Anger flares in my chest, hot and sudden. I spring to my feet, my chair scraping against the floor. “What is this?” I demand. “You don’t want me, so nobody else should, either?”
Seth opens his mouth to respond, but I’m done listening to his excuses.
“Get over yourself,” I snap, taking a step toward him. He actually backs up, which gives me another rush of satisfaction. “If it hadn’t been for the fated mate link between us, I wouldn’t have given you the time of day.” The words are pouring out of me now, things I’ve been holding back for months. “I may be weak, Seth, but I have standards. And you fall short of every single one of them.”
His face goes white, then red, various reactions clearly warring in his head. But I’m done with this conversation. I storm toward the door, and my hand is already on the handle when his voice stops me.
“Selene—”
I don’t turn around. “You obviously only brought me here to waste my time, Seth. You’ve gone out of your way to make me feel small and insignificant ever since we met. You could have rejected me and ended it all, but you just had to be an asshole over this whole thing. You were punishing me for being your fated mate.” I look over myshoulder at him, all the anger I’ve been feeling evident in my voice. “As far as I’m concerned, we’re done. Don’t bother me again.”
I yank the door open and step into the hallway, my heart pounding with a mixture of terror and pride. I can’t believe I just said all of that. I can’t believe I finally stood up to him.
My hands are shaking as I walk away, but my spine is straight, and my head is held high. For the first time in months, I can breathe. I feel like myself again. Not the weak, trembling girl who let Seth Rowan walk all over her, but someone with fire in her veins and steel in her backbone.
The sound of his office door slamming shut behind me echoes through the hallway, but I don’t look back. I have somewhere else to be. Someone else is waiting for me. Someone who actually wants my company.
A week flies by,and suddenly it’s time for my twice-monthly lunch with Astra and Daciana. I settle into the plush cushions of Astra’s private sitting room, the afternoon light filtering through her tall windows and casting everything in a warm, golden glow. This is so much better than the crowded dining hall—just the three of us, plates of sandwiches and fresh fruit spread across the low table, no one else around to overhear our conversation.
“You’re glowing,” Astra observes, curling up in her favorite armchair with a cup of tea balanced on her knee. “Why are you in such a good mood?”
I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face as I reach for a strawberry. “Can’t I just be happy?”
Daciana snorts from her spot on the window seat, already halfway through her sandwich. “She’s being courted, that’s why.”
“Courted?” Astra’s eyebrows shoot up with interest, and she leans forward like she’s ready for good gossip. “By whom?”
“Zane Radrick,” Daciana says with obvious satisfaction,like she’s delivering the juiciest news of the week. “And who wouldn’t be happy when someone like that is pursuing them?”
The surprise on Astra’s face is immediate and obvious. She sets down her teacup with a soft clink, staring at me with confusion written all over her features. “Zane Radrick? But I thought you and Seth had something going on between you.”
The denial bursts out of me with more force than I intend, sharp enough that both my friends flinch. “Absolutely not!”
They blink at the vehemence in my voice. Astra recovers first, speaking slowly, like she’s trying to work through a complicated puzzle. “I just assumed…I mean, Seth has been in such a gloomy mood this past week. I thought it was because of you.”
I wave a dismissive hand, focusing on arranging the fruit on my plate into neat, little piles. “I’m sure it’s because of one of his bedmates. You know how he is.”
“Could be. But he’s pretty down. I wonder what happened, then,” Astra murmurs.
Daciana leans forward from her perch by the window, her soldier’s instincts for gossip fully engaged. “I’ve heard that Seth hasn’t been with a woman in quite a few months.”
I look up sharply, my hand freezing over a grape. “That’s ridiculous.”
“It’s not,” Daciana insists, her voice carrying the certainty of someone who has access to all the best palace rumors. “I have it on good authority that Seth has been completely single. All the women who’ve approached him have been gently turned away.”
My stomach does something uncomfortable, like all the fruit I just ate is trying to stage a revolt. “Maybe you heard wrong. You know his reputation.”
“The soldiers in the army are betting that he has someone he likes,” Daciana continues, warming to her topic with obvious relish. “Someone he’s keeping secret. From what I’ve heard, it started around the same time we arrived here.”
The grape I’m holding slips from my fingers and rolls across myplate. My mind reels, trying to process what she’s saying. “That’s—That can’t be right.”
But even as I say it, something clicks into place with horrible clarity. The timeline Daciana mentioned makes sense. I first felt the fated mate bond toward Seth right after she and I were brought here. Has he really not been with anyone since then?
No. I shake my head internally, trying to dislodge the thought. He hates me. He has made that crystal clear.
But if he truly does have someone else, someone he actually wants, then maybe that explains his hostility toward me. Maybe he is angry about being bound to me when his heart belongs elsewhere. If that’s the case, though, why not just reject me properly? Why drag it out for months, making me suffer through his cold indifference and cruel words?
“Selene?” Astra’s concerned voice cuts through my spiraling thoughts. “You look like you’re a million miles away.”
