Chapter 3

Lucian’s suite was unlike the one I had shared with Julian for a few hours of my marriage. Julian’s room was filled with gold, white flowers, and soft silk. It was like a birdcage made for a pet. Lucian’s room was dark. It smelled of old wood, heavy leather, and the cold Arctic air. It felt like a wolf’s den dangerous, solid, and real. He sat me down in the middle of the large rug. I was still wearing his heavy leather jacket over my thin nightgown. I felt small, but for the first time in years, I didn’t faint. I looked out the large glass windows. Outside, icebergs floated like giant ghosts in the dark water. The ship was moving fast now, thrashing against the waves.

"You should sleep," Lucian said. He walked over to a small bar and poured himself a glass of dark liquid. He didn't look at me.

"The sun will be up in a few hours. When it does, the High Alpha will call the Elders. They will want to see us together. They will want to tear us apart."

"How can I sleep?" I asked. My voice sounded loud in the quiet room.

"Your father said we have to prove the bond is real. He said he would throw us into the sea if we are lying. Lucian, we are lying, I was married to your brother just twelve hours ago. The ink on the marriage certificate is probably still wet."

Lucian turned around. The moonlight hit the scar on his jaw, making him look even more like a predator.

"Is it a lie, Azzianna? does it really feel like a lie?"

I blinked, confused by the heat in his eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"The bond you had with Julian was a contract," Lucian said, taking a step toward me. His boots made a heavy sound on the floor.

"It was a deal made by fathers and lawyers. It was thin. That is why it broke so easily when you smelled him with that other girl. A real fated bond doesn't break because of a mistake, it doesn't break at all. It is a chain made of iron."

He stopped right in front of me. He was so big that I felt the heat coming off his body. It was a strange, magnetic heat that made my skin tingle.

"Julian never deserved you," Lucian whispered. "He only wanted your land. He wanted the power of the Silver-Bane name. But I... I have watched you for years. From the shadows, from the bars, from the back of my bike. I knew what you were before he even learned your name."

My heart skipped a beat, did he really do all of that?

"You watched me? All those years you were away?"

"I am the exile, remember?" Lucian smiled, but it wasn't a happy smile. It was sad and sharp.

"I wasn't allowed to talk to the 'Princess of the North.' So I stayed away. But tonight, when I saw you on that deck, my wolf didn't see my brother’s wife, he saw his mate. He saw the only woman who could ever stand beside a man like me."

I felt a shiver run down my spine. It wasn't from the cold. It was a spark of something deep inside my soul. Could it be true? Was Julian the mistake, and Lucian the destiny? My mind was a mess of fear and hope.

"We don't have time to wonder about fate," I said, trying to stay focused. "We have to survive the morning. If the Elders use the 'Scent Test,' they will know we haven't... we haven't mated. They will see that our souls aren't truly tangled." Lucian looked at the bed, then back at me.

"There are two ways to prove a bond, Azzianna. The first is the one Julian wanted—the physical act. The second is the Blood Vow. It is older. It is more painful. But it is undeniable. Even the High Alpha cannot argue with blood."

"The Blood Vow?" I had read about it in old history books. It involved cutting the palms and pressing them together while the wolves were in their partial shift. It linked the two people forever. It was more permanent than a marriage. It was a soul-binding.

"If we do the Vow," Lucian said, his voice dropping to a growl, "there is no going back, you won't just be 'acting' like my mate. You will be tied to me, you will be a part of the biker pack. You will be an outcast with me. You will lose your fancy dresses and your polite friends."

I looked at the door, I thought about Julian. Right now, he was probably with Chloe, laughing about how he would take my land and keep me as a silent prisoner. I thought about the High Alpha, who looked at me like I was an object he owned.

Then I looked at Lucian. He was rough. He was scary. But he was standing there, offering me a choice. Julian never gave me a choice. Julian only gave me orders.

"Julian thinks I am fragile," I said, my voice growing stronger. "He thinks I will cry and beg for him to take me back because I am afraid to be alone. He wants to steal my family's history and bury it, he wants to turn the Silver-Bane name into a footnote in his own story." I stepped closer to Lucian and held out my hand.

"I would rather be an outcast with a man who sees me, than a queen with a man who hides me. I would rather be a biker's mate than a coward's wife. Let's do the Vow."

Lucian’s eyes turned a deep, glowing grey. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, silver folding knife. The blade glinted in the moonlight like a tooth.

"This will hurt," he warned.

"I’ve already been hurt tonight," I replied. "Julian cut my heart open. This palm is nothing compared to that." Lucian took my right hand. His grip was firm but gentle. He moved the blade across his own palm first. Deep red blood pooled in his hand. Then, he looked into my eyes. I didn't look away, I didn't blink. He swiped the blade across my palm. It was a sharp, stinging heat.

"Now," Lucian said. "Repeat after me. My blood is your blood."

"My blood is your blood," I whispered.

"My soul is your soul."

"My soul is your soul."

"Until the moon falls from the sky and the sun turns to ash."

"Until the moon falls from the sky and the sun turns to ash."

We pressed our palms together and it feels like the world exploded.

It wasn't just heat. It was a flash of light in my mind.

A wall of power hit me, making my ears ring. I saw images that weren't mine, I saw Lucian riding a motorcycle through a desert under a million stars. I saw him fighting three wolves at once to protect a weak pup, I saw his deep, dark loneliness. And he saw me. He saw my hidden strength, he saw the fire of the Silver-Banes that I had been hiding since my parents died.

