Moonblooded

Chapter 11

***18 plus warning

Selene didn’t speak when Taylor handed her a bottle of water.

The sun was higher now, burning off the morning chill, but she still felt cold. The ache hadn’t left her body, not from the sparring loss, and certainly not from what had happened the night before.

What she’d felt.

What she was still feeling.

Her chest buzzed faintly where the bond lived, not sharp with betrayal now, but dull and heavy. Like grief. A steady reminder of a truth she hadn’t wanted to face.

Taylor leaned against the shade of the post beside her, arms crossed.

“I’ve seen weaker wolves fight better then that,” she said, not unkindly.

Selene sipped the water, eyes down.

“You were off.”

“I’m fine,” Selene murmured.

Taylor raised a brow. “Fine’s a lie. I’ve used it myself.”

Selene didn’t respond.

Taylor pushed a little further. “Want to tell me what’s eating you?”

Selene stared at the field. At the dirt she’d fallen into. At Mira, who still laughed with another warrior across the yard like she’d won something.

“He sleeps with her,” Selene said softly. “And then lets the other one touch him in front of everyone.”

Taylor didn’t ask who “he” was. She just stayed quiet.

“I don’t understand what I’m supposed to be here,” Selene whispered. “A rogue. An omega. A joke? Why trap me here?”

Taylor’s eyes darkened, but her voice stayed calm. “He brought you into his territory. Carried you in. Gave you the healer. Put guards on you. Then continued to defend when when the council ordered your death, what more could you expect.”

“And then let that happen,” Selene snapped, voice sharper than she meant.

Taylor didn’t flinch. “I never said he was good at showing it.”

Selene shook her head, throat thick. “Why would someone bring you inside just to tear you apart?”

“Because they’re scared,” Taylor said quietly. “Because they think they have to break everything they want before someone else can take it from them.”

Selene swallowed hard.

Taylor’s voice dropped further. “He’s always played the monster. It’s how he survives. But monsters don’t go into no-man’s land and bleed for rogues.”

Selene looked away.

“He didn’t just save me,” she said finally. “He’s hurting me.”

Taylor’s voice softened. “Then don’t let him win like that. You’re stronger than what he’s trying to make you believe, you are allowed to live your life to don’t feel like you owe him.”

Selene closed her eyes.

She didn’t feel strong.

She felt like she was unraveling.

Night came with silence.

The moonlight carved silver lines across the grass, and the walls of the estate glowed faintly in the darkness. Selene stood on the outer walkway, arms wrapped tightly around her chest as she stared into the trees.

The pain had started again hours ago.

Not as dull as when he had Amara before him at the balcony, his little soon to be Luna, no this time the pain wasn’t just sharp, but deeper, because he knew she felt the betrayal of their bond and still chose to hurt night after night.

She didn’t need Lira to tell her what it meant.

The room was hot.

Too hot.

The fire had long since burned to ash in the hearth, but sweat still clung to Kade’s skin, slick, suffocating. Heat pulsed from the tangle of bodies around him, skin against skin, the scent of arousal and regret thick in the air.

They didn’t belong to him.

But he touched them anyway.

Moved with purpose.

Punishment.

His hands gripped the young omega’s hips, steadying her trembling thighs as she straddled him. Her breath came fast, uncertain. She lowered herself slowly, inch by inch, her eyes wide, her lip caught between her teeth.

She was young.

Too young. Nineteen years old, barely out of school.

And untouched.

He knew the moment he saw her hesitate, that split second of innocence breaking beneath heat and obedience. But it wasn’t until Amara leaned close, mouth brushing his ear, that he heard the truth.

“She’s a virgin,” she whispered, voice full of wicked pride. “Thought you’d enjoy being her first.”

Kade’s jaw clenched, muscles going rigid beneath her. Maybe once he might of but not now.

He should have stopped everything right then.

Should have thrown Amara out and told the girl to get dressed.

But the omega whimpered, sinking farther onto him with a breathless gasp. Her nails dug into his chest like she needed something solid to hold on to. Her body shook, equal parts pain and wonder,as he pushed himself into her and filled her fully.

Because he didn’t deserve better.

Because Selene would never look at him the same again.

And he deserved that, too.

Amara settled between his legs behind the girl, kneeling, her fingers sliding up his thighs with slow, teasing strokes. Her mouth found the sensitive skin near his hip, placing open-mouthed kisses along his pelvis. Her tongue dragged a warm, wet line across his abdomen before she looked up at him, smug and satisfied. Reaching up she forced the girl onto him fully until he bottomed out in her, when the both felt the omega squirm she pushed her forward to rock against him. Guiding the girls hips while fingering herself.

The omega tensed as her hip rocked, face contorted in startled pleasure as her body adjusted around him. She let out a soft, broken moan, and Kade’s hands gripped her tighter—guiding her pace, forcing her fully down again.

His body moved automatically.

But his mind wasn’t in the room.

He was with Selene.

Her silver eyes. Her trembling lips. The sound of her voice when she whispered his name.

Pain rippled through the mate bond—steady, quiet, brutal. Not loud. Not angry.

Just disappointed.

She feels this, Varric said, gutted. She’s pulling away. And we’re giving her every reason to.

Kade snapped his hips up, drawing a louder cry from the omega as she clenched around him. Her head tipped back, eyes fluttering, overwhelmed. Amara moaned softly, biting his marking spot in praise.

He kissed the omega then, just once. Rough. Detached.

Her lips were warm.

But they weren’t Selene’s.

