind to look up and actually see it.

The list was short, but the list was damning. She had, in the span of a single conversation in a dark cave: insulted his intelligence, questioned his survival instincts, and told him to hide in a hole.

"High King Drakencrest of Velkaris," Renwick announced. "Thank you for joining us."

Guinevere’s jaw dropped and she forgot how to breathe for a split second.

KING. A fucking king. Of Velkaris. The continent. The whole damn continent full of dragons. Caveman was the dragon king.

Shock didn’t begin to cover it. His golden eyes locked onto hers. The hold was not casual. Heat moved up the back of her neck. The kind that started somewhere lower than her face and traveled the wrong direction.

Her pulse picked up at the base of her throat where the dress did not cover, and his gaze dropped to it for one beat before lifting back to hers.

He broke eye contact first, then turned to her father.

"Lunaris. Hell of a guest list tonight. I’m flattered to be included."

"You honor us, King Drakencrest. Velkaris doesn’t leave home for small matters."

"Call me Maddox. We’re all friends here." He looked around the room. "Allegedly."

Chuckles followed.

"Maddox, then. Welcome to Lunaris. I trust the journey treated you well."

"Journey was standard. The arrival was better. I met a local. Very direct. Told me where to go and everything."

Guinevere was going to be sick.

Maddox Drakencrest sat at the third most important table in the room. He turned to the man beside him and murmured something that made all six glance at Guinevere simultaneously. Subtle. Very subtle. Like a house fire.

She pretended not to notice.

Cassian, beside her, was blind to it. Though he’d never noticed a thing in his life unless their father told him to. Small mercies.

Tyler, however, stiffened. His nostrils flared the moment Drakencrest entered and hadn’t stopped.

The next thing happened in the span of ten seconds. Maddox was watching Guinevere. Shadowfell looked at Maddox looking at her. Raventhorn looked at both of them and laughed into his wine.

"Fucking hell." He leaned back in his chair and called across to Maddox’s table. "Drakencrest. Been a while."

"Soren. You’re a long way from home." Maddox’s attention stayed planted on her, even when he spoke.

"As are you, Your Highness. Funny, that."

The entire hall felt the shift in temperature.

"Two dragons enter into a wolf’s kingdom." Shadowfell’s voice carried just enough. "Either Lunaris has something worth crossing an ocean for, or we’ve all been played."

"I invited. You came. The rest is between you and whatever brought you through those doors."

"Alright, Lunaris. Impress me." Shadowfell’s focus was on Guinevere while he spoke. Their eyes met briefly, before his stare lowered to her swollen lip. How lovely, another noticed. He did not look away when she did.

"Come off it, Nicholas," Alpha Redmoon piped in from two tables down. "You accepted Lunaris’s invitation on the first try and have declined my last six. I’m trying not to take it personally."

The conversations resumed.

Guinevere picked up her drink. Gods, the damn dress was making this hard.

The moment her arm extended, half the room’s attention snapped to the way the silk pulled tight across her chest. Shadowfell’s pupils dilated again.

She raised it to her lips slowly, like a woman not being watched by half the room at any given point. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Drakencrest’s goblet finally move. She snuck another glance, Gods help her. He raised it to his mouth, mirroring her without seeming to know he was doing it, and the second the rim touched his lips, his eyes flicked back up to hers.

She forgot how to swallow.

Next to her, Tyler shifted in his seat.

"You smell different," he muttered, not looking at her.

"What do you mean?"

"Your scent. Something changed."

"Are you scenting my sister right now? At this table with our fathers right there?" Cassian’s voice carried across the hall. Multiple heads turned in their direction.

"He’s not, Cassian. Shocking, but not everything is about me."

"I was, actually."

Guinevere looked up at the ceiling. The Beta’s son was scenting her, and completely fine admitting it, while her brother announced it to a hall of kings. Seven levels of hell, she needed a stiffer drink than the wine.

King Lunaris stood.

"Thank you to all the honored guests for coming. Tonight, Lunaris remembers two acts of courage. First, my daughter, who placed her life before her pack."

"An impossible ultimatum was given. A life would be taken, and she stepped forward saving the life of my love." He nodded down to Maria. "And every woman and child in Lunaris."

Officers raised a fist to their chest, which was not what she was expecting, but then again, she did save all of their mates. She kept forgetting that part. Probably because no one in this room had thanked her for it until eight seconds ago.

She blinked, surprised. Then she realized she was supposed to be speaking.

"Thank you, Father, you honor me. I did what any daughter of Lunaris would do."

Shadowfell’s hand tightened around his drink until his knuckles went white.

King Lunaris continued, "And the bigger honor goes to my son Cassian who saved her."

The laugh wanted out. It was going to ruin her entire life if she let it past her lips, so she swallowed it and held her composure.

Next to her, Tyler was a statue. He actually stopped breathing. She made a note to ask him later if he had been on board with this revisionist history or if he had found out the same time she did.

Cassian tipped his goblet up at his father.

"What are big brothers for? I’ve been pulling her out of trouble since she could walk."

He looked at her for the first time. "She’d have done the same for me. Eventually. Probably."

Polite chuckles filled the room.

Guinevere knew the game. "Thank you, Cassian. Few brothers would have gone to such lengths. I owe you a debt I intend to repay in full."

It landed. Too many stifled laughs in the room. Whoops again. She didn’t say it for a laugh.

Tyler, beside her, took a sudden, very interested sip of wine before the toast was through. That was a mayday. Maybe he was redeemable.

King Drakencrest stilled. It dawned on her then that he also would be aware that her brother did absolutely nothing but bind and backhand her.

Lunaris continued speaking, but Guinevere was only half listening.

Tyler kept sneaking glances at her, his expression conflicted. If her father wasn’t in the middle of a speech, she’d have turned to him by now and asked ’Can I fucking help you?’

Cassian turned his head, and shot him a warning look. Which seemed to make the tension thicken if that were possible.

She tuned back into her father’s words. She had missed roughly two minutes.

"Tonight we celebrate the fact my daughter found her wolf," King Lunaris paused, giving her a stare that she read loud and clear. "Better late than never."

There were laughs.

"And not just any wolf. A white wolf."

Five years of hiding it. Blown in one sentence.

Whispers erupted immediately. Lunaris let them spread like wildfire.

Something was said at the fifth table. She didn’t hear it.

Four Alphas rose at once. Different tables. Same second.

The hall went silent so fast her ears rang.

Maddox Drakencrest turned his head slowly towards that table.

"Say it again. I dare you."