Chapter Text
Rhaenyra had never once thought herself lesser than others, how could she, when she was the Alpha heir to the Iron Throne? A title so grand should make anyone feel as though they stood above all, and in truth, she did. She was at the very heights of the Red Keep, gazing down from her balcony into the gardens below, as though the world itself revolved around King’s Landing. And, in all honesty, most believed it did.
So why, then, did she feel as though her heart was being torn from her chest? Why did it feel as if this pain would never end should her greatest fear come to pass? Why was she feeling that someone who by every law and custom that governed her world, should have been beneath her, yet in the one thing that mattered most, he stood above her. Her dearest friend’s affections.
To any who might witness Rhaenyra’s gaze, it would seem as though she was admiring the gardens. That was far from the truth. Her attention was fixed elsewhere, on a pair who had taken one too many turns through the paths below. The gardens were not small by any means, yet how many times must one walk them before they had their fill?
Alicent Hightower and Harwin Strong had been lingering there for far too long. To Rhaenyra, it felt as though she had stood on her balcony for a fortnight, watching them, hating every moment of it. Alicent should be with her. Near her. Reading to her beneath the weirwood in the godswood, while Rhaenyra lay with her head upon her lap. Not here. Not with him.
She did not despise Harwin, he was a friend if nothing else. Whether he was Beta or not mattered little to her. Yet when it came to Alicent, Rhaenyra resented even the air that touched her, for how dare it caress what she longed for most in the world?
Alicent was the love of Rhaenyra’s life. Some might find it odd, given that the Hightower had been born five summers before her, but what was that to her heart? Alicent was her soul. The one she thought of ceaselessly, even though they spent nearly all their days together. And yet, it mattered not. To Alicent, Rhaenyra was but a dear friend, perhaps even a little sister.
Not even Rhaenyra’s presentation as an Alpha on her tenth name day, nor her naming as heir shortly after, had changed that. Alicent still pinched her cheeks, still ruffled her hair as an elder sister might. It vexed Rhaenyra beyond words, yet she endured it, for it was better than having nothing at all.
By all rights, Alicent should have been wed five summers past, but Rhaenyra had prevented it. When she lost her mother, she had wielded her grief as a means to keep Alicent by her side, claiming she could not bear to lose her as well. And her father, for all his faults, could deny her nothing.
But five summers had passed. Rhaenyra had marked her fifteenth name day a fortnight ago, and it seemed Alicent’s patience had at last worn thin. It was no secret to those who knew her well, Alicent fancied Harwin Strong. And Harwin, for his part, would be a fool not to seek her hand. She was the fairest Omega in all the Seven Kingdoms, in Rhaenyra’s eyes. With her copper hair and honeyed gaze, Alicent was a vision to any who beheld her.
Rhaenyra bristled, then struck the railing with her fist. Her Alpha vision saw it clearly, Alicent offering her hand, and Harwin pressing a feather light kiss to her knuckles.
How dare he touch her.
How dare he stand so near to her at all.
She could bear no more. Turning sharply, she strode into her chambers and summoned a maid, pressing into her hands the letter she had written hours before.
"Take this to Ser Otto Hightower at once," she commanded.
Fifteen name days she had seen, yet a foolish pup she was not.