What Oriana had left unsaid was that she and Vladimir had already met with the Alpha King in private long before any of this blew up.
They'd sworn their full support for the marriage alliance and had planned to show up at Athaliah's dinner party with Voren, and ready to find Jasmine a strong match, hoping it would make up for letting her down so badly.
Back then, everything had felt straightforward and easy to control. Voren would step up and do what was expected, the alliance would lock into place, and their family's power and reputation would stay rock solid.
But nothing had played out the way they'd imagined. Voren had shut the whole thing down without a second thought, making it brutally clear that no one was going to map out his future for him.
Even after that hard rejection, Oriana and Vladimir had still clung to the hope that they could fix things through Jasmine. Then Seraphine walked in, and everything shattered.
