Chapter 1
It happened just after I burned the field. A gift from the gods that would be magically inked into my flesh like a badge of honor not everyone could earn. My mating mark appeared.
Panic pours out of my skin, sniffling the fresh air. If Selene’s mark appeared when she was with Galen…
Why did I listen to her? I should have fought to walk by her side as he led her away.
My eyes no longer see clearly, my feet carry me so swiftly I’d win a race against flood waters.
“She’s okay,” Tristen whispers as he struggles to keep pace with me. “He wouldn’t kill her. You and I know this.”
He’s right. Galen will hunt down her mate. But that doesn’t mean he’d hurt her.
A strong odor of horse shit soon hits my boots, and the soil turns muddy. No amount of sand and hay can harden the soil of the barns. Horses whinny as sounds of boots thrash come running out of the stables.
“Hey,” Tristen grabs the back of my shirt, my chest. “That’s Galen’s horse!”
Galen. The sound of his name halts my feet. Kill him. He’s a threat to your mate. Kill him now.
A palm slaps my cheek. “Snap out of it!” Tristen grunts. “There will be no honeymoon, Titus. Get control over your actions.”
No chisel can chip away the stiffness of my muscles. “Galen is a threat,” I hiss.
Tristen kneads his fingers on my shoulders; he’s so close that all I can see are the shades of his cool-toned brown eyes. “You’re a threat to her if you can’t get your bond under control.”
Me?
The bond doesn’t like that. The bond is like another magic I have to understand. It’s like my fire, a puppy yapping for attention, but it’s got personality traits like fae magic; it wants respect.
Tristen’s hand slips into mine, and he leads me up the chipped stone steps to the guard's scouting wall. Heavy boots, the tapping of weapons gliding against the side of bodies as soldiers walk, echo and create a feeling that relaxes me.
We have to think. If Galen is here, then he wasn’t with Selene when the mark appeared. This is good. Yes, calm down. I’ll get to her, slowly, so I don’t alert anyone. I’ll keep her safe. I’ll make her mine.
Tristen guides us to the ledge of the maze-like walkway. The soldiers use this area to be Galen’s eyes and ears from above. This elevated aisle twists throughout the city like veins that direct all the infection—the gossip— to the heart: the castle.
Tristen leans over the edge. “Look,” he whispers.
My stomach arches in as I lean into the ledge. Sure enough, Galen and three dozen guards all mount up and ride for the gates.
“Where are they going?”
“I don’t know,” I whisper.
“This is good?” he wonders.
“Then why do you sound worried?”
“Selene’s alone. We have time to think.” He looks over his shoulder. “Walk normally. If we’re seen running to her rooms, word will get back to Galen.” He pivots wide like a mountain, blocking me from squeezing past him.
The walk to Selene’s tower is painfully slow, but by the time I make the final step up her stairs, the bond is shouting again.
I smack into his back. “Why the fuck is there a rose bush in her hall?” Tristen steps back; we both draw our swords. “Why does it smell like a dead body?”
My nostrils flare. I know that scent; I’ve been bathed with it in battle. The blood of a brother. “Vampire blood.” I glance at the floor, almost missing the puddle of blood. The reflection of the roses camouflaged it.
What the fuck happened?
Tristen leans down. My eyes pivot to Selene’s room. “Look,” Tristen points to the bottom of the bush. A boot is poking out from under the thick foliage. The closer we look, the more parts of the body we find. Jonas’s face—what used to be a face— peers back at us from within the vines.
“Well… that’s not something you’d want to put in a vase.” Tristen exhales; he pokes a vine with his sword. “He’s definitely dead.”
“Obviously.” He’s got a bush sprouting from his chest!
The bond pulls my feet down the hall, and I practically fall into the door as I barge in. She’s not on her bed, but the sheets are rumpled. Where is she?
My chest feels like yarn being wrapped around knitting needles. There she is, sitting outside on her balcony. Her knees are curled up, but her body looks boneless. Joy and relief dilate my eyes.
“You got it?” she states with confidence. Only her eyelids move as they struggle to look at me.
Each step I take is an iron chain cementing the bond. I expect her to tell me to stop. To remind me that she was given to Galen and that I have a duty forced upon me by her brother.
I wouldn’t.
I haven’t been myself since I came here. When Everett forced his magic into me, it changed me, shook my confidence, made me step back and observe. I watched my mate with another, forced myself to obey her and not attack, to ignore the bond.
I’ve become a man I would not call honorable. Weeks of torture that I will not endure any longer.
She will let me claim her, or I will surrender to death willingly.
I was trained to fight, to take, and that’s what I’m going to do. All this push and pull she’s forced me to endure was out of fear for me, for us. She needs to know what kind of man I am. All her life, she has been accustomed to monsters.
I can be one.
