로그인Seraphina's POVThree years I'd been married to Ezra Caine, and the last time he'd touched me was the night we were forced together.He'd tried a few more times after that first night, reaching for me in the dark with stiff hands and a clenched jaw, but every single time his body would lock up before he got anywhere close.After a while, he stopped trying and moved to a separate room without a word, and three years passed with a closed door between us every night.Today was the annual pack gathering, and the great hall was packed with wolves from allied packs who'd been flooding through Blackthorn's gates since dawn. I'd been helping with preparations since before sunrise because that's what the Beta's mate was supposed to do, even if nobody had bothered to include me in the planning."Sera!"Octavia's voice rang across the hall, and I turned to find her gliding toward me in a deep red gown with her hair pinned up in silver."There you are. I've been looking everywhere." She stopped i
Seraphina's POVThey 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 cer
Seraphina's POV The next thing I heard was shouting.My head felt like it was stuffed with wool, heavy and foggy and wrong in a way I couldn't explain. I tried to open my eyes but the light was too bright, stabbing through my skull like needles, and my body wouldn't move the way I wanted it to.Where was I?The shouting got louder with voices I didn't recognize, footsteps pounding down a corridor, someone yelling about the Beta's chambers.I forced my eyes open and the world swam into focus slowly. This wasn't my room. The ceiling was too high, the bed was too soft, and the sheets tangled around my legs were silk instead of the rough cotton I was used to.I tried to sit up and realized two things at once.My dress was gone and I was wearing nothing but my thin underthings, and there was a man's arm draped across my waist.Panic slammed through me so hard I couldn't breathe. I shoved the arm away and scrambled backward until my back hit the headboard, staring at the person beside me.
Seraphina's POV I don't remember hitting the floor.One moment, the Luna's hand was connecting with my face, and the next I was on my knees with my cheek pressed against a cold stone and the taste of blood filling my mouth. My ears were ringing so loud I barely heard her footsteps walking away or the door opening and closing as she returned to the celebration.I stayed curled up in that dark corridor for a long time, my back bleeding and my face throbbing while the distant sound of music and laughter drifted through the walls. The whole pack was celebrating my sister's future while I lay broken on the floor, and not a single person came looking for me.Eventually I dragged myself back to my room, putting one hand in front of the other until I collapsed onto my bed.That night, I woke up screaming.Pain ripped through my chest like someone had reached inside and grabbed hold of something I didn't even know existed, tearing it out piece by piece. I couldn't breathe or think or do anyth
Seraphina's POV "Pull tighter." Octavia's voice cut through the silence. "The fabric is slipping."I adjusted my grip and pulled until my arms shook, stretching the burned skin across my shoulders until I felt more blisters pop beneath my dress. She watched me struggle with that satisfied little smile, waiting for me to cry out or beg for mercy, but I kept my face blank and gave her nothing.The fitting dragged on for another hour, Octavia finding excuse after excuse to make me hold difficult positions while my back screamed and bled. By the time the Luna finally dismissed me, my arms were trembling so badly I could barely open the door, and I made it all the way to my tiny bedroom in the servants' wing before my legs gave out.I lay there on my thin mattress with my ruined back pressed against the rough sheets, letting myself feel how much I hated them. My mother, who treated me like dirt. My sister, who smiled while I suffered. My father, who looked through me like I wasn't even th
Seraphina's POV I couldn't think past the fire eating through my skin. The pepper was still working into the raw flesh, and I could feel blisters forming where the worst of the heat had hit.If I had a wolf, I would already be healing. The pain would fade in minutes and the burns would close up like they'd never existed. But I didn't have a wolf. I was the only one in my family, maybe the only one in the entire pack, who had nothing inside her. No beast, no power, no connection to the Moon Goddess who blessed everyone else.I was a black sheep born into a family of wolves, a stain on a perfect bloodline. The burns on my back would take weeks to heal because whatever was supposed to make me whole had never bothered to show up."I said get up." The Luna's shoe connected with my ribs, and I cried out as fresh pain exploded through my side. "Two minutes. If you're not in that dressing room when I arrive, you don't eat for a week."Then she swept out of the kitchen with Octavia floating b







