Before I could finish, she gasped, threw her wine down her dress, and screamed.
“Lyra! How could you?!”
I froze. People rushed out, gasping. And then Kael was there—his gaze sharp, his voice cold.
“Enough!”
Something inside me cracked. I smiled—a dead, bitter thing—and poured my own drink over her, splattering red wine down her face.
“That’s for mocking my mother, you venomous thief.”
Gasps rippled through the crowd as I turned and walked away, my heels striking like gunfire.
Kael caught up, gripping my arm. “Why do you always attack her?”
“You want to know why?” My voice trembled with rage. “She killed my mother. She framed me. She stole everything—my art, my name, and now you. And still, you defend her.”
He frowned, disbelief flickering. “You’re lying.”
I laughed. “Of course you’d think that.”
I tore my arm free. “Take your loyalty, Kael. I’m done fighting for scraps.”
That night, I saw their car leaving together. I should’ve ignored it. But I didn’t.
“Follow them,” I told the cab driver.
They stopped at the butterfly garden—Elowen’s fantasy playground, the place she said she’d want to be marked.
Through the window, I saw it all.
She rose on her toes, eyes glowing gold, and sank her teeth into Kael’s neck. Not playfully. Possessively. Claiming him.
And he let her.
He didn’t resist. He tilted his head, shivering as the bond sealed, eyes half-lidded with pleasure.
But she didn’t let him mark her back.
Instead, he touched the fresh wound, smeared the blood with his thumb, and smiled faintly.
“I’m yours,” he whispered.
Third Person’s POV
The bond still pulsed faintly against Kael’s throat, a soft, lingering warmth from the magic they’d shared—but it remained incomplete. Lyra hadn’t allowed him to return the bite.
From her hiding place beneath the silver-leaved willow, Lyra watched as Elowen slid into a waiting black car, her lips curved in smug satisfaction. Kael lingered behind, motionless beneath the moonlight, until Beta Cyrus emerged from the treeline, his scent sharp with irritation.
“You’re telling me,” Cyrus growled, his voice a low rumble, “that you let her mark you, and you didn’t return it?”
Kael’s tone was steady, far too even. “It was her choice.”
Cyrus’s brows knit together, disbelief cutting across his features. “Her choice? She’s not even your mate, Alpha. You’ve lost your mind. The Alpha of Luminara shouldn’t be marked by someone who won’t even wear his claim.”