- il y a 6 heures
Whispers in the Dark Alpha's Bed: New SM
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00:00Vivienne et moi ont été construit de la même blu-print,
00:02de la même haute, de la même haute,
00:04de la même haute, de la même haute, de la même haute et de la tête.
00:06L'honneur de l'honneur, la ressemblance était incroyable.
00:09En toute la lumière, avec les tinctures de l'honneur,
00:13le wolf ne pouvait pas dire la différence.
00:15Ce que Vivienne n'a pas accounted pour,
00:17je n'étais pas fragile.
00:19Elle s'est brûlée sous les mains,
00:21je n'étais pas.
00:22Ce qu'elle ne pouvait pas endure, je n'ai simplement vécu.
00:25L'honneur de l'architecture de son besoin,
00:27de l'honneur de l'honneur,
00:30«Relax, only 3 years,
00:32my body will recover,
00:33then I will give you enough gold
00:35to live well outside the mansion.
00:37Think about it. »
00:38My whole family's safety rested in her hands.
00:40I had no choice.
00:42One hour later, Vivienne and Kaelin finally rose.
00:45I returned to my quarters briefly,
00:47then went in to lay out the morning meal.
00:52Why are you dressed like that?
00:54I didn't know how to answer.
00:55I pressed my lips together.
00:57Kaelin bit.
00:58Hard.
00:59«Darling, you've forgotten Selena is mute! »
01:02I nodded quickly.
01:03Serving Vivienne meant constant proximity to Kaelin,
01:06and she was terrified of exposure.
01:09So she declared me mute.
01:10The entire pack believed it.
01:13«Your little mute is striking.
01:14Sad, almost, how pretty she is.
01:16And what exactly does my alpha mean by that?
01:19Has she caught your eye?
01:20I haven't blamed you for anything yet,
01:22and you're already turning on me. »
01:25Kaelin had pushed too far last night.
01:27I'd wept myself hoarse,
01:29then bitten him.
01:30Hard.
01:31He'd walked through silver and hellfire
01:33to earn his title.
01:35Scars mapping him from throat to hip.
01:37He wouldn't care about a few teeth marks.
01:40This whole performance was foreplay.
01:42I don't know how much time passed.
01:45You insolent thing!
01:46You dared bite him?!
01:48Are you challenging me?!
01:49I had no time to defend myself.
01:51Vivienne had me bound.
01:52Dragged to the supply outbuilding.
01:54No food.
01:55No water.
01:56Kaelin had left for the border territories.
01:58However long he was gone,
02:00I stayed locked up.
02:01I was barely breathing
02:02when my sister found a way through.
02:05Briar had bribed the guard,
02:06slipped a bowl of broth under the door.
02:09She was my younger sister.
02:10Sister, what did you do to make the lady so angry?
02:13Briar, when will Kaelin be back?
02:15The guards say tonight,
02:16and he's going straight to the ladies room.
02:19What else was happening in the mansion?
02:21The alpha-haired his wolf spirit is fading again.
02:23The pack healers say there's nothing left to do.
02:25They're preparing the rates.
02:26Lucian, the elder brother,
02:27cursed since birth, fading,
02:29never anchored to this world.
02:31He's never taken a mate.
02:32The matriarch doesn't want him to cross alone.
02:34She's looking for someone willing to complete a spirit bond.
02:38A spirit bond with a dying alpha heir meant grieving him forever.
02:42No high-ranking female would consent.
02:44Not even the lower-ranked handmaids.
02:46At dusk, they released me.
02:48I'd be needed that night.
02:49Selina, I was impulsive.
02:51I meant to release you hours ago,
02:53but things got away from me.
02:55Don't hold it against me.
02:56Of course not, my lady.
02:57My lady, it has been three years.
03:00When will I leave the pack mansion?
03:02You want to leave?
03:03Yes.
03:03My body hasn't healed.
03:05Kaylin still needs you.
03:06If you insist on leave, I'll simply use Briar instead.
03:08Your sisters.
03:09The voice.
03:10The build.
03:10Close enough.
03:11How old is she?
03:12Thirteen or fourteen?
03:14Then...
03:14Could Kaylin at least give me a rank?
03:17Reaching for status now?
03:20If I wanted Kaylin to take a new mate,
03:22I have a hundred candidates.
03:24You would never make that list.
03:26Don't bother trying to go through Kaylin directly.
03:28You're a convenience to him.
03:32Even if you ended up in his quarters permanently,
03:35I could have you removed with a single word.
03:39But every unmated female is supposed to be matched eventually.
03:43Eventually?
03:44Was I supposed to be her substitute?
03:46In bed?
03:47For the rest of my life?
03:49The gatekeeper's son is your age.
03:51When you turn sixteen next year, I'll arrange the match.
03:53The gatekeeper's son.
03:55A man with a child's mind.
03:57And fists like hammers.
03:59Hitting because it was the only thing he knew.
