Chapter 6 - Luke
Salt clings to my skin even after the ceremony ends, drying against my wrists and collar.
The sea air should be refreshing as it lingers in the air, carrying the scents I’m all too familiar with on the breeze.
While most of the pack has already dispersed, mostly acting supportive despite the mild confusion that seems to hang over everything, Dad stands across the cove, eyes solely on me.
Even from there, with his shoulders straight and his hands clasped behind his back, I can feel every beat of disapproval rolling off him. It surrounded him throughout the ceremony, even if he never spoke up against the union directly.
Sera’s hand trembles faintly against mine still, as if she isn’t sure when she’ll be allowed to pull away. Then, she does exactly that, taking a few steps away from me to look out at the crashing waves. Maybe a small part of her hopes it might have the answers she’s looking for.
With everyone else gone to celebrate the Alpha’s new Luna, I turn to face my father directly, watching as he steps closer.
The sea surges in and out, crashing against the jagged rocks I’ve frequented since I was a child. I always knew I’d be bonded here one day, but I expected it to feel more like a celebration than condemnation.
The water had been cold when it surrounded us, yet Sera didn’t flinch. Instead, I felt the anger in her rise, and her eyes never sought mine for reassurance or courage. She detached herself from it all, doing whatever she needed just to get it over with.
I told myself that was better than outright hatred and refusal, yet I can’t help but feel like I was wrong.
After our blood mixed together beneath the tide, I felt it. The shift of the bond snapping together was unmistakable, and now, feeling Sera’s disdain for me and everything I’ve just forced her into hurts far more than I ever could’ve imagined.
As Dad approaches, his eyes slide over to Sera for a beat, clearly measuring like always. And in a way that makes something ugly pulse in my chest, he looks vaguely disappointed.
“You have something to say,” I state, chin up while I brace myself. I know that expression all too well.
“You’ve made your choice,” he murmurs, tone controlled and quieter against the waves. “Now you have to live with the consequences.”
Holding his stare, I refuse to buckle, even if a small, habitual part of me wants to. “I always intended to.”
I feel his focus shift to the dried blood on my palm, where the wound has already closed up again, then back to my face. He doesn’t have to say anything else for me to receive the warning that passes between us silently.
He thinks I made a mistake by bonding with Sera. He doesn’t see a future where our pack accepts magic or the people who possess it.
Without another word, Dad continues, walking back toward the main grounds.
Instead of watching him go, I look toward Sera.
She hasn’t moved and is still in her ceremony dress. The light wisps of fabric get tugged by the breeze, shifting around her legs like gentle caresses, even while damp from the ocean spray. The ends of her dark hair are wet too, looking even more saturated than usual.
Sera looks like something straight from the ocean, but refuses to see it for herself. Refuses to look at me with even an ounce of warmth, just as I deserve.
I only wish our circumstances were different.
As much as I’m sure she wants to go back to the house and be alone, according to tradition, we aren’t returning there tonight.
Newly mated pairs stay in a seaside cabin nestled along the coast, further into the cliffside, away from the pack.
The bonding time is essential for the connection to settle and be consummated.
The thought alone makes something in me buzz, and I have to force it down to keep myself together.
“Sera,” I say carefully as I step closer.
Her jaw clenches as she throws a glare over her shoulder, and rather than keeping her hatred subtle, it’s as alive as ever before.
The bond in my chest reacts to the distant way she looks at me, almost curling inward. It doesn’t like it, and neither do I.
“We should go to the cabin before it gets late,” I tell her, trying to keep my reactions to her at bay. “It’s a walk.”
Her brows pinch together. “Staying in your house isn’t enough?”
“It’s tradition. Every couple stays there after the ceremony.”
“We’re not a couple,” she says firmly, tone biting.
That digs in deeper than I care to admit, but I can’t let her see that it’s getting to me. It shouldn’t, even if part of me has been looking forward to this stage of my life for years, and yet, it looks nothing like I hoped it would.
“According to the pack and our customs, we are,” I murmur, gesturing for her to follow.
With great reluctance and obvious anger coiling inside her, Sera walks with me as we trek through the uneven ground before reaching soft sand. It becomes more compact the farther out we go, making it easier to move across.
Once I’m close enough for our shoulders to almost brush, she veers away just enough to be noticeable, and the rejection stings.
Finding her that night in the clearing, I never set out to care about her.
When I purchased her freedom from those Wraith Peak vultures, it was meant to be strategic and protective, and that’s it.
With more context now about who she is, I imagine she could’ve protected and provided for herself just fine if I had let her go after she rested. I claimed to be keeping her out of worse hands and under my protection.
While that isn’t untrue, the attraction I felt became an inconvenient complication, and that’s especially the case now.
