Bella’s hands were solid and unyielding, holding my trembling frame upright as we shuffled down the dimly lit stone corridor.
Every step felt like dragging my bare feet across broken glass.
Lightning bolts of raw pain shot from my ruined back straight up my spine, making my legs shake like autumn leaves.
I threw my weight against her shoulder, relying entirely on her strength and the faint, flickering pulse of my internal wolf to keep from collapsing onto the flagstones.
“Curse them,” Bella whispered, her voice tight with furious, weeping rage as she glanced down at my shredded clothes and bloody skin.
“Those arrogant bastards…
who does that to their own soulmate?
They’re monsters.”
Her words sent a sharp pang of fear straight through my chest.
She was risking everything just by feeling sorry for me, but the sheer, senseless cruelty of it all was too big for her to keep quiet.
I wanted to thank her, to tell her to stay safe, but my lips were so parched they barely moved.
“Shh…
quiet,” I rasped, my fingers digging into her sleeve to pull her ear down.
“Please, Bella…
the walls have ears.” My pulse spiked with sudden panic.
If a house guard overheard her cursing the new Alphas, they would string her up next to me.
I couldn’t live with myself if my ruin dragged her into the dark.
She swallowed hard and gave a hurried nod, hushing her breath as she tightened her arm around my waist, steering me through the cold archway.
Her quiet protection was the only warm thing left in a world that had turned entirely to stone.
When we finally reached my cramped servant’s quarters, my knees gave out completely.
I fell face-down onto the narrow cot, the straw mattress groaning under the impact.
Fire exploded across my back, every raw, open laceration throbbing with a agonizing, rhythmic heat.
I was alive, but only barely—a broken ghost wrapped in torn linen.
Lily didn’t waste a single second.
She dropped to her knees beside the cot, her hands moving with frantic, practised care.
She gently peeled the blood-soaked scraps of my cardigan away from my wounds before pulling a small terracotta jar of green herbal ointment from her apron pocket.
Warming the thick salve between her palms, she began pressing it directly into the torn flesh.
The sting was instant and blinding—like silver needles driven straight into raw nerve endings.
I bit deep into the straw pillow to muffle my screams, tears pouring freely into the fabric.
“It…
it burns, Lily…
it burns…” I whimpered, my voice small and hollow.
“I know, sweet girl, I know,” Lily murmured, her own tears dripping onto my shoulder as she worked softly to soothe the damage.
“Hold on…
it will stop the infection.
Just hold on to me.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, burying my face in the dark, letting her gentle hands anchor me to the earth.
Deep inside my chest, my wolf let out a low, mournful whine, resting her tired head against my ribs as the cooling salve slowly began to fight off the worst of the heat.
We hadn’t even finished dressing the top three lashes when a heavy knock rattled the wooden doorframe.
A young house servant stepped into the room, keeping her eyes fixed firmly on the floor.
“Lyra…
Alpha Kael commands your presence in the master suite immediately.”
The air left my lungs in an instant.
My heart gave a violent, sickening thud against my ribs.
Already?
My body was shredded.
I could barely take a breath without my back catching fire, and now Kael was summoning me back to his side.
The servant girl lingered awkwardly for a beat before slipping back into the dark hall.
I had no choice.
In this house, a delay meant more lashes.
Shivering with exhaustion and terror, I forced my trembling arms to push my body off the cot.
Leaning heavily on Bella’s shoulder, I managed to stand, the sharp bite of the ointment clashing violently with the deep, sickening ache in my bones.
Every step toward the hallway was a fresh agony, my wolf pacing nervously inside me, trying to lend me her faint strength even as my legs threatened to fold.
I drew in a ragged, shallow breath and looked at Bella.
She offered me a small, tearful nod of encouragement.
I squeezed her hand once, gathered what little remained of my spirit, and dragged myself toward the upper floor, dreading what new horror waited behind the master suite door.
I pushed the heavy oak door open slowly, keeping my head bowed to the floorboards.
“Alpha Kael…
I am here as commanded.”
The first thing that hit me wasn’t his voice—it was the soft, melodic laughter of a woman, followed by low, breathy whispers.
My eyes flicked up for a split second, and the sight turned my blood to ice.
Selene was sprawled across the velvet bedding, tangled in Kael’s arms.
Her silk robe had slipped completely off her shoulders, while Kael’s tunic was wide open, exposing his broad chest as he pressed his face into the crook of her neck, trailing lazy, possessive kisses along her collarbone.
My throat seized.
I snapped my eyes back to the rug, holding my breath, waiting for him to address me.
“Look at us,” he commanded, his voice cold and smooth.
I forced my chin up, and he made sure I saw every single detail.
He pulled Selene into a deep, agonizingly slow kiss, letting out a soft, satisfied groan against her lips before breaking away.
Selene straddled his lap effortlessly, her fingers tangled lazily in his dark hair as she pressed small, sweet kisses along his jawline.
Their quiet chuckles and warm, intimate murmurs filled the luxurious room, suffocating me, mocking the sacred bond, tearing the remaining pieces of my soul to shreds.
He called me here…
just to watch him touch my sister.
My stomach twisted into a violent knot, my breath hitching in my chest until it felt like my lungs were collapsing.
I tried—Goddess, I tried so hard—to keep my face like stone, to pretend it didn’t matter, to pretend that watching my destined mate worship the girl who ruined me wasn’t ripping my heart out.
But the agony was too massive.
Hot tears burned behind my eyelids and spilled over, tracking down my bruised, dirt-streaked cheeks before I could stop them.
My world shattered completely.
I jerked my head to the side, pathetic and desperate, trying to hide my weeping.
I raised my shoulder quickly to scrub the tears away, praying he was too lost in Selene to notice my weakness.
I was too slow.
Kael’s eyes locked onto my face.
The warmth vanished from his posture in an instant.
He shoved Selene off his lap without a second glance—as if she were nothing more than an extra blanket—and slid off the bed.
His heavy boots slammed against the hardwood, closing the distance between us in two terrifying strides.
His fingers clamped around my jaw like an iron vise, twisting my face upward so I was forced to look straight into his storm-gray eyes.
Cold dread flooded my chest, paralyzing my limbs where I stood.
The cruel, triumphant smirk curving his lips made my stomach turn to water.
“Do you finally understand your place in this house, Lyra?” he asked softly, savoring the words like a sick reward.
He looked thrilled—utterly intoxicated by my total defeat.
I couldn’t answer.
My throat was frozen, filled with ash and shame and the horrific, crushing weight of a ruined mate-bond.
His thumb moved slowly across my cheek, wiping away the wet trail of my tears.
For a brief, insane second, the touch felt almost gentle—until his smirk widened into something downright demonic.
He lifted his wet thumb to his mouth and slowly, deliberately, licked my tears off his skin.
A wave of intense nausea hit me.
Terror and disgust surged through my veins in equal measure.
“We have only just begun, little stray,” he purred, his voice dropping to a sinister, venomous whisper against my ear.
“Before this month is over, I will make you curse the Moon Goddess for ever linking your blood to mine.”
The pain in my back, the shame in my heart—none of it existed anymore.
I was completely frozen, held captive by his iron grip and the dark promises burning in his eyes.
Then, with a harsh shove—not enough to knock me down, but enough to make me stumble backward into the doorframe—he released my jaw.
His voice boomed through the suite like a thunderclap:
“GET OUT OF MY SIGHT.”
My knees nearly gave out, but pure survival instinct dragged me back.
I turned and stumbled out into the dark corridor, fleeing before my sob could break aloud, before my heart bled its last drop, before the sky itself could watch me collapse into dust.