CHAPTER 6

Seraphina's POV

They married us that same night in a cold room off the main corridor where a half-asleep officiant mumbled words over two people who didn't want to be there. No white gown, no flowers, no music, just my father with his arms crossed and his eyes fixed on the wall above my head while my mother wore the same look she'd had when she poured boiling soup down my back.

Octavia dabbed at her eyes with a silk handkerchief and leaned into her new Alpha husband like she needed him to hold her up, playing the perfect wounded sister while I stood there in a borrowed dress that didn't fit.

Ezra hadn't spoken to me since we woke up in that bed together. He stood beside me like a statue, and when the officiant asked if he would take me as his mate, the silence stretched so long I forgot how to breathe.

"I will."

The officiant closed his book and announced that the bond would be completed tonight, and my stomach dropped because everyone in that room knew what those words meant. The ceremony was just paperwork. The real mating happened when he pushed inside me and sank his teeth into my neck, marking me as his forever.

We left for Blackthorn before the sun came up, and Octavia floated over to say goodbye with that poisonous smile on her face. She pulled me into a hug that looked tender from the outside while her nails dug into the burns still healing on my back.

"I hope he makes you so happy, Sera." Her breath was warm against my ear. "You two deserve each other."

I bit my tongue until I tasted blood and climbed into the carriage without looking back.

Hours passed in silence with Ezra sitting across from me, his arms crossed and his eyes fixed on the window like I didn't exist. I spent the whole journey trying not to think about what was waiting at the end, but my mind kept circling back to it anyway. His hands on my body. His teeth in my neck. His weight pressing me into the mattress while I lay there and took it.

"I don't think you planned it."

I jumped so hard I nearly hit my head on the carriage roof, and when I looked up, Ezra was finally looking at me with his head tilted like he was trying to figure something out.

"Someone drugged us both and made sure we'd be found together, and that takes planning and resources." His eyes narrowed just slightly. "You don't have either."

"You believe me?"

"I believe someone set us up, but I don't know if you were in on it or not."

I opened my mouth to tell him it was Octavia, that my own sister had smiled while she handed me the poison, but the words died in my throat because he was Alpha Vaelorin's Beta and his loyalty would never belong to me.

The carriage rolled through Blackthorn's gates as the sun was setting, and the massive fortress rose up against the sky in front of us.

Ezra's chambers had a bed big enough for six people draped in dark fabric, and I couldn't stop staring at it because that was where it would happen.

"Bathe first if you want." He was already turning away. "I'll wait."

The hot water did nothing for the knot in my stomach, and I scrubbed until my skin was raw before drying off with shaking hands. The robe hanging by the door was thin enough to see through, and when I came out wearing it, Ezra was standing by the window with his jacket gone and his sleeves rolled up past his elbows.

"Come here."

My feet carried me across the room until I was standing close enough to feel the heat coming off his body, and when he turned to face me, we just looked at each other for a long moment.

"If we don't finish the bond tonight, the whole pack will know and your position here will be impossible." His voice came out rough and strained. "I'll try not to hurt you."

Then his hand came up to cup my face, his palm warm and rough against my cheek, and he kissed me.

It started slow with his lips brushing against mine, and when his tongue traced the seam of my mouth, I opened for him. He tasted like wine, and when he deepened the kiss I felt heat building low in my stomach. His fingers slid into my hair and tilted my head back so he could take more, and I let him because this was my duty now.

His hands found the tie of my robe and tugged it loose, and the fabric slipped off my shoulders and pooled at my feet. Cool air rushed over my bare skin and made my nipples tighten into stiff peaks, and when he pulled back to look at me, I heard his breath catch.

"You're beautiful."

He kissed me again, harder this time, his hands gripping my waist and pulling me flush against him so I could feel the hard ridge of him pressing into my belly through his pants. Heat pooled between my thighs at the proof that he wanted me, and when his mouth moved down my neck and his teeth grazed the spot where his mark would go, I gasped and grabbed his shoulders to keep myself standing.

We stumbled toward the bed in a tangle of mouths and hands, and when my back hit the mattress, he followed me down without breaking the kiss. His weight pressed me into the soft sheets, solid and warm, and I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer because my body was starting to respond even if my heart wasn't in it.

He kissed down my chest and closed his mouth around one nipple, sucking hard enough to make me cry out. My back arched off the bed and my fingers dug into his hair, holding him there while he licked and sucked until I was panting beneath him.

He switched to the other breast and gave it the same attention, his tongue swirling around the sensitive peak while his hand slid down my stomach, lower and lower until his fingers brushed between my thighs. When he felt how wet I already was, he groaned against my skin.

"Good girl." The words came out as a low growl that vibrated through my breast. "That's it. Let me feel you."

He stroked through my slick folds and spread the wetness around until everything was hot and sensitive, and when his finger found that swollen bundle of nerves at the top, my hips bucked hard against his hand. He rubbed slow circles that made my toes curl and my thighs fall open wider, and I was moaning now, actually moaning, my body chasing something I didn't fully understand.

My skin was on fire and my breath was coming in short gasps and I could feel something building inside me, coiling tighter and tighter with every stroke of his fingers. I wanted more. I needed more. I needed him inside me, filling me up, making me feel something other than empty for the first time in my life.

He pulled back to strip off his clothes and I lay there panting, watching him reveal himself inch by inch. His chest was all hard muscle and his stomach flat and ridged, and when his pants came off, I saw the thick length of him standing stiff and ready.

He was big, bigger than I'd expected, and I felt my inner walls clench around nothing at the thought of him pushing inside me.

"I'll go slow." He must have seen something on my face because his voice softened. "Just relax for me."

He settled between my spread thighs and I felt the blunt head of him pressing against my entrance, hot and hard and slick with my arousal. I held my breath and braced myself for the push, for the stretch and the burn, for my body to finally be claimed by the man the law said I belonged to.

He didn't move.

His arms were trembling where they braced on either side of my head, his jaw clenched so tight it looked painful, and his eyes were squeezed shut like he was fighting something I couldn't see. His whole body had gone rigid above me.

"Ezra?"

"I can't." The words came out through gritted teeth like they were being ripped from his throat. "I'm trying, but something won't let me."

He pulled away so fast the cold air hit my wet skin like a slap, and before I could process what was happening, he was across the room with his back to me and his hands braced on the windowsill.

I lay there with my legs still spread and my body still throbbing, the place between my thighs aching and empty where he should have been.

"What did I do wrong?"

"Nothing." His shoulders heaved with each breath. "Every time I try to push forward, something stops me. My wolf won't let me have you, and I don't know why."

I pulled the sheet up to cover myself even though he'd already seen and touched and tasted everything.

"I don't understand."

"Neither do I." He grabbed his pants from the floor and pulled them on without looking at me. "But I can't force something that isn't there."

When he finally turned around, his face showed nothing at all.

"I'll give you the respect you're owed as my mate and the Beta Female of this pack, but I can't give you anything more."