Chapter 5 Scent of deceit

The whispers hadn't stopped. Not by the time the sun set that evening, not when the ceremonial feast began in the grand hall, and certainly not when Liora tried to return to her quarters. Everywhere she passed, she felt the weight of their eyes. The shock still hadn't settled. The Alpha King had claimed her... Her... And no one believed it was real.

"An omega?" she overheard a warrior murmur outside the kitchen. "Maybe the King is cursed."

"She bewitched him," someone else whispered.

"She probably tricked the scent bond."

"She doesn't even have a wolf!"

Liora walked faster, keeping her hood low, her hands shaking as she pressed open the side door to her small quarters tucked behind the infirmary. Her mind hadn't stopped spinning since the courtyard, and her body ached with the weight of something she didn't understand.

The bond had snapped into place like a brand across her chest, hot and undeniable. She had felt it.

But even as she'd stood there, stunned and breathless under Kaelen's gaze, the voices around her had tried to unravel it.

She wanted to speak to someone, anyone but the only person she ever trusted with her fears had suddenly vanished.

Maris.

Her closest friend. Her anchor through years of rejection and silence. The one who had stood beside her when she was too ashamed to stand on her own.

But now... she was gone.

It started with small things. After the King's declaration, Liora had expected Maris to burst through her door, flailing in disbelief and demanding every detail. That was what she always did, she loved drama.

But she didn't come.

She didn't visit the infirmary the next day. Didn't join her for their usual walk at dusk. No flicker of white-gold hair by the kitchens. No knock at her door. Liora waited, heart twisting tighter with each hour.

Finally, on the third day, she found her. In the training yard.

Maris stood at the edge of the warrior field, speaking in hushed tones to one of the King's guards. Her hair was braided with blue ribbon of royal colors. Her cheeks flushed, her expression too carefully schooled. When she saw Liora approaching, something flickered across her face, an emotion Liora had never seen in her friend's eyes before.

Annoyance. Or was it fear?

"Maris," Liora said, forcing a breathless smile. "Where have you been?"

Maris blinked. Her smile was a second too slow.

"Oh. I've just... been busy."

"Busy?" Liora laughed, though it came out tight. "I was starting to think you vanished."

"I figured you had enough attention," Maris said lightly, turning back to the guard.

The words hit like a slap. "Excuse me?"

Maris turned, her smile sharpening.

"I said, you've been busy too. Being fated to the Alpha King and all."

Liora took a half-step back. "I didn't ask for any of that, Maris. You know that."

"Of course," Maris said, tone light but eyes too dark. "Of course you didn't. The Moon Goddess just... gave you everything you've never wanted. How tragic."

She turned away again.

Liora stared at her, heart sinking.

Something was wrong. Deeply wrong.

This wasn't the Maris who braided her hair before full moons. Who once screamed at a Beta male for trying to cut Liora in line. Who held her when Rek rejected her and called him every creative insult under the sun.

This was someone else.

And she was shutting her out.

Liora left the training yard more confused than ever.

By nightfall, her stomach had twisted into knots. The bond still burned in her chest, but it felt... uneven. Fading at the edges. As if something within her couldn't find the other end of the string anymore.

She went to the bathhouse to clear her head, hoping hot water would soothe the anxiety wrapping around her ribs.

She dipped into the spring pool, sighing as the warmth surrounded her. The moonlight drifted through the slats of the wooden ceiling, catching droplets on her skin. She let herself float, eyes closed, her body finally relaxing.

Then a sharp sting pierced behind her eyes.

She gasped, hand flying to her temple as pain bloomed in her skull, hot, bright, like someone was shoving a branding iron into her brain.

The water churned.

Her limbs jerked uncontrollably as nausea hit her in waves.

A high-pitched ringing filled her ears.

Then her scent changed.

She felt it. Knew it. A scent wasn't something wolves often noticed on themselves, but this shift was undeniable. Her usual earthy, clean fragrance dulled, hollowed out... replaced by something that wasn't her.

Or worse by nothing.

The scent of her bond with Kaelen had been faint but present since the moment they touched, now it thinned into air, slipping through her fingers like smoke. She dragged herself out of the water, coughing, half-drenched, her limbs shaking.

What was happening?

She barely made it to the dressing bench before her knees gave out. She collapsed outside the infirmary less than an hour later.

One moment she was walking, the next, her vision went dark. Her legs stopped listening to her commands. She hit the ground hard, her shoulder scraping against stone, her lungs seizing up.

When she came to, she was surrounded by a half-circle of healers, whispering.

"Was she poisoned?"

"No, it's not physical."

"Something's disrupting her scent signature..."

Liora groaned and tried to sit up, but her body felt like it weighed a hundred stones.

"Don't move," said a familiar voice, Matron Serra, the head healer. Her hands were firm but gentle as she pressed a cool cloth to Liora's forehead.

"You've been scent-bonded recently, haven't you?"

"Yes," Liora whispered. "The Alpha King..."

Serra's lips thinned. "And now it's weakening."

Liora's eyes widened. "I felt it. Just before I passed out. It's like it's... vanishing."

The matron met her gaze.

"No bond vanishes on its own."