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PROLOGUE

SERENA POV

I didn’t scream. I didn’t cry. I didn’t even collapse the way my body begged me to.

Despite all the pain, suffering, torment and agony I am going through right now. It hurts so much that I feel like dying.

I stood there, frozen in the shadowed corridor of the palace, my hand pressed hard against my chest as pain tore through me like claws ripping flesh from bone.

The mate bond was screaming. Burning.

Breaking. Fading. I tasted blood.

Not from my mouth, but from my soul, it's bleeding every second.

Every breath felt like knives in my lungs. Every heartbeat sent another wave of agony crashing through me, sharp and merciless.

 I had felt pain before. I had endured rejection, humiliation, heartbreak and all kinds of suffering. But nothing felt like this—This was different.

This was betrayal carved directly into the bond itself. Artemis was howling inside me, her pain so violent it nearly drove me mad. He’s hurting us, she cried. Our mate, he’s with another. He’s breaking us.

“No,” I whispered, my voice barely sound. 

“No… this isn’t happening.” 

But the bond didn’t lie. It never did. I felt it all. The intimacy. The connection. The unmistakable sensation of my mate touching another woman. Claiming her. Choosing her. Having sex with her.

My knees finally gave way, and I slammed my hand against the cold palace wall to keep from collapsing. The marble burned under my palm, but it was nothing compared to what was happening inside me.

I followed the pain. Every step toward the source of my agony felt like walking into my own execution. It was as if shards of glass littered the floor beneath my feet, slicing into me with each step, punishing me for moving forward, yet I couldn’t stop.

The door was slightly open.

Light spilled through the crack.

And then I saw him. Jayden. My other half. My mate. My king.

His back was to me, powerful and bare, his head bent toward the woman beneath him. Her pale skin glowed in the candlelight, her silver hair spilling across silk sheets. Aira the dragon princess.

Her arms were wrapped around him.

Her mouth was on his skin.

And the bond, our bond, confirmed it.

This was real. This was happening. The pain exploded.

I staggered back as if struck, my vision blurring, my chest convulsing violently. Artemis screamed, a sound so raw and broken it echoed through my bones.

He chose her, she sobbed. He chose her over us. He betrayed us. “No”

I pressed my fist against my mouth to silence the sound clawing its way out of me. If I screamed now, I would shatter.

If I confronted him, I would collapse. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think.

All I knew was that whatever fragile hope I had carried, whatever foolish belief that our love might survive anger, and that we are fine already, had just been obliterated.

This was no misunderstanding.

This was a Betrayal. A Rejection. Again.

Only this time, it wasn’t with words. It was with flesh.

I turned away before he could see me.

Before the bond destroyed me completely.

I ran.

Barefoot through the palace corridors, ignoring the burning in my lungs, the blood trailing down my arm where my nails had cut into my skin. Servants called out in shock. Guards stared. No one stopped me. Perhaps everyone in the royal pack must have sensed it.

A queen being born. Or a mate being destroyed. By the time I reached the gates, the night air hit my skin like ice. The moon hung high above the kingdom, cold and indifferent, watching as I crossed the boundary that had once meant everything to me.

I didn’t look back.

Not at the palace.

Not at the throne.

Not at the man who had broken me.

The bond writhed violently, screaming for me to return, to fight, to claim.

I clenched my fists and forced it down.

“Enough,” I whispered, my voice shaking but firm. “He doesn't get to hurt me anymore.”

Artemis went silent. Not in submission. In acceptance. She was also hurt by what he did to us.

With every step away from the kingdom, something inside me hardened.

The girl who begged.

The woman who waited. The one who endures. The one who prioritized everyone above herself. The mate who loved blindly and was ready to sacrifice. She died tonight.

I didn’t know where I was going.

I didn’t know who I would become.

But I knew one thing for sure: I can never stay here or come back here again, with terrifying clarity as I disappeared into the darkness beyond the gates. 

I would never bow again.

And if fate ever brought Jayden and me face to face once more.

He would not recognize the woman I had become.