"That's the first thing you ask me?” Prince Calix said, eyes narrowing on me. “You just found out you’re about to die, and that's the first thing you ask?" "What else should I say? I know my fate. I’ve accepted it. What I need to know is why you kissed me when you are promised to someone else." He stared at me like I’d grown two heads. "You're crazy. It will honestly be a relief to have you dead." I sprang up from the floor, facing him. "Of course,” I said. “You men are such cheating, heartbreaking monsters. You promise someone forever and then sleep with their cousin, putting a baby in them. You join forces with their backstabbing uncle to steal their throne from them. You gift them to a monster whose entire kingdom wants them dead.” My throat tightened, and my eyes burned. “Gods, he won. My uncle fucking won. He knew this would happen if you brought me here. I bet you’ll send my head back to him as a trophy. You were right after all. I’m weak. A crown princess outsmarted by
This had to be Prince Calix's first-ever attempt at humor—because there was no way, in this realm or the next, that I was sealing a mate bond with him. Not willingly. Not sober. Not without throwing myself into a pit first. “You want to mark me as your mate?” I asked. “Was I unclear?” “Werewolves have never mated with Khra'gixxes before—and for good reason. What comes next? I stay with you forever? I have your babies, if that’s even possible?” “Sealing a bond doesn’t mean we have to get married and reproduce.” “Oh, so I become your mistress?” “A lot of people would do anything to be in your position. Try to sound more excited. And no, we’ll only have sex one time to consummate the bond, or else it becomes invalid.” “I’m not doing it.” “You’d rather die feeding twelve men?” “I’m not doing that either.” “Pick a side, little wolf. Do you want to die or not? Because every time you speak, I feel less and less willing to help you.” So my choices were mate or die? “If you want t
I couldn’t tell how it happened, but as soon as Calix’s fangs grazed my neck, something inside me came awake. I tore myself free from the demon prince’s grip and dropped, falling to the ground fast. “Calix!” I called, seeing my life flashing before my eyes. He chased after me. I barely had time to scream again before he caught me, arms wrapping around my middle just seconds before I would have hit the ground. “You broke free,” he said. “How did you do that?” I’d never been more relieved to be in anyone’s arms as I was at that moment. His eyes were no longer glowing, which was another relief. “You were about to kill me,” I said. “What was I supposed to do?” “Werewolves don’t have magic. It’s not possible for you to break free from a shadow bond.” “I don’t know what happened, Calix. One moment I was scared, the other I was falling.” He didn’t say anything else, just beat his wings once, twice, and then we were rising again—slowly. He adjusted me back into that all-too-familiar
*** ~~CALIX MALZARETH~~ *** Lyric spun to face me, her eyes wide with disbelief. “This is barbaric. Deranged. You’re asking me to lie naked on a table as though I’m about to be sacrificed and have sex? Right here? With witches singing in my ears?” I sighed in frustration. “Don’t you think you’re being too dramatic?” “Dramatic? Gods forbid I actually have reservations about being railed in front of an audience.” “It’s just sex. You have had sex before, haven’t you?” “Of course I have. This is not how it’s done. It’s intimate. It’s pleasant. It’s between people who love each other.” Revka let out a long, amused hum from where she stood. Of course she was enjoying this. The three other witches stood still, their faces not betraying any emotion. I wished—for once—that Lyric would shut up and behave like them. Just once. “Lyric,” I said, stepping toward her. “Get on the table.” She folded her arms. “No.” “Do it. Now.” “Or what? You’re going to use your princely command on me?”
“Yes,” I said, never looking away from Lyric. Revka began chanting. The other witches joined her, one after the other. The air thickened, growing darker with the gathering of shadow magic. “That song…” Lyric whispered. “I know it.” “You heard it from Tai,” I said, shrugging off my shirt and tossing it aside. “It’s the mating song.” Her eyes trailed over my runes, as they did on both occasions she saw me topless. Every one of those runes was earned over decades of bloodshed, pain, power. She always looked at them like she was reading a secret language only she could decode. When I dropped my pants, her gaze dropped too. And stayed there. Her lips parted, and I knew—if I didn’t start controlling myself, I’d shift before I got inside her. Tai’s voice was already echoing in my head. ‘I’ve waited too long for this. I’ll put a baby in her.’ ‘Tai,’ I warned. ‘Do your thing, Calix. Leave me be.’ “Prince Calix,” Revka said firmly. “Right now.” Lyric was on her back, knees raised,
