Sera lasted exactly forty-seven minutes before she had to escape.
The mate bond was a living thing inside her chest, pulsing and pulling and demanding attention she couldn't give it while balancing trays and avoiding her father's watchful gaze. Every time Kael moved, even across the massive hall, she felt it. A tug at her sternum, like being connected to him by an invisible rope that wanted nothing more than to reel her in.
It was suffocating.
She slipped out the servant's entrance into the garden, gasping for air as the cool October evening hit her face. Her hands were shaking again. Actually, they hadn't stopped shaking since the moment their eyes met. How did other wolves handle this? The stories made it sound romantic, destined, but nobody mentioned how physically overwhelming it was. How it felt like your body was trying to turn itself inside out to get closer to another person.
"Running away?"
Sera spun around so fast she nearly tripped over her own feet. Kael stood ten paces behind her, backlit by the golden light spilling from the hall's windows. He must have followed her outside. The thought sent her heart into her throat.
"I'm sorry, Alpha Thornwood," she stammered, dropping her gaze to the ground as protocol demanded. "I just needed some air. I'll return immediately."
"Look at me."
It wasn't a request. The command in his voice was undeniable, pressing against her with almost physical force. Sera's head snapped up before she could think better of it, meeting those dark eyes that had turned her world upside down less than an hour ago.
The bond flared between them, hot and insistent. She watched his jaw clench, watched him fight whatever he was feeling. And there was something there. She could see it now, the way his hands had curled into fists at his sides, the tension in his shoulders. He felt it. Maybe not as strongly as she did, but he felt it.
"Tell me your name," he said, his voice carefully neutral.
"Sera Winters."
Something flickered across his expression. "Winters. Marcus Winters' daughter?"
She nodded, her throat too tight for words. Of course he would know her father. The Second of Silvercrest Pack would have been one of the first wolves Kael met when taking over leadership.
"And you're a servant." It wasn't a question, but his eyes raked over her plain black uniform, cataloging her position in the pack hierarchy with brutal efficiency.
"Yes, Alpha."
"Because you're wolfless."
The word hit her like a slap. Hearing it from his lips, from her mate's lips, made it somehow worse than all the years of her family throwing it at her. This was the person fate had chosen for her, and disgust was already creeping into his tone.
"Yes, Alpha," she whispered.
Kael took a step closer. Then another. The bond sang with approval at the decreased distance, and Sera had to lock her knees to keep from swaying toward him. Up close, he was even more devastating. Tall enough that she had to tilt her head back to maintain eye contact. His scent wrapped around her, pine and rain and something wild that made her wolf-less heart ache for what she could never be.
"Do you feel it?" he asked, his voice dropping lower. "The bond?"
"Yes." The admission cost her, but lying to him felt impossible. The bond wouldn't allow it.
"How strong?"
Sera blinked, confused by the question. "I don't... I've never experienced this before. I have nothing to compare it to."
His laugh was harsh, bitter. "Of course you don't." He dragged a hand through his dark hair, and she could see the war playing out across his features. Anger. Frustration. And underneath it all, something that might have been desperation. "This is impossible. Do you understand that? A wolfless mate shouldn't exist. The bond requires both wolves to be present."
"I know." Her voice came out smaller than she intended. "I'm sorry."
"You're sorry?" His eyes flashed. "The Moon Goddess gives me a mate, finally, after twenty-six years of waiting. And she's..." He stopped himself, but the unspoken words hung between them anyway. Broken. Defective. Wrong.
Sera wrapped her arms around herself, trying to hold together pieces that were rapidly coming apart. "You could reject me."
The words tasted like ash, but they needed to be said. A rejection would be painful. The stories said it felt like being ripped in half, that the severed bond left scars that never fully healed. But it would be finite. A terrible agony that would eventually fade into something manageable.
Better than this. This constant pull toward someone who clearly wished she didn't exist.
"Yes," Kael said slowly. "I could."
He moved closer still, now near enough that she could feel the heat radiating from his body. The bond thrummed approval, begging her to close that last bit of distance, to touch him. She dug her fingernails into her palms hard enough to draw blood, using the pain to anchor herself.
"I, Kael Thornwood, Alpha of—"
"KAEL. Stop."
Both of them jumped at the sharp command. Alpha Thornwood Sr. stood in the garden entrance, his silver hair gleaming in the lamplight. His face was stern, the expression of a man who'd spent forty years making difficult decisions and living with the consequences.
"Father." Kael's tone held a warning. "This doesn't concern you."
"Like hell it doesn't." The old Alpha strode toward them with surprising speed for a man his age. When he reached them, his keen eyes swept over Sera, then fixed on his son. "You were about to reject your mate."
"She's wolfless."
"I can see that."
"Then you understand why this is impossible."
Alpha Thornwood sighed, and for the first time, Sera noticed how tired he looked. How the lines around his eyes had deepened. He'd announced his retirement tonight, but looking at him now, she wondered if it was truly by choice or if something else was forcing his hand.
"Walk with me, boy," the old Alpha said. It wasn't a request.
