“I Wish Someone Would Choose Me,” She Murmured – Not Knowing The Alpha King Heard Every Word

Part 1

The black SUV stopped beneath the security lights of Thornwood Estate at 7:43 p.m.

Alice knew because she had been staring at the time on her phone for the last forty minutes, watching the signal bars disappear one by one as the road climbed deeper into the northern mountains.

Now there were none.

No service.

No messages.

Nothing but her reflection in the dark screen and the enormous iron gates opening ahead of her.

The driver didn’t look back.

“We’re here.”

That was all he said.

Alice looked through the rain-streaked window.

Beyond the gates, a private road curved through acres of black pine forest. Cameras were mounted discreetly among the stone pillars. Two men in dark jackets stood beneath the gatehouse awning, both wearing earpieces.

Neither carried a visible weapon.

Neither needed one.

Alice knew what they were.

Wolves.

Thornwood wolves.

The SUV rolled forward.

At the end of the road stood a sprawling stone-and-glass estate built into the mountainside. Parts of it looked centuries old, dark stone and steep roofs preserved from another age. Other sections were unmistakably modern—floor-to-ceiling windows, steel walkways, security lighting, a six-car garage.

It wasn’t a castle.

But Alice understood why people still called it the seat of the Thornwood crown.

Some places didn’t need towers to make you feel small.

Her suitcase was already on the pavement when she stepped out.

One suitcase.

Twenty-four years of life reduced to something a stranger could lift with one hand.

Alice pulled her coat tighter.

Her uncle hadn’t come to say goodbye.

He hadn’t even driven her here himself.

Three days earlier, Aldrich had summoned her into his office, pushed a sealed transfer agreement across his desk and informed her that she would be relocating to Thornwood Territory.

Relocating.

Such a clean word.

Almost civilized.

As if she hadn’t spent most of her life being moved whenever someone decided she had become inconvenient.

After her father died, Uncle Aldrich had taken responsibility for her because family law required it.

When his wife grew tired of having her in their house, Alice moved into an apartment above one of the territory businesses and worked downstairs.

When that business was sold, she moved again.

Receptionist.

Housekeeper.

Bookkeeper.

Kitchen assistant.

Whatever made her useful enough to justify keeping around.

And now Thornwood.

Aldrich Territory had recently come under the Alpha King’s direct protection after a dispute with two neighboring packs. Her uncle had described Alice’s transfer as “a gesture of cooperation.”

Alice had learned years ago what adults meant when they used elegant words for ugly things.

A woman came down the front steps toward her.

She was somewhere in her late fifties, with iron-gray hair, sensible boots and a tablet tucked beneath one arm.

“Alice?”

“Yes.”

“I’m Marin.”

She shook Alice’s hand firmly.

“I manage the estate. Household staff, accommodations, schedules, and most of the disasters no one else wants to admit exist.”

Alice wasn’t sure whether that was a joke.

Then Marin took the handle of her suitcase.

Alice immediately reached for it.

“I can carry that.”

“I know.”

Marin kept walking.

Alice followed.

Inside, Thornwood Estate was warm without feeling welcoming.

The original stone walls had been preserved, but discreet recessed lighting had replaced torches, and polished concrete ran alongside old timber floors. Security panels sat beside antique doors. A massive abstract painting occupied one wall; opposite it hung the black-thorn insignia Alice had seen all her life on territory documents.

Black branches against silver.

The Thornwood crest.

At the center of the supernatural territories stretching across the north was the man who carried that symbol.

William Thornwood.

The Alpha King.

Humans didn’t know the title existed.

As far as the outside world was concerned, William Thornwood was the intensely private head of an old family holding company with extensive land, energy, forestry and conservation interests.

Inside their world, CEOs called him Your Majesty behind locked doors.

Alphas twice his age stood when he entered a room.

And her uncle had sent Alice directly into his territory.

“Kitchen starts at six,” Marin said as they walked. “You won’t be doing everything. Mostly breakfast prep, inventory and whatever else needs hands. Your records say you’ve worked commercial kitchens before.”

“Yes.”

“Bookkeeping too?”

“A little.”

“Good. We’re short-handed in administration.”

Alice nodded automatically.

Useful.

Be useful before anyone has to ask.

It had kept a roof over her head for years.

Marin stopped outside a door at the end of a quieter corridor.

“This is yours.”

Alice blinked.

She had expected staff quarters.