04:02Only by being bound to someone that broken would I remain useful.
04:06And too far gone to threaten her.
04:08Kaylin returned.
04:10To find me kneeling.
04:11You're home!
04:12You must be exhausted!
04:14This girl broke the crystal chalice from the Western Alliance.
04:17I've had her kneeling.
04:18Kaylin stepped over me, without a glance.
04:22What's the status on my brother?
04:23I've asked every unmated female in the pack.
04:26A spirit bond sounds like a curse to them.
04:28None of the young wolves will agree.
04:30What's there to agree about?
04:31Find a female, threaten someone she loves, and it's done.
04:34That kind of coercion would be hard to hide from your mother.
04:37Enough gold and fear will find a willing body.
04:41And if you handle this well, my mother might finally look at you differently.
04:49And...
04:49Every time Kaylin came back from the border, he spent the whole night making up for lost time.
04:54He was an alpha who'd spent weeks at war.
04:57He came home hungry.
04:58And he made that hunger my problem.
05:02That night, I gave him everything.
05:04Pushed past my own limits to matching.
05:06Why so eager tonight? Did you miss me?
05:09I rarely initiated.
05:11He noticed.
05:12Good girl.
05:13Near dawn.
05:15I came back to myself in pieces.
05:19Trying to run again?
05:23My wolf has always been sent sensitive.
05:29I've known about your lady's little switch since the beginning.
05:32No wonder.
05:33He grew bolder every time.
05:35Which meant he never held back.
05:37It was all for me.
05:39Then why won't you give me a rank?
05:41A rank?
05:43She's the one who brought you here.
05:44I'm not going to be the one to claim her handmaid.
05:47That would fracture our bond.
05:48She was right.
05:49A she-wolf, taken for free.
05:52Why give her a title?
05:53What grows in the dark, stays small.
05:57Speechless with joy?
05:58Thank you for your generosities, Alpha.
06:00I'm afraid I don't have the kind of luck to deserve it.
06:03You've shared my bed for years.
06:05Don't get ideas above your station.
06:07He didn't like greedy she-wolves.
06:09He had others.
06:10Bonded females.
06:11All with bloodlines.
06:13Gifts from allied packs.
06:15And yet, since Vivian came, he never touched them.
06:18The pack praised him for devotion.
06:20And he wore that praise like armor.
06:23A handmaid, born to serve, was never meant to stand beside him.
06:28The colder I became...
06:30I was born low.
06:32I don't deserve a rank.
06:33And I don't belong in your quarters.
06:35I only hope you and the lady are devoted to each other until the end.
06:38The next morning, Briar heard of Vivian's plan to marry me off to the gatekeeper's son.
06:42We served her faithfully.
06:43How can she be this cruel?
06:46That brute would be a slow death.
06:48The thought lingered, then twisted into something darker.
06:51If I couldn't escape fate, I would choose it.
06:55I will take the spirit bond with Lucien.
06:57After a long pause, I dropped my eyes.
07:00I have a younger sister.
07:01Briar, I ask that she be transferred to your personal household matriarch.
07:05She's already part of this pack.
07:06I'll see to her for the rest of her life.
07:09Vivian's smile pulled thin.
07:12Mother, Briar came with my dowie pack.
07:14She's my bonded household.
07:15I'd hate to be ungenerous, but...
07:17She's a handmaid.
07:18Mother wants her.
07:19Give her over.
07:20Kaylin's voice cut across hers.
07:22Flat and final.
07:23The matriarch's expression had gone stone cold.
07:25Bring the bond papers.
07:29I will find Briar a secure place before I pass.
07:32You don't have to worry about her ever again.
07:35I hadn't expected the matriarch to think about her entire future.
07:39Moved beyond words.
07:41Thank you, matriarch.
07:43I promise to care for Lucien with everything I have.
07:46When the matriarch spoke of her eldest son, she couldn't stop the break in her voice.
07:50I was pregnant with Lucien during the Dark Coven War.
07:54The fear marked him at birth.
07:57He came into the world without breath.
08:00Without a wolf spirit.
08:01His father had returned victorious that same night.
08:04And brought someone with him from the deep forest.
08:07A shaman.
08:08The shaman's methods were outside anything the pack had seen.
08:11He brought Lucien back from the edge of nothing.
08:13It should have been a miracle.
08:14But the shaman warned them.
08:16Pulling a spirit back across that threshold was a transgression against the laws of wolf
08:21and moon.
08:22Lucien could live.
08:23But only for 30 years.
08:24No more.
08:25And so it had been.
08:26Lucien had grown up slight.
08:28Unable to shift into warrior form.
08:30But razor sharp in mind.
08:32A natural strategist.
08:33A scholar.
08:34He'd won council honors young.
08:35But the older he got.
08:37The weaker his body became.
08:39Eventually he stopped leaving his territory altogether.
08:42Retreating to a lakeside cabin at the edge of the pack mansion.
08:45Since I had agreed to the spirit bond.
