Too Curvy for the Fox Clan, Perfect for the King Short…

Ivy opens her eyes mid-ceremony—a ceremony she has already lived through once. Across the hall, her sister Vera is already reaching for the wrong gift. Then Vera shoots her a smug little smile over one shoulder, like she's just won something.

She has no idea what she's actually won.

The Gift That Looks Like a Curse

In the fox clan, fertility gifts are handed out when a daughter comes of age, and everyone knows which one is worth having. Bloodline ascension is the crown jewel. The multiple heir blessing is the consolation prize—more children, weaker blood, and a body that pays for every single one.

The Fox Lord, Ivy's father, sets both runes out and lets Vera choose first. He always does. Vera looks like him, fits the fox ideal, and never gets told no.

"Look how generous I am. I left the highest ranked gift for you."

Vera takes the multiple heir blessing. The Fox Lord's face drops. He warns her that more heirs mean nothing without a stronger bloodline. Vera doesn't budge—she's certain she's grabbed the better deal this time.

She's wrong. In Ivy's last life, Vera took bloodline ascension and Ivy got stuck with the multiple heir blessing. Then Ivy's children filled the serpent court with healthy heirs while Vera's "superior" bloodline produced nothing but common-blood serpents. Ivy rose. Vera seethed. And eventually Vera put a dagger in her sister's belly, killing her along with her unborn children.

So when Vera grabs the "lesser" gift this time, Ivy just smiles and says thank you. Let her have it.

A Framed Fox and a Lizard Nobody Wants

Vera isn't done. She's already picked her mate—Lucian Voss, the serpent crown prince—and she drags Ivy along to court as a shadow, the way she always has. Then she gets tired of sharing the spotlight.

At the mate selection, in front of every major clan, Vera announces that Ivy has already chosen a low-blooded lizard. She even claims his scale token was found beside Ivy's bed.

"Even with the best gift, who would ever choose a fox built like you?"

The Fox Lord doesn't ask a single question. He summons a golden whip and strikes his daughter in front of everyone. The wolf clan heir steps back like she's contagious. The whispers start immediately—shameless, desperate, throwing herself at anyone.

Then Silas steps between Ivy and the crowd. The lizard-blooded heir everyone mocks, the one Lucian humiliated at a banquet with enchanted flames, plants himself in front of her and says the accusations are false. He barely knows her. He does it anyway.

Vera produces the planted scales. Ivy's own maid drops to her knees and "confesses" to covering up secret meetings. The whole thing is a trap built from a memory Vera has been saving for exactly this moment.

The Fox Lord offers two choices: keep her life and her place in the clan, or take ninety-nine lashes and be cast out forever.

Ivy looks at Silas's scale token—and sees faint golden veins shimmering under the black. Her mother once told her about the ancient serpent, the one whose power forced every clan to kneel. Only his descendants carried golden markings beneath black scales.

She chooses the lashes. Then she asks Silas to be her mate.

"I may not be worthy of you, but if you accept me, I'll protect you with everything I have."

He takes half her punishment. Ninety-nine lashes become a shared sentence, and the Fox Lord disowns her anyway. Vera watches from Lucian's arms and mutters that her sister stole the life meant for her.

The Banquet Where the Truth Walks In

Ivy wakes up in Silas's palace, bandaged and blushing—mostly because Silas can barely look at her while insisting a female attendant handled the bandages. For a man with a hidden royal bloodline, he is painfully innocent.

Then the invitation arrives. Vera and Lucian have completed their mating ceremony. Vera is already carrying his heirs, and there's a banquet to announce it to every major clan. Silas wants to decline. Ivy is still recovering. There's no need to walk into that room.

"There's a wonderful show I don't want to miss."

Because Ivy has seen this banquet before. Last time, the serpent seer examined both sisters' unborn children in public. Vera's bloodline ascension was supposed to produce heirs that surpassed the silver-scaled royal blood. Instead the seer announced that Vera carried a single common-blood serpent.

Ivy carried nine healthy heirs with traces of silver royal blood.

That day, the serpent lord raised Ivy to royal mate and demoted Vera to a secondary position. That humiliation is what drove Vera to murder. And Vera still doesn't know the real reason her bloodline failed—that Lucian's royal blood was never pure to begin with.

This time, Vera is walking into that same banquet carrying heirs from the weakest gift, convinced she's the star of the evening. Ivy is walking in with golden markings on her mate's token and a bloodline gift nobody respects.

The seer is about to speak. Whose side are you on when the truth lands?