Chapter 9 Confrontation

SERENA POV

Why did everything have to turn out like this?

I had known pain my entire life, but this felt different. Heavier. Sharper. Like fate itself had closed its fist around my throat and decided to squeeze.

Jayden would never believe me.

He already hated me.

And I couldn’t blame him.

I had dreaded this moment since childhood, long before I ever met him. Long before I knew what love felt like. I had always known I would one day be mated to the king, that my life would never truly be mine. I had accepted it as my duty. As inevitability.

But this?

This was cruelty disguised as destiny.

The king wasn’t just my mate.

He was the one I had rejected.

The one I had wounded with my own mouth.

The one I had driven away with words sharp enough to kill m.

Goddess, give me strength.

I sat on the edge of the bed, my spine stiff, my hands clenched tightly in my lap. The room I had been assigned was massive, lavish, and suffocating all at once. Everything about it screamed royalty, silk drapes, carved stone walls, the faint scent of power embedded into the air.

This room was not an invitation.

It was a cage.

And it was on the king’s floor.

Artemis paced inside me, restless and tense, her movements sharp and agitated.

He’s close, she warned. Too close.

I felt it too.

The bond hummed low beneath my skin, uneasy and raw, like an old wound ripped open and left exposed. It didn’t comfort me. It didn’t soothe me.

It burned.

The sound of the door opening sliced through the silence.

I was on my feet instantly.

Every sense sharpened. My muscles tightened. My heart slammed against my ribs as if trying to escape my chest. I didn’t need to turn around to know who it was.

His presence flooded the room.

Heavy. Dominant. Inescapable.

“Oh,” Jayden drawled from behind me, his voice smooth and cold all at once. “You’ve started getting comfortable already.”

I turned slowly.

He stood just inside the doorway, tall and unyielding, dressed in dark royal attire that clung to his powerful frame like it belonged there. The crown was gone, but the authority remained, coiled tightly around him like a living thing.

This wasn’t the man I once knew.

This was a king.

I said nothing.

Silence stretched between us, thick and dangerous.

His gaze swept over me slowly, deliberately, as if assessing property. Not a woman. Not a mate.

Something owned.

Something he intended to break.

Then he moved.

One moment he was across the room. Next, he was in front of me.

I barely had time to react before his hand closed around my arm and yanked me forward. My back hit the wall with a sharp thud, the breath knocked from my lungs as he pinned me there effortlessly.

Stone pressed into my spine.

Jayden pressed into my space.

My pulse roared in my ears.

Artemis snarled, throwing herself against the bond, instincts screaming to fight, to claw, to defend. He is ours. He don’t get to hurt us.

But I didn’t move.

I refused to give him that satisfaction.

Jayden leaned closer, his forearm braced beside my head, his body caging me in completely. I could feel the heat of him, the overwhelming force of his presence, the sheer weight of his dominance crashing into me.

His eyes were cold.

“You think I chose you because you are my mate?” he asked softly.

His hand slid up, fingers hooking loosely at my throat, not tight enough to choke, but firm enough to remind me how easily he could.

“Or because I still have feelings for you?”

His lips curved slightly.

“If that’s what you think,” he continued calmly, “then you are mistaken.”

My breath came shallow, but I forced myself to meet his gaze.

“I chose you,” he went on, voice dropping, “so I can torment you.”

Each word landed with precision.

“So I can break you.”

Pain flared through my chest as the bond reacted violently, twisting and convulsing like it was being flayed alive. Artemis cried out, rage and hurt, bleeding together.

“I will make sure,” Jayden said, his grip tightening just enough to make my pulse jump, “that you regret who you are.”

I swallowed hard.

Then he leaned back slightly, his fingers trailing down from my throat slowly, deliberately, as if savoring the moment.

“You love status,” he continued, circling the words like a blade. “Power. Position.”

His eyes flicked to my face, sharp and knowing.

“So I will give you the title of queen.”

My heart sank.

“But you will never earn the respect that comes with it,” he finished coldly. “You will wear the crown, and they will smile to your face while they tear you apart behind your back.”

Artemis growled viciously.

He’s punishing us. He wants us to suffer.

Something hardened inside me.

I lifted my chin, even as my body trembled.

“You can do whatever you want,” I said, my voice steady despite the storm raging inside my chest. “But you will never break me.”

Jayden stilled.

“I won’t fall apart for you,” I continued quietly. “I am stronger than that.”

His eyes darkened.

For a moment, I thought he might strike me.

Then he smiled.

Slow.

Dangerous.

“Really?” he murmured. “Then let’s see.”

His hand lifted, fingers brushing my cheek, not gentle, not cruel. Possessive. Calculating. He leaned in, inhaling deeply, his nose brushing my hair, my neck.

The bond reacted instantly.

Heat surged through me. Artemis howled, thrown into chaos by his scent, stronger than ever, layered with Lycan power and something feral beneath it.

Zion was there.

I felt him then, unmistakably. His presence pressed against Artemis like a challenge, dominant and territorial, his wolf recognizing mine even as the man rejected me.

Mine, Artemis snarled helplessly.

Jayden pulled back abruptly, his jaw clenched, eyes blazing for just a second before the mask dropped back into place.

“Let the game begin,” he said coldly.

Then he turned.

And walked out.

The door closed behind him with a final, echoing thud.

My legs gave out.

I slid down the wall, my hand flying to my chest as pain ripped through me in violent waves. The bond throbbed, raw and furious, like it had been torn open all over again.

“Did I really just talk back to him?” I whispered into the empty room.

My heart pounded wildly.

Artemis crouched beside me inside my mind, breathing hard but resolute.

You did. And you should have.

Tears burned my eyes, but I forced them back.

He was our mate.

Our equal.

Even if the bond was broken, even if it was scarred and bleeding, it was still there.

I pressed my palm flat against my chest.

“I will endure,” I whispered. “Whatever he throws at me.”

I had spent my entire life obeying.

My parents.

My pack.

My fate.

But not him.

Not Jayden.

If he wanted war, he would have it.

I straightened slowly, forcing myself back onto my feet. My reflection in the mirror caught my eye, pale, shaken, but unbroken.

“I am not just anyone,” I said softly. “I am his other half.”

Artemis rose with me, her presence steady and fierce.

We will survive this.

And for the first time since the ceremony began, I wasn’t just afraid.

I was ready.