08:47I was to remain at his side.
08:49Word was that he didn't allow anyone to serve him.
08:51Just the shaman.
08:53Who had stayed all these years.
08:54The shaman brought me into the cabin while Lucien was asleep.
08:57I looked at his face.
08:58His lashes trembled faintly with each shallow breath.
09:01He was two years older than Kaelin.
09:0327.
09:03The brothers looked nothing alike.
09:05Kaelin was bronze and hard edged from years of combat training.
09:09Lucien was fine boned.
09:11Pale as snow.
09:12Almost startlingly beautiful in a way that made you forget to breathe.
09:16I spent the afternoon learning his preferences.
09:18When the sun touched the horizon.
09:20Lucien finally woke.
09:21Either you drink this.
09:23Or.
09:25Or what?
09:26The shaman had told me Lucien had refused medicine for six months.
09:30That was why he was hovering at the edge of nothing.
09:32At this rate, he wouldn't survive to spring.
09:35I can feel my soul.
09:40I'm a dead man.
09:44I'm a dead man.
09:48I'm a dead man.
09:49When I looked at him again, vivid color had bloomed across his face.
09:53Like dawn breaking over frost.
09:54Those butterfly wing lashes were trembling.
09:57With outrage.
09:58I thought.
09:59Distantly.
10:00Of every arrogant she wolf Kaelin had ever teased into furious, helpless blushing.
10:05Lucien's expression was painfully similar.
10:07A prick of guilt moved through me.
10:09I forced my own pulse to slow.
10:11Keeping my voice steady.
10:12If you won't drink, I'll be forced to do that again.
10:40The shaman works hard to brew it.
10:42If you pour it out every time, he'll be heartbroken.
10:46Watch.
10:47Testing the temperature alone takes constant checking to preserve the potency.
10:52I've only been doing it a few days and my hands already look like this.
10:56He pressed his lips together, said nothing, and drank the rest of the bowl without being
11:00asked.
11:01After that, he never made me beg him to drink his medicine again.
11:06Half a month later, the shaman gave the matriarch his report.
11:10Lucien had genuinely improved.
11:12No longer at death's edge.
11:15Could it be a final surge before the end?
11:18No.
11:18It's real healing.
11:20This one is responsible.
11:22I told you before, her wolf spirit signature is a natural compliment to his.
11:26She steadies him.
11:27The matriarch looked satisfied.
11:30When she turned to me, her eyes were almost tender.
11:32How has Selina been caring for you?
11:38She's been taking very good care of me.
11:43Alpha Lucien may not know, but when Selina was serving in my household, her skill at attending
11:49to Caelan was quite exceptional as well.
11:51Such a good servant.
11:55Answer me.
11:57You think you can play mute with me again?
12:05Silence won't save you.
12:08I don't need your voice to confirm it.
12:11One night, and I'd know for certain.
12:13Had he lost his mind?
12:16I spent three years with a woman.
12:18And she's going to be bonded to my brother.
12:21How dare you make fools of us both!
12:24Especially me!
12:25Would a rank at my side really be worse than grieving a dead man forever?
12:29Do you actually want a bond with a corpse?
12:35I just want to survive!
12:39If I didn't do this, she'd give me to someone who'd break me.
12:44A formal bond, even a broken one, would have made me untouchable.
12:49Useful to no one.
12:52Forced to stay her shadow forever.
12:55Before he could recover, I stomped hard on his foot and ran.
12:58I was still stumbling when I rounded the corner.
13:01What took you so long?
13:05I was a slave.
13:06Yet every night, I had to take Luna's place and sleep with the Alpha.
13:10On the bed, I begged him to mark me and make me one of his mates.
13:13Please, make me your wife.
13:17What are you thinking?
13:19You're nothing but a slave.
13:21I close my eyes.
13:23Every wolf in the pack knows.
13:24Kaelin doesn't just love Lady Vivian.
13:27He worships her.
13:28So the next morning, I walked straight to the pack matriarch and kneeled before her.
13:33I volunteered to marry her eldest son, Kaelin's dying brother.
13:36Firstly shocked, then the pack matriarch's eyes filled with tears.
13:41After the ghost marriage is done, you'll have to keep Widowsville for your mate forever.
13:46My good child, have you truly thought this through?
13:50I will have no regrets.
13:52Alpha Kaelin and Lady Vivian had gone deathly pale.
13:55On the full moon night, Kaelin came to Vivian's room again.
13:58I watched them through the crack in the door, his voice low and honeyed, her laugh like silver.
14:04Vivian left to wash up, cheeks ruined with wanting.
14:07Before she went, she killed every candle, as always.
14:10An hour later, I stepped into the dark.
14:13His scent hit me first, and my traitorous body answered, heart slamming, skin tight.
14:18Why are you so cold?
14:20I was outside, watching the snow.
14:24Truth is, I'd been shivering at the threshold in a thin slip for an hour, waiting for her signal like
14:29a good little ghost.
