Chapter 12
Bound By The Wrong Blood.
Caden's POV
I could taste her on my lips…sweet and wild, like something forbidden yet destined to be mine. Her body… Moon goddess, her body had fit perfectly against mine like it was always meant to be.
Like the space I never knew I was missing had been finally filled. The memory of that night burned through me even now. Every kiss, every touch, her warm breath against my tongue.
I hadn't just felt desire.
For the first time in many years, the war inside me had stilled in her arms. But peace is dangerous, it makes you weak. And weakness was something I couldn't afford.
Not when the council's eyes followed my every move, waiting for me to fail. Not when the pack needed a leader, not a man tangled in his forbidden feelings. So I did what I always did, I buried it.
Buried her deep without me. Shoved it down into the dark where all the things I wanted but couldn't ever have lived. I told myself last night was nothing more than a pleasure.
A slip I would never allow again. Even if her memory made my wolf ache in ways I didn't want to name. Even if every part of me screamed that walking away from her was like cutting out my own heart.
I tightened my jaw, forcing the emotion down where it couldn't touch me. I was Alpha. And I couldn't have the luxury of love. Not when Alpha Gideon had cornered me this morning, his voice low, sharp as a blade. "Mark Seraphina. End this whole drama with Ava. If you don't…you lose everything. Your title, your pack."
Your life."
I could still feel the weight of his hand on my shoulder, a warning disguised as guidance. So here I was. Standing in the middle of the stone circle, where countless Alpha bonds had been sealed before me.
The entire pack gathered around, their eyes fixed on me, expectant, waiting for their Luna. Waiting for me to finally do what was right. But was this right? I clenched my fists at my sides, my wolf pacing restlessly inside me, growling low in warning
He didn't want this. He wanted her. But I shoved his voice down, burying it under duty and pride. This wasn't about what I wanted. It was about what had to be done.
Seraphina approached the center of the circle, wearing a flowing silver gown, her pale hair braided back like a crown, her smile soft…but under it, her eyes glinted with something else. She knew she'd won.
I tried not to think of Ava's face. The way she looked at me last night, raw and open, trusting me with her heart even after everything I had done to shatter her heart. And here I was, about to crush it all over again.
Are you ready, my Alpha?" Seraphina hissed, moving her head so her neck was visible to me, smooth and perfect and wrong. I stepped forward, each of my movements feeling like dragging chains.
The crowd fell silent. My wolf howled inside me, thrashing against the cage I'd forced him into. "Don't do this. She's not yours. This isn't right." But I ignored him, I had to. For the pack. For my survival.
I leaned in, my breath brushing against her skin. "Let this be done," I whispered, more to myself than anyone else. And then I sank my teeth into her neck. At first, there was silence.
Then came the taste.
It tasted wrong. Rotten. Her blood immediately filled my mouth like smoke and ash, bitter and cold. I staggered back, coughing, choking, wiping at my lips as a sharp pain split through my skull. The crowd gasped, murmurs rising like a growing storm.
And then it happened.
Her skin….where my mark should've been—blackened. Smoke erupts from the wound, thick and foul, like something rotten under the surface. Seraphina's smile faded, her eyes turned to that of fury….somethimg darker.
A searing pain ripped through my chest, sharp and burning, as if claws were tearing me apart from the inside out. I dropped to my knees, gripping my ribs, my vision disappearing.
The pack faded around me, voices shouting, some reaching for me, others frozen in horror. I couldn't breathe. Neither could I think. My wolf screamed inside me, not in warning this time—but in agony.
"She's not your mate. This isn't your bond. She's poisonous. She's….the wrong one." I gasped, struggling to rise, but my legs gave up on me. I collapsed onto the cold stone, the sky spinning wildly above me.
Everything hurts.
My body. My heart. My soul.
The last thing I heard was Seraphina calling out my name..but it sounded distant, warped, as if I was hearing it from under the surface of a dark river.
And then darkness engulfed me, swift and merciless.