Chapter 016. Stay With Me

Damn her heart…

Saeris’s back pressed harder against the door. She hadn’t expected to find him here, not after the mess that passed for a conversation that morning.

“What are you doing here?”

Not exactly the line she'd rehearsed in her head, but it would do since her voice didn't shake, a small mercy.

“I searched for you, twice.” She could smell it now: dark, biting liquor clinging to his skin … he’d enjoyed it, clearly, because someone else’s scent curled beneath his own. She tried not to hate it.

Vaelen’s eyes dragged over her.

“None of them were you in your room.”

“So I went for a walk.” Flat, cold. “That’s allowed, isn’t it? Or have you decided I need a leash now, too?”

Vaelen let out a sound, half groan, half query. “So,” he drawled, “where has this free woman been?”

“The battlement.” That wasn’t a lie.

The open, circular terrace nestled in the heart of the eastern wing, that’s where she’d gone, to search for Samkiel … first, at least. Sheer coincidence that his smug face hadn’t been there to ruin it.

“So that’s where you were.” A beat of silence passed. Then— “Is that why you’re aroused? Watching men train, muscles on display. Didn't take you for someone so easily impressed, especially since, last I checked, you already had a mate you’re so desperate to return to.”

That struck a nerve. He meant to shame her, and it worked. But, she said, “Why? Does it matter to you?”

With a few easy steps, he crossed the distance between them. She didn’t let herself retreat, not fully, as his palm slammed against the wall beside her head. “Do you actually intend to put yourself at others' mercy, or are you truly that stupid?”

Saeris had to keep looking up to hold his gaze. “Why would I?”

“I smelled it the second you entered the hallway. Lust,” he hissed, low and lethal. “It clings to you like a second skin. Do you know what might’ve happened if you were outside the court?”

“I’m not stupid,” she bit out.

“No?” His eyes dipped to her mouth. “Then why walk into a den full of Lycans reeking like prey?”

Her nipples tightened beneath her blouse, betraying her without shame even as she bit back, “Maybe your kind are the problem.”

Like hell she’d confess to anything just because he could sniff it out of her.

Except for a heartbeat too long, the chandelier light struck his eyes just right … molten gold, wicked and barely leashed. Mother strike her down, because heat flared low in her stomach, sharp and unwelcome, and she clenched her thighs before the sound crawling up her throat could slip free.

Saeris waited.

Let him cross whatever fragile, stupid line they were toeing. And later…maybe, she’d pretend she hated him for it.

But then… Vaelen stepped away, enough to breathe again.

She swallowed the lump in her throat and crossed to the pitcher by the wall, and poured a glass of water, anything to occupy her hands, wondering whether she should throw herself out the window and end her humiliation.

“It’s been a long day,” she said, at last. “And if we’re going to obsess over scent, maybe you can explain something to me.”

She turned to find him watching.

“At the battlements earlier,” she said, “they thought I was you, before they saw me, that is.”

A shadow of restraint in his eyes. “That’s because you carry my scent. You need more than what Thorold gave you to fool everyone,” he said. “The older ones, the purebloods… they’d know.”

“So I’m exposed.”

“No.”

“Then how—”

“Because my scent covers you, makes them not want to sniff.”

She didn’t mean to, but she met his gaze. “Excuse me?”

He didn’t look away. “Anyone who doesn’t look directly at you will assume you’re me. Your body wears mine.”

A chill laced her spine. “How the hell did that happen?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“No,” she said, voice rising now, cracking. “You don’t get to say that and brush it off. How long have I been wearing your scent?”

He only stared.

And that, more than anything, made her feel the panic grip her lungs again. If it was true, then she needed him. She didn’t want to sit with that realization. Didn’t want to taste the weight of it on her tongue.

A sigh and she was turning to the window, and shoving it open.

With her back to him, she said, voice cold as steel, “Since you’ve so generously reminded me how much I owe you—get out.”

He did.

✦✦✦

Saeris wasn't sure which had been harder, falling asleep yesterday… or trying again tonight with no wolf to reach for in the dark.

She knew better than to hope. It would take more than mercy from the goddess to ever get her mate back, but tonight, gods help her, she didn’t want him. She just wanted her wolf.

So she lay there, staring at the bed’s canopy, her fingers slowly tracing the curve of the ring still hugging her finger. Over and over, her thumb passed along it, remembering she might’ve given in had Vaelen touched her. Mother—she’d soiled herself in front of him.

She didn’t let herself wallow in the humiliation.

She coughed into the quiet, dry and brittle, and sat up, legs dangling over the side of the bed. A breeze whispered across her ankles and she looked…

The balcony doors were cracked open. One side swaying gently, the firelight from the hearth slicing across the wooden floor in thin gold streaks.

Barefoot, Saeris padded across the room…peering out into the courtyard, she spotted two guards stationed far across the west wing. She scanned the mountain’s silhouette in the dark beyond, the winding staircase tucked into the western ridge. It led somewhere. She didn’t know where though.

She closed the door and latched it.

Then made her way to the low table where her untouched dinner waited, half-covered and forgotten. The candle beside it burned low, throwing gold across silverware and the rim of a glass. She poured water, lifted it to her lips and—

Click.

Her body went still as the floorboards behind her creaked. Slowly, she turned, glass still in hand.

And froze.

There, near the edge of the curtain, stood a man. Lean, wiry, skin pale. Not a guard.

Her heart slammed against her ribs.

Saeris didn’t think and immediately hurled the glass at him. He ducked. It shattered just beside him, slamming into the curtain-covered window.

She ran.

Or tried to.

He was already behind her.

Hands grabbed her, rough and strong. One over her mouth, the other snatching her off her feet. She thrashed, twisting, biting, driving her elbow backward, heel to shin. She connected, but he didn’t let go.

The male grunted, then threw her.

The rug broke her fall, but barely, because her head cracked against the ground, the world spun, and before she could catch her breath, a dry, sour-scented cloth pressed against her face.

She inhaled on instinct and choked.

No—

Saeris clawed at him, at the floor, grabbing fistfuls of the rug, trying to drag herself out from under him. Her foot kicked the edge of the table, hard. And the now-empty decanter tipped. The candle followed.

Flame met fabric.

Fire sparked to life, licking the edge of the rug, still, Saeris fought. She wrenched the decanter from where it had rolled, raised it with everything left in her, and smashed it into his face.

He reeled back.

She rolled and gasped, coughing violently, dragging herself toward the door on raw elbows. The fire was growing, smoke already curling along the edge of the room.

She’d nearly reached it, nearly, before his hand clamped around her ankle.

“No—NO!”

Saeris kicked, clawed. Her voice was gone, raw and ruined. “Help!”

He yanked her back, the cloth pressing once again over her mouth and nose.

The edges of the room went dark.

Not like this—not like this—

‘Sirius!!’

Knock. Knock.

“My lady? Are you alright?”

She tried to scream but it was only a croak and a massive inhale of that intoxicating substance, and then she was drowning.

“Are you—”

A loud bang. The door rattled and her attacker froze.

Another. Louder. Then it exploded open. And just with it, the assassin bolted, her window shattered as he went through, ripping the curtain down with him.

She didn’t feel the burn anymore.

Didn’t feel the smoke curling through the room.

Only Vaelen’s hands on her, rough and trembling. One on her face, the other cradling her shoulder as he barked orders behind him. She barely heard them.

“Stay with me,” he said—low and raw and furious.