ALEXEI

Cassie POV:

"Cassie, my decision is final. The wedding will proceed, but you will enter the family as my junior wife."

Kile's voice hit me from behind, sharp and cold like a blade just pulled from ice.

I stood before the massive floor-to-ceiling window in the reception hall of House Golden. The frigid glass reflected my pale face. Outside, the setting sun cast a blood-gold glow over the statue of the Flame-scale Drake in the courtyard, a towering monument to the family's power and status.

I thought I had misheard him. I turned around slowly.

Kile stood in the center of the room, dressed in the extravagant formal wear of a Half-Blood noble. The red-gold dragonfire patterns woven into the fabric across his chest seemed to mock me.

He was a Dragon-born, the heir to this house, and I was nothing but a Dragonless orphan.

"A junior wife?" I forced the words out, fighting to keep my voice steady. Then a cold, sharp laugh escaped my lips before I could stop it. "Kile, you stand there puffing out your chest like the master of this house, but we both know the truth.You're not the heir—you're just the spare they tucked away under a different crest.Because the family had to protect Ayden's birthright as the firstborn. The second son takes the mother's name so the eldest keeps everything. "

Kile's face flushed a furious red. His hands clenched into fists, and for a moment I thought he would strike me. "How dare you—" he started.

I cut him off. "Kile, our engagement was witnessed by Duke Richmond himself. You are humiliating me. You are going against your own father's wishes."

He waved his hand in a burst of irritation. His fingers went straight to the gold stud in his left ear, twisting it—a nervous habit he always fell back on when he knew he was in the wrong.

"I will handle my father," Kile snapped. "The woman I love is Journey. I have to give her the position of senior wife."

My fingernails dug so deeply into my palms that the skin threatened to break. The pain was the only thing keeping me anchored to the floor. I stared at the man I once thought I would spend my life with. His handsome face was twisted with impatience and pure selfishness.

Before I could speak, the heavy oak doors of the reception hall creaked open. A fragile figure slipped inside. Journey Montgomery. She wore a pristine white dress, looking like a spotless lotus flower untouched by the dirt of the world.

The moment she saw me, her eyes widened in a perfect mask of shock and guilt. She hurried to Kile's side, her voice trembling. "Kile, are you pressuring Cassie again? I told you, I do not need a title. I can live without it."

Kile immediately pulled her into his arms, shielding her as if I were about to attack. He glared at me. "Look at yourself, Cassie! Journey is thinking only of you, and you are being completely unreasonable!"

A bitter laugh clawed at my throat. I looked coldly at Journey. This woman always managed to deliver the most vicious strikes while wearing the most innocent face.

Journey peeked out from Kile's embrace, offering me a timid, apologetic smile. "Cassie, please do not blame Kile. It is all my fault. If you truly cannot accept this, I... I am willing to go to the Dragon Healer convent. I will never marry..."

Kile's face turned dark with panic. He tightened his grip on Journey, holding her like a fragile treasure he was terrified of losing.

I took a slow, deep breath, forcing the boiling hatred down into the pit of my heart.

My mind cleared, leaving only one sharp thought. The blood debt of House Stein—my massacred family, burned ten years ago—required a platform much stronger than House Golden.

The Great Purge, the slaughter led by Baron Konrad Sharpe twenty years ago, was a separate crime, but both debts were carved into my bones. This humiliation was not an end. It was my opening.