Enough playing. I had work to do.
********
Mrs. Rosalinde’s POV (Alpha King’s Mum)
You don’t need a crown to know when something’s wrong in a palace. The air tells you. Servants walk quicker, voices dip lower, and worry hides in corners like dust no one wants to sweep.
I came because my son doesn’t sleep. His letters tried to sound steady, but a mother knows the weight in her child’s hand. And I came because I won’t take anyone else’s word for my granddaughter’s health. I needed to see her with my own eyes.
The guards bowed as I passed. I lifted my hand. “Enough of that. Backs weren’t made for groveling. I know the halls.”
The east garden was once mine in the mornings—quiet paths, long sun, no courtiers fussing. The lemon trees have grown taller since, but they still remembered me; t
