They walked toward the gardens in silence for several steps before Merral spoke again.
“Court her in a way that isn’t obvious. Just be yourself. Get to know her. Open up to her.”
Kovrak’s jaw tightened. “I don’t know how to do that.”
The admission felt like failure, but it was true. Twenty years of leadership had taught him strategy, defense, and the careful application of power. But gentleness? Emotional vulnerability? Those were foreign territories he’d never been allowed to explore.
“I know law,” he continued. “I know defense and duty and how to protect people. But I don’t know how to... express myself freely. How to be anything other than what’s expected.”
Merral’s hand settled briefly on his shoulder—a rare gesture of affection from the man who’d raised him.
“Then learn,” his uncle said simply. “Because this week cannot fail.”
As they approached the gardens where his people waited for the ceremony to begin, Kovrak felt the weight of twenty years pressing down on him. But beneath that familiar burden lay something new—a flicker of possibility that maybe, just maybe, he could find a way to be both the leader his people needed and the man Faith might choose to stay with.
FIVE
FAITH
Faith remained motionless in the plush armchair long after Kovrak left her guest suite. The silence felt deafening after the intensity of their confrontation—if she could even call it that. He’d been so controlled, so careful with her anger, giving her space when every instinct probably screamed at him to fight for what he wanted.
Thirty minutes until the opening ceremony starts.
The thought jolted her into motion. She couldn’t sit here drowning in the implications of fated mates and royal expectations. She had a job to do—the only reason she’d agreed to stay.
Professional. You can be professional.
Faith pushed herself up from the chair, her legs unsteady as residual adrenaline coursed through her system. She’d almost run. Actually packed her bag and prepared to walk away from the most lucrative commission of her career because the stakes had suddenly become impossibly personal.
The walk-in closet beckoned like a portal to another world—which, she supposed, it was. Rows of silk and satin hung in perfect order, each piece more elegant than anything she’d everowned. Liora had assembled a wardrobe fit for royalty, and the irony wasn’t lost on her.
I’m staying for practical reasons,she told herself firmly, running her fingers along the luxurious fabrics.To save the bakery. To honor the contract. To prove I can handle a high-profile commission.
Her hand stilled on a gown of deep royal blue, the color rich and commanding. It felt respectful somehow, diplomatic. Matching the pride’s colors seemed like the right gesture for their cultural guest.
Faith lifted the dress from its hanger, the silk sliding through her fingers like liquid starlight. Only as she held it up to herself did the realization hit—the shade was identical to the ceremonial jacket Kovrak had worn this morning. The same deep blue that had made his pale eyes look like winter storms.
“Oh, for crying out loud.”
She stared at her reflection, the dress draped against her body like a declaration she hadn’t intended to make. Would his people think she’d chosen it deliberately? Would they see it as presumptuous, as if she were already claiming her place at his side?
Change it. Pick something else.
But even as the thought formed, Faith found herself stepping into the gown. The silk whispered against her skin as she pulled it up over her curves, the fitted bodice hugging her frame before flowing into an elegant skirt that made her feel like she was floating.
The choice unsettled her in ways she refused to examine too closely. She wouldn’t admit it was instinct, wouldn’t acknowledge that some part of her body might already be aligning with his in ways her mind hadn’t approved.
It’s just a dress. A color. It doesn’t mean anything.
But as she smoothed the silk over her hips, Faith knew she was lying to herself.
Her anger at Gerri bubbled up again as she moved to the vanity, but it lacked the sharp edges from this morning. The fury had cooled into something more complex and more frustrating—understanding.
“Damn her brilliant, manipulative mind,” Faith muttered, reaching for the subtle cosmetics laid out on the marble surface.
If Gerri had told her the truth upfront—that she was being transported across space to secure a king’s throne with her consent—Faith would have refused without hesitation. But Gerri had seen the desperation in her eyes, had recognized a woman drowning in debt and diminishing dreams.
The matchmaker hadn’t lied, exactly. She’d curated the truth and presented it in digestible pieces that wouldn’t send Faith running before she’d even met Kovrak. And Faith couldn’t even summon clean anger at Merral or Kovrak either. Merral was protecting political stability, ensuring his nephew’s future and the pride’s continuity. Kovrak was safeguarding his throne and his people from whatever political adversaries were circling.