Chapter 17: The Man Who Stole Her Blood

I opened my eyes to darkness, my head thumping with a dull, sickening ache. The air smelled of damp earth, old copper, and rust. I moved my hands, but a sharp, metallic screech cut through the quiet. Heavy chains bound my wrists to a stone pillar behind my back.

My breath hitched. "Reymond?"

Across the narrow cell, a shadow moved. The low, heavy rattling of steel echoed against the wet stone wall.

"I'm here," Reymond’s voice rasped from the dark.

He was suspended against the opposite wall, thick silver-reinforced chains wrapping around his forearms, chest, and waist. His dark shirt was torn, blood staining the fabric from the injuries he’d taken in the temple, but his eyes glowed with a dangerous, golden light. Even chained and bleeding, he looked like a caged monster waiting to break the iron bars.

"Are you hurt?" I whispered, my heart hammering against my ribs.

"I'm fine," he growled quietly. "Don't move too quickly. The iron in those chains is laced with wolfsbane. It’s draining your blood magic."

Before I could answer, a heavy iron bolt scraped open. The heavy prison door swung outward, flooding the dim stone cell with harsh, yellow light.

Aubert stepped inside. He had discarded his tactical vest, wearing a crisp tailored grey suit that looked entirely out of place in a damp dungeon. In his right hand, he carried a thick document bound in blood-red leather.

"Sleep well, Princess?" Aubert asked smoothly, stopping a few feet out of reach.

"What is this, Aubert?" I demanded, straining against the chains. The wolfsbane instantly scorched my wrists, burning like hot wires against my skin.

Aubert ignored me, turning the blood-red contract so the light caught the shimmering dark crest on its cover.

"This," Aubert said, holding up the document, "is an ancient blood-drain pact. A gift from the old territory archives." He looked at Reymond with a slow, toxic smile. "You see, Natalia, your royal blood doesn't just anchor an Alpha's power when given freely. If forced onto a contract, your blood acts as a chemical solvent. It strips an Alpha of his authority, leaving his wolf paralysed and hollow."

My stomach dropped. "You want me to sign it."

"I need you to sign it," Aubert corrected lightly. "Once your blood touches this seal, Reymond’s wolf is rendered completely inert. The Smith Syndicate falls into my hands without a single drop of blood spilled in the streets. And you, my dear Princess, become the decorative puppet queen who legitimizes my rule."

"I rather die than put my blood on that paper," I spat.

Aubert sighed, as if disappointed by a child. "I assumed you’d say that. Which is why your mother is currently sitting in the adjacent cell with a blade pressed to her neck. Sign the contract, Natalia, or I let my men bleed her dry right in front of you."

I froze, the air vanishing from my lungs. I looked at Reymond. His jaw was locked so hard the muscles in his neck were rigid, his silver-gold eyes burning holes through his brother.

"He's bluffing, Natalia," Reymond said, his voice flat and steady despite the lethal fury rolling off him. "If he kills your mother, he loses his leverage over the Walker loyalists. Don't give him your blood."

Aubert chuckled dryly, stepping closer to my pillar. "Am I bluffing? Ask my dear brother about leverage. Ask him how easy it is to betray family when the throne is on the line."

I frowned, the cold dread returning. "What are you talking about?"

Aubert pulled a slim data slate from his jacket pocket and tossed it onto the stone floor between Reymond and me. The screen lit up, displaying the chateau’s internal security logs from thirty minutes before our capture.

"The chateau's inner security grid wasn't breached from the outside, Natalia," Aubert murmured, leaning down so his face was level with mine. "Someone used Reymond's private access codes from his personal terminal in the study to lower the vault doors and disable the guards. The exact same private key that opened your family's estate seven years ago."

I stared at the glowing blue text on the floor. My throat felt like it was closing up.

"No," I whispered, my voice breaking. I looked across the room at Reymond. "Tell me it's not true. Tell me you didn't..."

Reymond didn't yell. He didn't offer a desperate lie or curse his brother. He just stared at me, his eyes dark, heavy, and completely unshielded. The absolute, agonized restraint in his face hurt worse than a confession.

"I won't beg you to believe me, Natalia," Reymond said quietly, his voice dangerously soft.

"I've made a thousand mistakes with you. But I did not open those doors."

"Touchingly poetic," Aubert mocked, snapping the data slate back into his pocket. "I'll give you one hour to think about your mother's neck, Princess. When I return, you sign the document, or we begin the execution."

He turned on his heel and walked out, the heavy iron door slamming shut behind him. The bolt clicked into place, plunging us back into the dim shadows. Silence hung in the cell, thick and suffocating.

A moment later, the door slid open a second time. But it wasn't Aubert. My mother stepped into the cell. She was unchained, her dark hair pinned back, wearing a clean silver cloak. Behind her, two grey-coated guards stood watch in the hallway, but she paid them no attention as she walked directly toward me.

"Mom?" I gasped, trying to pull against the iron. "Are you hurt? Did he"

"I am fine, Natalia," she said, her voice entirely too calm. She didn't look at my bloody wrists. She looked across the room at Reymond, her eyes cold and sharp.

