Chapter 25 Wen
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Wen
Pain exploded in my chest.
Not metaphorical pain. Not heartache that people described in poetry. This was actual physical agony that felt like my ribs were cracking open and someone was reaching inside to tear out my heart with their bare hands.
The bond. The mate bond. It was breaking.
I fell to my knees on the cold throne room floor as the pain radiated outward from my chest in waves. My lungs refused to work properly. Every breath felt like inhaling glass.
Mal stood above me with his face completely cold and expressionless. The man I loved. The man who’d held me through nightmares and taught me to fight and made love to me with such tenderness just hours ago.
Gone. Replaced by a stranger wearing his face.
I was so confused. So weak. So completely heartbroken that I could barely think past the agony.
What the hell was going on?
I’d sworn after my father went to jail and my mother abandoned me that I’d never give a man the power to destroy me. Had built walls around my heart for years. Had kept everyone at a distance because letting people in meant giving them the ability to hurt me.
And here I was. Being destroyed by a man from another species in front of his entire court.
My life was a fucking joke.
I wanted to scream at him. Wanted to kick and punch and make him feel even a fraction of what I was feeling. But I could barely breathe past the pain radiating through every nerve.
“Why?” The word came out as barely a whisper. “I thought you loved me.”
His expression didn’t change. Didn’t soften even slightly. “I told you what you wanted to hear so you’d spread your legs willingly. It worked, didn’t it?” He looked me up and down with disgust. “You were pathetically easy. Desperate for affection. I barely had to try.”
The words hit like physical blows. Each one landing with precision designed to cause maximum damage.
“You actually believed a king would choose you?” He laughed.
The sound was cold and mocking. “A human nobody with nothing to offer? You were a warm body when I needed one. A curiosity to study. But looking at you now, knowing I wasted weeks pretending to care about your tedious stories and your pathetic insecurities, makes me sick.”
Amaia laughed from beside the throne. The sound was bright and delighted and cruel. “This was supposed to happen from the beginning! You never should’ve come here, you weak human whore. Did you really think you could compete with me? This is what you get for being delusional.”
Tears gathered in my eyes without my permission. I hated seeing them fall, hated that everyone in this room could watch me break apart, hated giving them this satisfaction. But I couldn’t stop them.
“Leave,” Mal said. He gestured to the guards standing near the doors. “Take her away. Get her out of my sight. I’m tired of looking at her face.”
The guards approached and grabbed my arms, hauling me to my feet even though my legs didn’t want to support my weight.
They started dragging me toward the exit and the room blurred around me as faces stared.
Some looked satisfied. Some uncomfortable.
Most just looked eager to gossip about what they’d witnessed.
I barely registered where they were taking me. Could only focus on putting one foot in front of the other, on breathing past the pain, on not collapsing completely in front of all these people who clearly enjoyed watching me suffer.
Then a hand reached out and grabbed my arm, stopping the guards mid-step.
Aurion.
Relief flooded through me for half a second before confusion replaced it. We were standing next to the chest where the portal sat at the bottom, and I could see the light swirling inside it. Why had he brought me here?
“We need to step in,” Aurion said quietly. His expression was grim as he looked at me. “Now.”
I stared at him through my tears. “We?”
But he didn’t give me time to finish the question. He grabbed me and jumped into the portal before I could process what was happening.
The journey was worse than the first time.
So much worse. I was weaker now with the bond breaking and my body already exhausted from the heat and the attack.
The spinning and tumbling felt endless as we were pulled through dimensions.
My stomach revolted against the sensation.
Everything hurt in ways I didn’t have words for.
When we finally crashed onto solid ground, I barely registered the familiar feeling of wooden floorboards beneath me. Just rolled onto my hands and knees and puked my guts out.
Then everything went black.
***
I woke up in my bed.
My actual bed in my apartment above the bookstore. The mattress that was too soft. The quilt my grandmother had made. The ceiling with the water stain in the corner that I kept meaning to get fixed.
What? Where was I? Was it all a bad dream?
Had I ever actually found a werewolf in my bookstore? Had any of it been real?
Then Aurion stepped into my line of sight and reality came crashing down.
Oh. Yes. I’d met werewolves. And they’d fucking ripped me to pieces.
