Alaric shielded her with his body. Dressed her with gentle hands. Called an escort and sent her away with tender care.
Only then did he look at me.
I was shattered, sobbing, demanding to know why.
He flicked ash from his smoke-herb, utterly unmoved.
"Lyra Ashvale, the devoted-mate act really doesn't suit a heat-crazed Omega like you."
I cried until I retched. "Alaric, you can't do this to me! And why her of all wolves?"
"You know—you know—it was Seren and her mistress mother who drove my mother to take her own life!"
Something flickered in his amber eyes. Then they went blood-red, his wolf surging to the surface.
His foot slammed into the wooden table, sending it crashing into splinters.
"Lyra, so you do know how that feels?"
"I put you on a fucking pedestal. All these years, I held back—never marked you before the ceremony no matter how badly my wolf demanded it, terrified of overwhelming you. And you turned around and shared a heat-den with Kael Duskthorn?"
"What the hell am I to you?"
The image. Of course.
The day before the mating ceremony, Kael and I had both been poisoned with heat-scent. We woke up in the same den.
I'd gotten examined by a healer immediately. Between the scent-trace results and both our fragmented memories before blacking out, we'd confirmed nothing happened.
I'd planned to explain everything to Alaric after the bonding ritual. I never imagined someone would display that damning image at the ceremony itself.
The pain crushed my chest. All I could do was sob out the truth:
"I don't know why Kael and I were set up, but nothing happened between us! Nothing! The healer confirmed my scent was untouched!"
Alaric's laugh was ice.
"Lyra. Do you really think I'd believe you?"
I looked up at him, tears streaming down my face.
"If you don't believe me—then why go through with the bonding? Why claim me at all?"
Alaric's hand clamped down on the back of my neck, his grip bruising against my scent glands. Every trace of the bond warmth had vanished from his eyes, replaced by something cold and predatory.
"Revenge, of course." His voice was ice, his Alpha dominance pressing down on me like a physical weight. "You enjoy being mounted by enemy wolves, don't you? Then I'll make sure you spend the rest of your life as a living widow—bonded but abandoned, marked but untouched."