*** ~~LYRIC VAELGOR~~ *** I felt everything. The moment his fangs sank into my neck, it was as though the world shattered inside me. Pain. Heat. Need. My back arched off the stone table so hard I nearly threw him off me. But he held me down. His weight was crushing in the best way, pinning me, claiming me, moving inside me with maddening precision. Calix—or Tai—I couldn’t tell which one of them was more present now. Maybe both. Maybe neither. It didn’t matter. I was burning. My blood rushed to every limb, every nerve raw and alive. His bite wasn’t clean. It was feral. Messy. He wasn’t feeding with restraint. He was gorging. And gods, I liked it. A groan tore from deep within him, his hips jerking harder into mine, and I cried out as his cock hit some part of me that shouldn’t exist. The chanting around us was no longer background noise—it was inside me now, crawling through my bones like insects, a chorus of ancient words I didn’t understand but somehow still felt. My hands
*** ~~CALIX MALZARETH~~ *** I watched Revka’s apprentices clean Lyric up in a makeshift tub. She didn’t speak. Didn’t move. Her eyes were closed, her breathing shallow. The bruises and bite marks covering her neck and chest were already fading, but the toll it took on her body wasn’t. I should’ve been weak, too. But instead, I felt... more alive than I had in decades. Magic surged in my blood, stretching through every vessel. Tai was purring somewhere in my mind, basking in the aftermath like a cat stretched in sunlight. So this was it. The mating high. The euphoria all the old ballads sang about. When poets wrote that no being could make a better choice than the gods themselves—this was what they meant. I never believed in it. Not really. Fated mates were rare. So rare that most thought it a myth. My father and my mother were fated and had been hopelessly in love with themselves—more than they ever loved their children, in my opinion. And somehow I understood it now. The pull
The silence after my outburst was deafening. Twelve of the most powerful beings in Noctis Vhaelor sat frozen in their seats. Every eye turned toward me—and none of them looked amused. And yet, I didn’t regret it. I’d do it again. Every word, every threat, every warning that had slipped past my lips, I meant. No one would feed from her. No one would touch her. I could still feel Lyric’s pulse under my tongue. Still smell her sweat. Her blood. Her pleasure. It coated me. It marked me. And the thought of someone else experiencing that was making me and Tai murderous. “What did you say?” Councilman Yai asked, breaking the silence. “I believe the words were clear, councilman.” “Your mate,” someone repeated. “He said she’s his mate.” “You can’t bind yourself to a wolf,” another councilman snapped. “It’s not possible.” “That’s unnatural,” one of the healers muttered. “Wrong.” More voices rose. “Madness—” “Sacrilege—” I didn’t move. I didn’t flinch. I just k
***~~ZEPHIRA MALZARETH~~*** High Alpha Tiberan Vaelgor’s daughter, Mae, had been in that tub for almost two hours, driving me mad.I’d been sitting in the far corner of the chamber, legs crossed, fingers twitching against the velvet of my robe. She didn’t even seem to notice. Or maybe she did. Maybe that was the point. I’d reminded her at least a dozen times that we had guests arriving soon. She just kept slipping deeper beneath the perfumed water, steam curling around her.This is the price of alliances, I told myself. The price of playing the long game. The price of power.Her head lolled back against the rim of the tub. Her lips were parted, breath coming in slow, steady puffs. Her hands—Gods.I stood.“Seriously?” I asked. “As much as I’d enjoy watching you masturbate at any other time, we have a meeting in a couple of minutes. A very important meeting with a very important man. I didn’t announce to the kingdom that I prefer women and accept your father’s cursed offspring into
***~~CALIX MALZARETH~~*** My hands were wrapped around Lorcan's throat, and his body was swinging halfway out the window of his chambers.“Let him go, Calix,” Mira begged behind me, her voice shaking. “It wasn’t his fault.”Lorcan grunted, blood trailing from his nose down to his lips. One of his eyes was already swelling shut. I had punched him three times before I even spoke. Maybe more. I wasn’t counting. I didn’t care.“Tell me where she is,” I growled, tightening my grip, “or I swear to the ancestors and the gods, even the goddess of Velmira, that I will throw you off this window, and your head will get to the ground before your body.”“I don’t know,” Lorcan croaked, his fingernails digging into my wrist.I shifted my hold and shoved him forward another inch. His feet scrabbled on the windowsill. Mira screamed.“You’re lying,” I hissed. “You rigged the lottery in Father’s favor.”“Because he’s the king! And he asked me to!”“We had a deal.”“I know you’re scary,” he gasped, hi
I woke up with a pounding headache.And pain.The first thing I registered was the aching stretch of my limbs. My arms and legs were pulled tight, splayed out in an X. Metal cuffs bit into my wrists and ankles. The table beneath me was cold, and it felt like iron. Heavy. Brutal. Like it had seen a thousand prisoners before me.My throat was dry. My lips were cracked. My head throbbed, a dull, pulsing echo behind my eyes.I realized soon enough that something sharp was on my arm.My body jerked against the restraints.“Lie still, wolf,” came a voice.Revka.Her face appeared above me, framed in shadows. Her mouth was flat, her eyes empty. Cold.“It will hurt less if you do.”My vision swam. I could feel something burning through my veins. A thick pull. Like my blood was being siphoned straight out of me.“Where am I?” I asked. My voice was barely more than a whisper.“Somewhere,” she said blandly.“You need to let me go.”“You’re not going anywhere anytime soon, Princess.”I blinked ag
