He trails off and then smiles.Smiles. "...it made me realize the mistake I almost made. I can’t have a Luna who’s weak. Who falters. Amira was always the rightful choice. And the best part? With her... it’s real. There was no bond to force me. No magic. I fell in love with her by my own choice."
Lies. The bond doesn’t force love.
I want to spit the truth in his face, scream it loud enough to shatter the windows — but my throat locks up. My whole body trembles, helpless against the weight of the pain crashing down inside me.
I know it isn’t really him. I know it’s the magic twisting his mind, his heart.
But that doesn't stop the words from carving through me. Because it's stillhisvoice. His mouth shaping them. And they burn straight through the bond and into my soul.
"You'll stay at the palace, of course," Draven says, his tone completely detached. Like I’m nothing to him. Just an inconvenience he’s been forced to manage.
"It’s unfortunate I’m bonded to a shifter like you," he continues, ignoring the way I’m breaking apart like glass, "but I’ve accepted it. I can’t risk my hellhound going feral because of the bond."
"Amira agrees," he adds, almost casually. "She understands that duty comes before personal feelings. You’ll be my mistress. Nothing more. You’ll be there to satisfy the hellhound when needed. It’s more than a shifter of your... station could have ever dreamed of."
The blade of his words twists deep, straight through my heart.
I want to scream. I want to slap him so hard he wakes up from this nightmare. I want to tear him away from her, from this madness, from the magic that's rotting him from the inside out.
But I can't.
All I can do is stand there.
Silent. Shaking.
Listening to the sound of my soul dying.
Chapter 13
Draven
"Draxis," I finally force out, barely holding myself together. "Draxis, stop! Stop thrashing. I need you to talk to me. Tell me what’s happening."
He doesn’t stop. Doesn’t even spare me a glance. Just keeps snapping his jaws at the red, glowing threads coiling tighter around him, wild and desperate. Like he can’t hear a damn thing.
Panic gnaws at the edges of my mind, rising faster the more threads I see slithering over him. Tangling. Binding.
I don’t have time for this. I need to get out. I need to get back to Kass.
Pain lances through me, searing and endless. It burns like a shadow made of knives, carving through my flesh.
I know what it is. The bond. It feels betrayed and it’s screaming in protest. The pain is constant, relentless. But every few seconds, it spikes into pure agony. Like someone’s tearingmy soul to pieces and then slamming it back together just to rip it apart again.
Kass... She’s feeling this too. The thought guts me worse than anything ever could.
My mate. My beautiful mate is in pain because of me. Bright, brilliant Kassira. Too good for me in every way that matters. Strong where it counts. Fierce, clever, stubborn. She fights like hell even when the world stacks itself against her. She’s everything I ever dreamed a mate could be. And now — because of me — she’s drowning in this pain, and I can’t even reach her.
How can I have all this damn power inside me... and still be powerless to save her?
A roar tears from my throat, full of fury and desperation. I charge forward and slam my fist into Draxis’s snout with everything I have left.
He jolts backward with a vicious snap of his massive head, stunned for a heartbeat.
Good. We need to talk.
When he finally lifts his head, slow and dangerous, he fixes those molten silver eyes on me — and for the first time since I landed in this darkness, he sees me.
"Stupid human," he spits, drool flinging from his fangs.
