Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Seth
One minute, the mate bond is humming bright and warm in my chest, content as I wait for the vendor to pour wine into two wooden cups.
The next, it goes cold.
Not distant. Not muted. Cold. Like someone has ripped the fire from my chest and left nothing but ash.
The cups slip from my hands. Wine splashes across the cobblestones, dark as blood, but I’m already moving. My wolf explodes inside my head, frantic, howling with desperate fury.
Selene!
I don’t shout her name. Can’t afford to cause a scene, can’t let my panic show. But my feet carry me faster, weaving through the crowd with barely controlled urgency. The mate bond weakens with every heartbeat. Flickering. Fading like a candle being swallowed by the ocean.
I reach the spot where I last saw her, leaning against a wall. Empty. My eyes scan frantically—the dancers spinning past, the vendors hawking food, the press of bodies everywhere. No flash of auburn hair. No soft blue eyes finding mine through the chaos.
Even as it continues dying, the bond pulls me toward the forest’s edge. My wolf howls inside my skull, desperate, terrified in a way I’ve never felt before.
I slip into the trees as inconspicuously as I can manage, leaving the festival noise behind. The moment the shadows swallow me, I let my wolf surge forward. Partial shift. Senses flooding through.
Her scent. It’s faint. Barely there. Leading deeper into the woods.
I run.
Branches claw at my face. Roots try to trip me. The mate bond is hardly even a whisper now, so weak I almost can’t even sense it. Terror crawls up my throat. What if I’m too late? What if she’s—
No. I reject the thought violently. She’s alive. She has to be.
The scent trail ends in a moonlit clearing. My wolf snarls, scanning for threats, for any sign of my mate.
Movement. A figure emerges from the trees.
Kieran.
Carrying Selene’s limp body.
Rage explodes through me. White-hot. All-consuming. I start toward him, claws extending, ready to tear him apart for whatever he’s done to her—
“Stop.” Kieran’s voice cuts through my fury, low and urgent. “You’ll hurt her.”
I freeze mid-stride, every muscle locked. He’s right. One wrong move, one moment of lost control, and I could hurt Selene while she’s defenseless in his arms.
“What did you do to her?” I snarl, barely human.
“I saved her.” His voice stays calm, measured. “Something tried to take her. I stopped it.”
“Give her to me.” My claws dig into my palms, drawing blood. “Now.”
“We need to get her back to the palace.” Kieran moves forward slowly. “Quickly and quietly. She needs warmth. Safety. Can you control yourself?”
The question should offend me. Instead, it forces clarity through my rage. He’s right. Selene needs me in control, not lost to violence.
I nod once, abruptly.
Kieran brings her to me, carefully transferring her weight into my arms. The moment she presses against my chest, the mate bond surges stronger. It’s still not normal, not right. But it’s enough that my wolf stops threatening to tear free.
I pull her close, bury my face in her hair, and breathe her in. She’s cold. Too cold. But she’s alive.
“What happened?” My voice shakes despite my attempts to control it.
“Not here.” Kieran’s eyes scan the darkness. “Get her to the palace. I’ll meet you there. I need to confirm something.”
He disappears into the shadows, and I head back to the festival. To the people I walk past, it must look like I’m carrying a drunk female home. But nobody is paying attention. Or maybe they are. I don’t care.
How did Selene get into the woods? What was she doing there? I told her to wait for me in the spot where I left her. So, what happened?
The return to the palace feels endless. Every second she remains cold and unconscious in my arms makes the terror tighten around my throat. The mate bond stays weak, flickering, wrong in ways I can’t explain.
I kiss her. Once. Twice. Desperately. But for the first time, my kiss doesn’t help.
Hold on, little wolf. Just hold on.
The entrance to the stables comes into view. I slow down, check for witnesses, then slip through the shadows toward the palace’s back corridors. A few servants glance up, startled, but I’m past them before they can ask questions.
I take the back stairs three at a time, Selene’s weight nothing compared to the terror clawing at my chest. The hallways are blessedly empty this time of night; everyone is either at the festival or already in bed.
I burst into my quarters and lay her on the bed as gently as my trembling hands allow. Her skin is ice beneath my palms. I grab blankets and pile them on top of her, my mind racing with the need to fix this.
“Selene.” I cup her face, willing her eyes to open. “Come on, Selene, wake up.”
Nothing. Not even a flutter.
I cross to the door and yank it open. A guard stands at attention at the far end of the corridor.
“Get a healer to my quarters. Discreetly.” The command comes out harsh. “And find the Queen. Tell her it’s urgent, but don’t alarm anyone else.”
