10. No Rights.

Cain.

I hesitated, just for a moment, just a tiny breath but it felt like an eternity.

Her words still hung in the air, trembling between us like something fragile and ugly at the same time:

“Then…reject me.”

Hearing it spoken aloud was different.

It lodged in my chest like a splinter.

Wasn’t that what we should have done from the very beginning?

Wasn’t that what we had talked about?

What we wanted?

Yet the moment those words spilled from her lips, a sharp ache cut through my chest, unexpected, stabbing, wrong.

My wolf recoiled, restless and uneasy.

I stared at my brothers, and for a heartbeat, I caught the same flicker of discomfort across their faces, the tightening of Cypril’s jaw, the sudden tension in Caleb’s shoulders, the slight widening of their eyes.They felt it too. The pain and yet the pull. The instinct telling us something was off.

We masked it immediately, straightening our backs, hardening our expressions, pretending the moment hadn’t rattled us.

Pretending we were unaffected.

I forced myself to meet Melissa’s eyes head-on, ready to unleash the words that would sever her from our lives…

But before the sound could escape my mouth, something shifted against my side.

Amelia slipped gracefully out of my arms and turned to face me, her delicate fingers brushing my chest as if silently asking permission to speak.

“Cain,” she said softly, her gaze gentle but firm, “I think you shouldn’t reject her just yet.”

The room stilled.

“She was just whipped,” Amelia continued, voice trembling as though she ached for her sister. “I’m not sure she can withstand the pain from the bond-breaking process.”

Relief slammed through me so fast I almost staggered. A silent exhale left my lungs. My clenched fists loosened.

Why? Why did relief flood me?

Why did every part of me resist the thought of cutting her away completely?

I swallowed tightly, unable to name the feeling twisting in my chest.

It was clear, I loved Amelia. She was the girl I had wanted, the one who fit the Moon Goddess’s design for my future… the one who had always been there.

But Melissa…

So why did rejecting her suddenly feel like tearing out a part of my soul?

Cypril’s voice sliced through the tension.

“Who told you you have the right to order us around?” he snarled at Melissa, eyes dark and cold.

The bitterness in his tone made the maids flinch. Melissa’s trembling legs finally gave out. She collapsed to her knees, her body folding like she no longer had the strength to hold herself upright. The sound of her hitting the floor echoed like a verdict.

She lifted her head slowly, tears tracking silently down her battered cheeks.

“Please,” she whispered, voice raw, “reject me already. Free me from this bond.”

Free me.

Her words were a knife, twisting deeper than the first plea had. A cry for release that stirred something I didn’t want to acknowledge.

“Shut up!” The roar tore out of me before I even realized I had spoken.

The walls trembled with the force of it.

Melissa flinched violently, shrinking further into herself.

“Do you really think you can have things your own way?” I spat, stepping closer, feeling my wolf surge with dominance and confusion I couldn’t name.

I turned to Amelia—my anchor, my choice, the familiar warmth in the chaos.

“We’ll let you go for now,” I ground out, my voice thick with unspoken frustration, “so you can heal…for the sake of Amelia.”

I could feel my brothers stiffen but neither contradicted me.

“We will talk about this again once you’ve recovered.”

The implication hung heavy, rejection hadn’t been canceled, only delayed.

With that, I spun around and stormed out of the room, needing space, needing air, needing anything that didn’t smell like her blood and tears and the unbearable truth that rejecting her might hurt us too.

Who the hell does she think she is?

The words crashed against the walls of my skull, clawing their way up my throat, desperate to rip free. I wanted to scream it, bellow it at the top of my lungs until the entire universe heard me but I swallowed it down like poison. My jaw tightened until it ached, my teeth grinding together in a clenched, silent fury.

I forced a breath in, then out, slow, steady, and barely controlled.

‘What exactly is wrong with me?’ I demanded of myself bitterly, dragging a hand through my hair with so much force my scalp stung. The motion did nothing to calm the storm inside me. If anything, it only stirred it more.

I should have rejected her the second she stepped close. I should have walked away before she opened her mouth. I should have never allowed this ridiculous mess to even begin.

“Arrrrrrrrrghhhh!!!"

I knew all these things, every one of them pounded through my head like a drum, but somehow, knowing didn’t change anything. I still stood there, caught, trapped, stuck in the tangled web she spun around me.

My lungs felt too small for the air they were trying to hold. My chest tightened painfully as frustration burned like fire along every nerve in my body. The air from the wind only made it worse, every passing second felt like a taunt.

My fists curled slowly at my sides until my nails dug into my palms. I could almost feel blood, hot and bright, threatening to bead at the surface, but I didn’t loosen my grip. The pain grounded me. Held me together.

“I will make you pay for making me feel like this, Melissa…” I roared inwardly, my voice silent but vicious. “You will pay for every single second.”

My breaths came sharper now, each one laced with anger and humiliation and something dangerously close to longing, something I refused to name. She had no right to get under my skin like this. No right to twist my thoughts or steal my control.

No right at all.

And yet she did.