Instead she found a small but comfortable bedroom with a private bathroom, a desk, a wardrobe and a window overlooking the forest. Someone had left fresh towels on the bed. There was even a small television mounted on the wall.

Alice remained in the doorway.

“Is something wrong?” Marin asked.

“No. I just…”

She looked around.

“It’s bigger than I expected.”

Marin studied her for a second.

“Dinner’s finished, but I’ll have something sent down.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I know.”

There was that answer again.

Marin put Alice’s suitcase beside the wardrobe.

“Get some sleep.”

The door closed.

Alice was alone.

She sat on the edge of the bed.

Her phone connected automatically to the estate’s guest Wi-Fi, and notifications began arriving.

Advertisements.

A weather alert.

Two promotional emails.

Nothing from Aldrich.

Alice stared at the screen until it dimmed.

Then she opened her suitcase.

She owned embarrassingly little.

Clothes.

Toiletries.

Her laptop.

A wooden comb that had belonged to her mother.

And beneath everything else, wrapped carefully in tissue paper, an old blue shawl.

Alice touched it but didn’t take it out.

Her mother had died when she was eleven.

It was the last object Alice owned that remembered a time when she had belonged somewhere.

She closed the suitcase.

Outside, wind moved through the pines.

Alice crossed to the window.

The rain had stopped. Moonlight silvered the wet courtyard and turned the glass buildings across the estate into dark mirrors.

Somewhere beyond the trees were miles of Thornwood territory.

She wondered how long she would stay.

Three months?

A year?

Until Aldrich needed another political favor?

Until Thornwood decided she wasn’t useful?

Alice rested her forehead against the cold glass.

She knew better than to wish for impossible things.

Still, the words escaped.

“I wish someone would choose me.”

Her voice was barely audible.

She swallowed.

“Just once.”

The room seemed painfully quiet.

“I wish someone would look at me and decide I’m worth keeping. Not because I’m useful. Not because somebody signed an agreement.”

Her mouth twisted into a humorless smile.

“Just because they want me there.”

She closed her eyes.

Stupid.

She was twenty-four years old, not twelve.

The moon didn’t grant wishes.

Alpha Kings certainly didn’t.

Alice stepped away from the window.

She never noticed the man standing on the covered terrace one floor below.

William Thornwood had come outside because he couldn’t sleep.

Again.

His phone was still in his hand, displaying an unread email from the Western Territory council.

He had been walking back toward his private wing when a voice drifted from the open window above.

He stopped.

Lycan hearing could be inconvenient.

Tonight it was merciless.

I wish someone would choose me.

William looked up.

He knew which room it was.

The new arrival.

Alice.

Aldrich’s niece.

He had read the agreement that morning and disliked nearly every line of it.

Aldrich had offered her services as though he were transferring an employee between subsidiaries.

William had almost refused on principle.

Then his advisers had pointed out that sending her back immediately might leave her in a worse position.

So he had authorized the transfer temporarily and instructed Marin to make sure she was treated properly.

That should have been the end of his involvement.

Instead, he stood in the darkness listening to a stranger confess something she clearly believed no one could hear.

Not because I’m useful.

William lowered his phone.

People had chosen him his entire life.

At least that was what they called it.

His council chose him because he carried the Thornwood bloodline.

His pack chose him because he was stronger than every Alpha who had challenged him.

Corporations wanted his signature.

Families wanted his protection.

Women had wanted the crown, the estate, the name, the access.

William couldn’t remember the last time anyone had entered a room looking for William instead of the Alpha King.

Perhaps no one ever had.

The light above him went out.

William remained beneath the terrace roof.

For reasons he couldn’t explain, the words followed him all the way back to his office.

Alice saw the Alpha King for the first time the next morning.

She was in the estate pantry trying to reach a box of imported coffee filters someone had apparently decided belonged on the highest shelf in the building.

She stretched onto her toes.

Almost.

Her fingers touched cardboard.

“Need help?”

Alice spun around.

A man stood in the doorway.

Tall.

Dark hair.

Black sweater with the sleeves pushed to his forearms. Charcoal trousers. No suit, no tie, no obvious security.

He could have passed for an executive who had wandered into the wrong room.

Except executives didn’t make every instinct in Alice’s body suddenly pay attention.

Power rolled from him without effort.

Not aggression.

Not threat.

Something older.

Something her wolf recognized before her mind did.

Alpha.

