The Rejected True Heiress (Liora and Callum) novel Chapter 532

A few scattered murmurs broke the silence.

“I’m a fuck up who probably doesn’t deserve to become King Consort. But I’d burn this kingdom down brick by brick before I let anyone hurt her again, and until she’s back on that throne, I serve my true Queen and nobody else.”

I exhaled.

“I’m asking you to do the same. Not for me, but for her. Every one of you owes her more than you probably realize, whether you’ve ever spoken two words to her or not.”

I looked toward the back of the room, where the wolfless were huddled together.

“Last semester, when the lockdown hit and half this school went days without food because the supply trucks couldn’t get through, you know who contacted the King and asked for supplies? Not Bianca. Liora. Nobody made her do it, and she never once brought it up again afterward, because she wasn’t doing it to be thanked.”

I scanned the wolfless’ faces.

“When those rogues started taking you, it was Liora who went looking for them herself. She nearly sacrificed herself to save you.” I pointed at Marissa, who lifted her chin and met my gaze.

“And every day since all of this started,” I went on, “she’s taken everything that has been thrown at her in stride. The humiliation, the beatings, the rumors. She’s taken it all herself and never asked for help. And she kept the truth hidden for a long time, even from her friends, because she knew it wasn’t the right time. She put your safety over her own pride. Over and over. So if anyone in this room owes her, it’s you.”

I’d said more in the last two minutes than I usually said in a week, and somehow none of it had come out wrong.

Nobody moved. The room held so still I could hear the lights humming overhead.

We threw the bar across the door and left them there.

Amy found me first, breathing hard, a guard’s short sword still in her hand. Zane wasn’t far behind her, knuckles split, that old ghost of a grin almost—almost—back on his face. Behind them, maybe two hundred students stood crowded into the gymnasium doorway, holding whatever weapons they’d managed to take, waiting.

“What’s next?” Amy asked.

I looked out at all of them; wolfless and wolves standing shoulder to shoulder, every one of them looking at me like I had the answer.

“We have a wedding to get to,” I said.