His eyes widen slightly at whatever he sees in my face, but he nods and takes off running.
I return to Selene’s side and pull her into my arms, trying to warm her with my own body heat. The mate bond pulses weakly between us, and I focus on it, pouring every ounce of strength I have through the connection.
Come back to me. Please.
Soon, there’s a soft knock, and the door opens quietly. A healer I recognize from the compound slips inside, bag in hand. Behind her, Astra and Daciana enter.
“What happened?” Astra’s voice is controlled, but I can hear the fear underneath.
“I don’t know.” The admission tastes like failure. “The bond went cold. Found her in the forest with Kieran.”
Daciana’s face drains of color. “With Kieran?”
“He says he saved her. Can you wake her up?” I ask the healer. I don’t move from Selene’s side as the woman works, but my eyes turn to the Queen, who is known for developing cures for rare illnesses. “Astra? Any ideas?”
Her brow furrows. “Did she ingest something?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything. I don’t even know why she went into the forest.”
“Sleepwalking?” Astra looks at me sharply.
“It can’t be.” My wolf is frantic inside me. “She only gets in that state between midnight and dawn. It’s too early. And she was awake, Astra. We were at the festival.”
“Let’s see what the healer thinks,” she murmurs.
The healer checks Selene’s pulse, breathing, and temperature, her hands glowing faintly with diagnostic magic. “She’s stable. No poisons. She appears to be…sleeping.”
“But why can’t we wake her?” My voice cracks.
“I don’t know.” The healer meets my eyes, genuine concern there. “Her vitals are strong. She should be conscious. But something’s keeping her under.”
I lean down and press a kiss to Selene’s forehead. Her skin is still too cold against my lips. “I’ll fix this,” I whisper in her ear. “I promise.”
I force myself to step back from the bed, from Selene’s pale face. Everything in me screams to stay, to guard her, to never let her out of my sight. But if Kieran saw something, if he knows what’s hunting my mate, I need to talk to him.
“Stay with her,” I tell Astra and Daciana. My wolf howls in protest, but this is necessary. “Don’t let anyone near her except this healer.”
Daciana nods, her hand moving to unsheathe her sword. “Where are you going?”
“To find Kieran.”
I turn to leave, and my wolf howls for vengeance.
A guard sees me and sends me to the King’s study, where I find both Lucian and Leon.
Kieran is sitting at the table with them, hands neatly folded.
Calm. As if he didn’t just hand my unconscious mate to me in the woods.
From the looks on Lucian’s and Leon’s faces, they’ve been caught up on at least that much.
My wolf is clawing at my ribs, demanding I go back to Selene, but I force myself to sit down across from Kieran.
“Talk.” I growl at him. “Now.”
His gaze meets mine. Steady. Unflinching. “Your mate bears the mark of the Ulvan.”
I blink at him. “What?”
“I tried to warn her days ago. But she didn’t listen. Couldn’t understand.” He leans forward. “Someone has bound your mate to death magic, Commander. And tonight, whatever controls her tried to take her completely.”
“What are you talking about? What the fuck is an Ulvan?”
Kieran’s expression doesn’t change. “The mark of the Ulvan is a banned practice. Part of your mate’s wolf has been bound to the undead.”
“Bound to—” Lucian cuts himself off, shaking his head. “What do you mean, bound to the undead?”
“I’ve smelled it on her since we first arrived.” Kieran’s voice stays measured, clinical. “Rot, mixed with her natural scent. The undead is both living and dead, a puppet used by a necromancer to control a shifter. It’s forbidden magic, but I know it.”
My mind is reeling. “You’re saying someone created this—this thing—and attached it to Selene?”
“Yes.” He meets my gaze steadily. “I saw the mist in the forest tonight. It strengthens the link between the necromancer and the victim.”
After sighing heavily, Leon speaks for the first time. “The red mist. We’ve been trying to identify it for weeks.”
“It’s a conduit.” Kieran’s fingers drum once against the table. “Does your mate have gaps in her memory? Times she can’t account for?”
Ice floods my veins. “She sleepwalks. Doesn’t remember leaving her quarters.”
“She’s not sleepwalking.” The correction comes quickly. “The necromancer is controlling her. Moving her like a puppet.”
The mate bond flickers weakly in my chest, and I have to fight the urge to run back to her. “Why would someone target Selene? She’s just a healer. She doesn’t have any special power or—”
“Selene may not be the target.” Kieran’s eyes narrow. “She may be the vessel.”
None of this makes sense. I stare at him, waiting for an explanation that will render this nightmare comprehensible.