Amara’s hands pressed against his chest, nails scratching as she climbed higher, hovering close enough to whisper, “c*m, for us Alpha.”

That was the point.

That was the punishment.

The omega began to move more confidently, her hips meeting his with a growing rhythm. He let her take control, let her ride him as her body shook with each stroke. She gasped, cried out, pressed her face to his throat, whispering desperate things he didn’t hear.

Amara shifted lower again, her mouth returning to his abdomen, licking along the tense muscles that twitched beneath her tongue. She moaned as she tasted him, murmuring something he couldn’t make out between kisses and nips.

They thought it was power.

They thought it was pleasure.

They didn’t know it was grief.

Kade’s hands fisted in the sheets.

His eyes closed.

And there she was.

Selene.

Reaching for him.

Not with anger.

But with pain.

Still hoping, even now, that he might turn around.

That he might choose her.

He chased the illusion with every breath, every thrust, every broken sound the omega made as her body trembled against his.

The pressure snapped,sharp, unstoppable. He shoved the girl off himself barely in time. Heat flooded through him as he spilled his seed over the girl, her body still spasming from her release.

She collapsed next to him, breathless, boneless, her lips pressing a trembling kiss to his collarbone.

Amara leaned into him taking the omegas place on his lap.

“Told you,” she whispered. “She was perfect.”

Kade didn’t move.

Didn’t speak.

Didn’t feel.

Instead, he kissed Amara, hard. Brutal. A distraction. A lie.

He dragged her hips into his lap and positioned her above him, fingers bruising as he pulled her down, inch by inch, into place. She reached down to position him at her entrance.

She moaned when he thrust himself inside her, not waiting for her to adjust to his size he started slamming into her harder then he had dared with the omegas. “That’s it,” she breathed. “Take what you need.”

But he didn’t want her. Not her voice. Not her body.

He wanted silence.

He wanted to forget.

Amara rode him harder, faster, her nails carving red into his shoulders. Kade met her rhythm with mechanical precision, chasing something, anything, that would silence the scream inside him.

But he could feel her.

Selene.

Kade’s throat burned.

He growled, thrusting harder, dragging Amara down to meet him again and again. Her cries were loud, now almost as if she wanted to protest to his aggression, echoing through the chamber, filled with fear and pleasure. The omega sobbed softly beneath them, overwhelmed.

His mouth found Amara’s throat, already tilted in offering. His teeth grazed the soft space below her jaw, not hard enough to mark, but hard enough to make her gasp. Her golden hair spilled across his shoulder as she arched into it, her laugh low and pleased.

“That’s more like it,” she whispered, fingers twisting in his hair. Mistaking his primal needs with passion.

He yanked her head back harder, fist clenched in her curls, and dragged his mouth down her neck, biting deeper near her collarbone. She moaned at the sharpness, her hips pressing down leaving no space between them as she ground out her release. Soon his was spilling himself over her, to when she lifted herself off him blood mixing with his seed slide down her, he turned away disgusted.

Because the only thing inside him was Selene’s sorrow.

Still echoing through the bond

like a heartbeat going quiet.

His office was dark, lit only by the cold blue glow of surveillance screens lining the far wall. Rain tapped against the windows like fingers searching for entry. Kade sat in his chair, elbows on his knees, a glass of something dark in one hand, untouched.

He watched the feed in silence.

Selene stood in the courtyard again. Barefoot. Pale in the moonlight. Her arms wrapped around her middle like she was trying to hold herself together.

She looked small.

But she didn’t look afraid.

She looked, empty.

Kade’s chest ached.

He hadn’t even enjoyed it. Hadn’t really felt it.

He let it happen. Out of spite. Out of rage. Out of fear.

The omega was still curled up on the floor, fast asleep. Amara lay stretched on the couch nearby, skin bare beneath his shirt, one long leg draped over the edge like a claim.

She watched him watching Selene.

She didn’t speak.

She didn’t need to.

Kade drained the glass and set it down too hard.

The screen flickered.

Selene’s silver hair caught in the wind. She turned to look into the trees, like she could feel it.

The danger. The bond. Him.

His fingers curled into fists on his knees.

She shouldn’t be out there alone.

Varric stirred for the first time in hours. The wolf was sharp. Furious. Still buried, but only just.

“You feel that?” Varric growled. “She’s slipping away. And you’re doing nothing but watching her fall.”

Kade gritted his teeth. “I’m protecting her.”

“No. You’re protecting yourself.”

The chair creaked beneath him as Kade leaned forward, elbows digging into his thighs, staring harder at the image of Selene. Her head tipped back. Her lips moved.

He couldn’t hear her words.

But he knew what they meant.

She doesn’t believe in the bond anymore.

Varric snarled so violently it made Kade’s head throb.

“I’m losing my Mate because of you.”

“I know.”

“You felt her collapse when you took Mira.”

Kade’s jaw clenched.

“You felt her break again when you let Amara put her hands on us like we’re nothing. And you didn’t stop. You haven’t stopped. You even enjoyed having Amara and the Omega girl.”

“I’m doing what I have to. I don’t enjoy this for a second.”

“You’re killing her. And if you cost me my mate…”

Varric’s voice dropped into something colder.

“…I’ll take over. I’ll take the body. I’ll mark her myself. And I’ll make sure you’re locked so far beneath the surface you never crawl out again.”

Kade’s hands trembled.

Selene turned away from the forest and began to walk back inside.

The screen dimmed.

Kade stared at the place she’d been like he could carve her silhouette into memory.

The bond pulled at his ribs, frayed, quiet, desperate.

And this time, he didn’t fight it.

He let it ache.