Her stomach dropped.

Not merely an Alpha.

The Alpha.

“Your Majesty.”

Alice stepped backward so quickly she bumped the shelving.

William’s eyebrows moved slightly.

“William is fine inside the house.”

Alice stared at him.

There was absolutely no universe in which she intended to call the Alpha King William.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Something almost amused flickered across his face.

He looked at the shelf.

“Coffee filters?”

“Yes.”

William reached over her.

Alice went completely still.

He didn’t touch her.

Didn’t crowd her.

He simply took the box down and offered it to her.

“Thank you.”

“Alice.”

She looked up sharply.

He knew her name.

Of course he knew her name.

Her paperwork was probably sitting somewhere on his computer.

Still, hearing it from him felt strangely different.

“Yes?”

“You don’t have to apologize every time you’re in a room.”

Alice hadn’t realized she had.

“I wasn’t—”

She stopped.

William waited.

“I suppose I do that.”

“I noticed.”

Her face warmed.

“Sorry.”

His eyebrow rose.

Alice closed her eyes for half a second.

“Right.”

And there it was.

The smallest change in his expression.

Almost a smile.

He stepped aside.

“You’re not in anyone’s way here.”

Something inside her went unexpectedly still.

He couldn’t know.

There was no possible way he could know what those words meant to her.

“Thank you,” she said quietly.

William nodded and left.

Alice remained beside the shelves long after his footsteps disappeared.

Two nights later, she found his coat.

Not some ceremonial Alpha King’s garment.

Just a heavy charcoal winter coat thrown over the back of a chair in the estate’s informal lounge.

Alice was collecting coffee cups after a late territory meeting when she noticed the tear.

Six inches along the shoulder seam.

She looked toward the corridor.

Empty.

She should leave it.

William Thornwood could afford ten thousand coats.

He could probably replace this one before breakfast.

But this coat wasn’t new.

The cuffs were worn. One pocket had been repaired before. The fabric had softened with age.

Someone kept wearing it because it mattered.

Alice ran her thumb carefully beside the torn seam.

Then she took it to her room.

Her mother had taught her to sew.

Later, an elderly tailor in Aldrich Territory had taught her the things her mother hadn’t lived long enough to teach.

Alice sat beneath the desk lamp for almost an hour, matching the thread as closely as possible and reinforcing the damaged seam from inside.

When she finished, the repair was nearly invisible.

She returned the coat exactly where she’d found it.

No note.

No expectation.

Just something broken that she knew how to fix.

The following morning, William picked up his coat on his way to a meeting.

His hand stopped at the shoulder.

He examined the seam.

Small stitches.

Careful.

Patient.

Someone had repaired it by hand.

His chief security officer, Bram, was waiting near the door.

“Problem?”

William looked at him.

“No.”

He ran his thumb once over the repaired fabric.

“Do you know who did this?”

Bram examined the coat.

“Not me. I can barely sew skin.”

William gave him a look.

“Medical stitches.”

“That clarification didn’t improve the sentence.”

Bram grinned.

William looked down at the repair again.

He already knew.

That evening, Alice returned to her room after dinner and stopped outside her door.

A small bundle rested against it.

Fresh pine branches.

Not flowers.

Not expensive chocolates.

Not some grand gift from an Alpha King trying to impress a woman.

Pine.

Cut from the forest outside her window and tied with plain twine.

There was no card.

Alice crouched.

When she lifted them, she caught a familiar scent on the twine.

Cold air.

Cedar.

And the faint, unmistakable scent of the man she’d stood beside in the pantry.

William.

Alice held the branches against her chest.

For the first time in years, someone had noticed something she’d done without being asked.

And answered it.

Not with money.

Not with obligation.

With something equally quiet.

Something chosen.

She didn’t know that William was standing in his office across the courtyard, watching her light come on.

She didn’t know he saw her discover the branches.

And she certainly didn’t know what happened to his expression when she smiled.

Part 2

Thornwood’s autumn festival took place the following Saturday.

Alice had expected something formal.

It wasn’t.

The main street of the mountain town had been closed to traffic. Food trucks and wooden stalls lined both sides of the road. Strings of amber lights crossed overhead. A local band played beneath a covered stage while children ran around wearing cheap plastic wolf ears.

Humans attended too.

That was part of the strange genius of Thornwood.

The supernatural world hid in plain sight.

Humans thought the wolf imagery was local tradition.

