Chapter 27
The door closed behind us with a heavy thud. The sound of our shoes on the cold marble echoed in the silence. My shoulders sagged as we entered his—our room. I didn’t sit so much as I collided with the mattress, my legs finally refusing the burden of my weight.
The moment my head hit the sheets, the dam broke.
My eyes watered and I bit my lip to stop from screaming.
The guilt was eating me alive. I hated myself for standing back in that arena, watching while Ethan systematically hurt my best friend.
Gabe had made a mistake, but I didn’t care.
In a world full of monsters, he was the only one who had ever tried to protect me.
I’d forgive any and all of Gabe’s transgressions; I wasn’t sure I’d ever forgive Ethan’s.
My lids were heavy, blinking slow against the burn of tears as I glared at the silhouette by the window. “You couldn’t have given him a different punishment?”
The only light filtered into the room from the moon.
Turning from the window, he pulled off the mask and set it on the table in one smooth motion before closing the distance.
His green eyes locked on me, his shoulders rolling with fluid, predatory grace.
He moved like a man who didn’t hold a grain of guilt for what had happened today.
The scent of blood and sweat still lingered on him.
“It was necessary,” he said. His voice was low, every trace of the menacing king gone, leaving only Ethan.
He was quiet for a moment. “In our world, it’s kill or be killed.
The eyes of the other kingdoms were in attendance today—all 12.
It wasn’t just about Desert Moon. It was about the precedent.
All those responsible had to be seen being punished. ”
My chest ached. I thought back to Gabe on his knees in the arena, his acceptance.
My best friend had wronged me, but it didn’t make me question my loyalty to him.
It only made me question Ethan. I wanted my pound of flesh—not from the man bleeding in the sand, but from the King who had ordered it.
My lashes fluttered, heavy with resentment.
“Then what’s your punishment?”
He flinched back, the accusation landing hard. The silence that followed was heavy and acted as a wall between us. He didn’t look away, but the muscle in his jaw ticked. A fissure in the royal authority he’d worn all day.
I scoffed, tilting forward, letting him see my anger. I wanted him to feel the severity of what he’d done.
The bed lifted and in a flash, he was on his knees before me. The stance of the condemned awaiting judgment, yet that beast of his surged behind his pupils—refusing to offer the submission he’d forced from everyone else.
His calloused hands clamped around my ankles, dragging my feet toward him until they were trapped beneath his knees.
“My punishment,” he rasped, his voice low and strained, “is that I have to live with the fact they touched you at all. I failed, and a hundred and ten lashes isn’t enough to redeem my sins. A thousand wouldn’t be enough.”
“If you have something in mind that could make up for it, tell me,” he murmured. I detected only truth in his eyes, but what could make this better?
“If I think of one, I’ll let you know,” I whispered.
He watched me with a stillness that clawed at my insides. It felt less like patience and more like a predator waiting for the first sign of surrender.
He reached for me, and I flinched, recoiling even as my skin hummed where he brushed against me.
A traitorous urge rose in me to sink into the man who had just hurt the only family I had left to call my own. It made me sick. It made me feel like the walls were closing in.
The scent of his sins was so thick I was suffocating.
He noticed, the muscle in his jaw jumping, but he didn’t go wash it off.
He didn’t scrub the evidence of the arena from his knuckles.
The smell blurred the lines between the man who held me in the dark and the monster who had just broken Gabe’s body.
Every time I inhaled, I tasted the price of his protection.
The garden, the trial, the lashes, my new reality—all of it was settling into my bones.
I tried to straighten, but Ethan had already seen it.
He didn’t say anything. He rose from the floor, and the lack of warmth left a shiver trailing up my spine.
He didn’t wait for permission. His arms wrapped around me, gathering me with a quiet, terrifying strength as he tucked me into his side.
I felt the damp stickiness of his shirt—blood—soaking into my dress.
He was marking me with our sin, staining me.
I didn’t resist, collapsing into him like a bird with clipped wings.
He held me, a silent reminder that no matter how much I hated what he’d done, I was still his—to keep, to hold, to ruin.
We shifted on the mattress, and I stopped fighting.
He wasn’t forgiven, but as my head rested on his shoulder, his words were a distorted hum against my cheek.
The last thing I was aware of was the rise and fall of his chest and the way his hand gripped my hip possessively.
But sleep brought no peace. The moment my mind slipped away from Ethan’s steady heartbeat, the dark reality of the day twisted, morphing into something worse, dragging me backward into a living nightmare.
***
My body jerks back in a rhythm that lures me out of sleep.
I strain against the darkness working against me.
My hands are restrained and try as hard as I might, my eyes refuse to open.
Heavy breathing and heat against my cheek send alarm bells ringing.
I’m crushed as something wet drags along my neck. Panic flares as my name is grunted.
Canines pierce flesh as my body continues to move.
“I’ve waited so long.” My eyes snap open to a silhouette above me, black hair and eyes downcast between us. My gaze follows his down over his chest; sweat beading as abs flex and his hips thrust. My lips part as his hard cock, slick with my juices, disappears.
His eyes close and he growls as he repeats the movements—harder, faster.
A loud ringing in my ears threatens to split my head open.
My hands are chained above my head and I call for my wolf.
There’s only silence. I whimper as pain runs through me.
His hand clenches my throat as he doubles in size above me.
“I chose you then and I choose you now.” He leans down, trailing his lips along my neck.
I close my eyes. His grip on me tightens as he continues.
He sinks his teeth into my flesh again, a scream tears from my lungs as it burns.
His thrusts quicken. He comes undone; a guttural sound echoes around the room as his weight crushes me into the mattress.
A broken sob tears from my throat as a sudden, agonizing stretch so painful I feel it in my belly—his knot expanding, locking us together with a finality that expels all breath from my lungs.
I’m stuck to him, unable to pull away even as I scream again.
We are a single, tangled entity of heat and pain, the pressure inside me a constant reminder that for this moment, I am trapped to him.
His tongue drags up my neck as he fills me.
“Mine,” he growls.
His grip on my throat lessens and he falls asleep on me.
It’s only later, once the unbearable pressure recedes and he rolls off, that the hot evidence of his claim slicks my skin.
When I pluck up the courage, I look at his face.
His eyes are closed and I can hear light snores fall from his lips.
My mate is dead. No matter how many times he bites me, I’ll never love him.
Moments pass as I stare at the moon. Light spills in, but it’s no comfort. I wonder if the Moon Goddess enjoys the spectacle of my ruin.
I slip off the bed and walk toward her. Bodies litter the grounds, the night filled with an eerie silence.
There won’t be any escaping for me. Below me, the urge to jump calls me.
I could escape in death, but what of him?
What of my mate? I swirl around. He’s sprawled in bed, hair a tangled mess, his body exposed and the smirk on his face arrogant in sleep.
A warm trail of liquid tracks down my thigh, and I look down expecting the evidence of his claim, only to find the moon reveals yet another stolen piece—dark crimson.
My gaze darts back to the bed. Beside it lay discarded clothes and a sword. My fingers twitch. My feet carry me forward before my mind can veto the impulse. Slowly, my hand reaches down and grips the leather-bound hilt. My fingers wrap around the handle, calling for justice.
I lift it above my head and—
I’m being lifted into the cool air.
Pomegranate and chocolate.
All the tension melts from my body. My head lolls to the side and stops against his hard chest. A thumb brushes against my cheek, slow, rough, and deliberate, catching the salt of the tears I didn’t know I’d shed. He wipes the traces of the nightmares away with tenderness.
I don’t open my eyes.
I let the darkness take me again, and this time, there are no dreams.