The power was so strong that it knocked us both backward. I fell onto the bed, gasping for air. My heart was racing so fast it felt like it would burst. My palm was glowing with a faint, silver light before the wound began to close on its own, leaving a thin, white scar.

Lucian stood over me, his chest heaving. He looked shocked.

"The Vow... it shouldn't have been that powerful. Not for a fake."

"What does it mean?" I asked, my voice trembling.

"It means the moon was waiting for us," Lucian said. He looked at his own hand. The scar was there, identical to mine.

"It means we aren't lying anymore, Azzianna. You are mine. And I am yours. Not because of a contract, but because of the blood." The silence in the room was heavy. We stared at each other, the reality of what we had done sinking in. I was no longer a Thorne by marriage. I was something else. I was a Silver-Bane who had chosen a Rogue.

Suddenly, a loud banging started on the door. It was so violent the wood seemed to shake.

"Open up!" It was Julian’s voice. He sounded drunk, angry, and desperate.

"I know you're in there, Lucian! I know you have my wife! You can't hide her forever!"

Lucian’s face hardened. The soft moment was gone. He looked like the rogue Alpha again. He walked to the door and flung it open with a bang.

Julian was standing there, his tuxedo shirt unbuttoned, his hair a mess. He looked like a wreck. Behind him stood two of the High Alpha’s personal guards—men with stone faces and silver weapons.

"Give her back," Julian snarled. "The marriage contract says she belongs to the Vailant Alpha heir. That is me. You are a thief, Lucian."

Lucian laughed. It was a dark, scary sound that filled the hallway. He stepped aside so Julian could see me sitting on the bed. I stood up, Lucian’s leather jacket still hanging off my shoulders like a suit of armor.

I walked to the door and stood next to Lucian. I held up my right hand. The white scar was glowing faintly in the dim light of the hallway. It was a mark that could not be faked.

"The contract is dead, Julian," I said. My voice was like ice. "I am not a piece of land you can trade for power. I have taken the Blood Vow. I belong to the pack of the Black Skull now. I belong to Lucian."

Julian’s eyes went wide.

He looked at the scar, then at his father’s guards. The guards stepped back, their heads bowing slightly. They were old-school wolves. They knew the ancient law. A Blood Vow could not be broken by any court or any Alpha. It was the highest law of our kind.

"You... you stupid girl," Julian whispered. He looked like he wanted to cry and scream at the same time.

"You just threw away your future. You’re nothing now! You’re just a biker’s girl! You will live in a garage and eat scraps!"

"I am a Silver-Bane," I said, stepping closer to him,

"And for the first time in my life, I am free from your lies. Go back to Chloe, Julian. I'm sure she's waiting to tell you how wonderful you are."

Julian tried to lunge forward, his fingers reaching for my throat, but Lucian was faster. He caught Julian by the neck with one hand. He lifted Julian off the floor as if he weighed nothing.

"Go back to your room, Julian," Lucian growled. The sound was so deep it made my own bones vibrate. "If you touch her again, I won't wait for the Elders. I will end you right here on this carpet, and I will enjoy it." Lucian threw Julian into the hallway. Julian hit the opposite wall with a loud thud. The guards quickly grabbed the young Alpha and led him away before Lucian could actually kill him.

Lucian closed the door and locked it. He turned to me, and the weight of what we had just done hit me like a wave. We were tied together. We had started a civil war within the Thorne family. And we were on a ship in the middle of the ocean with nowhere to run.

"They will come for us at breakfast," I said, my voice finally cracking.

"Let them come," Lucian said. He walked over to the window and looked at the rising sun. The sky was turning a pale, cold pink.

"They think they are the hunters. They don't realize that the Silver-Bane has finally woken up. They have no idea what they have started."

But as I looked at Lucian, I saw something in his eyes. It wasn't just anger. It was a look of deep worry. He knew something I didn't.

"Lucian? What is it? Why do you look like that?"

He turned to me, his face pale in the morning light.

"The Blood Vow did something else, Azzianna. It didn't just tie us together. It sent out a pulse of magic. A signal."

"To whom?" I asked, my heart sinking.

"To the people who killed your parents," Lucian said. His voice was low and serious.

"They have been hunting the Silver-Bane line for twenty years to make sure the bloodline dies out. They thought you were just a human-like girl with no power. But the Vow proved your magic is alive. And now, they know exactly where you are."

I froze. The ship didn't feel like a palace anymore. It felt like a floating cage.

"Who are they?" I whispered.

"The Silver-Hunters," Lucian said. "And if I know them, they are already on this ship. They were probably waiting for Julian to take your land before they finished you off. But now that I've claimed you, they won't wait." I looked at the door. I looked at the window. We were trapped.

"The breakfast," I realized. "The Grand Gala breakfast. Everyone will be there. The Elders, the High Alpha, the Hunters..."

"We have to go," Lucian said. He walked to a closet and pulled out a clean black shirt.

"We won’t hide. We will walk in there like we own the place. We show them the mark. And we stay ready to fight."

I looked at my hand. The scar was still warm. I wasn't just a bride anymore. I was a target. But as Lucian reached out and squeezed my shoulder, I felt a strange sense of peace. If I was going to die, at least I was dying as myself.

"Let's go and eat breakfast," I said.