เข้าสู่ระบบPANDORAI glanced at him."You were terrifying when impatient.""You cannot know what you would have chosen.""Neither can you," Asterion said. "That is why tomorrow matters."The truth hurt. His refusal to soften it steadied me anyway.Faolan crouched beside the foundation. "Perhaps we would have followed you. Perhaps we would have left years later. Perhaps we would have returned."Every possibility should have belonged to them."I should have allowed you to choose any of those paths.""Yes," Asterion said.His gaze held mine."What would you have done if we refused?"The answer I wanted to give arrived easily. I would have accepted their decision. I would have ensured they possessed food, shelter, and enough coin to escape Crescent Ice without owing me anything.That was the answer of the woman standing among the ruins now.The girl who first found them had been different."I do not know," I admitted. "I might have continued offering reasons until your refusal sounded like agreement
PANDORAI awakened beneath the weight of two males who had apparently mistaken me for bedding.Faolan's arm remained locked around my waist. His face was buried against the back of my neck, each slow breath stirring the loose strands of my hair. Asterion lay before me with one hand wrapped around my wrist, his thumb resting over my pulse.Neither was truly asleep.The bonds betrayed them.Faolan's anxiety burned beneath a thin layer of exhaustion. Asterion's fear was colder, compressed so tightly that another person might have mistaken it for calm.Tomorrow night, those emotions would no longer enter me without permission.For years, I had treated the ability to feel them as proof that I understood them. Now I wondered how often I had mistaken access for knowledge.I shifted carefully.Two arms tightened."Rachelle instructed us to behave as though the bonds were not compelling us to remain together," I murmured.Faolan's eyes remained closed. "The bond is not making me hold you."Ast
FAOLANI froze."Euphyllia possessed a fated mate in every life," he continued. "I loved her while she stood beside them.""You remained near her?""When she permitted it. When she did not, I loved her from a distance.""You expected nothing?""I wanted her happiness. If any one of those males had cherished her as she deserved, I would have buried my feelings and been grateful that she was safe.""That sounds unbearable.""Watching her suffer was unbearable. Loving her was not."The simplicity of his answer unsettled me."You did not resent her for choosing them?""For trusting the bond the Moon Goddess gave her?" Lucretius shook his head. "No.""But they betrayed her.""And each time, I remembered too late to prevent it." His jaw tightened. "This life was the first in which I reached Euphyllia before death took the choice from her.""And she chose you."Warmth entered his gaze. "She did.""Because you waited?""Love is not a debt accumulated through patience, Faolan. This life did no
FAOLANPandora touched my cheek.I covered her hand with mine and pressed my lips against the center of her palm.I had prepared something irritating to say. Something that would make her narrow her eyes and threaten to remove a part of my body to which I remained rather attached.The words never came.Fear had settled too deeply inside her expression."When the bond disappears, do not listen to the silence," I murmured.Her thumb moved across my cheek. "What is that supposed to mean?""It will attempt to convince you that I have vanished.""I know you will be behind one door.""You know it here." I tapped one finger lightly against her temple. Then I lowered our joined hands between us. "Your body may not."Pandora's fingers tightened around mine."I will still be alive," I continued. "I will still be irritating Rachelle. I will still be wondering whether you are standing outside planning to break down the door.""I would not break it.""Of course not. You would remove it from the wa
ASTERION"A bond can keep someone near you," he said. "So can fear. Authority. A locked door. None of those things mean the person remained.""What made Rachelle remain?""I stopped trying to make the decision for her."Rachelle's hand moved toward his before stopping on the arm of her chair. The distance between them could have been crossed easily.Neither crossed it for the other.Choice existed even in something that small."You have heard your witness," Rachelle said. "Now answer without him."I faced her again."What if I sever the bond and Pandora chooses Faolan but not you?"My wolf snarled.Frost spread across the floor in a violent circle.Neither reaction changed the truth."Then she chooses Faolan.""And what will you do?""I do not know.""That is not enough.""I will grieve." My voice hardened. "I may require distance from both of them. But I will not punish either for a truth I asked to uncover.""What if she chooses you but not Faolan?"The possibility offered no relief
ASTERIONThe door closed.Pandora vanished.Not her body. Not her scent lingering upon my skin. Not the memory of her lips against mine.The place inside me where she had existed became silent.My wolf struck against my ribs.I reached for the door."She is alive," Claude said.My fingers stopped above the handle."I know.""Your body does not."I looked at the Alpha King.He had not moved to restrain me. He stood several steps away with his hands visible and his posture relaxed, as though he understood that touching me now would be interpreted as an attack.He was correct.Beyond the door, Pandora waited with Faolan, Euphyllia, and Lucretius. No enemy had entered the solar. No battlefield separated us. Rachelle's veil had silenced the bond without harming the woman connected to it.Facts.I arranged them inside my mind until instinct stopped insisting I break through stone to find her."If you cannot endure a temporary silence," Rachelle said, "you are not prepared for permanent seve







