MasukI watched Amelia dress for the council meeting with equal parts pride and concern. Less than twenty-four hours had passed since she'd snapped Lysander's neck in the arena, yet here she was, insisting on returning to royal duties as if yesterday had been nothing more than a minor inconvenience. The bruises from the challenge had already faded to yellow shadows on her skin, but I knew the wolfsbane's poison had taken a toll her body was still recovering from. When I suggested she rest another d
I ran through the city with tears streaming down my face, my bare feet slapping against cobblestones still cool with morning dew. The streets were mercifully empty; too early for merchants, too late for night owls, leaving me free to run without witnesses to the Queen’s breakdown. I’d left the palace with nothing but the thin robe clutched around my body, my hair wild around my face, my mind still echoing with the memory of Sera’s voice. Of my hands around Lukas’s throat. Of the moment I’d nearly killed the man I loved.“I nearly killed him,” I gasped to the empty street, the words tearing my throat raw. “I nearly killed Lukas.”Athena stirred beneath my skin, her copper presence a warm counterpoint to the ice in my veins. She pushed forward, offering strength, offering comfort, but even she couldn’t drown out the horror of what had happened. I’d been riding Lukas, my body joined with his in the most int
I stood on the palace steps, bare feet cold against the stone, my chest heaving from the desperate run through the corridors. Dawn light crept across the grounds, painting the trees in pale gold, but there was no sign of Amelia, no flash of copper hair, no slight figure hurrying toward the forest.I’d lost her.The woman who meant everything to me had run because she’d nearly killed me, and now she was gone.Behind me, footsteps pounded against marble, then gravel. I turned to find Dominic and Nico racing toward me, both of them flushed and breathing hard. Nico carried a thick robe, which he thrust toward me with a bow that managed to convey both respect and concern.“My King,” he said, his voice pitched low. “What’s happened?”I pulled the robe on with quick movements, grateful for the warmth despite the urgency of the situation. I glanced at the guards positioned at the bottom of the steps, their eyes car
One moment, Amelia was moving above me, her emerald eyes dark with need, her breath coming in desperate pants as she rode me toward climax. The next, she froze, her body suddenly rigid despite the pleasure that had been consuming her seconds before. Her eyes lost their focus, pupils dilating until only a thin ring of green remained, her lips parting on what might have been a gasp or a silent scream. I knew that look, had seen it before when Sera had invaded her mind. But this time, we were joined physically, my cock still buried inside her, my hands on her hips, our bond wide open from three days of desperate claiming.“Amelia?” I said, my voice sharper than I’d intended. “Amelia, what’s happening?”She didn’t answer, didn’t even seem to hear me. Her body remained perfectly still above mine, her inner walls clenching around me with rhythmic pressure that had nothing to do with pleasure and everything to do with whatever b
I woke to the grey light of the fourth morning of my heat, my body aching in places I hadn’t known could ache, my skin sensitised to the point that even the brush of the sheets against my thighs sent shivers of pleasure through my core. Sleep had come in fragments, brief respites between desperate couplings, between Lukas’s knot and my body’s demands for more. My throat felt raw, my hair a tangled mess across the pillow, yet beneath the exhaustion lurked that same, impossible hunger that had consumed me for three days straight. I needed him. Again. Still. Despite everything my body had already endured.My limbs felt leaden as I turned my head, copper hair sticking to my sweat-dampened neck. Lukas slept beside me, his profile etched in silver by the pre-dawn light. A thin sheen of sweat still glistened across his chest, my teeth marks visible on his shoulder, his collarbone, his lower lip. Three days of claiming and being claimed had left their marks on both
I cried out as Lukas stretched me, my body opening to his with a pleasure so intense it bordered on pain. He filled me completely, my inner walls clenching around him as if trying to keep him inside forever. My head fell back against the pillow, copper hair spread beneath me as I moaned his name, my voice breaking on the syllable. I needed more… harder, faster, deeper… my body and mind consumed by a hunger I’d never experienced before.“More,” I gasped, my nails digging into his shoulders as he held himself above me, his ice-blue eyes dark with need. “Please, Lukas, I need more.”He nodded, the movement barely perceptible before he began to move. His pace was perfect, each thrust hitting that spot inside me that sent sparks of pleasure racing up my spine. My back arched, my body rising to meet his with desperate urgency. I wrapped my legs tighter around his waist, trying to pull him deeper, to take all of him at once.
I froze the moment her scent changed, a new note of sweetness breaking through her familiar fragrance of copper and pine. My nostrils flared, lungs filling with the intoxicating aroma that set my blood boiling in my veins.Heat.My mate’s first heat.Ares surged forward with such force that I nearly staggered, his golden presence flooding my consciousness with a single, overwhelming demand: claim, mate, breed.Amelia doubled over, her breath catching in a pained gasp that echoed in my ears like thunder. Her copper hair fell forward, hiding her face, but I didn’t need to see her expression to know what was happening. Every instinct in my body screamed with recognition.“You need to go,” I managed, the words emerging as nearly a growl. My eyes remained fixed on Amelia, on the curve of her back as she fought through the first wave of her heat.“My King?” Nico’s voice, questioning from somewhere behind m
We left the library together, our earlier conflict not forgotten but set aside in favour of the unity we both knew was necessary. The corridor stretched before us, guards and servants bowing as we passed, their eyes carefully averted from the lingering tension between their King and Queen. I watc
The attendants fluttered around me like nervous birds, adjusting my dress, fixing my hair, dabbing more powder on my face until I wanted to sneeze. This morning marked a month since Lukas and I had claimed each other in private, our mutual marks causing scandal throughout the kingdom. Today, we w
I guided Amelia back up the aisle, her hand resting in the crook of my arm as we made our way through the ancient grove. The ceremony had gone exactly as we'd planned—our matched vows, our declaration of equality, the official recognition of her as Alpha Queen rather than Luna. Her crown caught t
I studied the handwritten notes spread across Lukas's desk, guest lists and ceremonial protocols mingling with security reports and interrogation transcripts. Three days since my first council meeting, and we'd settled into a strange rhythm, planning our commitment ceremony in the mornings, inter







