Chapter 63: The King Is Not Invited

Naya was halfway through breakfast when Lyra’s invitation arrived, a riverside gathering for young wolves from several packs, food and swimming and friendly competitions before the Moon Court concluded.

Ronan read over her shoulder. “When does it end? Who’s attending? How far is the river from the palace?”

Naya looked at him. “Are you asking because you’re concerned about my safety, or because you want to come?”

“Those aren’t mutually exclusive.”

“You’re not invited.”

He looked at her as though she’d just denied him access to his own throne.

“I want an afternoon with my friend,” Naya said. “Without the King trailing behind me.”

He conceded eventually, though he reminded her to bring Tavian and the usual security detail. Naya accepted the reasonable precaution without surrendering the rest of her afternoon. Before she left, Ronan caught her hand.

“A kiss.”

She gave him one, brief and quick.

“That’s all I get?”

“You weren’t invited,” she said, already walking away.

Lyra met her outside the palace dressed for an afternoon outdoors rather than court, and the riverside gathering turned out to be full of young wolves from different packs, some swimming, others racing along the bank, a cluster competing to track a hidden object through the surrounding woods. Wolves in human form moved among each other with instinct showing in small ways, heads turning at unfamiliar scents, quick reactions to splashing water, the occasional flash of claws during a heated argument over a game.

Lyra introduced her around without announcing her title every time, and Naya appreciated it more than she could say. People recognized her, were respectful, but the afternoon never once turned into a formal royal audience.

A young wolf challenged Lyra to a race across the shallow river. She accepted instantly, then turned to Naya.

“Unless the Queen is afraid of getting her hair wet?”

Naya pulled off her shoes. “Unless the Alpha’s daughter is afraid of losing.”

They lined up at the bank while the others cheered, and the race began the moment someone shouted a signal. Lyra knew the terrain and cut around a submerged rock, gaining an early lead, but Naya adjusted quickly, trusting balance and instinct over brute speed. She reached the far bank just behind her friend.

“I won,” Lyra declared.

“You crossed the marked boundary.”

“Nobody said the boundary applied to the river.”

Their argument escalated into something ridiculous, both of them recruiting onlookers to judge, until Naya turned to Tavian, arms folded on the bank.

“You’re royal security,” she reminded him. “Settle this.”

“Exactly,” Tavian said. “My duty is to get you both home alive. Not decide which of you is the bigger menace.”

The gathering erupted into laughter, and Naya found herself laughing harder than she had in days, no title to defend, no argument to win beyond the game itself.

Afterward, she and Lyra sat on the riverbank with food from a nearby vendor, their conversation drifting toward the weight of family expectation. Lyra admitted that being an Alpha’s daughter meant people evaluated her as a political asset before bothering to know her as a person.

Naya understood that more than Lyra realized. She didn’t share every detail of the Ripley family’s secrets or the mystery tangled around her own birth, but she offered enough, the difficulty of separating what she wanted from what everyone else expected her to become.

Lyra didn’t offer a grand speech in response. She simply told Naya she didn’t have to explain herself to earn a place beside her.

Naya felt the weight of that settle somewhere warm.

Then Lyra stole the last piece of food off her plate.

“You just said I had a place beside you,” Naya said, staring.

“You do. Not beside the food.”

The laughter returned, the friendship settling into something with real depth beneath the jokes.

When Naya returned to the palace, she found Ronan had finished his council meeting earlier than usual, claiming he’d simply been done with his work. Serena, passing behind him, mentioned he’d asked twice when Naya was expected back. Ronan gave her a sharp look, and Serena continued on as though she hadn’t noticed.

“Did you miss me?” Naya asked, smiling.

“I was checking that your afternoon went well.”

“Of course you were.”

She told him about the race, Lyra’s questionable shortcut, the argument over the boundary.

“I would have won,” Ronan said.

“Prove it.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Are you inviting me somewhere?”

“No. I’m telling you that you would lose.”

He stepped closer, something playful settling into his expression. “Careful, Naya.”

She liked this version of him, the one who could tease without trying to control, who could want her attention without demanding it.

Later that evening, alone in their quarters, he asked whether she planned to see Lyra again.

“I do,” Naya said.

“Good.”

“In return,” she said, “I want one evening each week. No council matters, no territory disputes, no family secrets, unless something is genuinely urgent.”

He considered it. “You’re also Queen. You may be the one who brings work into our evenings.”

“That’s possible.”

“We’ll protect the time anyway,” he said.

“What will we do with it?”

“I haven’t decided,” she admitted.

“Then we’ll decide together.”

He drew her closer and kissed her, the kiss deepening naturally, his hand settling at her waist as her fingers curled into his shirt. When they finally separated, he rested his forehead against hers.

“I suppose I can survive an afternoon without being invited,” he murmured.

“I’m proud of you.”

“Don’t make a habit of saying that. I might become unbearable.”

She laughed and kissed him again.

That evening, a short message arrived from Lyra proposing another outing once the Moon Court concluded. Naya accepted before she could overthink it, setting the message aside as she joined Ronan by the window overlooking the palace grounds.

For months, her life had been defined by what she had to survive, what her family had hidden from her, what the kingdom expected of its Queen.

Now she had a husband she was learning to love, a friend who made her laugh, and a life slowly beginning to hold things she’d chosen for herself.

She leaned against him, and for once, the future didn’t feel like another problem waiting to be uncovered.