The glowing blue text floated in the air right between them.

Rue looked at the system alert. She did not panic. She just stared at the words. She slowly raised her pale hand and waved her fingers through the blue light. The system window instantly vanished, dissolving into thin air like dust.

She looked up at Knox. The Panther King was on his knees. His hands were still resting firmly on her waist. Through the thin, soft fabric of her pink dress, she could feel the extreme, burning heat of his skin. He smelled like wild jungle leaves, rain, and raw power. His bright Gold eyes were locked onto hers focused and serious.

The entire Convergence courtyard was completely silent.

Thousands of beastmen were holding their breath. The tribal leaders in the VIP pavilion had stopped eating. The merchants had stopped selling. Everyone was watching the small, silver-haired rabbit, waiting to hear her answer.

Well did she have a choice?

[No, you don’t. Since day one, you have been the Queen. You just didn’t want to accept it so easily.]

Because that doesn’t make sense.

"Yes," Rue said calmly. Her voice did not shake. It was perfectly clear. "I will be your Queen."

She kept her face entirely flat, but inside her mind, she let out a very long, highly tired sigh.

The second the word "yes" left her mouth, the entire Convergence valley exploded.

The Panther warriors threw their heavy fists up into the air. They screamed and cheered loudly at the dark sky. They stomped their thick leather boots against the solid stone floor, making the ground physically shake under Rue’s feet. The older panther women hugged each other tightly, tears of pure relief streaming down their faces. The small children jumped up and down in the dirt.

Their New Queen had accepted their King.

Knox let out a loud, booming laugh. The tense, serious King completely vanished. He looked like a man who had just won the biggest, hardest battle of his entire life. He did not kiss her in front of the massive crowd. He knew her boundaries perfectly. Instead, he simply leaned forward and rested his forehead against hers for one brief, incredibly hot second.

"Thank you," Knox whispered against her skin.

He stepped back. He turned his massive body toward his people and raised his fist high into the air to join their loud cheering.

Rue took a slow step backward. She raised her fingers and rubbed her temples. The noise of the screaming panthers and the heavy drums was incredibly loud. It was giving her a headache. She looked over at the royal VIP pavilion.

Caius was standing near the entrance of the white silk tent. The snake general was holding little Theron tightly against his chest. Caius did not look happy. He looked like he wanted to burn the entire courtyard down to the ground. His golden eyes were flashing a highly dangerous red. But he stayed in his place, his knuckles completely white as he gripped the wooden pole of the tent.

Rue turned around and walked away from the cheering crowd. She needed to sit down on a soft cushion immediately. Her feet were starting to ache, and the heavy smell of roasted meat was making her dizzy.

She slipped back through the heavy white silk curtains of the VIP pavilion.

The loud noise of the drums and the screaming panthers was instantly muffled by the thick fabric. The air inside the tent was warm and smelled like sweet fruit and expensive wine. She walked straight over to her empty cushion and sat down with a heavy sigh. She reached for her wooden cup of water and took a long, slow drink to cool her throat.

Across the pavilion, Iris was completely unaware of the heavy political history that had just happened outside in the courtyard. The kind Wolf Princess was busy having fun with the kids.

Iris was sitting on a massive, thick fur couch with Tyara and Gianna. Iris held a large, sticky honey cake in her hand. She had a thick smudge of honey smeared right across her cheek. She was laughing so hard her shoulders were violently shaking.

"And then," Iris gasped out, completely out of breath from laughing. She tried to finish her story. "The bear-shifter tried to fit through the small tavern door! He got completely stuck! He was just wiggling his thick legs in the air like a flipped turtle!"

Tyara threw her head back and laughed loudly. The Tiger Matriarch wiped a happy tear from her eye. "No! Did they have to pull him out by his boots?"

"They had to use butter!" Iris cheered loudly, taking a massive bite of the sticky honey cake. "They literally buttered his sides to slide him out!"

