LOGINLeo’s POVMy wolf didn’t care about clocks or guests. It only cared about the warmth of her skin beneath mine.I caged her in again, pressing her back into the sheets. I needed to feel her under me one more time.I needed to burn away the scent of every other male who ever dared to look at her…or even think about going near her.“Mine,” I growled, the word rough and possessive.She gasped, the exhaustion in her eyes melting into the same fire that burned through me. Her legs wrapped instantly around my waist as I leaned closer. She didn’t have to say yes…her body was already screaming it.This time, I was heavier. I was in control. I took her mouth first, devouring what little resistance she had left, biting and tasting the sweetness of her lips again. I moved fast…no thought, no hesitation…only instinct. My hands gripped her hips, tilting her just right, preparing for the deep, punishing thrust I craved.“I need you to feel how you drive me insane,” I said, voice low and thick. I did
LEO’S POVIt had been three days since that meeting, and the memory still clawed at me like a wild animal. It felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest, slow and agonizing. I had agreed. After so much deliberation, so much back and forth with Shina and my beta, I had finally said yes. Ivy would train. She would prepare for this damn war Shina was so obsessed with. But my consent came with iron chains. I will train her myself. I will prepare her. And on any battlefield, she stands next to me at all times. No space. No distance. Goddess forbid I lose her again.The thought of losing her made the air in the room turn thick and cold. I had almost lost her once already, right in front of me, when that monster of a sister had left her unconscious for a while. That memory was a poison that seeped into my every action. I rarely gave her space. When she sits, she’s on my lap, her weight a comforting anchor against the storm in my head. When she used the restroom, I didn’t wander o
DINA’S POVI stumbled out of the storm and into a lonely path, the trees closing like shutters around me. The moon cut a cold scar through the branches. I screamed at it until my throat burned.“Moon Goddess!” I spat into the white, “whoever blessed this world with mate bonds, I curse you. I curse the wound you sewed between chests. You made the strongest men soft because of the damn bond. How divine! How original!”My voice broke on the last word. For a long second I just stood there, chest heaving, the scream faded into the night. Anger rolled through me like a fever. The image of Malrik…his smirk, his mate clinging to him…burned behind my eyes. I had pictured him as a weapon. The perfect distraction for Leo Ashton. Instead, he listened to a soft voice and turned his back on the blade.Coward.I hit the ground hard. The dirt bit my palms. I let the cold crawl under my skin and I laughed…a short, empty sound. It cannot end this way, I told myself. It will not.All hope was not lost
DINA’S POVThe moment I appeared at my destination, I stretched my body.I made my way quietly past the wolves. They bared their teeth at first, low and cautious, but they cowered when I turned toward them. They could sense the danger rolling off me. One wrong move and I would turn them into animals for good.“Get me your leader…Malrik,” I said as I stabbed my staff into the ground. My robe snapped around me with the wind I summoned, a show of power. I meant for them to feel it…the cold, the anger and rage.Chaos erupted. Men who had been lounging on crates jumped to their feet. Rogues gathered, their disgusting scent filling my nose. They formed a ring and started circling me, bodies pressed into a tight guard. Attack stances. Hands on the ground, ready to shift. Faces hard and hateful.“I said get me Malrik!” I bellowed. The ground answered with a sudden shake. People stumbled and cursed. Children screamed. The ring tightened.Malrik appeared not long after, stepping out like he own
Dina’s POVI float through the trees, my feet barely brushing the leaf litter, anger coursing through my throat threatening to burst out into a scream. The forest breathes slowly around me, but everything inside is loud…raw and dangerous. Shina’s face won’t leave me…her eyes cut through me like a persistent blade.Why won’t she just die…or give up?!By the time I reached the cave mouth, the moment had already hardened into something I could use. I stepped into the dark and the forest closed behind me.The cave smelled of damp stone and old secrets. I pressed my palm to the wall and let the cold bite into my skin until it steadied my shaking fingers. I had no time to waste on what that useless brat has failed to do. Not after Shina. Not after seeing her stand there with that small, dangerous smile, like she’d always known how to take what I wanted.I should have killed her when we were younger. Now I’m paying for that mistake.Lila’s stubbornness reminded me of myself. Everyone used
Leo’s POVShina’s suggestion about using my Ivy hit me like a fist. My chair rasped against the floor when I stood…both of them stared as if I’d lost my mind, as if I had betrayed them by my sudden refusal.“Your majesty,” Shina said, voice tight with certainty. “It’s the only way to finally free the kingdom from Dina’s darkness…she’s terrified of what your mate could become. She’s terrified of what being bound to you has already turned her into.”The room shrank to the hollow of my throat. Ivy’s face pushed into my head…small, brave, whole in that fragile way she always was after the worst. The idea of bending her into drills and battle plans, of forcing her to practice violence for a war she never asked for, made the air thin and metallic.We will beat Dina. We have to. But not like this. Not by turning the woman I love into someone else’s weapon.Make Ivy endure more trauma? No. Not for anything.The denial ripped out of me like a roar. My chair screeched against the stone floor as







