Tasted By The King

The Reckoning

I didn't open the door.

Instead, I leaned against it, pressing my forehead to the cold wood, and listened to Caleb breathe on the other side.

"Go away," I said.

"Raina—"

"You heard me."

"I drove six hours." His voice cracked again. "Please. Just five minutes."

Sasha caught my eye from across the room. She tilted her head—your call—but her knife was still in her hand.

I should have told him to leave. Should have called him every name I'd whispered into my pillow for three years. Should have reminded him that he'd chosen Vera, that he'd signed me away like livestock, that he'd let me vanish into rogue territory without a single search party.

Instead, I unlocked the door.

Caleb stumbled inside like he hadn't expected to make it past the threshold. His scent hit me—pine and leather and something sour underneath. Guilt, maybe. Or desperation.

"Three years," I said, crossing my arms. "You have three years of silence to explain. You get five minutes. Go."

He opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.

Sasha cleared her throat. "Want me to stay?"

"No." I kept my eyes on Caleb. "Wait outside."

She hesitated, then grabbed her boots and slipped past him into the hallway. The door clicked shut behind her.

And then it was just us.

Caleb and Raina. Ex-mates. Strangers who'd once shared a bed, a pack, a future.

"I didn't know," he said finally.

"Didn't know what?"

"About the bond. About what Kael would do with the contract." He raked a hand through his hair. "It was supposed to be a formality. Territory rights. Trade agreements. The blood seal was just... tradition."

"You signed me away, Caleb. With your blood."

"I signed a piece of paper that said Sunder had claim to certain assets if Blackmoor defaulted on payments." His voice rose. "I didn't know Kael would interpret that as—"

"As owning me?"

"As claiming you. There's a difference."

"Is there?" I laughed. It wasn't a happy sound. "Because from where I'm standing, the result is the same. I'm bonded to a man I don't know. A king I never chose. And you—" I jabbed a finger at his chest. "—you get to stand there and tell me it was all a misunderstanding?"

Caleb flinched.

Good.

"I came to warn you," he said quietly.

"Warn me about what?"

"Kael doesn't just want you. He wants to use you. There's a prophecy—"

I held up my hand. "Stop. Prophecy?"

"Old pack legend. Something about a Luna who walks away from her mate and finds power in the shadows. A woman who can break curses." Caleb's jaw tightened. "Kael has been searching for you for years. Before you even left me."

The room tilted.

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying the contract wasn't random. The deal wasn't coincidence." He stepped closer. Close enough that I could see the red veins webbing his eyes. "Kael targeted Blackmoor specifically because of you, Raina. He wanted you before I ever signed anything. The contract just gave him legal permission to take you."

My wolf snarled.

Tricked, she hissed. We were tricked.

"Prove it," I said.

Caleb reached into his jacket and pulled out a folded piece of paper—old, yellowed, creased from being opened and refolded a hundred times.

"I found this in the pack archives. Dated twelve years ago."

Twelve years ago, I was seventeen. Still a pup. Still dreaming of my future mate.

I took the paper with shaking hands and unfolded it.

The Sunder Prophecy

When the moon weeps silver tears,

A wolf without a pack appears.

She'll leave her mate, reject his name,

And rise from ashes, forged in flame.

The King of Shadows, bound by blood,

Shall find his queen in mud and flood.

Her touch will break the ancient curse,

Or make the dying universe.

I read it twice. Three times.

"This is nonsense," I said.

"Is it? You left your mate. You rejected Caleb's name. You've been surviving in rogue territory for three years—" Sasha's voice came from the hallway, but she was wrong. Sasha wasn't there. The voice was in my head. "—and now the King of Shadows himself has claimed you."

"I'm not anyone's queen."

"Not yet." Caleb took the paper back, folding it carefully. "But Kael believes you are. And he's willing to destroy anyone who gets in his way."

"Anyone like you?"

He flinched again. "I deserve that."

"You deserve worse."

"I know."

We stood there in the heavy silence. The bond—Caleb's bond, the one I'd rejected three years ago—pulsed weakly in my chest. It had been fading for years. Almost gone now.

But not quite.

"Why now?" I asked. "Why warn me now?"

Caleb looked at the floor. "Because Vera is pregnant."

I waited.

"With my pup," he continued. "And the night she told me, I realized something." He looked up, and his eyes were wet. "I've spent three years building a life with the wrong woman. Vera isn't my mate. She never was. You are."

"Not anymore."

"I know." He swallowed hard. "But I couldn't let Kael take you without telling you the truth. Without trying to... I don't know. Make things right."

"You can't make this right, Caleb."

"I know that too."

He walked to the door. Paused with his hand on the knob.

"If you want to break Kael's bond, there's a way."

I went very still. "What way?"

"Kill the one who sealed it." He looked over his shoulder. "Kill Kael. Or make him kill the bond himself. Those are your only options."

"Make him kill it? How?"

"Find something he wants more than you." Caleb opened the door. "Goodbye, Raina. I am sorry. For all of it."

He left.

Sasha slipped back inside the moment he was gone, her eyes sharp.

"Well?"

I sat down on the edge of my bed. Put my head in my hands.

"He says there's a prophecy. About me."

"Okay."

"He says Kael has been hunting me for twelve years."

"That's... intense."

"He says the only way to break the bond is to kill Kael or make him break it himself."

Sasha sat down next to me. "Can you kill him?"

"I don't know. Maybe."

"Do you want to kill him?"

That was the question, wasn't it?

Kael had claimed me without my permission. Had bound me with blood magic I didn't understand. Had treated me like an asset, a prophecy, a thing to be acquired.

I should want to kill him.

But when I closed my eyes, I didn't see his throat under my blade.

I saw his amber eyes. His dark smile. The way he'd stepped back and let me push him.

I want you willing, he'd said. Desperate. Begging.

What kind of captor offered freedom?

What kind of king knelt?

"I don't know," I admitted. "I don't know what I want."

The bond pulsed suddenly—sharp and urgent. Not Caleb's dying thread. Kael's. The new one. The blood bond.

Come to me, it seemed to say. Come find me.

Sasha must have felt something too, because she grabbed my wrist.

"Raina. Your eyes."

"What about them?"

"They're glowing."

I stumbled to the tiny bathroom and stared at my reflection.

She was right.

My irises were burning—amber and gold and something darker underneath.

Kael's colors, I realized. The bond is changing me.

I looked away from the mirror. Looked at Sasha.

"I need to find him."

"Find who?"

"Kael. I need to look him in the eye and ask him the truth. No more secrets. No more prophecies." I grabbed my jacket. "If he wants me willing, he's going to earn it."

Sasha smiled—slow and fierce. "That's my girl."

"Are you coming?"

"Someone has to keep you from doing something stupid." She pulled on her boots. "But Raina?"

"Yeah?"

"When you find him? Don't trust him. Kings lie. It's what they do best."

I thought about Caleb's face when he'd told me about the prophecy. About Vera. About the pup that should have been mine.

"Everyone lies," I said. "The question is who lies less."

We walked out into the rain.

The bond pulled me east. Toward Sunder. Toward Kael.

And toward whatever came next.