Chapter 19 - Sera
I sit across from Reeyan in his study, watching him organize documents with the same meticulous care he applies to everything. He’s been quiet since returning from the council meeting, and the dread building in my stomach tells me whatever he needs to say isn’t going to be good.
He finally looks up from the papers to say, “The council agreed to support our attempt at breaking the curse. They’ll coordinate defenses with Llewelyn, provide security during the ritual, and offer whatever resources the Hysopp Coven needs.”
“That’s good.” I wait for the other shoe to drop. “What else?”
“There’s a complication with the ritual itself. Something I found in the documents Evangeline gave us.” He pulls out a specific page from the Hysopp archives. “The mate bond needs to be formalized. Made official through a ceremony recognized by all the packs.”
“What does that mean, formalized?” But even as I ask, I already know. The sinking feeling in my gut tells me exactly what he’s going to say.
“It means we need to get married.” He says it plainly, without embellishment. “A formal mating ceremony that binds us legally and magically in front of witnesses from every pack. The power required to break a curse this old can only be channeled through a bond that’s been consecrated properly.”
I gawk at him, waiting for the punchline that doesn’t come.
“You’re joking.”
“I’m not. The magic requires more than just the physical bond we’ve completed. It needs the formal recognition, the public declaration, the witnessed ceremony that makes the mating official in every sense.”
I stand because sitting feels impossible right now. “So, let me get this straight. To break the curse, I need to marry you. Actually, marry you. In front of everyone. Binding myself to you forever.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re just telling me this now?” My voice rises despite my efforts to stay calm. “When exactly were you planning to mention this little detail?”
“I just found out the full extent of the requirement myself.” He stands as well, moving around the desk toward me. “This isn’t something I kept from you intentionally.”
I back away when he gets too close, holding my arms out between us. “This seems awfully convenient. You save me, you keep me here, you complete the physical bond, and now suddenly, the only way to break the curse is for me to marry you? That’s not suspicious at all.”
“It’s what the magic requires.” His voice stays level even as mine climbs higher. “I didn’t write the rules for breaking three-hundred-year-old curses. I’m just telling you what needs to happen. Where we go from here is your decision.”
I bark out a laugh. “Like I have any choice in the matter. Marry you or let my entire pack stay cursed. Bind myself to a man I barely know, or condemn every future generation of Llewelyn women to living as ice. That’s not a choice, Reeyan. That’s coercion.”
“No one is forcing you to do anything. You can walk away right now. Go back to Llewelyn, tell your aunt what we learned, and let pack leadership decide how to handle it. The choice is yours.”
“Except it’s not!” I shove him, both hands against his chest. He barely moves. “Because if I walk away, the curse continues. My sister grew up unable to feel properly. Any daughters I might have inherit the same prison. Walking away means letting Moira Ashwood’s revenge win for another generation.”
He catches my wrists when I go to shove him again. “So you stay. You marry me. You break the curse.”
I try to pull free, but he holds firm. “I don’t like having my entire future decided by supernatural forces I can’t control!”
“You think I planned any of this? I didn’t choose to recognize you as my mate or for you to be the key to breaking a curse. Nor did I choose to be in this impossible situation where the woman I’m bonded to hates me for circumstances neither of us controls.”
“Don’t you dare make this about you.” I wrench my hands free and shove him again, harder this time. “Don’t you dare act like you’re the victim here when you’re the one asking me to give up everything.”
“I’m not asking you to give up anything.
I’m telling you what breaking the curse requires and letting you decide if it’s worth it.
” He grabs my wrists again when I go to hit him.
“But stop acting like marrying me is some terrible sacrifice. Stop pretending the mate bond is just manipulation when you feel it just as strongly as I do.”
“I hate you.” The words come out venomous. “I hate that you saved me. I hate that the bond exists. I hate that breaking the curse means binding myself to you forever when all I want is to go home and forget any of this ever happened.”
He pulls me flush against him, and I can feel his heart pounding as hard as mine. “You don’t hate me. You hate that you want me despite everything. Hate that the bond makes you need me when your Llewelyn training says needing anyone makes you weak.”
