That was the story, anyway.

"If we're done here," I said, already turning toward the door. "I'd like to go home."

"You will remain in the palace," Kieran said sharply. "Until we figure out what to do about this situation."

I turned back to look at him. "You rejected the bond. You don't get to give me orders."

His jaw clenched. "I'm the Crown Prince."

"And I'm the woman your Goddess chose, so I guess we're both having a bad night." I gave him my best curtsy, which was terrible because nobody had ever taught me how to do it properly. "Your Highness."

I walked out of the Grand Hall with my head held high, even though my hands were shaking. The crowd parted for me like I had the plague. I could feel their eyes on my back, could hear the whispers starting up again.

"Can you believe..."

"...humiliation..."

"...poor thing..."

"...what was the Goddess thinking..."

I made it to the corridor outside before I let myself lean against the wall and take a deep breath.

Okay. That had been a disaster.

But also, kind of hilarious when you thought about it.

Five Alphas had just rejected their fated mate because they thought she was weak. Meanwhile, I could probably kill all of them in their sleep if I wanted to. Which I didn't, because I wasn't a monster, but the option was there.

"Miss Vane?"

I jumped about a foot in the air and spun around to find a young woman in palace servant clothes standing there with a worried expression. She had kind eyes and dark hair pulled back in a bun.

"Sorry!" she said quickly. "I didn't mean to startle you. I'm Mira. I've been assigned to... well, they told me to show you to your quarters."

"My quarters?"

"The Prince insisted you stay in the palace tonight. There's a room prepared for you in the east wing."

Of course there was. Because Kieran couldn't just let me leave. That would be too easy.

"Lead the way," I said with a sigh.

Mira seemed nice enough as she guided me through the palace corridors. She kept giving me these sympathetic looks that made me want to crawl out of my skin.

"That was really horrible, what they did to you," she said softly as we climbed a staircase. "In front of everyone like that."

"It's fine."

"It's not fine. They're supposed to be our leaders and they acted like... like..."

"Like I was beneath them?" I supplied. "Because according to everyone in this kingdom, I am."

Mira shook her head firmly. "The Blood Moon chose you. That means something."

"Yeah," I said. "It means the Moon Goddess has a twisted sense of humor."

That got a small laugh out of her, which made me feel a bit better.

The room she took me to was bigger than the entire basement I'd been living in for the past fifteen years. There was an actual bed, not a cot. Windows with real curtains and a real bathroom attached. It was almost obscene.

"I'll bring you something to eat," Mira said. "And some clothes for tomorrow. That dress looks uncomfortable."

"You have no idea," I muttered.

After she left, I stood in the middle of the room and tried to process what had just happened.

I'd been chosen by an ancient prophecy. Check.

Five powerful Alphas had rejected me publicly. Check.

I was now stuck in a palace full of people who thought I was worthless. Check.

And I still had to somehow save the kingdom from the Demon King without revealing that I was actually the most dangerous wolf in Everspire.

Great. Just great.

I went to the window and looked out at the Blood Moon. It was still hanging there, red and ominous, like it was mocking me.

"You picked a great time to choose me," I told it. "Really excellent timing."

The moon, unsurprisingly, didn't answer.

I was pulling the pins out of my hair, which someone had tortured into an updo, when I heard voices in the corridor outside. Male voices. Arguing.

Oh no.

"...can't just leave her here unsupervised," someone was saying. It sounded like Theron.

"She's not a prisoner," another voice argued. Kieran.

"Then what is she?" That was Cassian, I thought.

"A problem," Darius said flatly.

"A problem we rejected," Zane added. "Therefore, it's not our problem anymore."

"The prophecy says..."

"I don't care what the prophecy says!"

I rolled my eyes and opened the door.

All five Alphas were standing in the hallway, apparently having followed me to continue their argument about what to do with me. They all froze when they saw me.

"Hi," I said. "Having fun?"

Kieran recovered first. "We were just discussing..."

"How I'm a problem?" I supplied helpfully. "Yeah, I heard. These walls are thinner than you'd think."

Theron had the decency to look slightly embarrassed. Slightly.

"Look," I said, leaning against the doorframe. "You all rejected me. Fine. I get it. I'm not exactly Alpha mate material. But can you please take your existential crisis somewhere else? I've had a really long day and I'd like to wallow in my humiliation in private."

"You don't seem particularly humiliated," Cassian observed.

"I'm an excellent actress."

His silver eyes gleamed with something that might have been interest. "Are you?"

"The best," I said flatly. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to see if I can figure out how to work the bathtub in there because it has more knobs than any bathtub should reasonably have and I'm afraid I'm going to flood the palace."

Darius's lips twitched. It might have been a smile. It was hard to tell because his resting face was "bored aristocrat."

"We'll discuss this further in the morning," Kieran said, like he was dismissing a council meeting.

"Can't wait," I said, and shut the door in their faces.

I waited until I heard their footsteps retreating before I let out a long breath.

This was going to be harder than I thought.

I'd been planning to lay low, avoid attention, and work on stopping the Demon King from the shadows like I always did. But apparently, the Moon Goddess had other plans.

I looked at my reflection in the mirror. The dress was ridiculous. My hair was a mess from pulling out the pins. I had dark circles under my eyes because I'd been up until three in the morning last night dealing with a nest of rogue vampires in the eastern territories.

"What were you thinking?" I asked my reflection. Or maybe I was asking the Moon Goddess. "Why me?"

My reflection, also unsurprisingly, didn't answer.