14:32You smelled.
14:33A pause. My heart stopped. The tincture.
14:36So nice.
14:37His mouth found mine in the dark. His hardness reached my soul.
14:49Before dawn, I knelt at Vivian's feet and recited him. Every whisper. Every mark blooming purple on my throat.
14:56Her expression curdled. Then she walked back into his arms.
14:59Kaelin caught her hair around one lazy finger.
15:02You've been sneaking out to find yourself another wolf.
15:05She swatted him, pouting prettily. As if she were the one.
15:08Vivian was beautiful, and chronically, devastatingly fragile.
15:12Kaelin saw her at the spring hunt gathering. He fell instantly. Offered her the first mate rank before the night
15:18was over. Perfect together. Everyone said so.
15:21As her bonded handmaid, I was genuinely happy for them. Until their bonding night.
15:29Three nights in a row. No completed bond. No mating mark. Overnight, Vivian became the pack's favorite joke.
15:36Desperate, Vivian invented the switch. Every night, candles out, handmaid substitutes. Masking tinctures rubbed into my skin until I smelled
15:45like her ghost.
15:46Of all her handmaids, only I was a viable double. The matriarch stared, then broke into astonished relief.
15:52She asked my name, my birthdate, my bloodline. The pack shaman consulted the moon charts and looked up, nodding.
15:59This female's spirit signature aligns with the heirs in a way I have not seen in decades.
16:04She was born into hardship, which means she carries the kind of resilience that could anchor him. The bond will
16:10serve him well in the next life.
16:12Kaelin and Vivian arrived quickly once word spread. They walked in together to find me sitting at the matriarch's feet,
16:18working the tension from her ankles.
16:19Kaelin's voice came first, amused, sharp.
16:22This is the female who agreed to bond with my brother?
16:25Whoever's handmaid she is, she has a rare heart. Mother, you must reward her well.
16:29I turned and faced them. Kaelin went very still.
16:32It's me, Alpha Kaelin. Lady Vivian's.
16:37You're supposed to be mute.
16:39I can speak. My lady simply prefers I don't.
16:42Vivian's face turned to chalk.
16:44I didn't know your household contained such a loyal soul. But once this bond is sealed, you'll carry his grief
16:50for the rest of your days. Are you certain?
16:52I will never regret it.
16:54The hand hanging at Kaelin's side curled into a fist. He stared at me like I had become something he
16:59didn't recognize.
17:00Child, tell me what you want. Silver, land, titles, anything I can grant is yours.
17:07I turned and looked at Vivian. She held her smile together. But she took half a step back. It was
17:12time for his medicine.
17:13I'd spent the afternoon learning to brew it from the shaman.
17:15So you're the female who plans to bond with my corpse?
17:18Yes.
17:19Get up.
17:20He picked up the bowl calmly.
17:25I don't want it. What are you going to do about it?
17:28Lucian looked up, a thread of provocation in his gaze.
17:31The shaman had told me Lucian was a person of pure instinct, all feeling, no armor, earned honors at 15,
17:38and had the makings of something extraordinary ahead of him.
17:41Then one evening, a hunting trip with Kaelin ended with Lucian falling off the cliff and drowned in the water,
17:48his wolf spirit seizing and three days of unconsciousness.
17:51The matriarch had broken every servant in his household for failing him and sold the rest.
17:56Lucian didn't treat servants like livestock.
17:58He'd read too much and thought too hard to do that.
18:03Alpha hair.
18:06I genuinely can't force you.
18:08But since we're going to be bonded eventually, perhaps...
18:11I looked down at the dark liquid.
18:13Perhaps I should start exercising a mate's authority now.
18:16The air went very still.
18:19Is that how you speak to your future sister-in-law?
18:22Vivian, you are young, but that is no excuse for ignorance of PAC law.
18:29Shut up!
18:30Stop embarrassing yourself!
18:32Days later...
18:34Did you hear about it?
18:35Vivian had found another substitute.
18:37She looked for a maid again?
18:39Not from the PAC's own hand aids.
18:40She'd bought a woman from outside, trained and shaped to match her voice and build exactly.
18:45How do you know?
18:45Because Kaelin lit every lantern in the room that night.
18:48And when he saw what he saw, he beat woman half to death and threw her at Vivian's feet.
18:51Vivian had fainted.
18:52And then?
18:53He said if she refused to truly share his bed, he would never come to her rooms again.
18:57They're sleeping in separate dens now.
18:58Separate dens meant every wolf in the PAC knew the bond was broken.
19:03No mate's devotion.
19:04No matriarch's approval.
19:06No pups.
19:07No wonder Vivian looked like she hadn't slept in a month.
19:14He looked fragile in the lake wind.
19:17Unsteadying.
19:18I went back to get his cloak.
19:24Is it you?
19:29Was it always you?
19:30I smiled, walked over, and settled the cloak around his shoulders.
19:34But he simply brushed my hand away.
