Chapter 149 Chapter 149

Chapter 149 Chapter 149
Taylor's POV

The Alpha King called an emergency meeting the next morning, the video already impossible to contain, spreading faster than anything Kessler had ever managed to leak.

I sat between Hunter and Asher in the same council chamber where everything had started months ago, both of them pale and quiet, neither quite able to look at me or each other.

"This should never have come out this way," the Alpha King said, standing at the front of the room.

His voice was heavy with something between exhaustion and resolve.

"But it's out now, and hiding further would only invite more damage than the truth itself."

He turned to face the gathered elders and pack representatives as his shoulders squared despite the weight clearly sitting on him.

"Twenty three years ago, I fathered a second son outside my marriage," he said plainly, no flinching, no softening it. "Asher Sinclair is my child, exactly as Hunter is and I made choices then that I believed protected this family. I understand now those choices only delayed pain that eventually found its way through anyway."

Murmurs rippled through the chamber, but nobody interrupted.

"Effective immediately," he continued, "both Hunter and Asher are recognized as my legitimate heirs. When they complete their education, they will share rule of this territory jointly, as brothers standing equal, rather than rivals divided by secrecy that should never have existed in the first place."

I glanced at Hunter, then at Asher, both of them absorbing the words with expressions I couldn't fully read.

There was relief and grief tangled together after a lifetime shaped by exactly the secret now finally broken open.



The public reaction came fast and mixed, exactly as expected.

Some pack members expressed outrage at the deception.

Others, surprisingly many, simply seemed relieved, admitting quietly that they'd suspected the truth for months anyway.

ver since the tournament brought both boys' faces together under the same bright lights.

Zara found me at school a few days later, phone in hand, showing me article after article, most of them settling slowly into something closer to acceptance than scandal.

"It's actually going okay," she said. "Better than I expected, honestly."

"I hope so," I said. "They've both carried that secret their whole lives. I don't want it to define the rest of their story."

"How are you doing," Zara asked, studying my face carefully. "With everything and not just the reveal. All of it."

I thought about that honestly for a moment.

"Better than I expected too," I admitted. "Kessler's gone. Yvaine's gone. Dorian's gone. For the first time since this whole year started, nobody's actively hunting me."

"That's huge, Taylor."

"It is," I said. "I keep waiting for the next disaster, honestly. It's strange, having quiet moments now instead of constant crisis."

”

That evening, I stood in front of my bedroom mirror longer than I had in months, studying myself without the usual rush of anxiety that used to accompany it.

I had changed this year, in more ways than just the obvious ones.

I moved differently now, stood straighter, carried myself with a kind of quiet confidence I never would have believed possible standing in that same spot a year ago, crying over Hunter's cruel words after a rejected confession on the ice.

I wasn't the same girl who used to hide in bathroom stalls to avoid the cafeteria.

I'd built strength this year, reall Hunter's or Asher's or anyone at school who used to whisper cruel things as I passed. I felet like myself, fully, for maybe the first time in my life.

Mom knocked softly and stepped in, watching me study my own reflection with a small, knowing smile.

"You look happy," she said.

"I feel steady," I said. "That's new."

"You've earned that," she said, coming to stand beside me, both of us reflected together in the mirror. "After everything this year, Taylor, you've more than earned some peace."

We stood together quietly for a moment, and I let myself simply feel proud of how far I'd come, without needing danger or crisis to remind me of my own worth anymore.



My phone buzzed later that night.

It was Hunter.

Can we talk? Properly, I mean. Not rushed between meetings. I've been thinking a lot since the fight, and since the reveal. I owe you that conversation.

Another buzz.

It was Asher.

I know things are complicated right now, with everything public now. I still meant everything I said the night at the lake. Whenever you're ready to talk, I'm here.

I set my phone down slowly, staring at both messages, the weight of an answer I'd been avoiding for weeks finally pressing down harder than ever before.

The school year was ending. Hunter and Asher's futures were finally settled, no longer shadowed by secrecy or threat.

Whatever came next for the three of us couldn't stay unresolved much longer.

I looked at my own reflection one more time, steadier than I'd ever been, and understood that soon, very soon, I was finally going to have to choose.