The jealousy trap

KAIA VELEN POV

Rafe's execution happened at sunset on the day of the trial.

I didn't watch. I stood in the moon temple with Senna and the other females, and we felt the moment he died through some connection I didn't fully understand. The darkness that had been pressing at the edges of the pack lands lifted slightly. Not gone. But diminished.

Damien came to find me after, and he looked hollowed out. Not grieving—I don't think he had it in him to grieve for Rafe anymore. Just tired. Like he'd been carrying a weight for so long that he'd forgotten what it felt like to be light.

I held him in the darkness of the temple, and we didn't speak.

---

By the third day after the execution, the compound was almost back to normal.

Warriors trained in the grounds. The council met regularly. Damien worked with the healers to help the remaining females integrate into the pack. Life was finding its rhythm.

That's when I heard the rumor.

It came from a female warrior named Lysa, who was helping me clean weapons in the armory. She said it casually, like it wasn't information that would destroy me.

"Did you hear?" she asked. "The messenger from the Northern Territories came by last night. Damien's negotiating with their Alpha. Apparently, they have a potential alliance if he's willing to prove his commitment."

"What kind of commitment?" I asked, not looking up from the sword I was sharpening.

"A bonded mate trade," she said. "They want to merge the packs through marriage alliance. Damien gives up you, takes their female, and the packs become stronger together."

The sword fell from my hands.

"He wouldn't," I said.

"Probably not," Lysa said, shrugging. "But that's what I heard. Figured you should know."

She left, and I stood in the armory with every nerve ending screaming.

No. No, that couldn't be true. Damien had just marked me. He'd completed the bond. He'd stood in front of the entire pack and claimed me. He wouldn't just turn around and trade me away for political advantage.

Would he?

I thought about the conversation I'd overheard last week. About Damien talking to Councilor Chen about pack alliances. About how fragile his position still was. About how many warriors still didn't fully trust him.

What if marrying the Northern Territories' female would secure his position? What if keeping me would actually weaken the pack?

What if he'd realized that having a cursed mate was more of a liability than an asset?

The panic started in my chest and spread like poison.

---

I found Damien in his quarters—the Alpha's chamber that was now his by right.

He was at a desk covered in documents, and he looked up when I entered. His expression shifted from concentrated to concerned in half a second.

"Kaia? What's wrong?"

"Are you trading me?" The words came out sharp. Cutting. Like I was accusing him of murder.

"What?" He stood up immediately. "Where did you get that idea?"

"A messenger from the Northern Territories. A female warrior told me. You're negotiating a bonded mate trade. You're going to give me up for a political alliance."

I watched his face go through several expressions—confusion, realization, then anger.

"That's not what's happening," he said.

"Then what is happening?" I demanded. "Because I heard you talking to Councilor Chen about alliances. I heard you talking about needing to solidify your position with the pack."

"Yes. I'm trying to solidify my position. But not by getting rid of you." He moved toward me, and I stepped back. "Kaia, listen to me—"

"No. I'm done listening." The rage was building now, and it felt almost familiar. This rage. This sense of betrayal. "I gave up everything for you. I burned my entire life down. And now you're going to give me up like I meant nothing?"

"That's not what's happening," he said again, and his voice was patient in a way that made me want to scream.

"Stop lying to me!" I shouted. "Just be honest. You realized I'm a liability. You realized that having a cursed mate is worse for the pack than having a political alliance. You realized—"

He grabbed me.

His hands came up and gripped my upper arms, and he pulled me close enough that I could see the gold in his eyes burning like fire.

"I am not trading you," he said, and his voice was the voice of an Alpha. Absolute. Undeniable. "I love you. I marked you. You are *mine* in every way that matters. And if the Northern Territories has a problem with that, they can go fuck themselves."

"Then what alliance are you negotiating?" I asked, but my anger was already deflating. Already being replaced by something worse—hope mixed with shame for not believing him.

"The Northern Territories Alpha has a daughter," Damien said, and he was still gripping my arms like he was afraid I'd run. "She's seventeen. She's cursed like you—she has Moonfire. She's been exiled from her own pack. The messenger came to ask if she could find sanctuary with us."

Oh.

Oh no.

"You're taking in another cursed female," I whispered.

"I'm offering her sanctuary," he corrected. "Like we offered it to the others. But the Northern Alpha is testing us first. He wanted to see if I'd be willing to give up my own mate for political gain. If I would, he knows his daughter isn't safe with me."

I felt the shame bloom across my chest like a stain.

"So when I refused," he continued, "when I told the messenger that my mate is non-negotiable, that she's the strongest person I know, that she's the only reason the pack has survived—he agreed to send his daughter. He agreed that a leader who would protect his mate would protect his daughter."

He released my arms and stepped back.

"I wasn't trading you," he said quietly. "I was proving I would never trade you. And apparently, I needed to do that for you to believe it too."

I couldn't speak for a long time.

I just stood there in his chamber and felt every awful assumption I'd made crash down on me. Felt the guilt of not trusting him. Felt the weight of my own insecurity that had let me believe, for even a moment, that he would give me up.

"I'm sorry," I finally said.

"Don't apologize," Damien said. "Just tell me why you believed it. Why, after everything, you thought I would choose political advantage over you."

I sat down on the edge of his bed because my legs wouldn't support me anymore.

"Because I've been betrayed before," I said quietly. "Because Rafe chose his ego over Lyra's life. Because I've learned that people don't choose love when power is on the line. And because I've never felt like I was worth keeping."

Damien knelt down in front of me, and he took my hands.

"You are worth keeping," he said. "You are the most valuable thing in my entire world. And I'm going to spend the rest of my life proving that to you, even if I have to do it a thousand times over."

He kissed my palms, and I felt the Moonfire in my chest settle. Felt the panic finally ease.

"The Northern Alpha's daughter," I said. "What's her name?"

"Iris," Damien replied. "She'll arrive in a week. She's scared. Angry. Broken in ways that I think only you can understand."

I nodded slowly. "Then we'll take care of her. Together."

He pulled me close, and we sat like that for a long time—just holding each other in the darkness of the Alpha's chamber. And I made a silent promise to myself that I would work on this. On the part of me that still believed I wasn't worth keeping. On the part of me that couldn't quite accept that love could be unconditional.

Because Damien had just proved it was.

---

Later that night, we lay in bed, and Damien traced the marking scar on my neck.

"I need to tell you something," he said.

"Okay."

"There's been another messenger. From the western territories. There's a growing alliance of packs that are opposed to cursed females. Opposed to what we're doing here. They see it as a threat."

I felt the peace of the evening shatter.

"What do they want?" I asked.

"War, probably. Or at least, they want to negotiate our surrender. They think that if they can remove you from the pack, make an example of you, they can stop other packs from harboring cursed females."

"So we have another enemy," I said.

"Yes."

"And they're coming."

"Probably."

I looked at him in the darkness, and I realized that the victory against Rafe hadn't actually ended anything. It had just delayed the real fight. The fight between those who accepted power and those who feared it.

"Then we'll be ready," I said.

He kissed my forehead. "We will."

But I could feel the weight of what was coming settling onto my shoulders. The peace was temporary. The sanctuary was fragile. And somewhere out in the darkness, darkness was indeed gathering.

Just like Rafe had promised.