THE KING'S UNWANTED MATE

THE DINNER

Chapter Ten

"She looked at the camera," Selene said.

"I know," Draven said. "I saw."

"She knew it was there."

"Yes."

"Which means she knows about the surveillance room." Selene looked at him. "Which means she's been in this palace longer than tonight."

Draven was quiet.

"She's been here before," Selene said. "Hasn't she."

"We're looking into it," Cain said from the doorway.

"That's not a no," Selene said.

"No," Draven said. "It's not."

She sat back. Looked at the frozen feed — Diana's face, that smile, those two words.

*Too late.*

"For what?" Selene said. "Too late for what?"

"That's what we need to find out," Draven said. "Before tomorrow."

"The dinner is tomorrow."

"Yes."

"You still want to go ahead with it."

"I want Diana in a room where I can watch her," he said. "And where she believes she has the advantage." He looked at Selene. "Let her think *too late* worked. Let her come to dinner confident."

"And then?"

"And then we listen," he said. "Confident people say things they shouldn't."

Selene looked at the screen.

At Diana's smile.

"Fine," she said. "But I want to know everything you find before we sit down at that table."

"You'll know everything I know," he said.

"Promise?"

He held her gaze. "Promise."

---

Cain found it at three in the morning.

He knocked on Selene's door — she hadn't been sleeping, had been sitting at the window watching the border lights — and handed her a tablet without a word.

A visitor log. Six months old. A name.

Diana Ashworth. Guest of senior Beta Aldric. Three-day visit.

"Aldric," Selene said.

"Senior Beta," Cain said. "Fifteen years on the staff."

"Is he—"

"He resigned this morning," Cain said. "Before we found this. Left the palace at six a.m. with two bags." He paused. "He's the spy."

Selene looked at the log. "He let her in six months ago. She mapped the palace. She found the cameras." She looked at Cain. "She's known everything this whole time."

"Yes."

"Does Draven know?"

"I'm telling him next," Cain said. "I told you first."

She looked at him. The big scarred Beta who terrified everyone including Caden. "Why?"

Cain looked at her for a moment with those dark assessing eyes. "Because," he said, "you're the one she's underestimating." He paused. "I find that useful."

She looked at him.

"Cain," she said. "Did you just pay me a compliment?"

"I made an observation," he said.

She almost smiled. "Draven says that too."

"I know," he said. "He learned it from me."

He left.

Selene sat with the tablet and the visitor log and the name Aldric and thought about six months of Diana mapping this palace and thought about *too late* and thought about what exactly Diana believed she had already done.

---

The dinner was at eight.

The table was set for six — Draven, Selene, Caden, Diana, Cain, and a senior Alpha named Voss who was visiting from the northern territory and had the energy of a man who found most situations mildly interesting.

Diana arrived looking perfect.

Of course she did.

Ivory dress. Hair up. The specific careful elegance of a woman who understood that appearance was armour and had been wearing hers for a very long time.

She looked at Selene across the table and smiled.

Selene smiled back.

*I see you,* Selene thought. *And I know you know I see you. And you think that helps you.*

"This is extraordinary," Diana said, looking around the dining room. "The palace really is remarkable. How long has it been in your family, Alpha King?"

"Four generations," Draven said. He was eating. Not looking at Diana. The deliberate inattention of a man who wanted her to believe she didn't warrant his full focus.

"And before that?"

"Different hands," he said. "It came to us through consolidation."

"The Eastern Consolidation," Diana said. "Fascinating period." She looked at Selene. "You were reading about that, weren't you? I heard you'd taken an interest in the library."

Selene met her eyes. "I have a lot of interests," she said. "I'm making up for lost time."

"Lost time?" Diana tilted her head. "Were you not a reader before?"

"I was many things before," Selene said. "I just didn't know it."

A beat.

Something moved behind Diana's eyes.

"How cryptic," Diana said lightly.

"Isn't it," Selene said.

Alpha Voss looked between them with the expression of a man watching something he found mildly interesting become significantly more interesting.

Caden was quiet. Had been quiet since they sat down. He was pushing food around his plate and not looking at Diana and not looking at Selene and looking at the table with the focused attention of a man waiting for something.

