Malik Is the Real Cost

By morning, the mate bond still hurt every time I breathed too deeply. I stood beside Malik's bed at St. Mercy and pressed two fingers against the sore place in my chest. Apparently, humiliation came with overnight delivery.

"Good morning to you too," I told my brother.

Malik did not answer. He had not answered me in eleven years. I pulled the chair closer and sat beside him. The nurse had already changed his water cup and adjusted the blanket over his legs. His breathing sounded the same as yesterday. The monitor beside him showed the same steady numbers I had learned to check without thinking.

That was the thing about Malik's room. I knew what normal looked like here. Normal was not good. Normal was just familiar.

I reached for his hand. "You missed a very educational night. I learned that the Moon Goddess has terrible taste in men. I also learned Crown Pack can fit an impressive number of cruel people into one ballroom. Very efficient use of space."

My voice sounded almost normal. That lasted until I looked at his face.

"Tyler Moore is my mate," I said. The joke left me. Malik stayed still.

"Was my mate. Maybe. I don't know what to call him right now. He rejected me in front of everyone. Then he ordered me to accept it like he was handing me paperwork."

My chest tightened again. I stopped talking and waited for the pain to ease. I could still hear the laughter from the Moon Assembly. I could still hear Tyler saying he would not put a fat woman beside the Crown.

I rubbed my thumb over Malik's knuckles. "I said no." That part helped.

"Not to being rejected. He already did that. I said no to helping him finish it just because he told me to."

I looked down at Malik's hand in mine. "You would have liked that part."

For years, people had talked around Malik as if silence meant absence. I hated that. He was still my brother. Even when he could not answer, I talked to him like he was in the room because he was.

The door opened behind me. I turned. One of the nurses stepped in holding a thin white envelope.

"Janiah?"

"That's me. Unfortunately."

She gave me a small, tired smile, then held out the envelope. "The account office asked me to give this to whichever family member came in this morning."

My stomach tightened before I even took it. "What happened?"

"I only know what's on the notice. There is a payment authorization issue on Malik's account. They need the responsible family contact to update it."

I looked at the first page. The words OVERDUE ACTION REQUIRED sat near the top. Under family financial contact was my father's name.

Raymond Cross.

I read the page again. "This isn't normal," I said.

The nurse waited.

"His account doesn't usually come to the room like this."

"You can call the number at the bottom or speak to the account office downstairs. I don't want to tell you more than I actually know."

Good. I liked people who did not invent answers. I pulled out my phone and took pictures of both pages.

"Is his care changing today?"

"Nothing on my side says that. The notice is asking for action before the account review date."

I found the date. Too soon. My bond pain suddenly felt less important.

Tyler had humiliated me. Raymond's name on Malik's notice could affect someone who could not walk away from the problem himself. That was different.

"Thank you," I said.

After the nurse left, I put the notice in my bag and leaned toward Malik. "New plan. I deal with Dad's paperwork problem before it becomes your problem. Then I deal with the prince who thinks rejecting me means he still gets to give me orders."

I squeezed Malik's hand once. "One disaster at a time. I'm trying to become organized."

I stood, but I did not leave immediately. "I'll fix this," I said. The words came out quieter than the jokes had. I meant them more.

Outside St. Mercy, I stopped near the entrance and opened the pictures again. Raymond's name was still there. So was the review date. I started typing the account-office number into my phone.

All of a sudden, the phone buzzed hard in my hand. I flinched and nearly dropped it.

A Crown Pack notification filled the screen.

MATE REGISTRY STATUS NOTICE.

I stared at it. For one second, I considered swiping it away. Then the bond pulled inside my chest, sharp enough to make me suck in a breath.

"Fine," I muttered. "Let's see what fresh nonsense this is."

I opened the notice. The first line identified me and Tyler Moore. The next lines were worse.

Verbal rejection recorded.

Acceptance of rejection: not recorded.

Mate bond status: fractured, pending completion.

I read that part twice. Pending.

So walking away from Tyler had not ended anything. I had known the bond was not fully severed, but I had not known Crown Pack would turn that unfinished bond into an official status before I even got through the next morning.

I kept reading. A temporary review had been requested because the rejection involved the direct Crown heir.

Requested by: Tyler Moore.

My grip tightened around the phone. He had rejected me because I did not look right beside the Crown. Now he was using the Crown to keep the rejection from being finished on my terms.

I forced myself to read only what the notice actually said. It did not say Tyler owned me. It did not say I had to go back to him. It did not explain how much the review could stop.

It gave me one thing I could use. An appointment.

Crown Bond Administration Office. That afternoon.

Attendance required for review of pending mate-severance status.

I took a screenshot. Then another, because trusting one copy of anything connected to Crown administration felt like asking to be disappointed professionally.

My phone still showed the unfinished number for Malik's account office underneath the notice. Two problems. One was my brother's care. The other was a prince who had rejected me and still found a way to put his name between me and the exit.

I looked at the appointment time again. If Tyler wanted the Crown involved, fine. I would go to the bond office and find out exactly what he had tried to stop me from doing.

The notice refreshed.

TEMPORARY MATE-STATUS HOLD ACTIVE PENDING REVIEW.