Chapter 5 – The First Confrontation 

The moment I step fully into the torchlight, the bond detonates.

It isn’t a gentle pull. It isn’t longing wrapped in romance. It’s a brutal, unforgiving snap, like a chain yanked tight around my ribs, dragging every instinct I have toward one man.

Rhaegon Ashmoor.

The Alpha King stiffens as if struck, his shoulders locking, his breath cutting short. I feel it echo through my own lungs, the sudden shared panic, the violent certainty.

There you are.

The hall seems to tilt, wolves gasping and murmuring as the air thickens, pressure pressing against my skin like a storm about to break. I take another step forward, and pain rips through me, white-hot and intimate, slicing down my spine and blooming low in my belly.

I choke on a sound I refuse to let become a whimper.

I will not kneel.

My eyes stay on him as I walk, every step an act of defiance, every heartbeat screaming his name. The wolves part without realizing it, bodies shifting aside as though something ancient is forcing them to make room.

Rhaegon turns fully now, silver eyes burning, nostrils flaring as my scent hits him. His pupils blow wide, his wolf surging so violently I stagger under the force of it.

“Gods,” he breathes, not quite a word, not quite a growl.

Lysentha is at his side, draped in ceremonial white, her posture stiffening as she notices his reaction. Her fingers curl possessively around his arm.

“Alpha?” she says, forcing a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes. “Who is, ”

Her voice cuts off as she sees me.

The color drains from her face.

The fake mark on her shoulder flickers beneath the fabric, glowing faintly like a dying ember. Her hand flies up instinctively, as though she can hide it.

Too late.

The bond lashes again, sharper this time, and I gasp despite myself. My vision blurs at the edges as heat floods my veins. I feel exposed, laid bare in front of him in a way no one else has ever managed.

Rhaegon takes a step toward me before he seems to realize he’s moving.

The council murmurs. Guards shift uneasily.

“Stop,” Lysentha whispers, her voice trembling. “Rhaegon, don’t, ”

He doesn’t hear her.

He doesn’t hear anyone.

“You,” he says, his voice cutting through the hall like a blade. “Come closer.”

It isn’t a request.

It’s a command that settles into my bones, heavy and irresistible. My knees tremble, my wolf pressing forward inside me, desperate to obey, desperate to be seen.

“I didn’t come here to beg,” I say, my voice shaking despite everything. “I came because you need to know the truth.”

His jaw tightens, muscles flexing as if he’s restraining himself physically. “Then start talking. Because everything about this, about you, feels wrong.”

“Wrong?” I laugh, the sound brittle, broken. “You marked me in the dark and then crowned another woman in the light. Tell me, Alpha, what part of that feels right?”

A ripple of shock tears through the crowd.

Lysentha’s fingers dig into Rhaegon’s arm. “She’s lying,” she says sharply, panic bleeding through the edges of her voice. “She used seduction magic, omega tricks, to confuse you. You felt the bond with me first.”

Rhaegon doesn’t even look at her.

His gaze never leaves mine.

“No,” he says slowly. “I felt something with you.” He finally turns his head, eyes narrowing. “But this, ” He gestures between us, his voice dropping into something raw and dangerous. “This is not what I feel now.”

The bond flares violently, like it’s answering him.

I cry out as pain rips through my shoulder, the mark burning so fiercely it feels like it’s being carved deeper into my flesh. Shadows shudder along the walls, stretching, responding to the surge.

Rhaegon swears under his breath.

“You feel that,” he says, stepping closer, ignoring the council’s protests. “Tell me you don’t feel it tearing you apart.”

I meet his gaze, tears burning my eyes. “I feel you,” I whisper. “Every time you touch her, every time you stand beside her, it’s like you’re ripping something out of me.”

That finally cracks him.

His breath stutters, his wolf slamming against the bond with a furious roar. For a moment, the Alpha King looks lost, trapped between duty and instinct, crown and blood.

Behind us, Lysentha staggers.

She lets out a small, strangled cry, clutching her shoulder as the stolen mark flares brighter, too bright. The light pulses erratically, veins beneath her skin darkening, spreading outward like rot.

“It’s just the ritual,” she insists, though sweat pours down her temple. “It just needs more time, ”

“No,” I say hoarsely, the word ripping free as my wolf surges again. “It’s rejecting you.”

The council erupts into chaos.

Calder steps forward, fury twisting his features. “This is madness! She’s cursed, she’s always been cursed! That’s why she never had a wolf!”

Rhaegon spins on him, a snarl tearing from his chest that shakes the hall.

“You will not speak her name again,” he growls. “Not unless you wish to lose your tongue.”

Calder pales, stumbling back.

The pressure inside me spikes.

Pain blooms everywhere at once, my spine, my chest, my hands. I drop to one knee, gasping as shadows explode outward, wrapping around my arms, my legs, my throat. I can feel her now, my wolf, vast and furious, stretching against a cage that was never meant to hold her.

Gasps echo around the hall.

“Nyra,” Rhaegon growls, instantly in front of me, his hands hovering inches away, trembling with restraint. “Control it.”

“I don’t know how,” I sob, fear and power tangling together. “She’s been asleep my whole life, no one taught me, ”

His eyes soften for just a heartbeat.

Then harden with something dangerous and possessive.

“Then you learn,” he says, voice vibrating with authority. “Because you belong to no one else.”

The bond surges again, brutal and undeniable.

I look up at him, my heart slamming, my wolf roaring in recognition.

Behind him, Lysentha screams as the false mark erupts in blinding light, the glow cracking, turning corrosive as it begins to burn her from the inside.

And I know, with terrifying clarity, that this confrontation is only the beginning.