Kael's POV
The moon was killing him.
Kael stood on his balcony and watched it rise, and every second it climbed higher in the sky was another second his wolf tore at his insides. Four nights. Four nights of howling that he had to swallow. Four nights of pain that should have killed him but kept him alive just enough to suffer more.
The rejected bond was a living thing inside his chest.
It was not broken completely. That would have been mercy. Instead it was shattered and bleeding and still connected. He could feel Lily through it. Could feel her fear. Her despair. Her absolute certainty that he had betrayed her.
And he had. He had betrayed her in front of everyone while his wolf screamed at him to stop.
His hands were shaking on the stone railing.
He had not slept in four days. Sleep made it worse. When he slept, his wolf took over and dragged him through memories of the bond snapping into place. The silver light. The three perfect seconds when she was his and nothing else mattered. Then he would wake up gasping and realize he had thrown it all away.
He had thrown her away.
His strength was fading. Rejection did that. It poisoned the rejected person from the inside out. Slowly. Thoroughly. Unless both parties accepted the rejection, the pain never stopped. Never lessened. Just kept bleeding you out until there was nothing left.
But Lily would never accept it.
Because she had not chosen this. He had chosen it for both of them. He had ripped that bond to pieces and expected her to just... accept it. Like they had not been fated. Like the Moon Goddess had not chosen them for each other.
Footsteps behind him.
Kael did not turn around but he knew it was Rhys before his Beta even spoke.
"You look terrible," Rhys said. "When did you last eat?"
"I don't know." Kael's voice was hoarse. His throat was raw from swallowing screams. "Did she eat?"
"You mean Lily?"
"Yes."
Rhys came to stand beside him at the railing. In the moonlight, Kael could see the worry etched into his Beta's face. The concern that was about to become something harsher. Something more like disappointment.
"She is confined and miserable," Rhys said quietly. "Maris is building a case against her that even I can see is fabricated. False witnesses. Planted evidence. Everything is a lie, Kael. Everyone knows it is a lie. And you are letting it happen."
Kael's jaw clenched.
"You could stop this," Rhys continued. "Claim her. Override the elders. Assert your authority as heir and put an end to this mockery of a trial."
"And start a civil war."
The words came out flat. Dead. Because Kael had thought about it. Obsessed about it. Every second of the last four days he had imagined claiming Lily. Imagined walking into that healer's quarters and telling her that he chose her. That the Moon Goddess was right and the elders were wrong.
But.
"Half the pack still believes dual bonds are abomination," Kael said. "If I force this. If I claim her without their consent. We fracture. Everything my father built. Everything I have been raised to protect collapses."
"You are already fractured," Rhys said, and his voice was gentle in a way that made it worse. "Brother, you are dying. The rejection is eating you alive. I can see it. Your strength is fading. Your wolf is fading. You are not going to survive this."
Kael knew.
He could feel it happening. His wolf was not just wounded. It was fading. Becoming smaller. Weaker. Every hour that passed, he felt a little less like himself and a little more like a ghost pretending to be alive.
"I did what I had to do," Kael said.
But his voice broke on the last word and that was enough. That one broken word said everything he could not say out loud. That he was wrong. That he had destroyed something sacred. That he would probably die from this and he deserved to.
Rhys was quiet for a long moment.
Then his Beta said something that made Kael's entire world shift.
"Your father ordered her death."
Kael's head snapped around. "What?"
"After you rejected her. When the power was starting to manifest. Your father told you to kill her before she realized what she was." Rhys's eyes were hard. "He said to kill her or everything would burn. Did you think I did not hear that? That the entire courtroom did not hear that? That we did not all understand that your father is terrified of what she is?"
Kael had been trying not to think about that part.
"He was protecting the pack—"
"He was protecting his power," Rhys cut him off. "Your father has controlled Shadowridge for thirty years by keeping certain wolves weak. By making sure omegas stayed omega. By ensuring that the hierarchy never changed. And then one girl gets two mates and suddenly everything he built becomes unstable."
"So what do you want me to do?" Kael's voice was rising. "Let her execute herself to save the pack? Let Lysander start a war? Let everything burn because I could not control the situation?"
"I want you to stop pretending you did not have a choice," Rhys said. "You had a choice, brother. You had several choices. You chose duty over love and now you are paying the price. But Lily is paying with her life."
Kael turned away from the railing.
He could not look at Rhys right now. Could not hear the truth being spoken in that calm, reasonable voice. Could not acknowledge that his Beta was right. That he had failed. That he had made the wrong choice and now a girl was going to die for it.
His hands were fists at his sides.
"The trial is in three days," Rhys continued. "Maris has built her case. The witnesses have spoken. Everyone knows it is fabricated but no one is going to challenge it. Because that would require someone in power to stand up and say that the elders are wrong. That your father is wrong. That you were wrong."
"I cannot—"
"You can," Rhys said. "You are the heir. You could walk into that trial and claim her and the pack would have to accept it. Yes, there would be resistance. Yes, some would call it civil war. But at least she would live. At least you would not be standing on a balcony four days from now watching the girl the Moon Goddess gave you be executed."
Kael's wolf howled.
It was not a sound he made. It was internal. Anguished. Desperate. His wolf was dying and it knew. Knew that it was running out of time. Knew that if something did not change in the next three days, it would cease to exist.
"I cannot save her," Kael whispered.
"You can. You are choosing not to."
Rhys left after that.
Kael stood alone on the balcony and felt the rejected bond pulling at him. Lily was still awake somewhere in the healer's quarters. Still suffering. Still believing that he had abandoned her.
He wanted to go to her. Wanted to cross pack territory and kick down her door and claim her in front of everyone. Wanted to damn the consequences and the politics and his father's expectations.
But he stood there. Frozen. Because duty was a cage he could not break out of.
Then his wolf did something it had not done in four days.
It stopped howling.
The silence was worse than the sound.
Kael felt it like the moment before death. Like his wolf was giving up. Accepting that this was the end. That Kael was going to let their mate die and there was nothing the wolf could do about it.
He felt his knees buckle. He dropped to the ground on the balcony and pressed his palms against stone and tried to figure out how to survive losing his mate while she was still alive.
Then he heard it.
The sound cut through the night air like a blade. Howls. Shadowridge warriors mobilizing. Alarm bells ringing across pack territory.
Something was happening.
Kael pushed himself to his feet and looked north.
In the distance, on the border of pack territory, he could see movement. Shadows. Warriors. Something that looked like an entire group of rogues gathering at the boundaries.
Lysander was here.
And he was not coming alone.
Kael felt the rejected bond suddenly flare with Lily's spike of fear.
Everything was about to burn.