Chapter 111: _ Everyone Watched Us

I groaned, letting my head drop back against the pillows. "Ivar, please. Do not do this to me. A lot is happening in my life right now. I just discovered I’m the epicenter of a political crisis, got magically marked, passed out, and just found out my mate’s hobby is stealing mana. I have a strict zero-more-bad-news policy."

Ivar looked at me with soft-eyed concern. "Sadly, petal... there’s a lot more. But you have me now. So your problems are officially going to magically disappear."

"That sounds like a terrible guarantee," I muttered. "Give me the good news first. If I hear the bad news first, it’ll ruin the good news, and right now I need every crumb of happiness I can get."

Ivar chuckled, setting the tray aside. He raised his hands and gave a two-part clap.

The doors clicked open, and two senior Wolf Wing maids strode into the bedchamber. They both dropped into perfectly synchronized curtsies before stepping aside.

Behind them came a procession of attendants wheeling in four rolling wooden racks. The racks were groaning under the weight of hundreds of rich velvet dresses, leathers, silk tunics, embroidered cloaks, and tailored boots in every imaginable color.

My jaw dropped so fast I think my teeth clicked.

"What... what is all of this?" I stammered, staring in wide-eyed awe at the literal boutique taking over Ivar’s bedroom.

"Well," Ivar said casually, brushing a crumb off his tunic, "you looked like you needed new clothes. Your Stonewick tunics are filthy, and the shirt you wore yesterday is currently stretched out of shape because I ruined it against the wall. So, I bought you an entire shop from the upper trading district."

I blinked rapidly. "You... you bought a shop?"

"Just the inventory," Ivar corrected. "Keep half of it here in my quarters for when you’re sleeping over, and take the other half back to your academy dorm. No more wearing rags, Petal. We have a lot of work to do, but let’s start showing them you are the mate of a sovereign wolf Prince."

I sat there in stunned silence. Just yesterday, I had been mentally calculating how many weeks of hard labor it would take me to earn enough silver coins for a single decent shirt. Now, a royal prince had casually wheeled an entire fashion house into his bedroom because my laundry habits offended him.

"I don’t even know what to say," I breathed, running a hand over the soft velvet of an emerald gown hanging on the nearest rack.

"You can say ’Thank you, Ivar, you’re the most brilliant and generous mate in the world,’" he supplied with an infuriatingly charming wink.

"I’d rather eat glass," I shot back, though a hot blush crept up my neck.

"And yet, you love it." Ivar grinned, leaning back against the pillows next to me. Then, the playful light faded from his eyes as he cleared his throat. "Right. About that bad news..."

The comfortable warmth evaporated from the room instantly.

I sighed. "You said my problems were going to magically disappear."

"I lied," Ivar said grimly. "That was a tactical parenting move."

"Ivar..." I warned as my heart started to pound again.

He took my hand in his, his thumb rubbing soothing circles over my knuckles. "Okay. Remember when we were in the cloister? And I marked you?"

"Yes," I said slowly. "While the entire academy was supposed to be watching sports exhibitions."

"Right. Well... someone broadcast us."

The room stopped spinning.

In fact, the entire world seemed to drop out from beneath me. My mind stalled, completely refusing to parse the noise coming out of his mouth.

"Broadcasted..." I repeated. "What do you mean, broadcasted? Like... someone saw us?"

Ivar spoke cautiously, as if he were trying to talk down a wild animal. "Not just saw us, my lovely mate. A scrying glass was linked to the main arena screen."

I blinked at him noiselessly.

Then, a nervous and breathy laugh bubbled up from my chest. "Right. Good one, Ivar. Very funny. You almost had me." I shook my head, pulling my hand out of his grip and clutching the blanket tightly to my throat. "You can stop now. The joke isn’t funny."

"Elira..."

"No, seriously, stop," I insisted, my voice rising as a prickling panic began to claw at my ribcage. "Because that screen... you made it sound like it’s huge. The whole student body must be at the Quadrangle yesterday. My friends, my fellow first-years, the seniors, worse... They... T-they were all standing around the arena, watching exhibition matches."

I had come to know Ivar as one with one too many cocky smirks but right now, he didn’t even smile. He just sat there, watching me with an excruciating sympathy that sent a sickening wave of nausea straight to my gut.

"No," I whispered, the color draining so fast from my face that my vision swirled. "No, no, no. You’re lying. Tell me you’re lying!"

"I wish I were, petal," he said quietly.

The horror hit me all at once.

Every kiss and moan. My back pressed against the wall. The sound of my clothes tearing. Him taking me mid-air. The mark. My body, bare and exposed, broadcast in high-definition to hundreds of cheering, mocking, noble-born initiates.

My stomach churned so violently I thought I was going to throw up the bread I had just eaten. Bren. Miriel. Elsie and her lackeys... Maybe even Warden Clement?

Everyone had watched me get thoroughly and publicly taken by the Wolf Prince like a common spectacle. My reputation wasn’t just ruined—it was burned to ash, scattered across the entire sovereign realm.

Oh, no. Oh, gods. This isn’t happening.

Who... who on earth would do this to me?

"Oh gods," I choked out, wrapping my arms around my knees and pulling them tightly against my chest. I felt so small, so exposed, as if a thousand eyes were staring at me right through the heavy curtains of the bed. "Oh gods... everyone saw me... everyone watched us..."

Tears of mortification stung my eyes. I was a trench rat from Stonewick, a markless nobody who had tried so hard to stay invisible, and now I was the most scandalous, degraded girl in the entire academy.

My dignity was in the dust. My life was over.