37. Nikolai
The sight of their joined hands is a branding iron pressed directly against my soul.
I stand paralyzed, the crushing weight of reality collapsing inward on me as Casandra steps fully into the transformed dining hall.
She doesn’t look at me. She doesn’t even glance in my direction.
Her eyes are locked entirely on the head of the long oak table, where the rulers of her world stand waiting.
Her parents don’t maintain their icy, untouchable aristocratic composure for long.
The moment they see their daughter walking, the fierce, terrifying aura radiating off them fractures.
The Queen quickly approaches Casandra, her pale, elegant hands catching Casandra’s face, her crimson eyes flashing with a desperate, scanning panic as she checks her for injuries.
When she sees that the wound is managed, that her daughter is not in critical condition, the breath leaves her in a sharp gasp, and she pulls Casandra into a tight, fierce embrace.
The King steps in immediately after, his massive, imposing frame wrapping around them both.
Then, they pull back, and the King turns his attention to the man standing by her side.
He extends his arms and hugs Julian Vane with a deep, familiar warmth.
When they break apart, Julian doesn’t step back.
He slides his hand perfectly around Casandra’s waist, a fluid, possessive movement that tugs her securely against his side.
The visual makes my blood instantly boil.
A dark, feral snarl rips through my chest, vibrating so violently in my throat that Magnus gives me a sharp, warning nudge with his elbow.
Every primal instinct I possess demands that I leap over this table, tear Julian’s arms from his torso, and rip his head clean off his shoulders.
“Did you fucking know?” I mind-link Magnus.
“No,” he replies, his gaze fixed on Ilinca, who can’t seem to be able to meet his eyes.
But as Fenris howls for blood inside my skull, a crushing, devastating realization hits me, freezing the rage in my veins.
It’s all my fault.
The thought is a jagged blade twisting in my heart, breaking it into a thousand pieces.
I am the one who pushed her into his arms.
I am the one who walked into her recovery room and threw her away like a piece of garbage.
I deserve the absolute agony ripping through my chest right now.
I earned every single bit of this torture.
The Corvin King clears his throat, his posture straightening back into that of a formidable monarch as he looks toward the head of the table. “Allow me to introduce my daughter, Casandra.” he addresses my father, his deep voice echoing off the vaulted ceiling.
My father steps forward, his sharp golden eyes darting from Casandra to me, a profound confusion clouding his features. He looks at my tense, rigid posture, and then back to the vampire princess. “Nikolai,” my father says, his voice dropping into a low rumble. “Do you two know each other?”
“Yes,” I spit out, the word tasting like acid on my tongue. I hold Casandra’s frozen glare, my jaw locking. “Though she conveniently failed to mention her last name.”
The Corvin King looks between us, his brow furrowing in deep confusion as he looks down at his daughter. “I don’t understand, Cassie. Prince Nikolai was supposed to show you around the academy when you arrived. I was under the impression you two had been properly introduced.”
Casandra looks at me, her eyes flashing with a venom so pure, a hatred so absolute, it makes my breath catch in my throat. “Unfortunately, Father,” she says, her voice smooth, icy, and entirely devoid of warmth, “that hasn’t happened.”
Her father mutters, “I don’t understand.”
Casandra just offers him a tight, hollow smile, her gaze never leaving mine. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter,” I growl, taking a heavy step forward, abandoning all royal decorum as the invisible thread in my chest snaps tight. I look directly at my father, then at hers. “She’s my mate.”
The words drop like a bomb into the center of the room.
The silence that follows is deafening. My mother’s jaw drops. My father goes completely rigid, his eyes blowing wide in utter shock as he stares at the vampire girl.
Casandra lets out a sharp, mocking laugh—a sarcastic, bitter sound that cuts through the room like a whip.
“No,” she states coldly, her chin tilting up as she looks at her parents.
“I am not. After you walked into my room, told me I was a mistake, and informed me that you were going to formally reject me, you conveniently ran out to take a phone call. You never came back to finish it and I couldn’t find you outside. So, since we're both here,
we might as well get it over with right now.”