"You knew," I realized, looking between them as the pieces spun in my head. "Seven years ago... you knew who Reymond was."

My mother let out a slow, heavy breath. "I knew he was the young Alpha of the Smith Syndicate. And I knew the old prophecies carved into the mountain."

"Why didn't you tell me?" I cried out, tears burning my eyes. "You let me think he was a random monster. You let me live in fear"

"Because I was trying to save you" my mother hissed, stepping closer to my pillar. "I knew what would happen if your blood mixed with his. I knew the blood seal would awaken. I kept the truth from you because I feared what you would become if you discovered he was your destined mate"

"You kept me in the dark to control me" I yelled back.

My mother stared at me, her expression flickering with something ancient and unreadable, a mixture of maternal fear and cold political calculation.

"I did what was necessary to keep the royal line alive," she said softly. "And if you want to stay alive, you will not give Aubert your blood."

She turned and walked out of the cell without another word, the iron door locking behind her once again. The silence that followed felt heavier than the mountain above us.

"Natalia." Reymond's voice was low, rough, and standing right in front of the quiet.

I leaned my head back against the cold stone pillar, staring at the ceiling, my eyes stinging. "Did you know? Before you found me in that diner seven years ago... did you know we were mates?"

Reymond shifted against his chains, the iron links groaning under his weight. "I knew our bloodlines were linked by the old treaties. I didn't know what it felt like until I touched your hand in that elevator."

"Why do you keep keeping things from me?" I whispered, my voice trembling. "Why do you always make the choices for both of us?"

"Because I was terrified," Reymond confessed.

I looked up, stunned by the raw, quiet admission.

Reymond was looking at me, his silver-gold eyes entirely bare. The ruthless Alpha, the syndicate leader, the apex predator, he looked completely human in the dim light of the cell.

"I spent seven years standing in the dark watching you," Reymond whispered, his chest heaving against the heavy iron bands binding him. "I watched you suffer, I watched you run, and every single day I hated myself for not dragging you into my arms. My desire to keep you safe got completely tangled with my fear of losing you."

He took a heavy, ragged breath, his knuckles white where his hands were bound.

"If it comes down to it, Natalia..." Reymond said, looking straight into my eyes with absolute, lethal sincerity. "If Aubert puts that blade to your throat, or your mother's throat, and demands you choose between your freedom and my life... choose yourself. Let him strip my wolf. Let him take my crown. Just stay alive."

A tear slipped down my cheek, hot and fast.

"You absolute idiot," I choked out, a shaky, wet laugh escaping my lips.

I pulled against the iron chains with everything I had left. The wolfsbane burned my skin, scorching my wrists, but I ignored the pain, dragging the heavy metal links across the stone floor as I leaned as far toward him as the bindings allowed.

"I'm not letting him take you," I whispered, my voice fierce and trembling. "I spent seven years running from monsters, Reymond. I'm not running away from you."

A strange, intense warmth flared between us, a quiet, electric thread of the blood seal pulsing gently in the dark, defying the wolfsbane in the iron. He looked at me, his jaw clenching as he strained forward against his own bindings, his eyes burning with a fierce, possessive tenderness that made my breath catch in my throat.

Before either of us could speak again, a high-pitched, deafening siren shattered the quiet of the dungeon.

Red emergency lights flashed on along the stone walls, bathing the cell in a bloody glow.

Explosions rumbled from the upper levels of the chateau, making the ceiling shake and raining dust down on our heads. Shouts and rapid gunfire echoed down the corridor outside.

The heavy iron door was thrown open. A syndicate guard rushed in, panting heavily, blood dripping from his tactical helmet.

"Alpha" the guard yelled in panic. "The outer gates are down, Mauris's main vanguard has breached the inner fortress"

Reymond’s eyes instantly ignited into blinding, molten gold.

A terrifying, guttural roar ripped from his chest, a sound so loud, so primal, that the very stone walls of the cell seemed to vibrate.

The heavy silver-reinforced iron chains binding his arms violently shattered, flying across the room and embedding themselves into the stone wall like shrapnel. Reymond stepped off the wall, his massive frame radiating a scorching, lethal heat as he tore the remaining iron bands off his chest like paper.

The guard backed away in sheer terror, dropping his rifle and running down the corridor.

Reymond didn't chase him. He stepped across the cell in two long strides, his claws extending with a sharp snick. With two clean, powerful strikes, he sliced through the heavy chains binding my wrists to the pillar, catching me smoothly in his arms before my weak legs could hit the floor.

"Can you walk?" he asked, his voice a low, vibrating rumble against my ear.

"I can fight," I panted, clutching his shirt as the fresh blood rushed back into my hands.

Reymond held me tight against his chest for one long second, his breathing heavy and hot against my neck, before setting my feet on the ground. He turned toward the door, his eyes scanning the smoke-filled corridor.

Then he stopped, looking back over his shoulder at me with an expression of pure, unadulterated gravity.

"Whatever happens next, Natalia," Reymond warned, his voice dead serious, "don't let them take you to the royal chamber."