The hall had long gone silent long before Xavier took my hand.The music had stopped, the laughter faded, and even the moon seemed to hide behind clouds as if it was ashamed to witness what came next.I followed him up the grand staircase like a ghost in a borrowed body, my fingers trembling inside his. His touch felt cold and steady, deliberate, as if he was leading a prisoner, not his mate. Around us, the pack watched with a thousand unreadable eyes. Some whispered, others bowed, but all of them knew what came after the Binding.The Luna must be claimed.When we reached the Alpha's chamber, he pushed the doors open with one hand. The heavy wood groaned like it shared my dread. I stepped inside, heart hammering, feeling the weight of every vow, every curse, every dream that had led me here. The room smelled of pine, smoke, and steel. It smelled of him. I inhaled as his scent, so achingly familiar, so cruelly distant wrapped around me.He shut the door behind us.And there was silence.Then his voice broke it, low and rough. "You should rest."Rest? After the Goddess had branded me his and bound my soul to his? After the whole pack watched me kneel in pain beneath the moon while he stood like a statue?I turned to him, forcing steadiness into my voice. "Rest isn't what this night is for."His gaze flicked up, his eyes now an unreadable shade of silver beneath the flicker of the candlelight. For a heartbeat, I thought I saw something that looked like hesitation, maybe pain. But it was gone before I could name it."The ceremony is done," he said. "That's all that matters."A sharp laugh escaped me before I could stop it. "To you, maybe. But to me, it's just beginning."I stepped closer, small defiance burning in my chest. He didn't move. The air between us shimmered with the mate bond. My wolf whimpered inside me, straining and aching for him. I reached out to him and brushed my fingertips against his chest. His heartbeat thundered beneath my palm."Xavier," I whispered, "look at me."He did. And for a moment the world fell away. The tension between us snapped taut. He reached up, catching my wrist, his fingers curling around it in something that felt halfway between hunger and restraint."You don't know what you're asking for," he murmured."I'm asking you to see me," I said. "Not the weak girl they talk about. Not the mistake the Goddess gave you."His jaw clenched and then he leaned in so close that I could feel the heat of his breath against my cheek. "And what if I can't?"Something inside me cracked. I should have walked away, should have held my pride, but the bond didn't care about pride. It pulsed through me like fire, demanding, pleading. My hand slipped up his chest, around his neck. "Then try," I breathed.For one glorious, shattering heartbeat, he did.His mouth crushed mine. The kiss was rough, desperate, tasting of anger and something dangerously close to need. The world spun. The air shimmered with power and the mark on my neck burned like molten gold. His arms tightened around me, crushing me against him, and for the first time I thought maybe the Goddess hadn't been cruel after all.But just as the warmth began to spread through my chest, he tore away."No." His voice was hoarse. He turned his back, shoulders rigid. "This, whatever this is—it's not real."My breath hitched. "Not real?""The bond is a curse," he snapped. "You don't understand what it's doing to me."The rejection hit harder than any blow. I took a step forward, then stopped myself. The scent of his fury filled the room, suffocating me.."If it's a curse," I said softly, "then it's a curse we share."He didn't answer. Didn't even turn around. His silence screamed louder than his anger ever could.I sank onto the edge of the bed, every inch of me trembling. The gown I wore still glittered faintly with moonlight, mocking me. I pressed my palm against the mark on my neck, feeling it pulse once, twice, in time with my heart."Why would the Goddess do this?" I whispered.No one answered. Only the crackle of the fire and the distant howl of the night.I lay down, facing the wall, forcing my breathing to steady. "Is it because of what elder Rowan said?" I quarried without turning back. The silence stretched. Behind me, I heard him move. He stood up from the chair, the chair scraping the floor loudly. The sound of his boots crossing the floor. Then the door opened and he left. He left me on our wedding night.Tears burned behind my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I had cried enough for this pack, for this man, for a destiny that had given me nothing but bruises. The mark beneath my skin glowed faintly, the light bleeding through my collarbone like liquid fire.I thought about the ceremony. The way the moon had trembled in the sky when our blood touched. The way the elders had gasped. The way my wolf had howled, not in joy but in warning.Something inside me was shifting into something ancient.I closed my eyes and let the feeling spread. The pain faded into heat. The heat turned to rhythm, pulsing through my veins. My body felt weightless. The world dissolved into silver and flame.And in that strange, fragile space between waking and sleep, I heard a voice."You are not alone, Samantha."I sat upright, heart pounding. The room was empty. The fire burned lower, shadows licking the walls.But the my mark was glowing brighter now. It looked fiercer, alive.I pressed a trembling hand against it, whispering to the emptiness, "Who are you?"No one replied. Only the faintest whisper of warmth curled through my mind, like the echo of a memory I had never lived.Then darkness swept over me, and the world fell away.
