Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Lucian
Watching Astra sleep is both a blessing and a torment.
She is curled on her side with Luna pressed against her chest, one hand buried in the cat’s black fur as if she’s afraid to let go. Even in sleep, there are lines of pain etched around her eyes, a tension in her shoulders that never fully relaxes.
The mating bond pulses steadily in my chest—a constant rhythm that tells me she’s alive, she’s breathing, she’s mine.
It’s the only thing that has kept me sane these past four days while she recovered.
That connection tying me to her, proving she wasn’t slipping away despite how broken she looked when I found her.
But with the bond, I can also feel the emptiness in her. The hollow ache where her bright spirit used to be. Andrew didn’t only hurt her body; he shattered something fundamental inside her. Stole the light from her eyes, the music from her laughter.
Andrew Crew. He’s going to pay for every tear she shed, every moment of trust he twisted into a weapon against her.
A twig snaps behind me. “You’re brooding again.”
I don’t turn at Seth’s voice as he emerges from the tree line. “She’s sleeping.”
“Good.” He settles beside me, his eyes automatically checking Astra’s breathing and taking in the way her face looks less pinched than it did yesterday. “How is she?”
“She woke up today. Spoke.” I keep my voice low, careful not to disturb her. “But Andrew did a lot of damage.”
Seth nods grimly. We both know I’m not talking about her physical injuries, which healed days ago under the royal healer’s magic. It’s the wounds to her soul that will take time to mend.
If they ever do.
After a minute or two, Leon steps out of the shadows with his usual silent grace. My other closest friend surveys our makeshift camp, his sharp eyes noting the way I’ve positioned myself between Astra and any potential threats as she sleeps.
“She looks better,” Leon observes quietly.
“Physically.” The word comes out sounding harsh.
Leon’s expression softens slightly. He was with us when Seth and I brought her back here, saw the way she looked more dead than alive despite her heart still beating. The complete absence of everything that made her Astra.
“Have you told her?” Leon’s question cuts straight to the heart of what I’ve been avoiding. “About the mating mark?”
I shake my head. “She wouldn’t believe me.”
“Or she would, and she’d run.” Seth’s voice carries a warning. “She’s human-adjacent, Lucian. Her wolf is so latent, it may as well not exist.”
“I know.” The words taste bitter.
“Which means the bond may be one-sided,” Leon continues sympathetically. “You’re tied to her, but she may not feel anything for you beyond gratitude or attraction.”
My jaw clenches. I’ve considered this. Spent the last four days thinking about little else. A latent shifter may not have enough wolf to feel the mate bond properly. Which means I could be bound to someone who will never feel for me what I feel for her.
“That makes her a weakness,” Seth says bluntly. “Someone who can destroy you without even meaning to.”
“Seth.” Leon’s warning is quiet but sharp.
“No, he needs to hear this.” Seth turns to face me fully. “She could leave tomorrow, Lucian. Find another human to marry, decide she wants a quiet life somewhere you can never follow. And you’d be powerless to stop her.”
The thought makes my wolf snarl with possessive fury. The idea of Astra walking away, of losing her to some other man’s bed, of never seeing her smile again…It’s unbearable.
“You could tell her nothing,” Leon suggests carefully. “Let her think whatever she wants about your interest in her. Keep the bond a secret.”
I watch Astra’s chest rise and fall in the steady rhythm of sleep. She looks so small, so fragile. The mating mark on her neck is hidden beneath her hair, invisible unless someone knows to look for it.
“That would be the smart thing,” Seth agrees. “Protect yourself. Don’t give her the power to destroy you.”
They’re right. Strategically, politically, and personally, keeping the bond secret is the intelligent choice. It’s what any sane ruler would do.
But as I watch my mate sleep, I realize I don’t care about any of that. I don’t care about protecting myself.
I want her to choose me. Not because of some magical compulsion, but because she wants to. Because she trusts me enough to let me heal the wounds Andrew left behind.
“I won’t tell her,” I say finally. “But not to protect myself.”
Both my friends look at me like I’ve lost my mind.
“She doesn’t trust anyone right now. If I tell her about the bond, she’ll think it’s just another way someone is trying to control her.” I brush a strand of hair from Astra’s face, being careful not to wake her. “She needs to know she has a choice.”
“Even if that choice is to leave you?” Leon’s voice is gentle.
“Yes.”
Seth mutters something under his breath that sounds like “fucking idiot,” but he doesn’t argue further.