My stomach heaved again. Aurion helped me to the bathroom and stayed while I puked up what little remained in my system. He held my hair back and didn’t say anything while I sobbed between heaves.
When I finally stopped and could breathe without immediately wanting to throw up again, I sat back against the bathtub and looked at him.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” My voice was hoarse. Raw from crying and vomiting.
“I’m your babysitter,” he said. His tone was matter-of-fact. “Here to take care of you.”
I laughed. It came out bitter and broken. “Why? He just rejected me and tore me to pieces in front of everyone. Why would he send you to babysit me?”
“You’d have to be very dumb to believe even a single word that came from his mouth in that throne room.”
I stopped. Stared at him. “What?”
“My brother is many things. An idiot isn’t one of them. Neither is he a good liar when it comes to you.” Aurion crossed his arms. “Did you feel anything through the bond during that rejection? Anything at all?”
I thought back and tried to remember past the pain and the shock.
The bond had been there one moment, pulsing between us, and then suddenly it was just closed.
Completely shut down like a door slamming in my face.
I hadn’t felt anything from Mal during the rejection.
No emotions bleeding through. No connection at all.
Nothing.
“It was closed,” I said slowly. “The bond was closed.”
“Exactly. Because if it’d been open, you would’ve felt what he was actually feeling. And that would’ve ruined the entire performance.”
Performance. He was saying it was all an act.
But I didn’t know if I believed that. Didn’t know if I could believe that. The man in that throne room had been cold and cruel and had looked at me with such contempt. That wasn’t the Mal I knew. That wasn’t the man I’d fallen in love with.
Or was it? How well did I actually know him? We’d been together for weeks. That was nothing. Maybe the kind version had been the act. Maybe this was who he really was.
I didn’t know. Didn’t know anything anymore.
“I don’t want to talk about this,” I said. My voice was flat. Emotionless. “I just want to be alone.”
“Wen-”
“Get out. Please. Just get out.”
Aurion studied my face for a long moment. Then nodded. “I’ll give you space. But I’m not leaving. I’ll be close by to keep an eye on you.”
Guilt twisted in my stomach at the thought of kicking him out into a world he didn’t know. Into a realm he’d never been to before. “Do you have money? A place to stay?”
“I’ll figure it out.”
“No. Wait.” I pushed myself to my feet with effort. My legs felt like jelly. “Let me give you some tips. Starting with safety and money.”
I gave him a quick rundown of Earth. How money worked. How to avoid getting mugged or scammed. How to find a hotel. How credit cards functioned. Which areas of the city to avoid.
He listened patiently. Then pulled a small leather pouch from his pocket and opened it.
Gold coins spilled into his palm along with jewels and gemstones that caught the bathroom light.
“Will this be enough?” he asked.
I stared at the contents of the pouch. That was easily millions of dollars’ worth of precious metals and gems. Probably more than millions.
“Yeah,” I said faintly. “You’ll be fine.”
“Good. I want to investigate this Earth realm of yours. Learn how things work here.” He tucked the pouch away.
“I don’t want to see you for a while,” I said. My voice cracked. “I can’t. Not when you look so much like him. Not right now.”
Understanding flickered across his face. “I’ll guard you from afar then. You won’t see me but I’ll be close if you need help.”
“Thank you.”
I closed the door before he could say anything else. I wasn’t being the best host but I literally couldn’t stand upright anymore. My legs were shaking. My chest still ached. Everything hurt.
I walked up the stairs to my apartment. Each step felt like climbing a mountain. When I finally reached my bedroom, I fell face down onto the bed without even taking off my shoes.
It was nighttime. The room was dark except for the streetlight outside filtering through the curtains. And the bed still smelled like us. Like the life I’d had for a few brief weeks before it all fell apart.
The scent broke something inside me that had been barely holding together.
I cried all night. Sobbed into my pillow until it was soaked through. Cried until my eyes were so swollen I could barely open them. Cried until my throat was raw and my chest ached from the force of it.
The bond was still there. I could feel it like a phantom limb. But it was closed tight on his end. No emotions coming through. No connection. Just an empty space where his presence used to be.
Eventually exhaustion dragged me under into a fitful sleep filled with nightmares of red eyes and cold voices and rejection.
I didn’t know how long I slept. Time felt meaningless. But at some point a shriek pulled me violently back to consciousness. A familiar shriek.