The Blood Vow Binding

Neralda

"She's completely gone, Alpha."

The border patrol commander knelt on the marble floor of the Council Room, trembling under Sabastain’s suffocating aura. "We tracked Zara's scent to the jagged cliffs at the edge of the Bloodlands. The river rapids are violent there. She left her wheelchair at the edge."

A collective gasp echoed through the massive chamber. I stood trapped between two massive guards, my wrists bound in heavy silver chains that burned my skin.

Zara wasn't just gone. She had thrown herself into the rapids.

"Because of her!" my stepmother, Martha, shrieked, pointing a shaking, accusatory finger at me. "This wolfless abomination drove my daughter to suicide! She crippled Zara, and now she's murdered her!"

"I didn't!" I cried out, struggling against the guards. "Sabastain, please, I haven't seen her! I was locked in the cellar!"

Sabastain didn't look at me. He sat on the Alpha’s throne, staring blankly at the silver wheelchair the patrol had brought back. His eyes were entirely black. The temperature in the room dropped ten degrees. The grief rolling off him was a physical weight that crushed my lungs.

Elder Elec stepped forward, slamming his wooden staff against the floor. "This is high treason against the pack! Alpha Sabastain, the laws are clear. She must be punished. Banishment to the Bloodlands, or immediate execution!"

"Kill her!" Martha screamed, suddenly pulling a hidden silver dagger from her coat. She lunged at me, her face twisted in psychotic rage.

I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the blade.

Crack.

I snapped my eyes open. Sabastain was standing directly in front of me. He hadn't just blocked Martha; he had caught her wrist and snapped it completely backward.

Martha fell to her knees, screaming in agony. The dagger clattered onto the marble.

"No one touches her," Sabastain growled, his voice so deep it vibrated the glass windows. "No one."

Elder Elec frowned, thoroughly confused. "Alpha? She murdered your Luna. Execution is mercy at this point."

"Exactly." Sabastain turned around, his towering frame casting a massive, terrifying shadow over me. "Execution is too soft. Banishment is a vacation. If I cast her out, she'll just find some rogue to mate with. She'll forget what she did. I am not giving her freedom."

"Then what is your decree, Alpha?" Elec asked hesitantly.

Sabastain slowly reached out, his knuckles brushing against my cheek. A violent spark of electricity shot through the mate bond, sending a treacherous wave of heat straight to my core. My breath hitched. His wolf was right there, right beneath the surface, purring at the contact, but the man was staring at me with pure, unfiltered hatred.

"Prepare the altar," Sabastain ordered smoothly. "We are invoking the Aeterna Cruor."

The entire room erupted into chaos.

"The Blood-Vow Binding?!" Elder Elec shouted over the noise. "Alpha, you cannot! That is an archaic marriage rite! It ties her soul to the pack! It's way too good for her!"

"She doesn't deserve the title of wife!" Martha sobbed from the floor, clutching her broken wrist. "You're rewarding her!"

"I am binding her," Sabastain roared, his Alpha command instantly silencing the room. He grabbed my jaw, his grip bruising. "I am going to mark her so deeply that no other male will ever look at her. She will bear my heirs. She will be trapped in my house, bearing my name, and she will pay for Zara's life with every single breath she takes."

Panic clawed at my throat. "No, Sabastain, no, you can't force me..."

"I am the Alpha," he whispered, his face inches from mine. "I can do whatever the hell I want."

The binding ceremony was a blur of terror.

They dragged me to the pack altar. Sabastain sliced my palm with a silver blade, then cut his own. When he pressed our bleeding hands together, the mate bond exploded. A strange, blinding flash of golden light erupted from our joined hands, something I had never seen in any wolf ritual.

Sabastain flinched, staring at the golden sparks for a fraction of a second, confusion flashing in his dark eyes. But the elders started chanting, and the moment passed. The blood dried. The vow was sealed.

I was his wife. His captive.

Immediately after, I was shoved into the Alpha’s master suite by Elder Elec’s wife, a cruel woman who looked me up and down with absolute disgust.

"Strip," she ordered, tossing a paper-thin, white silk nightgown onto the bed. "Your official duties start tonight. And pray he doesn't tear your throat out when he takes you."

She walked out, locking the heavy iron door behind her.

I was completely alone.

I stripped off my filthy uniform and pulled the thin slip over my head. The second it fell over my curves, I started shivering violently.

The room was freezing.

I looked up at the massive vents on the ceiling. They were blasting freezing air, like walking into a meat locker. Frost was literally forming on the edges of the giant glass windows. He had ordered the room to be made cold on purpose.

I wrapped my arms around my body, my teeth chattering uncontrollably as I curled into a ball at the edge of the massive, king-sized bed. My bare feet were completely numb.

An hour passed. Then two. I was crying, the tears freezing on my cheeks.

Then, the door clicked open.

Sabastain stepped inside. He had taken off his suit jacket and tie, the top three buttons of his black shirt undone, revealing the hard, muscular planes of his chest. His hair was messy, and the intoxicating scent of dark chocolate and pine flooded the room, overpowering the freezing air.

He locked the door behind him. 

The mate bond flared so hard my knees buckled. I slipped off the edge of the bed, landing on the freezing floor. My wolf, if I even had one deep down, was screaming for him. Screaming for his warmth.

Sabastain stopped in the center of the room. He looked at me, shivering on the floor in the sheer slip. For a split second, his ice-blue eyes darkened with raw, undeniable lust. His chest heaved. He took a slow, predatory step toward me.

The air between us thickened, sparking with undeniable, explosive chemistry. He knelt down right in front of me. I could feel the heat radiating off his massive body.

"Sabastain..." I whimpered, a sob catching in my throat. I looked up into his eyes, begging him to see me. Just me. "What did I ever do to you? Why are you doing this?"

The moment I spoke, the spell broke.

The lust vanished from his eyes, replaced instantly by that terrifying, cold emptiness. He stood back up, looking down at me like I was a piece of trash he had stepped in.

"You think I'd want a fat mate like you?" Sabastain sneered, his voice dripping with absolute venom.

I flinched like he had physically slapped me. 

He unbuckled his leather belt, the metallic clink echoing in the silent, freezing room.

"Not only are you evil," Sabastain continued, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper. "You're pathetic, and it disgusts me to even look at you."

He threw the belt onto the floor and took another step toward me, unbuttoning his shirt. His eyes were entirely black now. The wolf was in control, and the wolf was furious.

"You're going to wish you never did that to Zara," he growled, the sound vibrating in my chest. He pointed a massive finger at the mattress. "Now get on the bed.”