“Stop telling me what I feel. You don’t know anything about me.”
“I know you’re terrified. I know you’re angry at fate for putting you in this position.
I know you want to run, but you won’t, because letting your pack suffer isn’t something you can live with.
” His green eyes bore into mine. “And I know that right now, you want to kiss me as much as you want to kill me.”
“You’re insane.”
“Prove it.” He releases my wrists, giving me the space to walk away if I choose. “Prove you don’t want this.”
I should leave. Should put distance between us and think through everything rationally. Should remember that I’m furious at fate for forcing this choice on me, at circumstances that have stripped away every option except this one.
Instead, I grab his shirt and pull him down to meet me.
This kiss is anger and need, and frustration channeled into something physical. I bite his lip hard enough to draw blood, and he growls against my mouth before kissing me back with matching violence.
He fists his hands in my hair, angling my head so he can take the kiss deeper. I claw at his shirt, and buttons scatter across the floor as I tear it open. I need to feel his skin. Need to make him feel something besides that infuriating calm.
“Sera.” My name comes out rough when we break for air. “We should—”
“Shut up. Don’t talk. Don’t explain. Just take what you want.”
He spins us and lifts me onto the desk, sending papers and books flying across the room. His mouth finds mine again while he works my jeans open. I kick off my shoes and help him strip the denim down my legs, desperate to remove every barrier between us.
“This doesn’t change anything,” I tell him between kisses. “I’m still furious with you.”
“Be furious. Hate me while I make you come.”
I yank his belt open and shove his jeans down far enough to free his cock. He’s already hard, already leaking at the tip. I wrap my hand around him and stroke once, twice, making him groan.
“Is this what you wanted?” I squeeze harder than necessary. “To manipulate me into needing you?”
“I wanted you safe.” He hooks his fingers in my underwear and tears them off completely. “Everything else is just problems we’re both stuck with.”
“Problems.” I laugh harshly. “That’s one way to—”
He pushes two fingers inside me without warning, and the words die in my throat. I’m already wet, already ready for him despite the anger still burning through my veins.
“You’re not being forced.” He curls his fingers, finding the spot that makes me see stars. “You’re choosing this. Choosing me. Even while you’re furious about it.”
“I hate you.” But I rock against his hand, chasing the pleasure he’s building.
“I know.” He adds a third finger, stretching me open. “Hate me while I fuck you on my desk. Hate me while you come apart on my cock. Hate me all you want as long as you don’t stop.”
He withdraws his fingers and positions himself at my entrance. Pauses with just the tip pressing against me, making me whimper with need.
“Say it.” His voice goes rough. “Tell me you want this.”
“I want this.” The admission feels like defeat and victory all at once. “I want you. Now stop making me wait.”
He slams into me in one brutal thrust. I cry out, digging my nails into his shoulders as I adjust to the fullness. He doesn’t give me time to breathe, just pulls out and drives back in with the same force.
He sets a punishing pace that makes the desk shake. “Is this what you needed? For me to stop being gentle? Stop treating you like you’re fragile?”
“Yes.” I wrap my legs around his waist, pulling him deeper. “I’m not fragile. I’m not going to break.”
“No, you’re not.” He bites my neck, sucking hard enough to leave a mark. “You’re strong enough to take everything I give you and still demand more.”
I clench around him, making him groan. “Then give me more.”
He changes the angle, hitting the spot inside me that makes my vision go white.
Every thrust sends pleasure racing through my body, mixing with the anger until I can’t tell where one ends and the other begins.
The desk creaks under our combined weight, and somewhere in the back of my mind, I register that we’re probably destroying his research materials.
Good. Let him deal with the mess later.
“Touch yourself.” He orders between thrusts. “I want to feel you come around my cock.”
I lick my index finger and bring my hand between us and circle my clit. The added stimulation makes me gasp, makes my inner walls flutter around him. He feels it and increases his pace, driving into me harder and faster until I’m certain the desk is going to collapse.