"Caden," Draven said. Conversational. Unthreatening. "How is Silverstone? I understand the harvest season was productive."

"Yes," Caden said. "Good year."

"And your pack's standing? The alliance with the Westfield territory — that's been beneficial?"

"Very."

"Good." Draven picked up his wine. "Stability matters. Particularly for packs that have experienced recent — instability."

The word landed quietly.

Caden looked up.

Diana looked at Draven.

Draven was looking at his glass.

"Instability," Diana repeated. Her voice was perfectly pleasant. "I'm not sure what you mean."

"Financial irregularities," Draven said simply. "From the previous Alpha's administration. Difficult to move forward with that kind of shadow." He looked at Caden. "Though I understand it's been resolved."

Caden went very still.

Diana's expression didn't change.

But her hand, Selene noticed, had tightened on her fork.

"Resolved," Caden said carefully. He was looking at Draven. Then at Diana. Then back at Draven. Something moving in his face — understanding, or the beginning of it. "Yes. It's been resolved."

"Good," Draven said. "Clean slates are valuable things."

Another silence.

Alpha Voss helped himself to more wine.

Then Caden set his fork down.

He looked at Diana.

"How long," he said quietly, "did you know?"

The table went still.

"Caden—" Diana said.

"About Selene," he said. "About what she was." He looked at Diana steadily. "How long before you came to Silverstone did you know about her?"

Diana looked at him. Her expression was the most carefully controlled thing Selene had ever seen.

"I don't know what you mean," Diana said.

"The files," Caden said. "I found them. Eight years of monitoring reports." His voice was quiet. Steady. The voice of a man who had made a decision and was living inside it. "You were watching her for eight years. Before I met either of you." He looked at Diana. "So I'll ask again. How long did you know what she was?"

The dining room was completely silent.

Alpha Voss had put down his wine.

Cain was very still.

Selene watched Diana.

Diana looked at Caden. Then at Selene. Then at Draven.

Draven was looking at her with those dark eyes that gave nothing away and took everything in.

"The Soul Blessed," Caden said. "That's what she is, isn't it. That's what the files are about. That's why you went to Silverstone." His jaw tightened. "That's why you came to me."

"Caden," Diana said. Her voice was softer now. The performance shifting — not dropping, shifting. "You don't understand the full picture."

"Then explain it to me."

"It's more complicated than—"

"How long?" he said again.

Diana looked at him for a long moment.

Then she looked at Selene.

And something in her face changed.

Not the careful performance. Not the calculated warmth. Something underneath it — older, colder, the actual thing that had been wearing Diana's face this whole time.

"Two years before Silverstone," she said. "That's when the Circle identified her."

The room absorbed this.

"Ten years," Selene said quietly. "You've been watching me for ten years."

"Monitoring," Diana said. "It's different."

"Is it?" Selene said.

"The Circle needed to know—"

"The Circle," Draven said. One word. The temperature in the room dropped. "Say that name again."

Diana looked at him.

For the first time since she had walked into this palace Selene saw something in Diana's eyes that wasn't calculation.

It was the recognition of someone who had just realised they had miscalculated. Badly.

"The Umbra Circle," Caden said. He was looking at Diana like he had never seen her before. "That's who you work for."

"Caden—"

"That's who sent you," he said. "To Silverstone. To me." His voice was very quiet. "You used me to get to her."

Diana looked at him.

She didn't deny it.

Caden sat back in his chair.

He looked at the table.

At the food he hadn't eaten and the wine he hadn't touched and the woman across from him who had spent two years inside his life like a key inside a lock.

"Get out," he said.

Diana looked at him. "Caden—"

"Get out of my sight," he said. Still quiet. The quiet of something that had gone past anger into something colder. "Right now."

"You don't understand what's at stake—"

"Enough."

Draven's voice.

One word.

Everyone at the table went still.

He was looking at Diana.

"You have two choices," he said. Quiet. Precise. The voice he used when there were no more conversations to be had. "You tell me everything. Tonight. In detail." He held her gaze. "Or I hand you to the people whose job it is to ask questions you will not enjoy answering."

Diana looked at him.

At Selene.

At Cain by the door.

At Caden who was not looking at her.