I finally managed to get the dress off after contorting myself into several uncomfortable positions to reach the buttons. Whoever invented dresses like this hated women. That was the only explanation.

The bath was amazing, though. I'll give the palace that. The tub was huge and the water was hot and there were about fifteen different bottles of things that smelled nice. I used all of them. If I was going to be stuck here, I might as well enjoy the amenities.

When I finally climbed into the massive bed, wrapped in a robe that was softer than anything I'd ever touched, I stared up at the ceiling and tried to think.

The prophecy was real. I'd known it was coming, had known that the Blood Moon would choose someone this year. I just hadn't expected it to choose me.

The Void was growing stronger. That part was true too. I'd been fighting Void beasts for months now, watching them get bigger and more frequent. The barrier between our world and the demon realm was weakening.

And the Demon King was definitely trying to break through. I had sources. Information networks. I knew things that would make these Alphas lose sleep at night.

But I'd been planning to handle it myself. Quietly and efficiently. The way I handled everything.

Now I was in the middle of a prophecy, rejected by five Alphas who were supposed to help me save the kingdom, and stuck in a palace where everyone thought I was worthless.

I started laughing.

I couldn't help it. It was just so absurd.

The Moon Goddess chose the one woman in the kingdom who didn't need five Alpha mates to save everyone. The one woman who'd been doing it alone for years. The one woman who was powerful enough to handle this herself.

And those five idiots had rejected me without even knowing what they were giving up.

"Your loss," I told the empty room.

Tomorrow, I'd figure out a plan. Tonight, I was going to sleep in this incredibly comfortable bed and enjoy the fact that for once in my life, I wasn't sleeping in a basement with a leaky ceiling.

The Blood Moon shone through the window, painting everything red.

And somewhere in the darkness, I could feel the Void stirring, hungry and patient.

Let it wait.

I had bigger problems to deal with.

Like five Alphas who were going to be very, very sorry they rejected me.

Eventually.

Lysandra Pov:

I woke up to someone pounding on my door like they were trying to break it down with their bare fists.

"Miss Vane! Miss Vane, you need to wake up right now!"

I groaned and pulled the pillow over my face. The bed was too comfortable. The room was too quiet. And I really, really didn't want to deal with whatever fresh hell today was going to bring.

The pounding continued. "Miss Vane, please! The council has been summoned! You have to be there in thirty minutes!"

Council? What council?

I dragged myself out of bed and stumbled to the door, yanking it open. Mira was standing there looking absolutely frazzled, her hair coming loose from its bun and her eyes wide with panic.

"What's happening?" I asked, my voice still rough with sleep.

"Emergency council meeting. The High Priestess called it. Everyone has to attend." She thrust a dress at me. It was dark blue and looked even more uncomfortable than yesterday's torture device. "You need to get dressed. Now."

"Can I say no?"

"Not unless you want the Crown Prince to literally drag you there himself."

I took the dress with a sigh. "Fine. But I'm not doing anything fancy with my hair."

"I don't have time to do anything fancy anyway," Mira said, practically pushing me back into the room. "Just get dressed. Quickly."

Twenty minutes later, I was in the dress (which was indeed uncomfortable and had about a thousand buttons again), my hair was in a messy braid, and I was following Mira through the palace corridors at what could only be described as a speed walk.

Servants were whispering as we passed. I caught fragments of their conversations.

"...can't believe she's still here..."

"...heard the Alphas want her gone..."

"...disgrace to the prophecy..."

Great. So the gossip mill was already in full swing.

The council chamber was packed when we arrived. And I mean packed. It looked like every important person in the kingdom had showed up for this meeting. Council members, pack representatives, nobles, advisors. All of them were staring at me the moment I walked in.

The five Alphas were already seated at the head of the long table. Kieran sat in the center like he was holding court, his expression cold enough to freeze fire. Theron was sprawled in his chair, looking at me like I was something he'd scraped off his boot. Cassian had those weird silver eyes fixed on me with what could only be described as clinical disgust. Darius was examining his fingernails (again), but I could see the contempt on his face. And Zane was in the shadows, radiating pure murder energy.

The High Priestess stood beside the table, looking ancient and exhausted.

"Miss Vane," Kieran said, his voice like ice. "How generous of you to finally join us."

"I was asleep," I said. "Some of us actually need rest."

"Some of us also need to learn punctuality," he shot back.

"Some of us didn't ask to be here at all," I countered.

His eyes flashed gold. His wolf was close to the surface. "Sit. Down."

There was an empty chair at the far end of the table, as far from the Alphas as possible while still being in the same room. I walked over and sat, feeling every single pair of eyes tracking my movement.

"Now that we're all present," Kieran began, his voice formal and cold, "we can address the disaster from last night."

"Disaster is putting it mildly," said an old Alpha with grey hair and a scar across his face. "We had a prophecy ceremony. The Blood Moon chose. And all five Alphas rejected their mate. This is unprecedented."

"Because the choice was ridiculous," Theron said bluntly. He didn't even glance at me. "The Moon Goddess chose a wolfless orphan to save the kingdom. That's not a prophecy. That's a joke."

Several people nodded in agreement.

"The Moon Goddess does not joke," the High Priestess said firmly.

"Then she made a mistake," Zane said from his corner, his voice flat and cold. "It happens."

"It does not happen!" The High Priestess slammed her staff on the ground. "The Blood Moon has chosen mates for thousands of years. It has never been wrong."

"There's a first time for everything," Darius said, finally looking up from his nails. "And this is clearly it."

I sat there, listening to them talk about me like I wasn't in the room. Again. This was becoming a pattern.