“That’s it. Let go. Stop fighting it.”
I’m not fighting. I’m chasing the pleasure building at the base of my spine.
He reaches between us and replaces my hand with his, rubbing my clit with his thumb while he continues to pound into me. I feel my orgasm building, coiling tighter and tighter until I can’t breathe through it.
“Come for me,” he orders. “Let me feel you.”
My orgasm crashes over me without warning. I clench around him, crying out as waves of pleasure roll through my body. He follows me over the edge, and his knot swells and locks us together as he empties himself inside me with a groan that sounds like my name.
We’re both panting, pressed together on his desk with his knot keeping us joined.
The anger hasn’t disappeared—if anything, it burns hotter now, because I can’t even escape him.
Can’t put distance between us while my body is still joined to his.
His knot keeps us locked together, forcing intimacy when all I want is space to think.
For one fleeting moment, a strange thought surfaces: Is this rage even mine?
The fury feels too big. Too consuming. Like something inside me grabbed hold of the anger and fed it, fanned it into flames far larger than the situation warranted. Reeyan didn't create the curse. Didn't design the ritual requirements. He's as trapped by circumstance as I am.
So why do I want to destroy him for it?
The thought slips away almost as quickly as it came, buried under a fresh wave of resentment. Of course, the anger is mine. He kept me here. He completed the bond. He's asking me to marry him. Any woman would be furious.
I shove the unsettling question aside and focus on the more immediate problem of being physically locked to a man I'm not sure I can forgive.
He presses his forehead against my shoulder, and I feel him breathing hard against my skin. “We’re stuck here for at least five minutes, so you might as well get comfortable.”
“Comfortable,” I scoff. “I’m locked to you with your knot buried inside me while trying to process that marrying you is the only way to break the curse. Comfortable isn’t really on the table.”
“I don’t want you to marry me because I’m trying to trap you.” His voice goes quieter. “I want you to marry me because it’s the only way to break the curse. Because your pack needs you to do this, and I need to be the one standing beside you when you attempt it.”
“My pack doesn’t even know they need saving.” I finally look at him. “They think the emotional distance is normal. How do I explain that I had to marry a Grayhide wolf to free them from magic they don’t know exists?”
“You tell them the truth. Show them the evidence. Let them see what Moira Ashwood did.” He brushes hair away from my face with surprising gentleness. “They’ll understand once they know.”
“Will they? Or will they see it as betrayal? Their archivist sleeping with the enemy, marrying outside the pack, and violating every principle we claim to value?” The fear I’ve been avoiding surfaces. “What if I break the curse and they hate me for it?”
“Then they’re idiots who don’t deserve what you’re sacrificing to save them. “But I don’t think that will happen. I think once they’re free of the curse, once they can feel again, they’ll understand what you did and why.”
“You have a lot of faith in people you don’t even know.”
“I have faith in you.” His knot finally starts to soften, releasing me. “The rest is just details.”
He pulls out carefully, and I feel his release start to leak out of me.
I slide off the desk and find my clothes scattered across the floor.
My underwear is completely destroyed, torn beyond repair.
Great. I pull on my jeans without them and search for my shoes while Reeyan tucks himself back into his pants.
“Sera—”
“Don’t,” I cut him off without looking at him. “Don’t try to make this okay. Don’t tell me everything will work out. Just give me space to process this without you trying to manage my feelings.”
“Alright.” He doesn’t follow me when I head for the door. “But for what it’s worth, I’m sorry. For all of it. For the position you’re in, for asking you to marry me, and for the mate bond existing in the first place.”
I pause with my hand on the doorknob. Some stupid part of me wants to turn around and tell him it’s not his fault. That I don’t actually hate him, just the situation. That, despite everything, part of me doesn’t completely hate the idea of marrying him.
But I’m not ready for those admissions. I’m not ready to acknowledge that maybe, under all the anger and fear, I want this more than I should.
So I walk out without another word, closing the door behind me and leaving him standing alone in his destroyed study.