“What’s your plan?” Leon asks, changing the subject. “The King is getting impatient not knowing when you’ll be back. He’s been asking for updates daily.”
I study my mate’s sleeping face. The bruises have faded completely, but the haunted look in her eyes when she’s awake tells me the real healing hasn’t even begun.
“I’ll return in a few weeks.”
“Weeks?” Seth’s eyebrows rise. “Lucian, you’ve been gone for—”
“She needs time.”
Understanding dawns on both their faces. They’ve seen battle trauma before; they know how long it can take someone to recover from having their fundamental beliefs about the world shattered.
“But that long away from court...” Leon trails off meaningfully.
“There’s going to be fallout,” Seth says carefully, “if you break off the engagement to Lady Zari.”
“I don’t care about fallout.”
“You should, though,” Leon warns. “Her father isn’t going to accept rejection quietly. He’s been planning this alliance for years, and he has significant influence with the Council.”
“What’s he going to do? Force me to marry his daughter?”
“No,” Leon says grimly. “But he’ll try to find a compromise. Something that lets him save face and maintain the alliance.”
I don’t like the tone in his voice. “What kind of compromise?”
“He’ll probably push for Zari to become your official royal mate,” Leon explains carefully, “and suggest that Astra could be...accommodated...as a concubine.”
Cold fury invades my chest like ice forming over deep water. My expression doesn’t change, but both my friends go very still.
“Concubine.” The word comes out perfectly calm, perfectly controlled.
“It’s an archaic practice,” Seth says quickly. “Only the royal family is permitted to take concubines, and no king has done so for generations. But technically, the law allowing them still exists.”
“The Council might see it as a reasonable solution,” Leon adds. “Zari gets the crown, her father gets his alliance, and you get to keep your...personal interest...close by.”
I study Leon’s face with clinical detachment, noting the way he avoids my eyes when he says “personal interest.” The way his hands fidget slightly. He knows exactly how insulting those words are, and he’s afraid of my reaction.
He should be.
“Personal interest.” My voice remains conversational, but the temperature around us seems to drop by several degrees.
“Lucian—” Seth starts.
“You’re suggesting I make my fated mate a concubine?” Each word is precise, measured. Deadly.
“We’re not suggesting anything,” Leon says defensively. “We’re just warning you about what Zari’s father may propose.”
“And what the Council may support,” Seth adds. “They’ll frame it as tradition, as a way to honor both women while maintaining political stability.”
I stand slowly, my movements deliberate and controlled. Both men tense, recognizing the particular brand of danger I represent when my anger turns cold.
“If anyone suggests that Astra should be relegated to the position of concubine,” I say quietly, “I will kill them. Their death will be neither quick nor painless.”
The promise hangs in the air like a blade. My wolf is still pacing in my mind, but it’s the patient stalking of a predator that knows its prey is already trapped.
“She is my mate,” I continue, my voice never rising above a conversational tone. “The only woman who will ever wear a crown beside me. The only woman who will ever share my bed, my throne, my life.”
“The Council won’t see it that way,” Leon says quietly. “A latent shifter with no political connections, no dowry, no family alliance—”
“Then the Council will need to have their perspective adjusted,” I say evenly, and both my friends go pale. “Permanently, if necessary.”
The calm way I say it makes the threat infinitely more chilling than if I shouted.
I lean against a nearby tree. “Tomorrow,” I tell Seth and Leon, “I want you to bring Andrew here with you.”
Seth’s eyebrows rise. “The human? Here?”
“But stay out of sight. I don’t want Astra seeing either of you.”
“What are you planning?” Leon asks cautiously.
I glance toward my sleeping mate, noting how her hand still clutches Luna’s fur even in sleep. “My mate wants revenge. What she wants, she’ll get.”
Seth gives me a wide-eyed look. “I never took you to be the doting kind.”
I study Astra’s peaceful face, the way the firelight plays across her features. “Neither did I.”
As Seth and Leon disappear into the forest, I sit back down next to Astra and gently pull her head into my lap. The moment her cheek touches my thigh, the tension in her face melts away. Her brow smooths, her lips part slightly, and she burrows deeper into my warmth.
Even unconscious, her body seeks mine. Even when her mind builds walls against me, her soul recognizes its mate.
I lift her hand, studying her fingernails in the dying firelight. There is dried blood caught beneath the tips. I remember the deep, parallel gouges raked across the faces of those bastards who tried to restrain her.