One Word

DRAVON'S POV

‘In nine hundred years of ruling, I had never once been caught off guard. Leave it to the moon goddess to ruin my record with a half-dead stray from a pack too small to appear on my maps.'

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I have forced my claws deep into throats and watched men choke on their own blood.

I have watched wolves beg for their lives and elders sweat during snowy seasons.

I have watched councils that dragged into the early hours and blood that didn't wash out of stone easily.

I had sat through all of it with the same expression. Cold and unbothered because nothing had ever genuinely surprised me.

Until today.

My alpha wolf had been snarling since the moment her scent hit the chamber. I had struggled to keep a straight face throughout the entire meeting, despite the elder's voice, the guard's report, and every second of it. Then, I made the mistake of letting them wake her up.

One breath.

That was all it took.

The moon goddess, apparently, had decided that humiliating me was her greatest achievement.

I released her throat the moment I saw her face had gone white…pathetic, I threw her to the ground.

Creating some distance, enough space to scan her body.

Wretched, soaking and pathetic.

Such humiliation to be called my mate. My Luna.

From a pack so insignificant that I had never bothered to locate it on a map. Felt the mate bond roaring through my chest like something I hadn't asked for and didn't want.

I hadn't felt helpless in my nine hundred years of ruling Valdrakon.

I grabbed the crystal decanter, vintage and imported from the eastern vineyards, worth more than her entire forgotten pack, and didn't pour.

I threw it.

It shattered at her feet, glass scattering across the stone floor in every direction, sharp pieces finding her skin one by one. Blood welled slowly, dripping onto the ground piece by piece.

Her face was covered in fear and tears, her body pressing against the wall like she could disappear through it if she tried hard enough.

The moon goddess wanted a stray beside me.

Fine.

She would have to earn it.

This was just a welcome performance.

Seraphina from Ironmoor.

Argh…..

My wolf stirred inside the bond still pulling up still giving a constant reminder.

Glaring sharply at her I leaned in, grabbing her throat again.

“You…”

She bit me.

Her teeth sank into the meat of my thumb, sharp and desperate. She released, begging, fighting, tears and sweat streaming down her face, apologising even as she scrambled backwards over broken glass.

"Kill me if you must," she gasped. "Don't make my death slower."

For a moment I paused, a rebellious one.

Watching her drag her body back slowly, she’d be thinking I didn't notice. For some stupid reason I wasn't sure yet. I allowed her to do her worst.

I watched her hand find the small knife on the floor.

I watched her fingers close around it. I watched her raise it toward me with shaking arms and wild eyes and the particular desperation of someone who had decided that dying on their own terms was better than any alternative currently available.

The moment she raised the blade with shaking hands towards me I grabbed the blade directly…foolish of me, but I was more concerned by the amount of confidence than my dripping flood from the blade cut.

That remorse look came almost immediately her grip on the handle loosened involuntarily.

I threw the knife aside.

"Impressive."

She stared at me, her almond eyes piercing through, her damp hair falling directly at her face…. striking something deep in me I hate to admit.

Her cleavages were clean and fair, I could spot her nipples through the rag dress.

She stared at me without blinking once.

I gripped her by the waist, turned, and slammed her back against the wall. Pressed forward until there was no distance left between us and she had nowhere to look except directly at me.

Her breathing had gone completely wrong. Her wolf was doing something I could feel without trying to… pressing forward, responding, recognising something her mind was still refusing to catch up to.

I leaned in.

Close enough that she stopped breathing again.

"I don't know what you are yet," I said quietly. "But until I decide, you will earn your place here."

I pulled back.

Gripped the back of her neck and walked her to the door. I opened it. Released her into the corridor where three guards and the head maid were waiting with the particular stiffness of people who had heard everything and were pretending they hadn't.

I looked at the head maid.

"She cleans."

"Every chamber. One after the other. Until I send for her again."