Love is a beast after all. It consumes, drives you wild. It needs more and more, and so I shall feed the monster.
“This is over.” I point to the walls. Galen’s walls. “You’re not his. I will never stand aside and watch him lead you away. Do. You. Understand?”
Her breath quivers as she lifts her head. “I was trying to protect our bond.”
“Our bond is different, Selene.” My fist close like tongs gripping a crucible, brimming with the molten metal that forms our twisted love and unbreakable bond.
“I’m just as possessive as Galen, but I also respect you.
” My hair sweeps my forehead as I shake my head.
“But you haven’t shown me the same respect. ”
Her tongue darts out, trying to lick away the guilt on her lips.
I remove the space between us and crouch down. “He will never touch you again. I will show you how I survived in battle. I will cut him down and toss his fucking hands in that bush in your hallway. And I’ll keep it there until the message is clear to you. You’re mine. Understood?”
“Yes.”
“Very alpha male." I can hear the smile on Tristen's lips, as well as the relief that Selene is safe.
In typical fashion, he's going to try to lighten the mood with sex jokes.
"Touch-her-and-die. Ember told me that’s something ladies like.
It's in all the books she reads to me. It's always the most badass women who like to be tossed around in bed.”
I’m about to turn on him, but Selene casts her eyes down and blushes.
His hand lands on my shoulder. “I think we all need a deep inhale. Deeper, deeper, yeah baby, that's it, take it.”
Selene covers her mouth; her fingers are pale and tremble, but… she giggles.
“Look, she laughed. Brownie points for me. I know we had a rough start. I admit I didn’t like you, Selene, but that mark on my brother’s chest means you’re stuck with me. Congratulations, and word of advice, ignore my shit and admire my giggles.”
I roll my eyes, and he sighs.
“Okay, okay.” Tristen pulls back. “One more question: why is there a rose bush with a face in your hallway, or parts of a face?”
I study her hands. They have one more second on this land of being alone. One more flexing of her fingers opening wide and meeting air. The next time she uncurls her hand it will meet my touch!
There. I close my fingers around her palm. You’re mine. These hands are mine to kiss and love.
I flip her fingers over like pages of a book, inspecting them.
“He didn’t hurt me. He left. I crawled from the bed to the balcony. I needed air,” she whispers.
Night's sharp, crisp sense makes my senses remain heightened. The sunset’s pink and yellow hues reflect over her face. Even in a state of utter exhaustion, she is worthy of being a painter’s muse.
“What happened?” I ask; I begin to kiss her knuckles, one by one, then her fingertips. My mate! My mate! My mate!
It roars like a new heartbeat that possesses every other sense.
I’ve seen mated couples; there’s always something untamed in the man’s eyes. I imagined it would rival a dragon—possessive, consuming, touch-her-and-die, as Tristen stated. I feel it claw into my eyes.
I’ve seen happy couples torn apart by mating bonds.
It’s awful for all sides. The mates can’t help it; it’s just fate.
But since Galen has been a cruel, abusive, manipulative asshole, it makes our bond more special because it saved her.
It set her free from the contracted marriage.
The eyes of others won’t cast judgment; they all know bonds take precedence over peace treaties. Over everything.
I slide beside her and pull her into my lap. My chest is her pillow, my hands are sheets that cover her. Tristen stands guard halfway between the door and the balcony.
Selene tells us everything. “I missed my chance to kill Galen. I’m sorry.
I know how you felt when I begged you not to kill him,” she admits in defeat.
“I didn’t beg you to stand down because I thought you’d fail.
I…” Her chest sinks. “I want to keep you safe just as badly as you wish to protect me.”
The time is now.
My fingers slide from her hair, and her eyes close in delight. “Galen will never touch you again. Do you understand? The dawn of the rising sun will be his last.”
“I don’t want his touch. I need yours.”
“Let me see your mark.”
“I’ll… wait outside,” Tristen suggests, but I stop him.
“Don’t go far. I need you to guard her. I’m leaving.” After I have just had a taste. One kiss to settle the bond.
Selene reaches out and grabs my face. “Where are you going?”
“I need to speak to someone; Tristen will stay here as you rest.”
“Titus… I…”
“I’m going to speak to Vice Admiral Adrian,” I confess.
She understands.
“It’s happening.”
“Yes.” I tell her what Tristen and I discussed. My prediction was that Sable would strike once Galen is dethroned and I learn how to communicate with Everett’s magic, everything.
She sucks in a sharp breath. “I love you. Not because you freed me from him, not because you’re helping my brother, or because of our bond.
I love you because you always do what is best for others, not for your own heart, Titus.
You and I could run away, but you know that’s not my nature, so you stand and fight by my side, and I love you for that, for not putting me in a cage but setting me free. ”
Freedom has its own risk; instead of telling her that, I press my lips to hers.