They had no idea half the men grilling burgers could actually become one.

Marin ordered Alice to take the afternoon off.

“You’ve reorganized my entire dry-storage system.”

“I thought you liked it.”

“I love it. That’s why you’re being removed before you find something else to improve.”

Alice laughed.

She hadn’t realized until then how easily laughter had begun coming here.

At one stall, she found jars of local honey.

She bought one immediately.

Her mother used to put honey in tea.

Sweetness is a kind of courage, she would say.

Alice was still thinking about her when she turned away from the stall and collided with someone.

Strong hands caught her elbows.

“Careful.”

She knew the voice.

Alice looked up.

William.

He wore jeans.

The discovery was absurdly startling.

No formal black suit. No security detail hovering visibly behind him. Just jeans, boots and a dark jacket.

“You’re staring,” he said.

Alice immediately looked away.

“I’m sorry.”

“Alice.”

“Right. No unnecessary apologies.”

“Progress.”

She looked at him again.

He was smiling.

Actually smiling.

Only slightly, but enough to change his entire face.

Alice lifted the honey.

“I found this.”

William glanced at the jar.

“Heather honey.”

“You know it?”

“My mother bought it every autumn.”

The smile disappeared, but not in a cold way.

Something softer replaced it.

“She put it in tea when she couldn’t sleep.”

“My mother did too.”

William’s eyes returned to hers.

For several seconds, neither spoke.

There were hundreds of people around them.

Music.

Children.

Cars crawling through the detour.

Someone shouting an order number from a food truck.

Yet Alice felt as if the space between them had become strangely private.

“Would you like some?” she asked.

William looked surprised.

“Now?”

Alice glanced at the sealed jar.

“I didn’t think that through.”

He laughed.

It was quiet and brief.

But it was a laugh.

Alice stared again.

“Now you’re definitely staring.”

“I’ve never heard you laugh.”

“Most people haven’t.”

“That seems unfortunate.”

William looked at her for a long moment.

Then someone called his title from behind them.

The Alpha King returned almost instantly.

His shoulders straightened.

His expression became controlled.

Alice saw it happen and understood something she hadn’t before.

The distance wasn’t arrogance.

It was armor.

“Enjoy the festival, Alice.”

“You too.”

William walked away.

She watched him disappear into the crowd.

For the first time, Alice wondered whether being the most powerful person in the territory might simply be another way of belonging to everyone except yourself.

The evening feast was where everything changed.

Alice was sitting with Marin and several estate employees when she heard a man’s drunken voice from behind her.

“Aldrich’s little peace offering?”

Alice stopped eating.

Another man laughed nervously.

“Drop it, Eric.”

“What? Everyone knows. Aldrich sends the King a pretty little relative and suddenly his territory gets protection.”

Alice’s fingers tightened around her fork.

There it was.

The thing she’d been waiting for.

The truth beneath all the polite words.

Transfer.

Cooperation.

Good faith.

She was a transaction.

Again.

“Apparently she works in his house now,” Eric continued. “Hell of a diplomatic package.”

The laughter died.

Not gradually.

Instantly.

Alice knew why before she turned around.

William stood behind Eric.

He wasn’t smiling.

He wasn’t growling either.

He didn’t need theatrics.

“Eric.”

The man’s face drained.

“Your Majesty.”

“You’ve had enough to drink.”

“I was joking.”

“At her expense.”

William’s voice remained calm.

Eric looked at Alice.

Then away.

William stepped closer.

Alice felt his power then—not released violently, but allowed to become visible.

Every wolf nearby lowered their eyes.

“She isn’t Aldrich’s property.”

Silence.

“She isn’t mine.”

Alice stopped breathing.

William looked directly at her.

“She belongs to herself.”

Something inside Alice cracked.

William turned back to Eric.

“If you cannot understand the distinction, leave my territory until you’re sober enough to learn it.”

Eric left.

William didn’t wait for gratitude.

He simply walked away.

Alice stared after him.

She belongs to herself.

Not she’s under my protection.

Not she’s mine.

Herself.

Marin quietly pushed a cup of tea toward her.

Alice took it with shaking hands.

“He didn’t have to do that,” she whispered.

“No,” Marin said.

“He didn’t.”

William walked Alice back to the estate after the festival.

Not because she needed protection.

Not because he ordered her to come.

He asked.

They followed the pedestrian path through the trees while the distant festival lights glowed behind them.