The girls fell into another fit of loud, chaotic giggling. Gianna even stepped out to dance with the foxes, mocking Fedor, who was grumpy watching her do it. It was a perfectly happy, completely carefree moment. It was exactly what a festival was supposed to be.

Iris chewed her sweet cake happily. She smiled brightly, her eyes crinkling at the corners. She turned her head and looked casually out the large gap in the front curtains of the pavilion.

The gap offered a perfect, clear view of the lower merchant stalls sitting near the edge of the royal courtyard. The crowd down there was incredibly thick. People were moving back and forth, carrying wooden cups of wine and heavy plates of hot food.

Iris was just watching the pretty colors of the floating paper lanterns. She was not looking for anyone in particular. She was just enjoying the view.

Then, the moving crowd suddenly shifted.

A group of large, heavy merchants moved out of the way, leaving a small, completely empty space near a wooden stall selling iron weapons.

Iris stopped chewing her cake.

Standing in that empty space was a man. He was a wolf beastman in his human form. He was wearing a dark, heavy gray cloak with the hood pulled down around his shoulders. He was not moving. He was just standing there under the red light of a lantern, looking directly up at the white VIP pavilion.

Iris felt her entire body turn to solid ice.

She did not blink. She could not blink. She stared completely frozen at the man’s face. She knew that exact face. She knew the sharp angle of his jaw. She knew the dark, messy hair that always fell into his eyes.

It was Skoll.

It was her best friend’s twin younger brother, that was supposed to be dead.

Iris’s mind completely stopped working. The loud, happy music playing inside the pavilion instantly faded into a high, painful ringing silence in her ears. The warm air inside the tent suddenly felt freezing cold.

Skoll was dead. He was dead. He had died violently during a war two years ago.

Iris clearly remembered the horrible day the border scouts brought the news back to the palace. She remembered the terrible, heavy, crushing silence in the Wolf Palace halls. She remembered screaming and crying in her bedroom until her throat bled.

She remembered watching the royal guards place heavy gray stones over his empty grave because they could not even find his body to bury it properly.

They were not that close, but she always carried that guilt, because she could have saved him.

The boy was supposed to be in the ground.

But he was not in the ground. He was standing right there, under a red paper lantern, completely alive.

Iris felt the warm blood completely drain out of her face. Her skin turned a sickly, pale gray color. Her heart gave one massive, painful thump against her ribs, and then it felt like it stopped beating altogether.

The half-eaten honey cake slipped out of her numb fingers. It fell onto the thick fur couch, leaving a sticky yellow mess, but she did not even notice it. Her hands began to shake violently in her lap.

"Iris?" Tyara asked.

The Tiger Matriarch noticed the sudden, heavy silence. She stopped laughing immediately. She looked over at her sister. She saw the raw terror completely frozen on Iris’s pale face.

"Iris, what is wrong?" Tyara asked. Her voice dropped into a very serious, deeply concerned tone. She reached out and placed her hand on Iris’s arm.

Iris did not feel the warm touch. She was completely trapped inside a waking nightmare. She opened her mouth to suck in a breath of air, but her lungs totally refused to open. It felt like a massive, heavy iron weight was crushing her chest flat. She kept staring at the merchant stall, but her vision started to blur heavily at the edges. Dark black spots danced frantically in front of her eyes.

Down in the courtyard, Skoll slowly turned his head. He pulled his dark gray cloak much tighter around his broad shoulders. He turned his back to the pavilion and slowly walked away. He disappeared completely into the thick, moving crowd of the loud festival.

He was gone.

Iris let out a very small, broken gasp. The sound was incredibly quiet, but it sounded completely shattered.

Tyara grabbed Iris hard by both shoulders. "Iris! Look at me! Are you hurt? Guards!"

Rue heard the sudden panic. She quickly set her wooden water cup down on the table and stood up from her cushion. She looked across the room, her clinical mind immediately trying to assess the medical emergency.

Without a single word, Iris’s eyes rolled back, and she collapsed back into the fur couch, sending the entire royal pavilion into chaos.