The next few seconds happened in a blur.Calix shoved me behind him so fast I nearly stumbled, his body coiling in front of mine like a shield. And then his sword was out. The sound of metal unsheathing sent silence through the room.All around us, guards flinched. Steel scraped in response.One by one, the king’s soldiers drew their blades, stepping forward. Boots marching against the stone floor echoed around the room, louder than they should have. The elites and royals who hadn’t left yet started backing away, their fine robes rustling like leaves caught in a gust.They were frightened. They should be.Calix’s blade was steady in his hand, his body taut with fury. But I knew that if he made a single wrong move, they’d all come for him. Even his own guards would come too. Yes, they were as alert as they should be to protect their commander.But still, in the end, the king was the grand commander of the Khra'gixxian army.This wasn’t just a prince versus a kingdom.This was a prince
I felt the king's stare like a claw digging into my spine, but I didn’t flinch. I leaned into Calix instead, lifting my chin. Let him look.When Lorcan had rattled off the rules earlier, he’d mentioned that the royal family had to draw last, as some sort of show of leadership.Lucky us.I scanned the room again, taking in the other Khra’gixxes with the royal markings.Some were old, their bodies shriveled and hunched.Some were young, looking almost as terrified as the invaders they were supposed to claim.Others looked somewhere in between—middle-aged and cold-eyed, ready to add new blood to their aging lines.Cousins. Uncles. Grandparents. And so on.The lucky invaders were the ones picked by one of the old Khra'gixxes. A wrinkled, broken thing would be too tired to use them properly.I watched the royal members step up one after the other to pick from the baskets.One by one, names were drawn. One by one, the invaders were claimed.But somehow—miraculously—Mae was still there.Stil
Back in Velmira, reaching into Mae's mind had been as easy as breathing. I could mindlink with her without thinking. A simple nudge, a focused thought, and the connection would slip open like a door left on a latch.But here—In this large hall with so many supernatural bodies, it was like shouting into a hurricane.I narrowed my focus. Tried again. Reaching, searching.Mae.Mae.Mae.Nothing.The threads tangled and twisted against each other, too many open minds coming to me at once.Frustration burned through my chest. I wanted to shake her. I wanted her to know I was coming for her, that there would be no rest for her here.I pushed harder.And that was when I realized something was wrong.I wasn’t just brushing against minds anymore.I was in them.Reading them. People's thoughts. I'd been so focused on Mae that I hadn't realized the significance of the words I could hear.‘Weak humans. They won’t last one breeding session.’‘Heard the mages are good in bed, with their spells and
His body jerked in surprise, but he didn’t pull away. He let me. He wanted me to. My wolf's teeth broke the skin at the curve of his neck. His blood flooded my mouth. It was like drinking lightning. My entire body lit up, the bond roaring to life between us until I couldn’t tell where I ended and he began. Calix growled low and deep, his cock thrusting up into me again as I drank from him, matching his savagery with my own. He was mine too. And I would claim him as ruthlessly as he claimed me. When I finally tore my mouth away, blood smeared my lips, my chin, his skin. He stared down at me, wild and wrecked, his hand cradling the back of my head like I was the most precious thing he’d ever touched. “My beautiful, vicious wolf,” he whispered, voice wrecked. “You were made for me.” He caught my mouth in another kiss—filthy, desperate. Blood and spit and hunger slicked between our lips. Our teeth clashed, tongues tangling messily, neither of us caring about grace or tenderness.
When his lips fell on mine, the world swept away. Calix kissed like he fought—ruthless, claiming every sound, every breath. His tongue slid against mine, deep and slow, making my body tremble. One of his hands fisted in my hair, tugging just enough to make me gasp against his lips. The other hand gripped my waist, pinning me beneath the full heat and weight of him. I arched against him, desperate for more, for all the things he’d denied me the past week. His teeth grazed my bottom lip before he bit down gently, pulling a whimper from my throat. He swallowed the sound with a growl, his hips grinding against mine. “You are so stubborn,” he rasped against my mouth. “You make me want to break every bone in your body, and at the same time, you make me want to protect you.” “By protecting, do you mean caging?” I whispered back, dragging my nails down his back, feeling his muscles ripple under my touch. He pulled back slightly, just enough to look at me. His eyes weren’t just hungry—the
“Come down, little wolf,” Calix said, eyes never leaving mine as I struggled to get my magic under control. Reluctantly, I began to descend the stairs. My fingers were still tingling, shadows still retreating beneath my skin like ink pulled back into a quill. Each step felt heavier than the last. At the foot of the stairs, I stopped. “Come closer,” he said. I did. Step by step. Until I stood in front of both princes. No one spoke. Lorcan stared openly, his eyes gleaming as they traced the faint glow of runes flashing along my collarbone and arms. “I’m very sure that decades from now, they’ll write a song about you, Lyric,” Lorcan said. “A wolf with magical powers.” Calix hissed a spell under his breath, and immediately, the glow vanished. He stood slowly, body taut with tension. “We’re all going to agree right now that this never happened,” he said, glaring at Lorcan. “What part?” Lorcan asked innocently. “That your mate didn’t try to kill our father, or that she has magical