“You heard him,” Alice said eventually.

“Yes.”

“Was he right?”

William stopped.

Alice forced herself to meet his eyes.

“Did Aldrich send me here as payment?”

William was silent long enough that she knew she wasn’t going to like the answer.

“He tried.”

Her stomach turned.

William continued before she could look away.

“I rejected those terms.”

Alice stared at him.

“What?”

“The agreement he sent described your placement as part of his cooperation package. I had my legal team remove every clause concerning you.”

“Then why am I here?”

“Because sending you back immediately would have put you directly under his authority again.”

William’s voice lowered.

“I thought giving you time here would allow you to decide what you wanted.”

Alice could barely process it.

“You knew?”

“From the beginning.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

That landed.

William looked away.

“Because I made the decision for you.”

Alice’s chest tightened.

“I told myself I was protecting you. But I still decided what was best without asking.”

He looked back at her.

“I was wrong.”

The Alpha King was apologizing to her.

Not explaining.

Not commanding.

Apologizing.

“So what happens now?” Alice asked.

“Whatever you decide.”

“If I want to leave?”

“A car will take you wherever you choose.”

“If I want to stay?”

William went very still.

“Then you stay.”

Alice heard something beneath the words.

Something carefully restrained.

“And if I’m not useful?”

His expression changed.

He remembered.

Of course he remembered.

Alice suddenly understood.

The first morning.

You’re not in anyone’s way here.

Her breath caught.

“You heard me.”

William didn’t lie.

“Yes.”

“At the window?”

“Yes.”

Mortification flooded her.

“Oh God.”

“Alice—”

“You heard all of it?”

“My hearing isn’t something I can switch off.”

She covered her face.

“I need the mountain to open and swallow me.”

“Alice.”

“No.”

“I wasn’t deliberately listening.”

“That improves absolutely nothing.”

“It improves my criminal liability considerably.”

Her hands dropped.

William’s mouth twitched.

Alice stared at him.

Then, against every reasonable instinct, she laughed.

William did too.

Standing beneath the pine trees, halfway between a modern town and the private estate of an Alpha King, they laughed about the most humiliating moment of Alice’s life.

And somehow it stopped feeling humiliating.

When the laughter faded, William became serious.

“I’ve thought about what you said every day since.”

Alice’s heart stumbled.

“Why?”

He took his time answering.

“Because I understood it.”

The wind moved softly through the trees.

“Everyone chooses the King,” William said. “I’m not sure anyone has ever chosen me.”

Alice looked at him.

Not his title.

Not his power.

Him.

Suddenly the pine branches made perfect sense.

“You left them.”

“Yes.”

“Why pine?”

His expression became almost embarrassed.

“You kept looking at the forest.”

Alice felt tears sting unexpectedly behind her eyes.

He had noticed.

Of course he had.

William noticed quiet things.

So did she.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

They continued walking.

Neither touched the other.

They didn’t need to.

Something had already changed.

Three mornings later, Alice saw the light in William’s office at 4:52 a.m.

She couldn’t sleep.

Apparently neither could he.

She went downstairs, made two cups of tea and crossed the quiet estate.

William’s office door was partly open.

He sat behind a desk surrounded by three monitors, territory maps and financial reports, his reading glasses low on his nose.

Alice stopped.

William looked up.

For one beautiful second, the terrifying Alpha King looked like a man caught doing homework.

“Alice?”

“I brought tea.”

His gaze dropped to the second cup.

Something changed in his face.

“For me?”

“No. I routinely carry spare beverages around at five in the morning.”

He leaned back.

“You’ve become sarcastic.”

“Marin’s influence.”

“Dangerous woman.”

Alice entered.

William closed his laptop.

“You don’t have to stop working.”

“I want to.”

That answer hit differently now.

Want.

Not duty.

Not obligation.

Choice.

Alice sat across from him.

“Are you all right?”

William stared at her.

“What?”

“You’re awake before five. Again. Are you all right?”

His gaze dropped to the tea.

When he spoke, his voice was quieter.

“No one asks me that.”

“Then people around you are idiots.”

He looked up.

Alice immediately realized she’d called the Alpha King’s entire inner circle idiots.

“I probably shouldn’t have said that.”

“No.”

A slow smile appeared.

“But I’m glad you did.”

Part 3

Alice stayed.

Not because Aldrich had sent her.

Because she chose to.

That distinction changed everything.

