My Mate Watched Me Bleed to Death

I jerked upright, choking, my back drenched in cold sweat. I had been reborn. The bitter, searing stench of Wolfsbane still clung to my nostrils. The sensation of Alpha Kael Sterncliff's teeth tearing through my throat in my last life remained sharp enough to feel like it had just happened. His scorching breath on my neck, the sting of his canines piercing the skin, the bruising grip of his hot hands locking my hips in place. "Elara, I need you." Kael's low, ragged voice came from the adjacent rest chamber, each word wrapped in a torment so tightly leashed it scraped across my ears like sandpaper. I knew that sound too well. It was the Rutroot Elixir taking hold of him. In my last life, when I heard him call my name like that, I had rushed in without a second thought. I had used my own pheromones to soothe his restless wolf. My memory still held the weight of his sweat-slicked chest bearing down on me, his burning skin glistening in the dark, his fevered palm tracing down my spine with a force that nearly crushed my hip bones. Our ragged breaths tangled together. His searing mouth moved over my collarbone with raw hunger, leaving slick traces in its wake. The rustle of torn fabric, the wet sounds of skin against skin, swelled unbearably loud inside that cramped space. When he came back to himself, I thought we would finally be bound as mates. That was when I learned he had already chosen Sophia Vane long before. For three full years after that, I lived as a shameful thing, hidden from the light, locked in the cellar beneath his castle. The day Sophia announced she intended to secure her place as Luna, Kael forced Wolfsbane down my throat with his own hands and told me, with a smile, that an Omega like me had become an eyesore. These memories tore through my mind in a flash. I did not hesitate. I turned and picked up the comm on the table. "Sophia. Alpha is in the east wing rest chamber. He needs you now. Come immediately."