Chapter 40

Commander Jace Corowa

The heat from the approaching flames was unbearable. The freezing rain turned into thick clouds of steam before it could even touch the ground. The Vanguard archers had surrounded the entire hedge maze. From the other side of the fire, I could hear the sound of hundreds of crossbows being prepared to fire.

Holden had ordered them to kill everyone inside.

The royal court wanted the abomination destroyed. They wanted her burned to ashes so nobody would ever discover the Empress’s shameful secret.

But I didn’t care about the empire anymore.

All I could think about was the broken girl shaking in my arms.

Elouera.

For three years, I had made her life miserable at the military academy. I had pushed her into the mud, broken her ribs during training, and forced her to keep running until she coughed up blood.

I had always told myself it was necessary. Prince Elian was weak and sickly, and I believed she needed to become stronger if she wanted to survive the cruel politics of New Avalon.

I told myself I was only doing my job as Vanguard Commander.

But that was a lie.

My Alpha instincts had sensed something different about her from the moment she stepped onto the training grounds. I hated seeing other cadets touch her. I couldn’t rest whenever she was sent out on night patrols.

For three years, I had convinced myself that my strange, violent obsession with the thin, fragile royal heir was nothing more than a need to protect her.

I had been blind to the truth staring me in the face.

Elouera wasn’t a prince.

And she wasn’t an ordinary Omega either.

Her head fell weakly against my arm. The poison Holden had put into her body was reaching its most dangerous stage. Her skin was burning hot, and she struggled to draw each breath. Her chest rose and fell in short, painful gasps.

Beneath the torn remains of her linen bindings, I could feel her heart beating irregularly. Each beat grew weaker, and the frightening pauses between them grew longer.

Three minutes.

If I couldn’t stop the poison from destroying her body within three minutes, she would die right there in the mud.

“Look at me,” I ordered.

My voice came out rough and deep, so strained that my throat hurt.

Her heavy eyelids slowly opened. Her feverish eyes met mine, but the stubborn defiance she had always shown me was gone.

There was no anger left in her expression. No strength to fight me.

Only fear and the desperate need for the pain to stop.

I moved my hand to the back of her neck, running my fingers through her wet hair.

There was only one way I knew to save her.

I had to bite her and inject my Alpha venom into her bloodstream. It might shock her failing organs back into action and bring her dangerous heat under control.

It was supposed to be an emergency measure. Nothing more than a temporary mark to keep her alive until I could fight our way out of the maze.

I lifted her higher, pulling her body firmly against my tactical vest.

Then I bent my head toward her neck, searching for the weak pulse beneath her skin.

I could feel time running out.

And I wasn’t going to let her die in my arms.

My nose brushed against her burning skin.

For the first time that night, the smell of smoke, blood, and burning fuel disappeared beneath something else. For one brief moment, I caught her true scent.

Wild honey. Crushed wildflowers. The sharp smell of a thunderstorm just before lightning strikes.

I stopped breathing.

It felt as though a sharp blade had been driven into the back of my head. Everything around me the roaring fire, the shouting guards, and the freezing rain suddenly went silent.

My pupils widened until my eyes were almost completely black. Every muscle in my body became stiff, leaving me unable to move.

This wasn’t just an Omega going through heat.

Something inside me had finally found what it had been missing all my life. Her scent matched mine perfectly, like two pieces of a puzzle coming together.

The wild Alpha inside me, the one I had spent my entire life trying to control, suddenly broke free.

It didn’t just wake up.

It roared inside me, so powerful that I dropped to my knees without even realizing it.

Mate.

The word appeared in my mind, and I couldn’t deny it.

She was my mate.

The realization was both beautiful and terrifying.

I was a bastard from the outer colonies. I had grown up on the streets, fighting my way through life until I earned a place in the military through violence and sheer determination.

I had no family name worth mentioning. No powerful relatives. No royal blood running through my veins.

And yet, fate had chosen to bind me to a girl born into the imperial family.

A royal girl who was being hunted, broken, and pushed to the edge of death.

If I marked her now, it wouldn’t be a temporary solution. The bite would create a permanent bond between us, tying our souls together for the rest of our lives.

She would be bound to a commoner like me. Her future would change forever, and she might never get the peaceful life she deserved.

But if I refused to mark her, she would die in less than sixty seconds.

“Elouera,” I whispered.

My voice cracked, and it sounded so different that I barely recognized it myself.

Her small, trembling hands moved weakly across my trench coat. Her fingers desperately gripped the leather straps of my armor as she tilted her head back, exposing her neck to me.

She was offering herself to the same man who had made her life miserable for three years.

To save her, I would have to change her life forever. I would have to bind her to a Vanguard killer who might never be able to give her the future she deserved.

A broken sob escaped my chest.

I couldn’t waste another second.

My jaw opened, and my canines grew longer until they were sharp enough to pierce her skin. I lowered my head into the curve of her neck and sank my fangs deep into her flesh.

She screamed.

Her sharp cry echoed through the night, but I couldn’t pull away. I held her tightly against my chest as her body struggled in my arms.

Then the mate bond struck us both.

The moment our bond was formed, I felt something powerful rush through her blood and into my chest. A blinding golden light seemed to explode inside me.

Her power surged into my body, bringing her failing heart back to life. At the same time, I felt our minds connect, creating a bond that neither of us could escape.

It was the most beautiful and painful thing I had ever experienced.

But the moment our bond became permanent, something else happened.

The golden warmth inside my mind suddenly changed. A strange, ancient power began to awaken inside Elouera’s blood. It was something far greater than her Omega nature, something that had been hidden beneath the poison burning through her body.

I felt it through our new bond, and for the first time, I understood that I had no idea who I had just claimed.

Before I could pull my fangs away from her neck, the thirty-foot wall of fire surrounding us disappeared.

The flames didn’t slowly die out or move aside.

They were suddenly extinguished by an enormous burst of magical power.

A deafening boom shook the courtyard.

I immediately lifted my head, blood running down my chin, and pulled Elouera behind me, shielding her with my body.

Through the smoke and falling ash, I saw a figure standing in the courtyard.

The Empress herself.

Fifty Vanguard executioners stood around her, their crossbows raised and pointed toward us.

But the Empress wasn’t looking at me.

Her eyes were fixed entirely on my blood-covered mouth.