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1110 Words
Claus’s POV
The night was thick with silence, broken only by the steady, reluctant thud of my boots against the palace floor. Each step I took felt heavier than the last, like I was dragging the weight of every broken promise behind me.
I should’ve been furious. I was furious. But gods help me… I was also excited.
My shoulders were slumped, my body worn down by travel, rage, and memories I’d tried to bury but couldn’t. Part of me hated her, hated what she did to me. What she made me look like. Standing up there on that pulpit, her lips silent, her eyes cold. She didn’t even have to speak. Her silence said it all. She left me to rot in the judgment of others. She mocked me with nothing but her absence. And still, some twisted part of me wanted to see her.
After everything I did for you…
I mumbled the words under my breath like a curse. Like a prayer. Like a man trying to convince himself he was still in control.
My feet came to a stop outside the chamber door.
For the first time in a long while, I hesitated.
My hand hovered above the door kmob, trembling.
Pathetic.
I cursed myself under my breath and wrapped my fingers around the cold brass.
The door creaked open.
And there she was.
Katherina.
She sat motionless in the middle of the room like a ghost from a story I used to believe in. Nothing on her but a sheer, near-transparent gown that clung to her skin like water, leaving nothing to the imagination. A thin veil covered her face, but not her body...never her body. She was seated with her hands clasped over her lap, knees drawn in slightly.
Exposed, but defiant.
Waiting.
She didn’t look up.
I stood at the threshold, rooted. The door swung shut behind me with a soft thud.
Flawless.
Even now. Even after all the betrayal and shame she stained me with.
My throat tightened. I didn’t know if it was anger… or something far more dangerous.
The memory came back like a blade. Her turning from me in front of the council. The murmurs. The stares. The laughter.
Alpha Claus, rejected on the pulpit.
I clenched my fists, nails biting into skin.
“Katherina,” I said at last, my voice low and cold.
She flinched.
Her head rose slightly beneath the veil.
“I’m not her,” she whispered, voice shaking.
That voice.
It reached into my chest and gripped something I thought long dead. My breath caught, tight.
It couldn’t be.
Not her.
Not the woman my wolf had always rejected.
Not her.
But then it happened.
A deep, primal growl echoed through my soul.
Mate.
I froze.
It wasn’t possible.
For years I searched, crossed borders soaked in war, held ceremonies beneath blood moons, fought and ruled and killed for the Luna I was meant to find. And the villagers, those smug bastards. Tthey handed me Katherina like she was some offering.
And my wolf refused her.
Refused her then.
But not now.
Now, he howled for her.
I stepped forward.
She tensed.
I could see her fear now, seeping through the delicate veil. They had masked her scent. Honey and oil clung to her skin like perfume, thick and fragrant. But it was there, beneath the surface. Buried under layers.
Her scent.
I crouched before her, letting my nostrils lower, just above the slope of her shoulder.
She stiffened, barely breathing.
I inhaled slowly.
Through the oil, through the sweetness, I found it. That spark. That tether. That scent no potion could hide. It hit me like lightning to the spine.
I leaned closer, my nose trailing from her shoulder to her neck. The corner of her collarbone. The top of her chest. She trembled beneath me.
I liked it
I like that she feared me. It made me smile.
“You look ravishing,” I mumbled, staring at her in the eyes.
“Please,” she whispered. “I’m not Katherina.”
But it was a lie.
I smiled.
Not out of joy, but out of the cruel, bitter amusement that fate could be this twisted. That the one woman who ruined me was also the one I was destined to be bound to. My wolf growled again, clawing at the inside of me, wanting her.
I rose to my full height, towering over her, jaw clenched tight.
“You think I don’t recognize my own?” I said, voice colder than the wind outside. “You think oil and silk and a trembling voice could hide you from me?”
She shrank into herself.
For a moment I almost pitied her.
Almost.
“You’ve cost me more than you'll ever know,” I said, stepping back.
My chest ached from the force of emotion threatening to tear its way out.
“And now here you are… painted up like an offering. Like a w***e to be burned.”
Her lips parted, but no words came out.
I turned to the side, facing the moonlight leaking through the high windows. It painted her in silver. Every inch of her skin glowing faintly, like she was something celestial.
Untouchable.
I hated that it still affected me.
Hated that I still wanted her.
My fingers twitched at my sides, and for a heartbeat, I wondered if I was still a man or just a creature wearing one’s skin.
She sat motionless, too afraid to speak, too aware that the man before her was no longer the same one she once knew.
I took a deep breath. The scent of honey clung to my lungs.
“You were never meant to be Luna,” I muttered. “But now… I wonder if the gods have a darker sense of humor than I gave them credit for.”
And my wolf howled again.
I grabbed her by the neck and slammed her against the wall and watched her choke for a while. My claws dug into her skin and she winced. I enjoyed watching her cry. When I felt I had had enough of her plea, I slammed her on the floor.
“This is what you get for humiliating me,” I whispered and watched her since in pain.
I walked to the window and strips my clothes off. Her eyes bulged out and I frowned. What was she expecting?
“Strip and le
t me worship your body," I ordered.
She stayed glued to her position without making an effort to move.
“You should know by now I hate asking twice,” I barked.
- Writer
