NARINE’S POV
Somehow, I didn’t know how to feel hearing that Sargis had a fuckmate.
Or that she was currently in the palace.
The word alone scraped something raw inside me.
Fuckmate it was so crude and functional.
It wasn’t as if I’d expected celibacy, especially not from a Lycan King. s*x was casual here, almost ritualistic among Alphas and warriors. In their world, where death could come with the next moonrise, pleasure was taken urgently, without apology.
I’d always known that. Had told myself I understood the difference between what was primal and what was personal. Between instinct and intention.
But still.
There was this tang in my chest. Like the taste of blood when you’ve bitten your own tongue but pretend it doesn’t sting.
I wasn’t jealous, I don’t think. I had no claim o
