I froze.
Just for a single, agonizing beat—a heartbeat that felt stretched out across a abyss.
Her words remained suspended in the heavy air of the chamber, raw and jagged: “Then…
reject me!”
Hearing her voice scream it aloud hit differently than hearing it tossed around in quiet council chambers.
It drove straight into my ribs like a cold iron spike.
Wasn’t this the plan all along?
Wasn’t this the exact outcome my brothers and I had agreed upon before the whip ever touched her back?
Yet the moment the declaration burst from her bloody lips, an unexpected, violent ache flared behind my sternum.
My internal wolf snapped awake, snarling and thrashing against his chains in complete, irrational revolt.
I cast a sideways glance at Ronan and Lucien.
For a split second, the polished masks slipped from their faces too—the tight clenching of Ronan’s jaw, the sudden, rigid posture of Lucien’s shoulders, the sharp widening of their eyes.
They felt it too.
The phantom pain of a tearing bond.
The deep, primal instinct warning us that we were stepping off a cliff.
We forced the weakness down instantly, throwing our shoulders back, hardening our eyes, pretending the stray’s desperate plea hadn’t sent a tremor through our blood.
I forced my gaze down onto Lyra, raising my voice to deliver the ancient words that would slice her out of our lives forever…
Before the first syllable could clear my throat, the silk dress beside me rustled.
Selene glided gracefully out of my embrace, turning to face me.
Her soft, delicate fingers brushed against the front of my tunic, silently asking for the floor.
“Kael,” she murmured softly, her eyes wide and shining with gentle concern.
“I beg you…
do not reject her today.”
The quiet room fell completely dead.
“She has just taken twenty-seven lashes,” Selene continued, her voice trembling as if her heart broke for her fallen sister.
“Her body is far too weak.
I fear the raw agony of breaking a triple mate-bond right now would kill her.”
A wave of overwhelming relief washed through my chest so violently I almost lost my footing.
A breath I didn’t know I was holding escaped my lungs.
The tension in my clenched fists eased.
Why?
Why am I relieved?
Why was every instinct in my body roaring in victory at the excuse to keep the bond intact?
I swallowed hard, the taste of copper and shame thick on my tongue.
I couldn’t make sense of the war raging in my chest.
It was simple: I chose Selene.
She was the woman I wanted—the refined, gentle beauty fit to reign as my Luna, the girl who had stood by our side.
And Lyra was just a thief.
A disgrace.
So why did the thought of severing her away feel like reaching into my chest and ripping out my own breathing heart?
Ronan’s harsh voice shattered the silence.
“Who in the hell gave you permission to order Alphas around?” he snarled, taking a furious step toward Lyra, his eyes black with unspent rage.
The brutal edge in his tone made the observing maids flinch against the wall.
Lyra’s trembling legs finally gave out.
She collapsed hard onto her knees, her body folding over like a snapped reed.
The dull thud of her knees hitting the oak floorboards sounded like a wooden mallet on a coffin.
She dragged her head up slowly, hot tears carving pale tracks through the blood and grime smeared across her cheeks.
“I am begging you…” she rasped, her voice torn to shreds.
“Reject me…
set me free…”
Set me free.
The plea drove into my mind like a blade, twisting harder than her first demand.
A desperate cry for release that stirred something wild and protective deep within my wolf—something I refused to give a name.
“SILENCE!” The roar burst out of my chest before I could stop it.
The glass in the tall windows rattled with the power of my Alpha voice.
Lyra flinched violently, drawing her limbs inward, shrinking into a tiny ball on the floor.
“You don’t get to demand a damn thing from us!” I spat, stepping over her fallen frame, feeling my wolf surge with a sickening mix of dominance and terrifying confusion.
I turned my back on her and faced Selene—my chosen path, my anchor, the safe harbor in this storm.
“We will grant you a temporary reprieve,” I ground out, my throat tight with suppressed rage.
“You will be allowed to breathe…
solely for Selene’s peace of mind.”
Behind me, I felt Ronan and Lucien stiffen, but neither of them uttered a single word of protest.
“We will revisit your rejection the moment your back has healed.”
The threat hung heavy in the air—the sentence hadn’t been overturned, only stayed.
Without waiting for a response, I spun on my heel and slammed through the doorway, practically sprinting down the corridor.
I needed distance.
I needed air.
I needed to get away from the metallic reek of her blood, the sight of her tears, and the unbearable, suffocating truth that severing her might break us too.
Who the hell does she think she is?
The question screamed inside my skull, clawing at my temples, desperate to break out into the open hall.
I wanted to roar it until the stone arches crumbled around me, but I clamped my jaws together until my teeth groaned under the pressure.
I forced cold air into my lungs, dragging it in, blowing it out in jagged, uncontrolled gasps.
What is happening to me?
I demanded silently, running a hand through my hair so hard it pulled at the roots.
The pain was nothing compared to the violent tempest raging beneath my skin.
I should have severed the bond the second she stepped onto the courtyard.
I should have turned my back before she ever looked at me with those ruined, tear-filled eyes.
I should have ended this pathetic nightmare hours ago.
“ARGH!” A muffled growl tore from my throat as I smashed my fist into the stone pillar beside me.
I knew the logical choice.
Every lesson I had ever learned as an Alpha screamed at me to cut the rot away.
But logic meant nothing when my blood burned every time she bled.
I was caught, trapped, bound up in the invisible, maddening web she didn’t even realize she was weaving around my brothers and me.
My lungs burned for air.
My chest felt trapped in an iron corset, every passing second in this house feeling like a personal insult to my authority.
My hands curled into tight fists at my sides, my nails biting so deep into my palms that I felt the skin break.
Warm drops of blood pooled in my grip, but I didn’t care.
The sharp bite of physical pain was the only thing keeping my mind anchored.
I will make you suffer for this, Lyra…
I vowed inwardly, the thought dripping with dark, vengeful promise.
You will pay for every single second you make my blood boil.
My breathing turned shallow and harsh, laced with fury, humiliation, and a dangerous, suffocating desire I refused to admit even to myself.
She had no right to make an Alpha doubt his own mind.
She had no right to fracture my control.
No right at all.
And yet, as I stood alone in the dark corridor, watching my own blood drip onto the floorboards, I knew she had already shattered it completely.