Chapter 1

 

Some betrayals destroy your heart. Others awaken the monster sleeping inside it.

 

The first time I smelled my mate on my sister, I was standing outside the room where they planned to destroy my life.

Lucien's scent clung to her like a second skin—cedarwood, winter smoke, and the sharp, intoxicating spice that had haunted my dreams since the night I turned eighteen.

My mate.

My sister's lover.

I stood frozen in the corridor, one hand pressed against the cold stone wall, while laughter drifted through the half-open door.

"You're certain she suspects nothing?" Evelyne asked.

Her voice was soft. Sweet. The same voice that had comforted me through childhood nightmares and promised me, a hundred times, that she would never let anyone hurt me.

Lucien chuckled.

"Seraphina suspects whatever she's told to suspect. She's an Omega, Evelyne. Give her a kind word and she'll mistake it for devotion."

Something inside my chest cracked.

I should have left. I should have run before they saw me, before the fragile little world I'd built around my mate bond collapsed completely.

Instead, I moved closer.

Through the narrow opening, I saw them standing beside the fireplace. Lucien's hand rested on my sister's waist. Her fingers traced the gold embroidery on his black ceremonial jacket, the uniform of the Ashford royal bloodline.

The same jacket he'd worn when he promised me that no one would ever come between us.

"When the council announces the engagement tomorrow," Evelyne murmured, "she'll be devastated."

"Let her be devastated."

He kissed her.

I covered my mouth to smother the sound that escaped me.

My wolf whimpered somewhere deep inside my soul. She was young, timid, and painfully accustomed to being unwanted. Even now, she wanted to believe there was an explanation. That perhaps this was a mistake, a cruel illusion created by the stress of the approaching royal ceremony.

But there was no mistake.

Lucien's hands were on my sister.

And Evelyne was kissing him as though she'd been waiting her entire life for the privilege.

"Once I'm crowned Alpha King," Lucien said against her lips, "your family will have everything it deserves."

Evelyne pulled away. "And Seraphina?"

His expression hardened.

"She has her uses."

My fingers curled against the stone.

"What uses?" Evelyne asked.

"Her bloodline."

A strange silence followed.

Then my sister laughed nervously. "She's a weak Omega. There's nothing special about her."

"That's what everyone believes. The council has other ideas."

Lucien crossed to the mantelpiece and lifted a small black box. Inside lay a silver dagger etched with symbols I couldn't read.

"Tomorrow, she will be presented before the High Council. They'll test her blood, confirm the bond, and then we'll have our answer."

"And if the rumors are true?"

His smile made my stomach turn.

"Then she won't survive the ceremony."

I stumbled backward.

The floor creaked beneath my heel.

Inside the room, both voices stopped.

"Who's there?" Lucien demanded.

I ran.

I ran down the corridor, past the portraits of dead kings and the towering windows that overlooked the frozen gardens. My lungs burned. My heartbeat thundered so loudly that I could barely hear the guards shouting behind me.

I didn't stop until I reached the servants' staircase.

Then I collapsed against the wall and pressed both hands over my mouth.

Tomorrow.

They intended to kill me tomorrow.

And the man who had sworn to love me was going to help them.

A door opened below.

"Seraphina?"

I looked up.

My mother stood at the bottom of the stairs, her face pale beneath the candlelight. For one foolish moment, relief flooded through me.

She would help me.

She had to.

"Mother." I hurried down the steps, grabbing her hands. "I heard Lucien talking to Evelyne. They're planning something. The council wants my blood, and he said I might not survive tomorrow."

Her gaze flickered toward the upper corridor.

Then she gently removed my hands from hers.

"Come with me."

There was something in her voice that frightened me more than Lucien's threats.

I followed her through a narrow passage and into the old family chapel. The candles had burned low, leaving the room heavy with the smell of melting wax and damp stone.

My father was waiting beside the altar.

So was Evelyne.

She had changed into a white dress.

For several seconds, I couldn't move.

My sister's eyes were red, but her chin was lifted. She looked less like a girl caught betraying her sister and more like a queen preparing to receive her crown.

Lucien emerged from the shadows behind her.

My mother closed the chapel doors.

The lock clicked.

I stared at them all.

"Tell me this isn't what it looks like."

No one answered.

I looked at my father. "Please."

He turned his face away.

That was when I understood.

They had known.

Perhaps not every detail, perhaps not the exact moment Lucien would betray me, but they had known enough to prepare for it. My family had stood by while the man I loved plotted my death, and now they had brought me here to finish what he'd started.

Evelyne stepped forward.

"I'm sorry, Sera."

"Don't call me that."

Her lips trembled.

"I didn't want it to happen this way."

"Then how did you want it to happen? With a knife in my back? Or would you rather wait until I'm asleep?"

"Enough," my father snapped.

The sound echoed through the chapel.

I flinched before I could stop myself.

He noticed. Of course he noticed. He had spent my entire life teaching me that a raised voice meant I had done something wrong.

"You will listen carefully," he said. "The royal bloodlines have maintained peace for centuries. Tomorrow's ceremony is necessary for the survival of our house."

"By killing me?"

"By fulfilling our obligation."

"What obligation?"

His silence answered me.

Lucien approached, his expression almost sympathetic.

"Seraphina, I know this is difficult for you to understand."

I laughed.

It was an ugly, broken sound.

"You were in bed with my sister."

"Your sister understands what it means to rule."

"And I suppose betraying me is part of her royal education?"

His jaw tightened.

"The bond between us was a mistake."

A strange pressure built behind my ribs.

The mate bond.

I had felt it since the moment our eyes met three years ago—a silver thread connecting my heart to his, growing stronger with every promise, every touch, every whispered declaration of love.

Now I could feel him tearing it apart.

"Look at me," I whispered.

He did.

"Tell me you never loved me."

For one heartbeat, something uncertain crossed his face.

Then it disappeared.

"I, Lucien Ashford, heir to the Ashford bloodline, reject Seraphina Vale as my mate."

The bond snapped.

Pain exploded through my chest.

I fell to my knees, choking on a scream. It felt as though invisible claws had hooked into my heart and ripped it from my body. My wolf howled, a sound of such unbearable anguish that the candles trembled in their holders.

Lucien's scent vanished from my soul.

And with it went the last foolish piece of me that still believed I could be loved.