A violent, agonizing jolt hits my mind as my father mind-links me.
“What the hell were you thinking?!” my father roars inside my head, his alpha command forcing my knees to tremble.
“Rejecting your fated mate? No matter who you thought she was, Nikolai, a fated bond is sacred! To reject her is an insult to the Moon Goddess!”
I block his voice out, my focus entirely pinned on Casandra’s father.
The Corvin King is staring at me, his expression a mixture of profound disbelief and brewing fury.
“How is this possible?” He demands, his voice dropping into a dangerous frequency.
“Vampires do not have fated mates. Our kind does not experience the werewolf bond.”
“That is what I thought,” I say, my voice rough, my hands clenching into fists at my sides. “I thought it was an anomaly. A cosmic error. I was planning to reject her because I believed the bond was a mistake... but I didn’t know who she was.”
Casandra spits out a harsh, venomous breath, stepping forward away from Julian’s side.
“It shouldn’t matter who I am, Nikolai! If the only reason you want to keep the bond now is because of my title, because of who my parents are, then you are a coward. I don’t want a mate who only sees value in a crown!”
I want to scream that it’s not just because of the title, the words desperate and clawing at my throat. I want to tell her that I was suffocating in my room, that my heart warmed the second she smiled at me in the medical center, that I am terrified of how much I want her.
But I don’t get the chance.
“Casandra, enough,” her father interrupts, his authoritative voice cutting through her tirade. He looks down at her, his expression stern. “This behavior is petty, and it should be entirely above you. We do not throw away alliances over wounded pride.”
The King turns his sharp glare toward Julian Vane. Julian remains perfectly calm, clearing his throat as he adjusts his jacket. He steps forward, his demeanor smooth, aristocratic, and infuriatingly noble.
“Your Majesty,” Julian says, his voice carrying clearly across the silent hall.
“I told Casandra from the very beginning that I would support her choice, no matter what. I understand the gravity of the situation. A union between the future vampire monarch and the future werewolf monarch is unprecedented. It is far more important,
and would do infinitely more good for our shared cause of peace between our species, than a union between me and Casandra. But...”
He pauses, his dark eyes shifting to lock onto mine with a cold, protective defiance.
“...after seeing how Prince Nikolai has treated your daughter, I do not deem their union would be wise.”
The King takes a slow, measured breath, his jaw tight.
“Thank you, Julian. Your loyalty to our family is, as always, beyond reproach.”
He turns back to face me and my father, his posture settling into an absolute, unyielding finality.
“However, Casandra and Nikolai’s union is not up for discussion. They will accept the bond.”
Casandra doesn’t say a word. She doesn’t argue with her father, but she turns her head to look at me, her eyes glaring absolute daggers.
The sheer volume of loathing radiating from her is a physical weight, a suffocating pressure that crushes my chest.
She completely hates me. And the realization hurts so intensely it physically makes my chest ache.
Beside me, my father lets out a deep, satisfied rumble. “This is perfect,” my father states, a triumphant grin spreading across his face as he looks at the Corvin King. “A unified throne.”
Looking at Julian’s frustrated expression, I can’t help but feel a sudden, smug wave of satisfaction pierce through my grief. He lost. She belongs to me. The law of the bond is absolute.
Julian opens his mouth, his eyes narrowing as if he is about to argue against the King’s decision, but the words never leave his throat.
The heavy, stained-glass windows along the eastern wall shatter into a million glittering shards.
Before anyone can even draw a breath to react, the massive double doors of the dining hall are blasted off their hinges, splintering into kindling.
A chaotic, deafening roar fills the room as a massive pack of wolves invades the space, their jaws snapping, their eyes glowing with a feral, bloodthirsty madness.
Behind them, several figures in human form sprint through the dust, weapons gleaming in the dim light.
Everything happens so fast our minds can barely comprehend the sudden, violent influx of movement.
“Guards!” my father roars, his alpha aura exploding through the room as he shifts into his massive, midnight-black wolf mid-air, launching himself at the first wave of attackers.
