Five Years a Placeholder, Now Fated to the Lycan King

Darren’s face went through three expressions in half a second—shock, suspicion, and jealousy all at once.

“Callum.” His voice was tight. “What are you doing here?”

“My job,” Callum said calmly. He didn’t let go of my arm. “I’m the doctor who brought your mate in last night. You’d know that if you’d answered your phone.”

The silence after that landed like a slap. Something flickered across Darren’s face.

“We were dealing with a family emergency,” he said. “Briar collapsed from shifting for the first time. We couldn’t just drop everything.”

You could have answered a phone call.

I didn’t say it out loud. I didn’t say anything at all. I just let him see me standing there, held up by a man who wasn’t him.

Briar reappeared at Darren’s shoulder, all wide eyes and trembling lips, as if she hadn’t abandoned me in a hospital hallway two minutes earlier.

“Nova, I’m so glad you’re okay,” she said. “I was so worried.”

I almost laughed, but I held it back. Laughing would mean giving her a reaction, and I had decided I was done handing my reactions out for free.

“I’m tired,” I said again, and this time it was true in more ways than one. “I want to go back to my room.”

Callum walked me there himself, ignoring the way Darren trailed behind us like a shadow that had forgotten it wasn’t wanted. At the door, Callum finally let go of my arm, but he didn’t leave.

“Five minutes,” he told Darren. “Doctor’s orders.”

Darren’s jaw tightened, but something about Callum made him back off. He retreated down the hall with Briar trailing after him, already whispering in his ear.

Once we were alone, Callum pulled the door shut and turned to me. For the first time since I woke up in this place, someone looked at me like I wasn’t invisible.

“You remember me,” he said.

“Of course I remember you.”

How could I forget the boy who once told me my wolf’s quiet scent was the only one he ever wanted, right before I chose someone who promised me a whole pack instead of just himself.

“You left.”

“I had to.” Something painful crossed his face, gone before I could read it fully. “That’s not why I’m here now. I’m leaving the city again in five days. I came to tell you that… and to tell you something else.”

He paused, weighing the words even though he had clearly already decided to say them.

“You don’t have to stay here, Nova. Not in this pack and not with him. I’m inviting you back with me to the Lycan Kingdom. There, no one will treat you like a placeholder. You can finally be yourself. You can design the life you actually wanted instead of the one they decided for you.”

My chest went tight. “Why would you do that?”

“Because five years ago I watched you choose a life that was supposed to make you happy, and instead it’s made you miserable every single time I’ve seen you since.” His voice didn’t waver. “I’m not asking for anything in return. Just an open door, if you want to walk through it.”

Part of me wanted to say yes immediately—to grab his hand and leave this hospital and never look back. But another part, the part that had spent five years building something (however fake it turned out to be), needed time to let it die properly before I left the body behind.

“I need a few days,” I said. “There are things I have to handle first.”

He nodded, as if he had expected exactly that answer. “Five days. I’ll be ready whenever you are.”

He left before Darren could come barging back in demanding explanations.

Two days later I was discharged. No one came to pick me up, so I took a cab home.

I reached the apartment door and stopped with my hand on the handle. Voices carried clearly from inside.

“—all those miscarriages weren’t accidents,” Darren was saying, low and casual. “You both know that. We made sure nothing stuck. Last thing we needed was a pup tying her to me for good.

Father’s voice followed. “We did what was necessary. When Briar left, you needed a temporary claim to keep the Alpha path open. Nova was useful. A child would have complicated everything once Briar came back.”

Mother spoke next. “We helped Briar leave cleanly. She needed time. We always knew she and Darren were the real mates. We just… managed the situation until she was ready to return.”

Briar’s soft laugh floated through the door. “And you still made him give Nova the ring. You organized the whole thing.”

“Of course we did,” Father said. “It kept the pack stable. It kept Darren’s claim intact. Now that you’re home, we can finally correct the mistake.”

I stood frozen on the wrong side of the door, the words carving through me one by one.

Every miscarriage. Every quiet hope that had ended in blood, all of it was arranged by my parents, who helped Briar disappear, stayed silent while I fell in love with her true mate, and then engineered a marriage they never intended to last. They had handed me a ring and a role, knowing I was only ever a placeholder until the favourite daughter returned.

After a while, I pushed the door open.

Briar was curled on my couch in one of my old sweaters, laughing at something on her phone while Darren leaned over her shoulder.

Mom and dad were in the kitchen, raiding what was left of the wolfsbane-free honey I had bought.

No one asked how I was feeling. No one asked about the hospital or the drive home.

“Nova!” Briar hopped up and threw her arms around me in a performative hug. “How are you feeling? We would’ve come to get you, but Darren said you’d want your space.”

I glanced at Darren. He didn’t meet my eyes.

“I’m fine,” I said flatly, stepping back out of her arms.

Briar’s face did something small before smoothing back into sweetness. “I’m just so glad you’re okay. I felt awful hearing what happened. Really, I did.”

“Did you?” It wasn’t a question.

The air in the room changed. Dad straightened from the counter while mom set down the honey jar. All three of them looked at me like I had said something dangerous, when all I had done was stop pretending to believe her.

“Nova.” Darren’s voice carried a warning. “Don’t start.”

Don’t start. Like I was the one who had been lying for five years. Like I was the one who had filed a marriage certificate behind someone’s back and then made sure no child could ever make the lie permanent.

I opened my mouth, ready to say everything I had been holding since the sidewalk outside the Pack Registry Hall. That was when Briar swayed on her feet, pressed a hand to her forehead, and dropped gracefully onto the arm of the couch.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured in a trembling voice. “I just get so dizzy since the turning. I didn’t mean to upset anyone.”

Instantly, all three of them were at her side. Darren crouched in front of her, murmuring soft reassurances. Dad fetched water and mom hovered, glaring at me as if I had made her dizzy simply by existing.

I stood in the middle of the living room, completely forgotten, and understood with perfect clarity how the rest of the night—and the rest of my time here—was going to go.

I went to my room instead of watching the show.

I opened the door and stopped cold.

My things were gone. My photos. My pillows. The soft gray blanket I had owned since before I ever met Darren. All of it now replaced with Briar’s clothes that hung in my closet. Her perfume sat on my dresser where my jewelry box used to be.

Three days, I thought. They didn’t know it yet. But I was already gone.