He Said, Now His King Calls Me Queen

A rogue wolf's shriek cut through the ceremony. The first wolves came over the ramparts before the guards could turn. Matted fur flashed between the torches as the courtyard broke apart. I ran toward the wounded. A second rogue came from my blind side. Its claws tore through my shoulder. Cold spread under my skin before the pain caught up. Deathroot. A normal wolf would be dead within minutes. Black veins crawled out from the gash while my light pushed back, buying me breaths I could not afford. I looked for Kael. My Alpha. My mate. He was in wolf form near the center of the courtyard, ripping through the invaders. Then Selene cried out. She stumbled against the altar and pressed a hand to her arm. A thin red line marked her skin. Kael changed direction at once. "Locke!" I called. Our son stood only a few steps away. Five years old, small for his age, with the same dark curls he had worn when I found him during the plague. I had carried him out of a fever ward and raised him as my own. I held out my good hand. "Come here." He stared at the blood soaking my sleeve. His face pinched, and he backed away. "Get away from me!" He pulled the carved wolf amulet from his pocket. I had spent a week making it, feeding a thread of my energy into the wood so his night terrors would stop. Locke threw it down and stamped on it. The little wolf split beneath his boot. "You're a useless human!" he shouted. Then he ran behind Selene and caught the folds of her dress. "She's the real Luna!" The poison kept climbing. I barely noticed it. Kael turned at last. His gaze went to my shoulder, followed the black veins to my neck, and hardened. "Elara, stop making a scene." His voice carried across the courtyard. "Selene is hurt." He passed close enough for his arm to brush mine. Then he knelt in front of Selene and lifted her wrist with both hands. Her scratch had produced one bright bead of blood. Mine ran from my fingertips and struck the altar stones. For months I had wondered how much of me Kael could watch disappear before he cared. Now I had my answer. I put my hand on the ceremonial silver dagger. The blade rested beside the Blood Moon offerings, sharp enough to cut spirit from flesh. It had opened mate bonds in the oldest rites, before packs decided such bonds should last until death. Several pack members saw me lift it. Their gasps made Kael look up. "Elara, what are you doing?" He rose so quickly Selene almost fell. "Put that down." I met his eyes and turned the point toward the silver mark at the back of my neck. Then I drove it in. Pain burned white through my skull. The bond fought the blade, pulling at my ribs as if Kael's hand had closed around my heart. I held on and dragged the silver through the mark. Light burst across the courtyard. Kael screamed. He dropped to his knees, both hands over his chest. Five years of blood rage poured back into him at once. The bond had carried it into me every night. Now there was nowhere else for it to go. Blood from my neck joined the Deathroot blood on my dress. I stayed on my feet. "You're free, Kael." His head jerked up. The look on his face was part pain, part outrage, as though I had stolen something that belonged to him. I stepped onto the low altar wall before anyone reached me. Beyond it, the cliff fell to the river. Before anyone reached me, I jumped. The water hit hard enough to empty my lungs. Cold closed over my head and pulled me into the current. For a moment, torchlight wavered above me. Kael stood at the cliff edge, shouting my name. Even from the river, I could see his fury. He expected me to surface, beg, and let him call this another bid for attention. I let the current carry me past the wall. By the time I came up for air, the keep was already behind me.