Kael's expression darkened, but he couldn't refuse a direct order from his father, not yet. Not until the official transfer of power at the next full moon. "Stay here," he told Sera, then followed his father deeper into the garden.
Sera stood frozen, watching them go. She should leave. Should return to the hall and her duties and pretend the last hour hadn't happened. But her feet wouldn't move. Some part of her needed to know how this ended, even if the ending destroyed her.
They stopped near the old oak tree at the garden's heart, far enough away that a normal human wouldn't hear their conversation. But Sera had learned to read body language during her years of invisible servitude. She watched Kael's posture grow defensive, and watched his father place a hand on his shoulder.
And then she saw Kael's entire body go rigid, saw his father say something that made the new Alpha actually step backward in shock.
The conversation lasted maybe five minutes. Toward the end, she saw the old Alpha grip both of Kael's shoulders, his face intense with whatever he was saying. Saw Kael shake his head repeatedly, arguing. Saw the exact moment his father pulled him into an embrace, the kind fathers give sons when they're trying to impart something crucial.
When they finally returned, Kael's expression had shuttered completely. Whatever emotions had been warring across his features before were now locked behind an impenetrable wall.
"Miss Winters," Alpha Thornwood Sr. said formally, addressing her directly for the first time. "My son has something to say to you."
Kael's jaw tightened, but he met her eyes. "I won't reject you."
Relief and dread flooded through Sera in equal measure. "But—"
"Don't misunderstand," he continued, his voice cold enough to make her shiver. "This changes nothing. I don't want a wolfless mate. I don't want you. But my father has asked something of me, and I won't refuse him."
Sera looked to the old Alpha, confused. He gave her a sad smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"I'm dying," he said simply. "Cancer. Human disease in a supernatural body, ironic as that is. I have maybe three months left."
The words hit like a physical blow. Sera had never spoken to Alpha Thornwood Sr. before tonight, but he'd always been a constant presence in her life. Fair. Strong. The kind of leader who protected even the lowest members of his pack. The idea of him simply... ceasing to exist felt wrong.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered.
"Don't be. I've lived a good life." He squeezed his son's shoulder. "But I won't leave this world watching my boy reject what the Moon Goddess gave him. Mate bonds are sacred. Even imperfect ones."
"Father—"
"I've asked Kael to honor the bond," the old Alpha continued, speaking to Sera but clearly meaning the words for his son too. "To give it a real chance. Not to reject you out of pride or disappointment. Even if you're not what he wanted, you're what fate gave him. There must be a reason."
Sera wanted to argue that there was no reason. That fate had clearly made a mistake, giving Kael a defective mate as some kind of cosmic joke. But the desperate hope in the old Alpha's eyes stopped her.
He was dying. And this was his last wish.
"I've made him promise me," Alpha Thornwood Sr. said. "On my deathbed, I've made him swear he won't reject you. That he'll honor the mate bond as tradition demands."
Kael's hands clenched into fists at his sides. "I gave my word."
The old Alpha nodded, satisfied. Then he turned to Sera. "I know this isn't the fairy tale young girls dream of. My son is angry and probably being unfair to you. But I hope you'll give this a chance as well. For better or worse, you're bonded now."
Before she could respond, he walked away, heading back toward the hall. His steps were slower than they should be, his shoulders slightly hunched under a burden Sera was only beginning to understand.
Leaving her alone with Kael.
The silence stretched between them, heavy and suffocating. The bond continued its relentless pull, but now it felt different. Poisoned by knowledge of what this was: not fate or destiny or love. Just an obligation. A deathbed promise forcing two incompatible people together.
"This doesn't mean anything," Kael said finally, his voice devoid of warmth. "I won't formally reject you. I'll honor my father's dying wish. But don't expect more than that."
"I don't expect anything from you," Sera replied, finding some core of dignity she didn't know she still possessed. "I never asked for this either."
His eyes flashed. "You're lucky. Any other Alpha would have rejected you outright, bond or no bond. A wolfless mate is an embarrassment. A liability."
Each word was a carefully aimed strike, and they landed with devastating accuracy. Sera felt herself shrinking under his assessment, all the old shame and inadequacy flooding back.
"Then we agreed," she said quietly. "This is just... an unfortunate circumstance we both have to endure."
"For the next three months, until my father passes. Then we'll see."
The implication was clear. Once his father died, once Kael no longer had to keep his deathbed promise, all bets were off. The rejection might still come. And Sera would have spent months tied to someone who resented her existence, only to face the agony of being torn apart anyway.
"I understand," she whispered.
"Good." Kael stepped back, putting physical distance between them that the bond immediately protested. "Return to your duties. I have a party to host."
He walked away without looking back, leaving Sera standing alone in the garden. Above her, the moon hung fat and silver, a silent witness to the cruelest joke fate had ever played.
She'd found her mate. The one person in the entire world meant to love her unconditionally. And he couldn't stand the sight of her.
The bond pulsed weakly in her chest, a constant reminder of what she had and couldn't have. Three months. She had three months of this torture before Kael would likely reject her anyway.
Sera wrapped her arms around herself and let the tears finally come. Silent. Alone. Exactly as she'd been for six years.
Some things, apparently, even a mate bond couldn't change.