I exhale sharply, pulling my hands away. “Mum—”
“No, listen to me,” she cuts in, waving a hand lightly as she begins to pace, her thoughts already racing ahead. “Whether she’s delusional or not, whether her dream sounds impossible or not—that doesn’t matter. What matters is that she is yours, Kei. Your fated mate.”
She turns back to face me. “And mates support each other.”
I stare at her for a moment, my frustration rising again.
“How can a woman be king?” I ask, not hiding my irritation. “It would create imbalance. It would throw everything into chaos. The Alphas, the elders—they would laugh in my face. A king is supposed to be a man,” I add more harshly. “Not a woman.”
My mother watches me quietly, her gaze piercing.
“Twenty years ago,” she says slowly, “there was a prophecy.”
I f