She stopped working in the kitchen full-time after Marin discovered that Alice had quietly corrected three months of inventory discrepancies.

Within weeks, she was helping the estate administration team.

Within two months, she was coordinating suppliers and household accounts.

William never promoted her.

Marin did.

Alice made certain he knew that.

“I had nothing to do with it,” William told her.

“Good.”

He looked offended.

“You could pretend my influence is attractive.”

“Your restraint is more attractive.”

The words escaped before she could stop them.

Silence.

Alice stared at her laptop.

William stared at her.

“Well,” she said.

William stood.

“I should leave.”

“Yes.”

He walked directly into the closed glass door.

Alice bit her lip.

William stared at the door.

Then at her.

“If you laugh, you’re fired.”

“You can’t fire me. Marin hired me.”

William closed his eyes.

Alice lost the battle.

Her laughter followed him down the corridor.

But Thornwood couldn’t remain a sanctuary forever.

Aldrich arrived in December.

Unannounced.

Alice was crossing the main lobby when she saw him removing his gloves beside the security desk.

Every instinct she’d spent months unlearning came rushing back.

Shoulders smaller.

Eyes down.

Don’t create problems.

“Alice.”

Her uncle looked her over.

“I hear you’ve made yourself comfortable.”

She said nothing.

“I’ve come to take you home.”

Home.

The word almost made her laugh.

“No.”

Aldrich blinked.

“What?”

“I said no.”

“You don’t understand the situation.”

“I understand it perfectly.”

His expression hardened.

“I am still your legal family representative within our territory.”

“Not anymore.”

William’s voice came from behind her.

Alice turned.

He approached without hurry.

No guards.

No display of supernatural strength.

Just William.

Aldrich immediately lowered his head.

“Your Majesty.”

William stopped beside Alice.

Not in front of her.

Beside her.

“Alice established independent residency in Thornwood Territory six weeks ago,” he said. “Your authority over her ended the moment those documents were approved.”

Aldrich looked at Alice.

“You did that?”

“Yes.”

“You ungrateful—”

William moved.

Barely.

One step.

The air changed.

Alice reached out and touched his wrist.

William stopped.

He looked at her.

Alice shook her head.

Her fight.

He understood.

And stepped back.

Alice faced her uncle.

“You took me in when my father died. I will always acknowledge that.”

Aldrich’s expression softened slightly, expecting surrender.

It didn’t come.

“But you spent thirteen years making sure I knew what it cost you.”

His face changed.

“You taught me that every room had to be earned. Every meal. Every kindness. Every bed I slept in.”

“Alice—”

“You sent me from place to place whenever I became inconvenient.”

“I provided for you.”

“Yes.”

She swallowed.

“And somehow you made being provided for feel like a debt I could never finish paying.”

Aldrich glanced toward William.

Perhaps he expected the King to intervene.

William remained silent.

Alice continued.

“You don’t get to take me anywhere.”

“Alice, be reasonable.”

“I am.”

Her voice didn’t shake anymore.

“I live here because I chose to live here.”

Aldrich’s gaze shifted between them.

Then comprehension appeared.

“Oh.”

Alice hated the way he said it.

“So that’s what this is.”

William’s expression went cold.

Alice squeezed his wrist once.

Still her fight.

Aldrich smiled without warmth.

“You think the Alpha King chose you?”

The old wound opened instantly.

Alice felt it.

Aldrich saw that he had struck something and pressed harder.

“Men like him don’t choose women like you, Alice. They choose alliances. Bloodlines. Power.”

William’s control cracked.

“Aldrich.”

One word.

The lights overhead flickered.

Alice had never felt William’s Alpha presence fully unleashed.

Now she understood why other Alphas feared him.

But she wasn’t afraid.

She stepped between them.

“William.”

His eyes found hers.

Not King.

William.

Slowly, the pressure receded.

Alice turned back to her uncle.

“Maybe you’re right.”

William went still.

Alice continued.

“Maybe he won’t choose me.”

Aldrich smiled.

“But that’s no longer the question that decides my life.”

His smile vanished.

“I choose me.”

Silence.

Alice hadn’t known until she said it how badly she needed to hear those words in her own voice.

“I choose where I live. I choose what work I do. I choose who gets access to me. And I choose whether I stay.”

She opened the front door.

“You should go.”

Aldrich stared at her.

For once, Alice didn’t lower her eyes.

