Selene gasps, horrified. “No!”
She starts toward him, but I catch her by the arm, yanking her back. Her wide, blue eyes fly to mine, blazing with shock, fury, and hurt.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I snarl, my grip firm.
Her chest heaves as she struggles against my hold, anger flaring sharply. “Mind your own business!” She rips her arm free with a violent jerk, spinning toward the man on the ground.
But Darren, pale and shaken, staggers upright, his gaze darting between Selene and me. “I–I didn’t know,” he stammers, panic etched across his face. “I didn’t know she was—” He cuts himself off and bolts into the darkness, branches snapping under his boots as he flees.
“Darren!” Selene calls after him, voice breaking with frustration. She takes a step as if to chase after him, but he’s alreadygone. Her shoulders stiffen, her hands curling into fists as she turns back to me, quivering with rage.
“You had no right,” she spits at me bitterly. “No right at all.”
I take a step toward her, fury still burning through me. “No right?” My voice is low, sharp enough to cut. “You drag a man you barely know into the woods, half drunk, and you think I won’t notice?”
She stiffens, eyes flashing. “Why do you care?”
I move closer, forcing her backward until her shoulders brush the rough bark of the oak. My shadow falls over her, my wolf still snarling beneath my skin. “If you’re going to throw yourself at someone, at least don’t be reckless about it. You don’t know him. You don’t know what he wanted from you.”
Her chin lifts, defiance surmounting her trembling. “Let me make my own mistakes.”
The words hit hard, but anger surges harder. “Fine. If you want to whore yourself out, Selene, then do it. I don’t care.”
Right after I say this, her face drains of color, eyes going wide before narrowing into a sharp, cold, and merciless glare.
“No wonder we’re fated mates, then,” she says sardonically, her voice like ice. “Since you’re also known for spreading yourself around. Little bit of a man whore yourself, aren’t you, Seth?”
For the first time in a long time, I’m stunned into silence.
I can’t move. Can’t breathe. Her words cut deeper than any wound I’ve ever gotten on the battlefield—not because they’re untrue, but because they are. And because she said them with a cold finality that makes my wolf recoil.
She doesn’t stop there. Her chin tilts higher, eyes burning into mine. “I’ve heard about your reputation, Seth. Every woman in this kingdom has.”
It doesn’t surprise me. I’ve never hidden what I am, never denied the string of lovers, the games, the charm. It’s easier than letting anyone get close. Easier than admitting I’m empty inside.
But hearing it from her, my fated mate, is a different kind of pain.
Selene and I have never spoken of our connection before. Never named it. I avoided her from the moment it snapped into place, keptmy distance, hoping silence would kill it. Hoping she would stop looking at me with those eyes that know too much.
But now, she names it.
“I knew you were my fated mate the moment I first saw you,” she says, her voice shaking but steady enough to pierce me. “And I knew, just as quickly, that you didn’t want me.”
The truth lands heavy in my chest, stealing the breath from my lungs. My wolf claws at me, demanding I deny her words, demanding I claim her. But I don’t move. I can’t.
I wait for her to ask the question I’ve dreaded for months: Why don’t you want me?
But she doesn’t ask it.
Instead, her voice hardens, each word deliberate. “I don’t care that you don’t want me. But I’m not going to let you stand in my way. I’ll find someone who does want me. And if that makes me a whore in your eyes, then so be it.”
I open my mouth, but nothing comes out.
She turns to leave, apparently finished with me. My wolf howls, furious, but it’s my pride that makes me speak.
“You knew,” I bite out, my voice sharp. “All this time, you knew about the bond. Why haven’t you sought me out? Why stay quiet if you were so sure?”
She spins to face me again, shaking her head, cheeks flushed from wine and fury. For a moment, I expect her to falter, to soften, to finally ask me the question that has hung between us since the day we met.
