Morning After

Vesperian’s knot finally eased enough for him to pull out. I gasped at the sudden emptiness, slick and his release spilling down my thighs onto the ruined sheets. He rose from the bed without a word, towering over me as I lay there panting, face pressed into the pillow.

I didn’t move. Couldn’t. My body felt wrecked, sore, used, strangely full of energy at the same time.

He dressed quickly, the rustle of fabric loud in the quiet chamber. “Stay in these rooms until I send for you.” His voice was back to that cold, commanding tone, like he hadn’t just spent the night buried inside me. “Servants will attend you.”

I turned my head just enough to glare at him. “Is that an order, Alpha?”

His golden eyes flicked over my naked, marked body. A faint smirk tugged at his mouth. “Yes. And you’ll obey it.”

Without another glance, he turned and walked out. The heavy door clicked shut behind him, leaving me alone in the massive bed.

Dawn light crept through the high windows, painting the black stone walls in pale gray. I stayed there for long minutes, breathing hard, feeling the mess between my legs. Slowly, I pushed myself up. My arms didn’t shake the way they should have after everything he’d done to me. I felt... stronger.

I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and stood. Warmth radiated from my skin, more than just leftover heat. I held my hands up in the growing light. That faint golden glow still lingered under my palms, pulsing softly like a second heartbeat. I rubbed my thumbs together. The glow didn’t fade.

“What the fuck is happening to me?” I whispered.

I walked to the tall mirror across the room. My reflection stared back, flushed skin, bite marks on my neck and shoulders, thighs shiny with evidence of last night. But my eyes looked sharper. My hearing picked up distant footsteps in the hallway that shouldn’t have been audible. And in my chest, something hummed. A steady pull. Warm. Alive. Connected.

The soul resonance.

I pressed a hand over my heart. “No. I can’t want this. I won’t.”

But the memory of his knot locking us together, the way his power had flowed into me... it felt like revenge wrapped in pleasure. Every time he fucked me, I stole a piece of the Unbreakable Sovereign. I could drain him slowly. Make him weak. Kill him the way he’d killed my cousins.

I smiled bitterly at my reflection. “Keep using me, bastard. See what it gets you.”

A knock sounded at the door. I barely had time to grab a sheet and wrap it around myself before three servants entered, the same ones from last night, plus two guards who stationed themselves outside.

The head servant kept her eyes down. “The king has given orders. You are to remain in the royal wing at all times. No leaving without his personal escort. Your chambers are now connected directly to his.”

I clutched the sheet tighter. “I’m a prisoner in a prettier cage. Great.”

She ignored my tone and gestured to the others. They carried in fresh clothes, more sheer silk, this time deep crimson, and trays of food. “You will be monitored constantly. Meals will be brought. Baths prepared. The king wants you receptive at all times.”

“Receptive,” I repeated, voice flat. “Meaning he’ll keep forcing heats on me until I’m pregnant.”

The younger servant from before glanced at me quickly, then away. “He seemed... different with you. More focused.”

I laughed, sharp and humorless. “Focused on turning me into his personal breeding hole. Yeah, real special.”

They set the food down and laid out the new silk. I didn’t move to change. Not yet.

The head servant continued, “He also left specific instructions. No more scent-masking medications. Your body is to remain natural. He will visit when he wishes.”

My stomach twisted. No more hiding. No more control over my own heat. Just endless days of waiting for him to walk through that door and take what he wanted.

I sat down heavily at the table, staring at the food. “And if I refuse? If I fight every time?”

The older woman finally met my eyes for a second. “Then it will hurt more. For both of you, I suspect.” She bowed slightly. “We will return later to prepare you for the evening.”

They left as quickly as they’d come. The door shut. The guards outside didn’t even try to hide their presence.

I pushed the food around for a while before forcing myself to eat. Strength mattered now. If I was going to drain him, I needed to stay alive long enough to finish the job.

The glow under my skin had faded but the warmth remained. My senses felt sharper, the distant clatter of servants in other parts of the palace, the faint scent of cedar and smoke that still clung to the sheets even after he’d left.

I closed my eyes and focused on that humming in my chest. The soul resonance tugged gently, like an invisible thread. I followed it with my mind, reaching outward.

There.

A clear sense of him. Across the palace, somewhere to the east. In a large room. Meeting hall, maybe. I could almost feel his presence, powerful, commanding, but just a fraction less overwhelming than yesterday.

My eyes snapped open. “No way...”

I stood up and walked to the window, pressing my forehead against the cool glass. The pull grew stronger. Not just awareness. Want. My body remembered how he felt locked inside me. My treacherous heart fluttered at the thought of him coming back.

I slammed my fist against the wall. “Stop it. He killed your family. He’s using you. Fight this.”

But the bond didn’t care. It whispered that he was mine as much as I was his. That the power I stole from him bound us tighter.

I paced the chamber, sheet trailing behind me. Revenge or surrender? Drain him dry and die with him when the bond breaks, or let myself fall into this twisted need?

The pull tugged again, stronger this time. He was moving. Heading somewhere else in the palace. And some sick part of me wanted to follow. Wanted him to walk through that door right now and pin me down again.

I sank onto the bed, breathing hard. “This is dangerous.”

The bond hummed warmer in my chest, calling me toward him across the distance. I could sense exactly where he was. And the worst part was how badly I wanted to go to him.

Even knowing what he was. Even knowing what I was becoming.