Across the room, Julian doesn’t hesitate.
He reacts with blinding vampire speed, stepping directly in front of Casandra, throwing his arms out to shield her from the flying glass and the incoming wolves.
The visual ignites a white-hot fury in my gut.
That should be me. It should be me shielding my mate, protecting her from the chaos, but the distance between us is too wide.
“Casandra!” I scream, throwing myself forward, my muscles coiling as I prepare to shift.
Two men dressed in tactical black gear sprint directly past the frontline defenses, navigating the chaos with a terrifying, synchronized precision. They leap over the oak table, their movements blurred. Before the guards can intercept them, the men draw twin, glowing silver daggers.
With synchronized, lethal thrusts, they drive the blades directly into the hearts of the Corvin King and Queen.
“NO!” Casandra’s voice pierces through the deafening roar of battle, a broken, agonizing shriek of pure horror.
The Corvins freeze, their eyes widening as the silver poisons their hearts. They collapse forward onto the polished wood, their bodies turning to ash and dust before they even hit the floor.
Casandra falls to her knees, her hands clutching her head as a devastating, heartbreaking scream rips from her lungs.
The sheer agony in her voice fractures my soul.
Alistair Hawthorne suddenly appears at her side, his face ghostly pale, his hands shaking violently as he grabs her uninjured shoulder.
“We need to go, Casandra! Now!” he screams over the din of clashing steel and snapping jaws.
Before he can pull her up, a massive gray wolf barrels into him from the side, a sickening crack echoing through the air as Hawthorne is knocked completely unconscious, his body throwing a cloud of dust as he hits the floor.
“Casandra!” I bellow, pushing through a crowd of fighting wolves, my gold eyes locked entirely on her kneeling form. I am only ten feet away.
A sharp, agonizing burst of pain explodes through my right thigh.
I let out a strangled groan, my leg instantly giving out beneath me.
I crash heavily to the floor, rolling onto my side as I look down at my leg.
A silver dagger is embedded deep in my thigh muscle, the metal immediately sizzling against my blood, sending a paralyzing, icy numbness spreading up my body.
My wolf whimper inside my head, my strength draining rapidly into the floorboards.
I force my head up, fighting the black spots clouding my vision.
Through the haze of smoke and dust, I see Casandra’s crying face.
Tears are streaming down her pale cheeks, her eyes wide with an unadulterated terror as she looks at the empty space where her parents just stood.
“Julian!” she screams, her voice cracking, reaching out desperately toward the vampire who is currently pinned down by three massive wolves on the opposite side of the room. “Julian!”
Before she can take another breath, a massive wolf lunges out of the dust cloud behind her.
The heavy paws strike her squarely in the back. Casandra lets out a sharp, cut-off gasp as her head hits the floor, her body going completely limp.
“No...” I rasp, my fingers digging into the linoleum, trying to drag my heavy, paralyzed body forward. “Stop...”
My mind becomes terrifyingly foggy, the silver poison from the dagger locking my muscles in place.
Through the blurred, sweeping shadows of the room, another figure steps out of the smoke.
It is a large wolf, its coat a striking, immaculate coat of pure silver that catches the dim light of the chandeliers.
The silver wolf steps over Hawthorne’s unconscious form.
He lowers his massive jaws, carefully clamping his teeth into the thick fabric of Casandra’s dark sweater.
With a powerful, fluid jerk of his neck, he hoists her limp, unconscious body over his shoulders, turns on his heel, and runs out into the shattering rain, disappearing outside.
***
Continue the story in part two - Crowned in Ash: Mated to the enemy
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Author's note
Hey everyone ??
Thank you so much for reading this story! If you enjoyed it, please leave a review.
I published the first chapter in the second part, Crowned in Blood: Mated to my enemy, so you can go ahead and add it to your reading lists. I will start publishing daily chapters in about a week from now - I just need to make one more edit before.
You can always follow my page so you don't miss it ??
Hugs!
-Bee