Before I can tear my eyes away, a figure slides up next to me. A woman—tall, with dark hair that tumbles over one shoulder and lips curved into a smile I know too well.
“Seth,” she says coyly, her hand looping around my elbow, fingers brushing slowly and familiarly over my sleeve. “You look miserable over here by yourself. Dance with me.”
I know her. Maris. Before Selene appeared, before the mate bond turned my world inside out, I’d chased her smiles, her laughter, her attention. And she had given me some of it, enough to keep the game going. I’ve had a hundred women like Maris: soft, easygoing, happy to have a tumble or two in bed and then move on.
Playboy, charmer, never serious. That’s what they say about me. That’s what I let them believe. Some attach expectations to me, and I end up breaking their hearts.
“Maris.” I force her name out with a polite nod. “It’s not a good night.”
She leans closer, teasing. “Since when does Seth Rowan turn down a dance? You’ll ruin yourreputation.”
“Since I’m on duty.” My voice is even, but the lie tastes sour. “Not tonight.”
Her smile falters, a little pout tugging at her mouth. She squeezes my arm like she thinks she can coax me into it. “One dance won’t bring the kingdom down.”
“It might bring me down,” I say, forcing a rough edge of humor into my tone. “And I can’t risk that.”
Disappointment flickers in her eyes before she slips her hand free. With a small huff, she melts back into the crowd, searching for someone else who may be willing to play.
I exhale, my shoulders stiff against the tree.
Leon waits only a few heartbeats before asking, “Why lie?”
My eyes narrow. “What?”
“You told her you’re on duty. But you’re not.” His expression is relaxed, indecipherable, but his words hit their mark. “You’ve stopped chasing every skirt in the vicinity lately.”
My teeth grind together. “I’m not in the mood.”
Leon’s gaze doesn’t waver. “You haven’t been in the mood for anyone since Selene arrived.” He lets the words hang in the air. “If you’ve rejected your mate, then choose another. Take someone else and be done with it.”
I watch the light from the torches shimmer across the palace walls. The mate bond thrums hot in my chest, unrelenting.
“I haven’t rejected her,” I admit finally, my voice rough.
For the first time tonight, Leon’s composure cracks. His brows lift, surprise evident on his face. “You haven’t?”
“No.” The word is a growl. “Not yet.”
There’s a pause, heavy and weighted. Then, quieter: “What are you trying to do, Seth?”
I don’t answer. Because I don’t know. The mate bond claws at me persistently, demanding something I can’t give.
When I first met Selene, she was on her knees in the throne room, bloodied and half-unconscious. Her alpha had dragged her forward as a pawn in his scheme, planning to use her and her friend as scapegoats. Traitors, he’d called them, conspiring to aid the now-QueenAstra in defying the royal decree.
A crime that carried one punishment: execution.
Lucian’s voice thundered over the court that day, his fury cutting through the lies. He claimed Astra as his mate, tore the alpha’s plot apart in front of the king, Lucian’s father, and revealed the treachery for what it was. The truth spared Selene’s life.
But the memory that haunts me is not Lucian’s triumph. It’s her, collapsed on the ground, skin pale beneath streaks of blood. Her lips trembling as she whispered that she hadn’t betrayed anyone. Her wolf flickering so faintly I thought it was gone.
I carried her myself into the healers’ hall. Sat by her side for days as they worked, pressing herbs to her wounds, using their healing magic to fix her internal injuries. She didn’t stir, not once. But I stayed, watching the fragile rise and fall of her chest, the mate bond already searing through me with every heartbeat.
And when she finally breathed steadily again—when I knew she would live—I walked away.
Because I knew then what I know now.
She could never stand beside me.
