Claimed by My Ex-Mate's Brother

Chapter 3

Jennifer

The snow outside melted and froze again. Black mold crept up the stable doors.

Colin never came back.

Maren did. She liked to stand on the clean cobblestone, surrounded by her maids, watching me shovel s**t.

"Regretting your little stunt, Jennifer?" she asked, a sickly sweet smile on her face.

I drove my pitchfork into the hay. "I regret not throwing up on your dress."

Her maid bristled. Maren just smiled wider. "Bite all you want. Colin already petitioned the Elders to make me his Luna. Once we're bonded, you won't even have this stable to sleep in."

I didn't look up. "But you haven't completed the mating ritual, have you?"

Her smile faltered.

I stopped working. "His wolf won't let him touch you. Will it?"

Maren took a step closer, her cloying rose scent failing to mask her nervous sweat. "He's just busy."

"Too busy to mark you for half a month?"

Her maid raised a hand to strike me. I shifted my pitchfork, the metal tines catching the dim light.

"The horses are easily spooked," I said evenly. "I can't be held responsible if they kick."

A warhorse stomped its heavy hooves. The maid yanked her hand back. I had raised these beasts. They knew exactly who the threat was.

Maren stared at me, pure venom bleeding into her eyes. "You think he still wants you? He's just suffering from the rejection backlash. Once the Elders find a cure, he'll mark me."

I wiped the grime off my hands. "Hope you survive the wait."

She covered her nose in disgust and turned away. But she paused at the door. "Oh, there's a feast tonight. Welcoming Sebastian back. Stay out of the courtyard. The exiled former Alpha hates dirty things."

Sebastian.

The name made the air in the stables feel ten degrees colder. Colin's older brother. The former Alpha. Rumor had it he slaughtered three Elder guards when he was twenty, turning into a feral tyrant. The Elders chained him in silver and banished him to the Northern Wastes.

People said his wolf was dead, ruined by the silver. He was just a broken pawn brought back to keep Colin in check.

Night fell. Drums echoed from the main house.

I stayed in the stables. Around midnight, the backlash hit me. Hard.

I rolled off my cot, gasping. My body flashed hot and cold. The bones in my spine cracked, shifting under my skin. The rejection was forcing my first shift, but without my wolf to guide it, I was stuck halfway.

It was worse than fully turning.

I bit down on a strip of leather, burying my face in the dirt. Sweat soaked my hair.

A horse whinnied.

Footsteps stopped at the door.

Then, the scent hit me. Cedar. Cold night air. Frost.

It was pure. Lethal.

I looked up through blurred vision. Black boots stepped over the snowy threshold. The horses went completely silent.

The man didn't step fully into the light at first. He just stood there, breathing evenly, before pushing the door open. Moonlight caught his broad shoulders. His dark hair was tied back loosely, and a jagged scar rested under his left eye.

He looked like Colin, but sharper. Colder. A predator among dogs.

He froze when he saw me.

I was curled on the floor, my birthmark slick with sweat, my left arm halfway shifted into a furred, misshapen claw.

He took a step toward me.

"Don't," I rasped, scrambling back.

He stopped three paces away. His dark eyes dropped to my neck. There was no mark. Only the angry, red veins left by a broken bond.

A muscle ticked in his jaw. "Who rejected you?"

His voice was a low rumble. No Alpha command. Just raw power.

"None of your business," I panted, clutching my chest.

Footsteps hurried up outside. "Lord Sebastian! The feast has started. The Elders are waiting."

The exiled King.

Sebastian didn't even look over his shoulder. "f**k off."

The servant's footsteps practically sprinted away.

Sebastian crouched in front of me. As he reached out, the impossible happened. My wolf stirred. She didn't cower. She stretched out from the dark, desperate to press against his hand.

I jerked away. "Don't touch me."

His hand hovered in the air. "Your first shift is stuck in the backlash. If you wait any longer, it'll rip your wolf apart."

"The healer won't give me herbs."

"I'll deal with him later." He stripped off his heavy outer coat and laid it on the hay. "Look at me. Match my breathing."

I should have fought him. But my bones were snapping. My wolf let out a broken, agonizing whimper.

Sebastian wrapped his hand around my wrist.

The moment his skin met mine, the pain was obliterated by a rush of heat. It wasn't the forced, suffocating pull of Colin's command. It was an anchor.

The hollow crater in my chest filled with warmth.

I stopped breathing. He went completely still.

The scent of cedar and frost flooded the stables. My wolf slammed against my ribs, throwing herself at his scent before I could stop her.

Sebastian's eyes darkened, the gold of his inner wolf bleeding into his irises.

"What's your name?" he demanded, his voice thick.

"Jennifer."

"Jennifer." When he said it, my wolf purred.

Dread coiled in my gut. "No. My mate is Colin. He rejected me."

His grip tightened, sending another wave of heat through my veins, finally smoothing out the jagged edges of my shifting bones.

"He rejected the mate the Goddess gave him," Sebastian murmured, leaning closer. His breath grazed my ear, though he exercised brutal restraint not to touch me further. "But your scent is telling me you belong to me, too."

A glass cup shattered outside the door.

Maren stood there, her face paper-white.