19:36Somehow he lost balance and fell.
19:38His chest had a severe bruise.
19:40Just leave me.
19:41I am not your burden.
19:45Lucian liked to sit there.
19:47Open a book in the shade.
19:49Why did you really agree to the spirit bond?
19:52I didn't want to be given to the given to the gatekeeper's son.
19:56I thought it would be something like that.
19:58What is it to guess that it would be like this?
20:01The shaman pressed a small wooden box into my hands.
20:04Should I start calling you mate of the alpha?
20:06Please don't.
20:08My future, most likely, was a silent room in a shrine, grieving him in his name until I followed.
20:14With the shaman gone, I took on more responsibility, including helping Lucian bathe.
20:22I watched his ears and tried not to smile.
20:25Had no one ever helped him bathe?
20:27Kaelin had always kept half a dozen female attendants for bathing.
20:30A younger version of me would have died of the blush alone.
20:34But I wasn't that innocent girl anymore.
20:36There was a phrase I'd found in one of his books.
20:38A broken moon.
20:39A she-wolf who'd been claimed and discarded.
20:42The text said that's what I was.
20:44What strange things are you reading now?
20:48I tucked it behind my back.
20:50I'd memorized a passage and presented it to him like a prize.
20:54Look at you. Impressive.
20:56You sound like you're humeering a child.
20:59How old are you?
21:01Eighteen.
21:02I have almost a decade on you.
21:04To me, you are a child.
21:07The shaman had introduced new compounds, performed old rituals at the edge of firelight,
21:13burned offerings and whispered things I didn't catch.
21:16Speak a wish.
21:18You do it.
21:20I want you to be happy.
21:22What does that look like?
21:23Your body heals.
21:25You find a mate who deserves you.
21:26A pack of your own.
21:28A life that finally goes the way it should have.
21:31Do you mean that?
21:32Our eyes met.
21:34I looked away.
21:35Did I mean it?
21:35It didn't matter.
21:36What mattered was,
21:37the shaman's ritual apparently worked.
21:40Because Lucian decided he wanted to leave the cabin.
21:42I asked him where he wanted to go.
21:44He studied me for a long moment.
21:46There's a moon festival gathering tonight.
21:48I've heard the town lights the whole river.
21:50Festival fires were always burning somewhere.
21:52Nothing special.
21:54But since coming into Vivienne's household, I hadn't been to a single one.
21:57The longing had been sitting quietly in me for years.
22:00That night, a young noblewoman arrived with her escort.
22:03The regent's daughter!
22:03They said, used to getting everything she reached for.
22:06In the river of lantern light and moving bodies, she found Lucian in seconds.
22:10Loser buys dinner at the finest inn in the city.
22:12What do you say?
22:13And she walked straight up and challenged him to a game of darts.
22:16I'd forgotten who won.
22:17I only remember the brightness in her eyes.
22:20Lucian turned to look at me.
22:22If you'd like to go, I'll wait outside.
22:25I hadn't behaved like a servant in front of him in a long time.
22:28But there were others watching.
22:29She didn't wait.
22:30She stepped around me cheerfully and reached for Lucian's chair.
22:33I watched them move into the crowd.
22:35And I felt something leave me that I hadn't known was mine to lose.
22:38I stood in the cold for a very long time.
22:41Then I remembered.
22:41Today was my birthday.
22:43She was the regent's only daughter.
22:45Every door in the wolf world was open to her.
22:47When the regent and his mate arrived at the pack mansion to formally propose the match,
22:52the matriarch looked more shaken than pleased.
22:55Through Briar, I learned the truth.
22:56It wasn't love at first sight.
22:58She'd fallen for Lucian over a decade ago,
23:01back when he was a young scholar with fire in his eyes and a future everyone could see.
23:05She'd been carrying it ever since, refusing every other offer.
23:09Lucian's potential mating became the pack's entire focus.
23:12Even the news that Kaylin's quartermate had conceived was forgotten.
23:16If the match succeeded, the matriarch would have been overjoyed.
23:19But Lucian was already bound by the spirit bond.
23:21To take a living mate, the bond had to be dissolved.
23:24And so I knew exactly what I had to do.
23:27Just as I'd once knelt before the matriarch and volunteered, I came before her again.
23:33I'm willing to step aside. I want Lucian to have this.
23:38I'd had the shaman check their spirit signatures as well.
23:41They aligned perfectly.
23:42She was born to rank, polished in every art.
23:45And her love for Lucian had outlasted years of silence.
23:49If he died, she would grieve him faithfully.
23:51There was nothing more I could offer that she couldn't match.
23:54So, what do you want in return? Money? Is it still about status?
24:00The matriarch squeezed my hands and asked what I wanted in return.
24:03I pressed the gold I'd saved over two years into her palm.
24:07I asked to be released from the pack's bond records.
24:10I want to be a free wolf.
24:14Child, you could ask me for so much more.
