Chapter 6

Tara’s POV

The word had barely left my mouth.

“Mate.”

It hung there so thick in the air and heavier than the blood on my tongue or the throbbing bruises beneath my skin. I knew the second I said it that I had messed up. Again.

Ethan didn’t speak. He didn’t have to. His silence screamed louder than any roar. His breath came in short, sharp bursts, chest rising with restrained fury. And I felt it his rage   like a tide crashing down on me. His power made the very air quake.

Then his hand was on me.

He shoved me away so violently I nearly hit the ground again, but I caught myself just in time, staggering back, my cane clattering uselessly behind me.

“What gave you the right to say that?” His voice wasn’t just angry. It was disgusted.

“I… I’m sorry…” I said as I lowered my head. 

“Sorry?” he snapped. “That word doesn’t fix anything. You don’t speak unless I command it. You don’t breathe unless I allow it.”

“Yes, Alpha.” I nodded quickly, heart racing, stomach hollow. 

His boots pounded closer. I could feel the warmth of him, the heat that always seemed to crawl under my skin, like a sickness I couldn’t cure.

“You blind, sniveling stain. You dare call me mate in front of others? In front of my soldiers? In front of rogues?”  he growled.

I said nothing.

Because I knew better.

Because anything I said would only feed his fury.  I had made that mistake before. The bruises hadn’t faded from the last time.

“I should have let them tear you apart,” he continued, his tone a venomous whisper now, more dangerous than his shouts. “Would have saved me the shame.”

Shame. That’s what I was to him.

A curse. A mistake.

I wanted to disappear. Not just from this garden, not just from this castle but from the entire world. My chest hurt so badly it felt like my ribs might cave in on themselves.

“Go back to your quarters. And don’t make me see your face again tonight.”

I turned without a word, the fabric of my thin dress brushing against my broken skin. My cane was somewhere behind me, but I didn’t dare stop to retrieve it. I walked blindly, relying on the faint heat signatures and familiar stone beneath my feet.

Tears welled in my eyes again. But I wouldn’t cry.

Not until I was alone.

By the time I reached the maids’ quarters, my legs were shaking, and my head was spinning. The world tilted with every step, and the weight of his voice still pressed against my skull.

I pushed the door open and collapsed onto the floor, too tired to move, too sore to breathe. My body ached everywhere my ribs, my shoulder, my pride. But worst of all… my heart.

Why did he hate me this much?

What sin did I commit to deserve this fate?

I didn’t ask for him. I didn’t want to be mated to a monster. The goddess gave him to me, and I bore the weight of that chain like a collar around my neck. Every day. Every hour.

I curled into myself, pulling my knees to my chest.

He saved me only to spit venom. Protected me only to punish me. I didn’t understand him. One moment, he was pulling me out of the fire, the next, he wanted to burn me himself.

Was this the mate bond everyone spoke of? This torment?

No.

This wasn’t a bond. This was slavery with a scent of fate.

I don’t know how long I lay there.

The night passed slowly. My bedmate didn’t return probably busy cleaning up after the rogue attack. I welcomed the silence. I needed the space. I needed to breathe.

Eventually, I forced myself to sit up. My face was stiff from dried blood. I couldn’t tell where the bruises ended and the shame began. But I knew I had to clean up. If the guards saw me like this, they’d beat me again for being an eyesore. For breathing.

There was a small tin of water near the corner. I used it to wash my face in the dark, the coolness numbing the sting for a moment. My fingers trembled as I wiped away the last drops of blood.

A knock sounded on the door.

I froze.

The knock came again, sharper this time.

I quickly straightened up and forced my voice steady. “Yes?”

The door creaked open, and a tall shadow stepped in. I didn’t recognize the voice until he spoke.

“You are summoned. The king requests your presence in the main wing.”

My stomach dropped.

Now? After all that?

“I...” My voice caught in my throat, but I quickly found it again. “Yes. I’ll come.”

The door shut. I stood still for a second, fighting the wave of nausea climbing up my throat. My knees were still weak, but I grabbed the nearest rag to cover my arms and hurried down the hallway. I didn’t want to be late. That would only make it worse.

The halls were quiet, but there was tension in the air like the castle itself was holding its breath after the rogue invasion. I passed the burned tapestry near the east wall and smelled the blood that hadn’t been fully scrubbed away yet.

At the door of Ethan’s chamber, two guards waited.

“He’s inside,” one grunted. “Don’t speak unless spoken to.”

I nodded and stepped through.

The room was dimly lit, a single fire crackling near the back wall. Ethan stood near the window, half in shadow, his broad shoulders rising and falling as if he had just finished yelling at someone or himself.

I bowed low, head down. “You summoned me, Alpha.”

Silence.

Then, slowly, he turned.

“I did.”

I didn’t move.

“Do you know why?”

I hesitated. “No, Alpha.”

“Because I want to know how.”

A pause.

“How… what, Alpha?”

He was in front of me in a second. One hand gripped my chin, jerking my face up to his. His eyes searched mine, blazing with fury and something I didn’t understand.

“How did you see back there?” he hissed. “I stripped you of that power. I bound your eyes with a spell so deep even witches couldn’t touch it.”

I tried to look away, but his grip was too tight.

“I I didn’t know they were working again,” I whispered. “I only saw light. Shapes. Heat…”

“You’re lying.”

“I swear I’m not.”

His hand released me roughly, and I stumbled back.

“You’ve been hiding it,” he said. “You think I wouldn’t notice the change in you? That I wouldn’t smell your fear shift to courage?”

“No, Alpha. I would never ”

“Silence.”

I shut my mouth, trembling.

“You’re becoming something... Something you weren’t supposed to. Something dangerous.” he muttered as he was pacing now. 

Dangerous?

I couldn’t even defend myself without falling.

But I didn’t say that.

He ran a hand through his dark hair and turned back to me.

“I should kill you.”

The words weren’t shouted. They were quiet. Cold. Deadly.

“I should end you right here and now. Rip out your throat and be free of this curse.”

My mouth went dry. I waited. If death was coming, I would take it without begging.

“But I won’t,” he said after a long pause. “Not yet. Because I need answers. And you’re going to give them to me.”

I didn’t understand what he meant, but I knew better than to ask.

“You’ll stay in the north tower for now,” he said. “Under guard. You’ll eat what you’re given. Speak when asked. No more wandering around like a stray.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

“And if I see you step out of line again…”

His voice dropped to a whisper.

“…I’ll finish what I started earlier.”

Then he turned away, dismissing me like I was nothing.

And maybe I was.

But as I left the room, one thought curled in the back of my mind like smoke.

He didn’t kill me.

And that meant something was changing.

In him.

Or in me.