His Mark, My Curse

Chapter Six

Caleb's POV

I woke up alone, which was how it had to be.

Aria was already awake when I left her room. She didn't say anything. Neither did I. There was nothing left to say that wouldn't make it worse.

The bond pulled at me the moment I stepped into the hallway.

It was like a rope around my chest, tightening with every step I took away from her. The farther I walked, the harder it was to breathe. But I kept walking.

By the time I reached the dining room, the pressure had become background noise. Something I'd learned to function through.

Seraphine was already there, sipping tea, reading reports about the ceremony preparations.

She looked up when I entered and smiled.

"Good morning," she said. "How did you sleep?"

I didn't hesitate.

"Well."

She nodded, returning to her papers. She didn't ask where I'd been. She didn't seem to care. That should have felt like a relief. Instead, it felt like a confirmation of everything that was wrong with this arrangement.

Elder Marcus was waiting for me in my office.

He was old, traditional, and he'd been advising Mooncrest leadership for forty years. Which meant he was ruthless when he needed to be.

"We need to talk about the girl," he said before I'd even sat down.

"No, we don't."

"Yes, we do. The separation sickness is getting worse. The pack has noticed. People are talking."

I looked at him.

"Let them talk."

"Caleb, you're the Alpha. You can't afford to look weak. If the pack sees you affected by a rejected bond, it undermines your authority."

"The bond isn't rejected," I said quietly.

Marcus leaned back in his chair.

"Then what do you call what happened in the courtyard?"

"A lie."

The words came out before I could stop them.

Marcus studied me for a long moment.

"A lie," he repeated slowly. "You rejected your mate in front of the entire pack, and you call it a lie."

I didn't answer.

"Do you understand what you've done?" Marcus continued. "The bond is sacred in our laws. When you reject it publicly, you're telling the pack that you don't respect the sacred law. You're telling them that the Alpha can choose convenience over truth."

"I'm telling them that the Alpha can make hard choices."

"You're telling them you're a hypocrite," Marcus said flatly. "And hypocrites don't lead for long. The pack will turn on you."

He stood to leave.

"Three weeks until the ceremony," he said. "You need to end this. Either kill the bond properly or accept it. But you can't keep playing both sides."

After he left, I sat in my office and felt the rope tighten again.

Aria.

She was somewhere in the packhouse, and the bond was pulling at me like a physical thing. I could almost feel where she was. Could almost taste the separation sickness that was running through her body.

I'd checked on the old texts this morning. The ones that described mate bonds in detail.

Separation sickness was supposed to get worse until one of three things happened:

The mate came back.

The mate accepted being apart.

Or the bond killed them.

There was no fourth option. There was no solution I hadn't already considered.

Lunch was with Seraphine and the visiting Luna families.

Sera sat next to me, playing the role perfectly. Laughing at the right moments, saying the right things, touching my arm in a way that suggested intimacy without crossing any lines.

She was good at this.

Better than I was, honestly.

One of the visiting fathers leaned across the table.

"You're a lucky man, Caleb," he said. "Sera comes from one of the finest bloodlines in the region. The Luna ceremony is going to be spectacular."

I nodded and said nothing.

Sera smiled at me like I'd just given her a compliment.

The rope around my chest pulled tighter.

By mid-afternoon, I couldn't pretend anymore.

I told my advisors I needed an hour alone. I went to the training grounds instead and hit a heavy bag until my knuckles bled.

The physical pain helped. It gave me something to focus on besides the bond.

Besides Aria.

One of my generals found me there.

"Alpha," he said carefully. "The girl from the courtyard. Is she a threat to the pack?"

I stopped hitting the bag.

"No."

"Then why does the bond pull at you like it does?"

I looked at him.

"Because that's what mate bonds do," I said. "They pull. They demand. They won't be ignored."

"Can you break it?"

"Not without killing her," I said flatly. "Or killing myself."

He nodded like that made sense.

"Then the ceremony needs to happen soon," he said. "Before the separation sickness gets worse. Before it affects your judgment as Alpha."

He left me there.

And for the first time since this started, I let myself ask the question I'd been avoiding.

What if I just refused? What if I walked away from the alliance, the ceremony, the expectations, and chose Aria instead?

The answer came immediately.

The rival packs move in. Mooncrest falls within months. People die. Thousands of them. And Aria would be one of the first casualties because without pack protection, she'd be vulnerable.

I'd be choosing her life over the lives of everyone I'm responsible for.

I couldn't do that.

Not even for her.

Not even for the bond that was slowly tearing me apart.

By evening, I was running on fumes.

I went through the motions. Met with advisors. Reviewed reports. Signed off on ceremony details I didn't care about.

Seraphine caught me in the hallway around midnight.

"You look terrible," she said conversationally.

"I'm fine."

"You're not. You're falling apart trying to manage a mate bond while pretending to court me. It's actually kind of sad to watch."

I didn't say anything.

She stepped closer.

"I'm going to say something you're not going to like," she said. "But you need to hear it."

"I doubt that."

"The girl is dying," Sera said bluntly. "The separation sickness doesn't get better. It gets worse until it kills them. In two or three weeks, she'll be dead. And the ceremony can happen without any complications."

I felt something go cold inside me.

"You want me to let her die."

"I want you to stop fighting what's already happening," Sera said. "Nature will take care of it. All you have to do is not interfere."

"Get out of my sight," I said quietly.

She smiled like I'd just confirmed something.

"You care about her," she said. "That's the problem, isn't it? You actually care."

She walked away, leaving me standing in the hallway with the rope tightening around my chest.

I went to my room and found Aria exactly where I knew she'd be.

On my bed. Shaking. The separation sickness running through her body in waves.

I held her like I had every night, and I felt the bond settle between us.

"I'm going to fix this," I whispered.

She didn't answer. She just pressed her face against my chest and tried to breathe through the pain.

I lay there and thought about my options.

There were three paths forward.

Kill her and end the bond.

Let her die from separation sickness.

Or burn everything down and choose her.

All three options destroyed something.

But as I held her, feeling the bond pull tighter with every breath she took, I realized I'd already made the choice.

I just hadn't admitted it yet.

By the end of the week, everything was going to change.

And there was nothing I could do to stop it.