I’ve always prided myself on being able to stay composed under pressure and being able to get a job done regardless of what’s being asked of me. But after enduring that ceremony and seeing how effortlessly perfect she looked throughout, I feel like I’m hanging on by a thread.
Before long, the retreat comes into view once we round another bend in the cliff path. The cabin is built on a sturdy, tiered deck above the water that leads out to a fairly long dock. It’s owned and maintained by the pack, all for this kind of occasion, or any other approved event.
Calling it a cabin might be underselling it a bit, given how it’s two stories with an A-frame and enough bay windows to give a nearly uninterrupted view of the sea from every angle.
Even if it’s meant for couples, there’s enough space for a few extra rooms, two separate sitting areas, and a generous kitchen.
Sera stops just as we get inside, shoulders stiffening like she just stepped into a trap as she takes her place.
It smells like cedar and salt like usual, and when I close the door behind us, it echoes almost too loudly in the otherwise quiet space.
Now, it’s just us. The two of us, in a romantic cabin, meant to give in to our new bond and take full advantage of just how charged it can be.
While that connection pulls even now, like a thread running from me to her that wants only contact and reassurance, I already know she’s in no place to accept it. And I know she feels it too, given how her jaw tightens.
I feel her eyes on me. “Tell me there’s more than one bed.”
“Yes, there is.”
“Then I’m sleeping in one of them,” she says firmly, taking a few steps to put more distance between us.
My wolf stirs under my skin at that, feeling restless at her tone and refusal to even give me a chance. Though I force myself to stay where I am. “Sera, the tradition—”
“I don’t care about tradition,” she throws back at me, eyes full of fury. “You talk about it like it’s something sacred, expecting me to follow it just because you do. It matters more to you than my autonomy.”
Every word feels like a slap to the face, but there is truth to it. I am pushing all of this onto her, but something in me just wants it to work.
I step closer before I can stop myself, and she retreats back several more.
“I didn’t buy you to own you. I did it to keep you safe. I don’t know how many times I have to say it for you to get that, but I’ll keep going if you need me to.”
She bristles. “If you claim all of this is coming from a good place, then why haven’t you asked me what I want? So far, nobody has.”
New and volatile, the bond trembles slightly between us as I try to keep every emotion under wraps.
I did this to protect her from Dawson and anyone else who might want to get their hands on her. I forced us both into this bond for everyone’s sake, but standing here now, I can’t help but wonder if I miscalculated something important.
“You’re safer this way.”
“I care about choice, not just safety,” Sera mutters, cutting clean through me with her tone.
Choice…it’s something I’ve always had, even when my father disapproved, and even when his expectations felt too heavy to carry. At the end of it, the final decision was mine, and it still is.
But I denied her that, and the realization burns as it settles into my skin.
Raking a hand through my hair, I move over to one of the windows and pull in a deep breath, hoping it might settle the uncertainty running rampant. Outside, the waves crash as if mirroring what’s inside me. The words leave me like an admission. “I didn’t plan for it to be like this.”
Sera doesn’t say anything, but I can feel how she stills in her place from here.
“It was supposed to be practical, to keep you safe and out of Dawson’s grasp,” I mutter, glancing back at her.
She just looks at me with an unreadable expression. “And now?”
Now, it feels like she’s making up the entirety of my awareness. Every instinct is screaming at me to close the distance, to keep her against me, and to reassure my inner wolf that she’s here, and she’s safe. I want to make sure that nobody ever thinks they can get their hands on her but me.
And now, the thought of her sleeping in a different bed in another room is like having my bones scraped down.
The ceremony drained me more than I thought it would, and my control is fraying at the edges. Between the guilt of forcing her into this and the quiet demands my instincts are making, I’m in an impossible position.
But to her, I’m just being cruel.
Sera stares at me for a long moment, almost like she’s prepared to laugh. Instead, she turns abruptly and walks toward the staircase.
My patience trembles as I grit my teeth. “Sera.” When she doesn’t stop, feet thumping against the hardwood steps, I call back, “We’re not finished.”
“I am.”
Without sparing me another look, Sera disappears upstairs, and not long after, one of the doors shuts with a distinct sound that reverberates through the house. It all sounds so final.
I stand there completely still for a long beat before forcing out a breath and turning to face the window again. As my hands brace against the wood frame, I close my eyes and try so hard to keep it down.
I’ve faced many difficult challenges, be it pack-related or through my service, but none have involved a furious woman I’m forcing to see something in me. As much as I want to be firm in my decisions, she has me questioning everything.
Unsettled by the separation and turbulent emotions, the bond throbs like a dull ache.
Despite Dad’s warnings, I chose her. I chose this for both of us, even when I already knew she’d hate me for it.
And now, I have to find out if I’m strong enough to handle what she needs, and how to keep the pack from doubting us too.