24:17I held the bow and didn't move. Tears fell, one by one, onto the stone.
24:22Take me with you, okay?
24:25Outside the pack Paoshin, life was uncertain and hard.
24:29Inside, with the matriarch's protection, you would be safe.
24:33Stay, serve well, don't make enemies.
24:36The rest would come.
24:39Briar wept and pressed gold into my hands anyway.
24:42On the morning I left, many of the other handmaids came to see me off.
24:46The shaman also walked towards me in the crowd.
24:49May your ancestors guide your path.
24:53I patted my shoulder and then walked towards the crowd.
24:59I turned around and walked towards the door.
25:01But in the crowd, I saw Karen also there.
25:04Kaylin grabbed me to the corner.
25:06He caged me against the wall and looked at me like he wanted to devour me.
25:10Say the word and I'll take you as a formal mate.
25:16Serve me like you used to and I'll give you rank above the others.
25:20I stared at him for a long time.
25:27Don't look at me like that.
25:30What?
25:31You think Lucian's gonna come running after you?
25:33You're deluding yourself.
25:37He's probably not even thinking of you.
25:39Once his body improved, he didn't need you anymore.
25:41You were useful and now you're spare.
25:43And don't expect him to remember you in a year.
25:45He didn't even come to see you off.
25:47That tells you exactly where you rank to him.
25:50Hmph.
25:51Something in my chest seized.
25:52The truth was, Lucian and I had been in a cold war for weeks.
25:56It had started on the way home from the festival.
25:58If I was happy.
26:02Yes.
26:02The warmth vanished from Lucian's face.
26:05Happy about the fireworks?
26:07No.
26:08Watching you walk with her.
26:09You look like you belong together.
26:10My wish is starting to work.
26:11That made me happy.
26:12You see me with another female and that's what makes you happy?
26:14She's extraordinary.
26:16She might become the Pax Future First Luna.
26:17Of course I'm happy.
26:18Selina.
26:20I didn't know you could be so heartless.
26:22My parents had died years ago in the household where I was born into service.
26:26I had no home to return to.
26:28I'd planned to head south.
26:30Find a city where no one knew my name.
26:32But the second Kaylin's and Vivian's faces floated up behind my eyes,
26:36I was on my feet, booking passage on the first river ferry south,
26:40before I'd finished the thought.
26:43Property deeds.
26:45Golds.
26:45A house.
26:46A plot of land.
26:47Somewhere in the south.
26:49I tried to remember when the shaman had touched my bag.
26:52He'd had his hands on it during the send-off.
26:54But where had he gotten this?
26:56The ferry listed suddenly.
26:57I nearly went over the rail.
27:01I scrambled upright, and found boots surrounding me on three sides.
27:05Then I was bound, carried ashore, and pushed into a carriage.
27:10When the blindfold came down...
27:16Vivian.
27:17Smiling.
27:18I couldn't stop the bitter laugh from escaping.
27:21Briar had been right.
27:22For all the years I'd served her, and this was still where we ended up.
27:26They brought out women with strong hands to deal with me.
27:29The blows were professional and thorough.
27:31She'd grown thinner since I last saw her.
27:33The delicate elegance that had once made her untouchable,
27:36now just made her look breakable.
27:38What it didn't do was protect her inside the pack.
27:42I used your body as a convenience, and you had the nerve to find your own way out.
27:47Ungrateful.
27:48Traitorous.
27:49Have you forgotten what you swore?
27:52Loyal service.
27:54Always.
27:55Loyal service.
27:56She wasn't wrong.
27:57But loyalty is a two-way bond, and she had never honored her half.
28:01Waited for the anger to burn out so I could leave.
28:04I overestimated her capacity for mercy.
28:06The first day, only the hitting.
28:08Look at me.
28:10The second day, she used silver-tipped needles on my hands.
28:15The third day, she locked me in the holding den beneath the estate.
28:18I found my parents' remains there.
28:20For a moment.
28:21Just one.
28:22I genuinely wanted to stop fighting.
28:24The young guard outside pulled me up before I could follow the thought all the way.
28:28Delina!
28:28Come back!
28:29Please!
28:30You saved me!
28:31Do I know you?
28:32Years ago, a bracelet went missing in the ladies' rooms.
28:36They were gonna use me as the culprit.
28:38You figured out who really took it, and you bought me enough time to prove it.
28:41I kept all my fingers because of you.
28:43You're one of the kindest people I've ever known.
28:46Why is she doing this to you?
28:48Because I wasn't loyal enough.
28:51What's happening at the pack mansion?
28:53The alpha-haired.
28:55Is he truly going to bond with the regent's daughter?
28:57The matriarch is frantic.
28:59The whole bonding is off.
29:00The regent's family pulled their daughter out the night his wolf spirit nearly went dark completely.
29:04She agreed to cancel it?
29:07She's never been this close to real death before.
29:09They say she ran.
29:10Selene, please stop thinking about them.
29:13Think about yourself.
