MasukLucia POV Why is he fighting so hard to deny me?The silent, desperate question echoed through the hollow, bleeding chambers of my soul, repeating like a haunting melody I couldn't escape. What did I ever do to him? What unforgivable sin did I commit in this life or another to make him hate me so deeply? Why would he rather tear his own heart out than accept that I am his mate?I sat motionless on the freezing stone floor, staring down at my own crimson blood as it mixed with the spilled wine, pooling around my knees in dark, glittering ripples. The physical pain of the cut on my finger was nothing compared to the agonizing, raw destruction ripping through my chest. My throat felt raw, tight, and suffocating. The silence in the grand dining hall was thick, heavy enough to crush the breath right out of my lungs.Before I even noticed him moving, a heavy, warm presence settled beside me.I looked up slowly through the blur of my unshed tears, my breath catching in my throat. King D
Lucia POV “Me too, Your Majesty.”The words tore past my lips, laced with a raw, blistering heat I didn't know I possessed. My hands shook violently as I forced my fingers to sign in sharp, jagged motions, pairing every gesture with the breathy, agonized rasp of my broken voice.“I regret that day too! I regret every single second I spent breathing the same air as you in that hotel room! I regret it so much!”My chest heaved with ragged, hysterical gasps. The dam inside my soul had shattered, spilling over with weeks of accumulated humiliation, heartbreak, and despair. I didn't care anymore about the terrifying power of the Lycan King standing before me. I didn't care if he struck me again. The pain inside my heart burned so intensely that no physical blow could ever hurt me more.I spun on my heel, turning my back on the grand dining table, desperate to put distance between myself and the man who tore my soul to shreds every time he opened his mouth. I took two frantic, hurried
Lucia POV The heavy crystal decanter felt impossibly heavy in my trembling hands. The rich, dark liquid sloshed softly against the glass as I poured the red wine into the ornate goblet resting before King Damian. Every movement felt magnified under the oppressive weight of the silent, watching hall.Before I could even lower the decanter, a low, melodic chuckle broke the tension.It was Remo, the King’s striking younger brother. He leaned back in his high-backed chair, his sharp amber eyes sweeping over my kneeling form with an expression that mixed genuine astonishment and quiet intrigue. He tilted his head, looking between the formidable sovereign and my shattered, trembling frame.“How can a beautiful woman like her serve you as a common maid, brother?” Remo asked, his voice ringing smoothly across the obsidian dining table.My breath caught in my throat. A rush of hot blood flushed my pale cheeks at his unexpected words—beautiful. In a fortress where I had only ever been
Lucia POV After those final, merciless words left his lips, I didn't argue anymore.How could I? How could a fragile, mute omega—discarded by her own family, stripped of her dignity, and branded a fraud—dare to trade words with the absolute sovereign of the Lycan realm? He was a god among wolves, an apex predator whose very breath could order my execution, while I was merely a phantom haunting the fringes of his dark kingdom.I closed my eyes, letting my heavy eyelids seal in the bitter, scalding tears that threatened to overflow. I pulled my thin nightgown tightly around my shivering frame, laying my head back down upon the hard, unforgiving floorboards.Above me, the heavy wooden bedframe creaked softly as King Damian turned his back on me and laid down in his massive, fur-draped mattress. The bed was immense—vast enough to easily accommodate four people without their shoulders ever brushing. There was more than enough room for me to rest my exhausted, aching body besi
Lucia POV “Your Majesty… did you hear that?”My whisper was so thin, so fragile, it felt as though the frigid air in the room would shatter it into pieces. My fingers trembled against my collarbone, right over the raised, burning seal on my throat that still pulsed in a slow, agonized cadence.King Damian remained utterly frozen before me. His massive shoulders were rigid, his chest heaving under heavy, erratic breaths as he stared at me with silver eyes that churned like a tempestuous sea. But he said nothing. His silence was a wall of solid ice, thick and unyielding, built to keep out the very truth that was screaming through the mate bond between us.He didn't want to say it. He didn't want to admit that the divine threads woven by the Moon Goddess had tied his royal soul to a broken, mute omega.If he won't say it, I thought, a sudden, desperate flame flickering within the hollow chambers of my heart, then I will. I have to. I cannot keep surviving as a ghost in his shadow,
Damian POV A savage, blood-curdling roar tore through the dark, suffocating depths of my mind. It wasn't human. It was ancient, wild, and utterly merciless.My wolf was thrashing against his cage, his claws tearing at the walls of my subconscious, threatening to rip my mind to shreds.I clamped my jaws shut, locking my teeth so tightly my gums bled. I squeezed my eyes closed, fighting with every ounce of my formidable alpha strength, refusing to open them to the darkness of the room. I refused to look at the fragile, quiet shadow lying on the freezing floor.‘Mate!’ my wolf bellowed, his voice vibrating through my skull like thunder over a battlefield. ‘She is our mate! She carries our crest! Why are you punishing her?! Why are you letting our female suffer on the bare stone?!’Shut up, I snarled back into the mental void, my soul battling itself. I don't believe it. I will never believe it. She can never be my mate. She is an intruder—a weak, useless omega dumped at my feet by a