"Everything," she said finally. Her voice had changed. The performance was gone. What was left was smaller and colder and somehow more real. "You want everything."

"Start from the beginning," Draven said. "And don't leave anything out."

Diana looked at the table.

At her untouched plate.

At the room full of people who were all, in their different ways, waiting.

"The Circle has been planning this for thirty years," she said quietly. "Since the last Soul Blessed emerged." She looked up. "Since Mara."

The name hit Selene in the chest.

"You know about Mara," she said.

"I know everything about Mara," Diana said. And for the first time — the very first time — something in her voice sounded almost human. Almost sorry. "I was twelve when she died." She looked at Selene. "She was my aunt."

The room went completely silent.

Selene stared at her.

"Your aunt," she said.

"Yes." Diana's voice was very quiet now. "She was Soul Blessed. The Circle found her. They killed her mate. She lasted four months." She looked at her hands. "My family — my whole family — has been Circle for generations. I was raised inside it. I was given my first assignment at sixteen." She paused. "I didn't choose this life."

"You chose to come to Silverstone," Selene said.

"Yes."

"You chose to destroy Caden's life to get there."

"Yes."

"You chose to report to people who wanted me dead."

Diana looked at her. "Yes," she said. "I did all of those things." She didn't look away. "And I have been trying, for the last six months, to find a way out of them." Her jaw tightened. "The text messages. The warning about the east gate. The tip about the Seer." She held Selene's gaze. "That was me."

The silence lasted a long time.

"You were the ally inside the Circle," Selene said slowly.

"I was trying to be," Diana said. "I don't know if that's enough. I don't expect it to be." She looked at Draven. "But everything I know — everything — I'll give you. Because what they're planning—" She stopped. Her voice changed again. Fear. Real fear. "What they're planning makes what they did to Mara look small."

Draven looked at her for a long moment.

"Talk," he said.

Diana talked.

---

She talked for two hours.

By the end of it the dining room felt like a different room. The food cold. The candles low. Alpha Voss had gone from mildly interested to very still in the way of someone who understood they were sitting inside something significant.

Selene sat through all of it.

She listened to the Circle's full plan — the network of Seers positioned around the palace, the secondary operatives already inside the city, the timeline that Diana said was days not weeks, the specific method they intended to use to eliminate Draven and trigger Selene's power collapse.

She listened and she absorbed and she did not look at Draven once.

Because if she looked at him she would think about what eliminating him actually meant and she was not ready to feel that in a room full of people.

When Diana finished Cain took her to a secure room. Not a cell. A room with one exit and two guards and everything Diana needed to be comfortable enough to keep talking.

Caden left without saying anything to Selene.

Alpha Voss left with the expression of a man recalculating several things about several situations.

And then it was just Selene and Draven in the dining room with the cold food and the low candles.

Selene looked at the table.

"Days," she said.

"Yes."

"They're coming in days."

"Yes."

She looked up at him. "And their primary target is you."

"Yes."

"You're very calm about that."

"I'm the Alpha King," he said. "I've been a target for ten years."

"Not like this."

"No," he said. "Not like this." He held her gaze. "Are you afraid?"

She thought about it honestly.

"Yes," she said. "Not for me." She held his gaze. "For you."

Something moved in his face.

He reached across the table.

His hand covered hers.

He didn't say anything.

She turned her hand over.

Their fingers linked.

"We have days," she said.

"Yes."

"Then we use them." She looked at him. "Training starts tomorrow. Early."

"Agreed."

"And Draven." She tightened her fingers around his. "Whatever happens — I need you to promise me something."

"What?"

"Don't do anything heroic and stupid," she said. "Don't sacrifice yourself. Don't make decisions about your life without consulting me first." She held his gaze. "I just found out I'm a Soul Blessed with enough power to crack reinforced windows with my feelings. I need my anchor."

He looked at her.

"I need you," she said. Simply. Clearly. "Do you understand?"

His hand tightened around hers.

"Yes," he said quietly. "I understand."

Outside the palace the city hummed and the border lights held and somewhere in the dark the Circle moved its pieces forward and the clock counted down toward something neither of them could fully stop.

But inside the dining room two hands stayed linked across a cold dinner table.

And that, for now, was enough