Chapter 55

Claire POV

I woke with sunlight streaming down over me, the large floor to ceiling windows of one entire wall flooding the room with the soft golden light.

For a moment I didn’t know where I was, and wondered if I was dreaming.

After a moment the sleep cleared enough from my brain for me to remember this wasn’t a dream. I really was in my rooms in the palace, snuggled into a giant bed filled with blankets as thick and soft as clouds.

And even though I knew I was awake, it still felt completely surreal.

My rooms in the palace were massive. I had a private kitchenette, an office, a sitting room, a large bedroom with a long wide balcony…

This was just one suite of rooms in the palace, and yet it was nearly three times the size of the tiny apartment I’d just moved out of.

And it was certainly a far cry from the bedroom I’d shared with three other girls, growing up at the orphanage.

I’d been here a little over a week, and I was still amazed every single day at just how much my circumstances had changed.

I dressed slowly, taking my time to enjoy the wardrobe the Royal Alpha had ordered for me.

No, not the Royal Alpha, I corrected myself. He wanted me to call him Dad or, on formal occasions, Father.

I’d been making a point to practice calling him Dad in my head any time I thought of him. It felt strange, and wonderful. I’d never had a family, never had a father. Suddenly, I did.

Like everything else in my life, it was taking a little time to get used to that.

I took my time walking downstairs for breakfast as well, enjoying the long hallways with their giant windows, the views out into the rolling countryside. This was an incredibly beautiful place, one I felt incredibly blessed to now call home.

Walking through the palace, past rows of masterpieces of art hung on the walls, with servants bowing or curtsying when I passed, I felt like I was walking on air.

But when I floated into the dining room, I crashed back down to Earth.

Sabrina already sat at the table with her father. No, our father.

What was she doing here??

And how was I supposed to deal with someone who had made it clear she hated the very site of me - especially now that we knew we were sisters?

“There you are, Claire! Good morning. I trust you slept well,” Dad said, his normal morning greeting.

“Yes, sir. D-Dad. I did, thank you. And you?”

“Slept like a rock,” he said cheerfully. “And woke up to a wonderful surprise: As you can see, Sabrina arrived late in the night.”

“Good morning, sister,” Sabrina said, her smile sharp and the look in her eyes even sharper. If that look was glass I would have been bleeding as soon as she slid it over me.

“I’m so excited to be here to help officially welcome you home,” she added.

I joined them at the table, moving slowly, watching Sabrina cautiously.

“Good morning to you as well,” I said. A servant set a plate full of delicious smelling food in front of me, but I couldn’t find any pleasure in the smells wafting up at me. Not at the moment. “I’m…happy you could be here as well.”

“Yes, well, it certainly wasn’t easy to make time in my schedule,” she said, stirring sugar into her coffee. “We’re so busy back at Silverfang! Nathan is on the campaign trail, you know. And now there’s all the wedding plans to make…”

She sighed, tapping the spoon against the rim of the cup. Blowing gently on the coffee, she took a sip, watching me as she did.

Oh - so that was her game.

Clearly she was going to throw her relationship with Nathan in my face whenever she could, to cause me as much pain as possible.

Knowing she could very well do so didn’t help. My relationship with Nathan was uncertain, to say the least, and the hurt was still incredibly fresh.

I tried to hide it as best as I could, picking up my fork and beginning to eat. My hunger had vanished, but I wasn’t going to let her know that.

“Wedding plans?” I asked.

“Oh yes, haven’t you heard? I just told Dad the good news as well: Nathan and I are releasing our official marriage agreement. And we’ve set a date!

“We’re getting married this winter. Isn’t it exciting?!”

The force of the announcement, and Sabrina’s delight in hitting me in the face with it, slammed into me like a fist in my stomach.

I knew Sabrina was going to be a presence in my life from now on, since we were related, but now she was marrying Nathan??

She was actually going to marry my fated mate.

The sharp pain and deep sorrow were excruciating.

But a lifetime spent enduring abuse as an Omega hadn’t left me completely defenseless.

I knew how to take a hit and keep on moving.

So while Sabrina watched me closely, looking for some kind of reaction to her big announcement, I simply picked up my own cup of coffee and blew on it gently.

“A winter wedding sounds beautiful. Congratulations, Sister,” I said, taking a small sip of coffee.

It burned like acid going down, but I handled it with a small smile on my face.

When Sabrina’s lip curled I knew she was annoyed at my reaction. Which meant she believed it.

Despite my sorrow, I was glad to have at least robbed her of the satisfaction of seeing how much it hurt me.

Looking over at our father, I realized he had completely missed the subtext of our conversation. He looked back and forth between the two of us as we talked, a small smile on his face.

“It’s lovely to see you two getting along so well. I know things have been tense in the past, and we have a real mystery to contend with, but I’m confident we can handle it.”

He reached out to us, taking one of each of our hands in his. “And we’ll handle it together. As a family.”

As a family.

I had always wanted family, and spent hours as a child dreaming up people to fill a pretend family with. There would be kind and loving parents, of course, but also fun aunts and uncles, lots of cousins. Maybe even an annoying older brother, or tag-along little sister.

Now that I had a real family, it turned out to be a lot more complicated than the daydreams I spent so much time building when I was younger.

Looking across the table, I saw Sabrina wasn’t any happier about the idea of being a family together than I was.

But we were just going to have to get used to it.

Somehow.

“Now, speaking of family,” Dad went on. “Your cousin Catherine has sent word that she’s planning to come for an extended visit. Claire, she says she can’t wait to meet you. And Sabrina, to you she sends her love.”

A cousin!

The news came as a shock to me - and also, it seemed, to Sabrina. She choked on her coffee at the news, spluttering in surprise.

“She’s coming here? She’s going to be staying in the palace??”

Fascinating.

As Dad turned the conversation to the rest of the family, all the relatives I’d be meeting eventually, I found my appetite returned. Feeling much more cheerful, I dug into my breakfast with a smile.

I was looking forward to meeting Cousin Catherine.

Anyone who upset Sabrina that much just by the sound of her name was someone I definitely wanted to get to know.