Eventually he left.

The door closed.

Alice stood there shaking.

William said nothing.

He waited.

Alice turned around.

“I’m going to cry now.”

He opened his arms.

He didn’t grab her.

Didn’t assume.

Just opened them.

Alice crossed the distance herself.

William held her.

No crown.

No King.

No bargain.

Just William.

And for the first time in Alice’s life, being held didn’t feel like owing someone something.

That night, snow began falling over Thornwood.

Alice found William outside on the terrace.

The same terrace where he had heard her wish months before.

“You’re going to freeze,” she said.

“Probably.”

She joined him.

They watched snow collect on the pines.

After a while, William spoke.

“I need to tell you something.”

“That sounds ominous.”

“It is, apparently, terrifying.”

Alice looked at him.

The Alpha King looked genuinely nervous.

She waited.

“I’ve spent months trying not to make your life here dependent on me.”

“I know.”

“I didn’t want you wondering whether your home, your work or your safety depended on how I felt about you.”

Her heart began beating faster.

William looked out at the forest.

“So I waited.”

“For what?”

“For you to know you could leave.”

Alice couldn’t breathe properly.

William finally faced her.

“And now you do.”

“Yes.”

“You can leave Thornwood tomorrow and nothing you’ve built here will be taken from you. Your position is yours. Your accounts are yours. Your residency is yours. No matter what you say to me tonight.”

Alice’s eyes burned.

William took one slow breath.

“So now I can ask you without putting a crown behind the question.”

He held out his hand.

Not taking hers.

Offering his.

“Alice.”

She looked at his open palm.

“I choose you.”

Her eyes closed.

Months ago, those words would have completed the wish.

Now she understood why they couldn’t.

William seemed to understand too.

“Not to keep,” he said quietly.

Alice opened her eyes.

“Not to own. Not because Aldrich sent you here. Not because you’re useful to this estate.”

His voice roughened.

“I choose your terrible five-in-the-morning tea. I choose the woman who repaired a coat I could have replaced a hundred times. I choose the person who insults my advisers and reorganizes rooms she doesn’t technically control.”

Alice laughed through her tears.

“I choose the woman who reminds me I’m allowed to be William.”

He swallowed.

“And if you don’t choose me back, I’ll survive it.”

The most powerful wolf in the north stood before her and surrendered the only power that mattered.

The power to decide.

Alice looked at his hand.

Then she put hers into it.

“I choose you too.”

William’s fingers closed gently around hers.

Alice stepped closer.

“But I have conditions.”

His eyebrows rose.

“Of course you do.”

“No making decisions for me because you’re the Alpha King.”

“Agreed.”

“No terrifying people because they annoy me.”

“Define terrifying.”

“William.”

“Fine.”

“And no pretending you’re fine when you’re awake at four in the morning.”

“That one seems unreasonable.”

“It isn’t.”

He sighed.

“Anything else?”

Alice looked at him.

“Yes.”

“What?”

“Kiss me.”

William became completely still.

Alice smiled.

“Did I finally manage to frighten the Alpha King?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

His free hand rose slowly to her face.

Even then, he waited.

Alice closed the final inch herself.

His kiss was warm and careful.

No supernatural compulsion.

No destiny forcing them together.

No crown deciding what happened next.

Choice.

His.

Hers.

Equal.

When they finally separated, William rested his forehead against hers.

Alice looked beyond him at the moon above the snow-covered pines.

She remembered the woman who had stood at a strange bedroom window months ago believing she was something people passed from hand to hand.

I wish someone would choose me.

She wished she could speak to that version of herself now.

She would tell her she had misunderstood.

Being chosen was beautiful.

But first she had needed to learn that she was not an object waiting for somebody else’s decision.

She could choose too.

Choose a home.

Choose a life.

Choose herself.

And then, when a quiet, lonely man offered her his hand without command, obligation or crown—

she could choose him.

William squeezed her fingers.

“Cold?”

“A little.”

“Come inside.”

Alice smiled.

“Is that an order, Your Majesty?”

His expression flattened.

“Don’t start.”

She laughed and pulled him toward the door.

Behind them, snow continued falling across Thornwood Territory.

Ahead waited warm lights, two abandoned cups of tea, tomorrow’s work, arguments they hadn’t had yet, mornings neither of them would face alone, and an ordinary life made extraordinary not by fate—

but by two people who kept choosing it.

And choosing each other.