29:14You have to survive long enough to be rescued.
29:16Will you let me help you?
29:17Please help me bury my parents.
29:19Is there anything else I can do for you after that?
29:21I need you to find a small wooden box.
29:23You buried my parents.
29:26I'll carry that gratitude into whatever comes next.
29:28On the fifth evening, Vivian returned.
29:31She examined her nails as if nothing else mattered.
29:34I could barely hold my head up.
29:36You're still alive.
29:38Heaven must want you to suffer longer.
29:40Begging me to stop?
29:42Don't bother.
29:43I wasn't begging.
29:45I was cursing her.
29:46Quietly.
29:47Steadily.
29:48The rope around my neck tightened.
29:49I let out a slow breath.
29:51Finally.
29:51A clean ending.
29:53It pulled taut.
29:54Tighter.
29:55Until the air was gone.
29:56Then, it went slack.
29:58A second?
30:00Cruelty?
30:00Another method?
30:01Noise poured in from every direction.
30:04Someone was calling my name.
30:05Selina!
30:05Someone was in the water.
30:06Selina!
30:07Selina!
30:08Selina!
30:13I'm sorry.
30:14I'm sorry.
30:15I'm sorry.
30:15Please don't leave me.
30:17I was lifted.
30:19Carried.
30:19Fast.
30:20Too fast.
30:21And then I hid a cold chest.
30:23And stayed there.
30:24Whoever held me dropped to their knees.
30:26Their arms locked around me like I might disappear.
30:31Lucian.
30:32Where are you?
30:33I am here.
30:35I am here.
30:36I thought I had lost you.
30:37So leave me.
30:38Selina.
30:39I'm so sorry.
30:41I should have found you sooner.
30:45Lucian brought me back to the lakeside cabin.
30:48The shaman had prepared a medicinal bath.
30:50Something old.
30:51Something meant for deep wounds.
30:52Lucian washed me himself.
30:54Every new injury he found made the skin around his eyes darken.
30:58Deeper.
30:59Redder.
31:00In the blur between waking and sleep, I felt like I was drifting.
31:04Held up by careful hands in warm water.
31:07Rocking.
31:08Gently.
31:09The last thing I remembered was a soft bed rising up to catch me.
31:13And my arms closing around it.
31:16I slept for a very long time.
31:26Where's Lucian?
31:27He kept watch over you for days.
31:29I added something to his tea.
31:30He's out.
31:31Is he having an episode?
31:33His wolf spirit?
31:34He's been destroying himself since you left.
31:36His wolf didn't want to be steady.
31:38I couldn't do much.
31:39You were the only person keeping him anchored.
31:41That was never me.
31:42Don't cry.
31:43He's alive.
31:44And he won't die before 30.
31:46I made sure of that much.
31:49What happens at 30?
31:50Does the bond snap?
31:51He was always going to die early.
31:53You know this.
31:54If he weren't fated for early death, you two would never have found each other.
31:57I sat very still.
31:59Something inside me was splitting apart.
32:02Lucian woke to find me staring into nothing.
32:06What's wrong?
32:06His voice came out rough with sleep.
32:09I wiped my face, said nothing.
32:11My fingers rested against his throat, feeling his pulse.
32:14I'm going to kiss you.
32:17Say yes or no.
32:19You were a lot less polite the first time.
32:26His mouth was cold and his breath against mine was like a thread of warmth in a blizzard.
32:32Brief and so easy to lose.
32:37Lucian, I love you.
32:42I love you too.
32:49I never expected to fall in love with someone within such short life.
32:55Neither did I.
32:57Then the shaman came back.
32:59He returned 3 nights later, moving with purpose, and sat across from us.
33:04I've been doing a great deal of thinking
33:06That's usually ominous
33:08The curse on you
33:09The life debt your father made with the witch clan
33:11It was sealed with sacrifice
33:13Specifically, the sacrifice of a wolf spirit
33:17Sacrifice can be answered with sacrifice
33:19Or with something equal and opposite
33:21A bond freely chosen
33:23A mating bond
33:24A true one
33:25Not a spirit bond with a corpse
33:27A living, breathing, voluntary mating bond
33:30Freely given, both sides willing
33:32Under the full moon
33:33If the bond takes hold
33:36The original sacrifice is fulfilled differently
33:39Life for life
33:41But instead of taking
33:43It gives
33:44The curse breaks
33:46Has this worked before?
33:47I believe it will
33:51Yes
33:53The next few days passed in controlled chaos
33:56The matriarch convened a pack circle
33:58Vivian's crimes had not gone unnoticed
34:00The poisoning of Cailin's quartermate
34:02And the unborn pup had been confirmed
34:04By pack law, that was grounds for exile
34:07Vivian was removed
34:08Quietly
34:09Finally
34:10The regent's daughter came to the cabin one more time
34:13He told me at the festival, you know
34:14The night we went to dinner
34:16What to say?
34:18He talked about you for three hours straight without realizing it
34:21I'm sorry I was slow to understand
34:23Her expression unreadable
34:25I didn't know what to say
34:26She stepped forward and squeezed my hand once
34:29Don't let him die
34:30Then she was gone
34:36Cailin came to the cabin the night before the ritual
34:38He stood in the doorway
34:40And for the first time in the years I've known him
34:42He looked genuinely lost
34:45My brother
34:47He's going to be alright?
34:49The shaman believes so
34:52I never saw you
34:53Do you know?
34:55For three years
34:57I've actually never given you a proper look
35:00For whatever it's worth, I'm sorry
35:02I thought about everything I could say
35:05What I said was
35:08Take care of yourself, Cailin
35:10He nodded
35:11Turned
35:12Walked away
35:14It wasn't forgiveness
35:15Not yet
35:17But it was a beginning
35:18The full moon rose over the lake like a white flame
35:22The shaman built the circle at the water's edge
35:24Silver dust
35:25Wolf herbs
35:27Old fire
35:27Lucian stood at the center
35:29He'd refused the chair tonight
35:31He was standing on his own
35:32In the moonlight
35:33And the sight of him
35:34Pale and slight
35:36And stubbornly
35:37Impossibly upright
35:38Hit me somewhere I didn't have words for
35:41The shaman's voice rose over the water
35:43Speaking old words in the witch clan's tongue
35:46The language of the curse
35:47That had been turned tonight
35:49Into something else
35:50He looked at me with those moth-wing lashes
35:52And that expression that always meant
35:54He'd run out of arguments
35:55And was trying not to show how much he felt
35:57Cailin
35:59You don't have to
36:00I know
36:03I might still
36:05I know that too
36:07Then what are you doing?
36:10Choosing
36:11The shaman's voice peaked
36:13The circle ignited
36:14Not fire exactly
36:15Something older
36:17Silver blue
36:18Rising from the water's surface
36:19I felt the pull of it in my chest
36:22Not pain
36:23Not fear
36:24Something more like
36:25Recognition
36:26Lucian's hand tightened on mine
36:28And I felt the moment it happened
36:29A snap
36:30Deep in the core of me
36:32Like a lock giving way
36:33Like something that had been held closed
36:35For 30 years finally opening
36:37Lucian made a sound
36:39I'd never heard from him before
36:40Not pain
36:41The opposite of pain
36:43He dropped to his knees
36:44In the silver circle
36:45And his wolf
36:46His wolf spirit
36:47Which I had never seen
36:49Which he had never been able to fully call
36:51Tore out of him with a howl
36:53That shook the lake
36:54White
36:54Enormous
36:56Blazing like a comet above the water
36:58He threw his head back
36:59And howled again
37:00The sound broke over the forest
37:02Over the pack mansion
37:04Over every territory for miles
37:06And from far away
37:07From every direction at once
37:09Howls began to answer
37:11The shaman wept
37:12I didn't realize it
37:13Until I saw his shoulders shaking
37:15Lucian's wolf settled around him
37:17Like a second skin
37:18The color returned to his face
37:20Not the brief flush of fever
37:22But real warmth
37:23Steady
37:24And permanent
37:24He touched his own hands
37:26Like he was checking they were real
37:27Then he looked at me
37:29And his eyes
37:30Those beautiful
37:31Exhausted
37:32Fighting to stay open eyes
37:34Were the clearest I'd ever seen them
37:38Selina
37:38Just my name
37:40The way he said it cracked something open in me
37:43I pressed my face against his chest
37:45And stayed there for a long long time
37:47His heartbeat was strong
37:49Steady
37:50Warm
37:51Not borrowed time
37:54Just him
37:55The matriarch came to the lake the next morning
37:58She took one look at Lucian
37:59Standing in the early light
38:01No chair
38:02No shawl
38:03Real color in his face
38:04And she sat down on the nearest bench
38:06And didn't move for several minutes
38:08How?
38:09Thanks to Selina
38:10Who sacrificed herself willingly
38:13She was a good girl
38:14The shaman explained what had happened
38:17Then she reached out
38:19And drew me to sit beside her
38:20As she'd done before
38:21What do you want?
38:24I once hoped my sister would be safe
38:25And that I could be free
38:26But now
38:28All I want is for Lucian
38:30To return as leader
38:31Safe and happy
38:33It happened at the next full moon
38:35Briar stood beside me
38:39It's already more than enough
38:41You have a thread
38:42Right there
38:43Hold
38:45Briar
38:45What
38:48Thank you
38:53Lucian was waiting at the lake's edge
38:55He'd learned to stand like he meant it
38:58May your life together be filled with love
39:01Laughter and happiness
39:03May your home always be warm
39:05And your hearts always full
39:07I had survived every single thing
39:10And I was here
39:11Free
39:12Loved
39:13His mate
39:14And mine
39:20Selina
39:21I'm not going to die
39:22Selina
39:23Selina
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