EDEN POV
Pain wakes her up.
Not the kind that comes from injury. The kind that comes from inside her own body, like every nerve is on fire and there's nothing she can do to make it stop.
Eden's eyes snap open, and for a moment she has no idea where she is. The ceiling is stone. The walls are stone. Everything smells like cold and shadow and something else that makes her chest tighten.
It smells like Kael.
The realization brings the pain back full force. The mate bond rejection is still burning through her system like poison. Her body is screaming at her to find him, to fix this, to do something about the fact that they're deliberately tearing themselves apart instead of coming together.
She tries to sit up, and her whole body protests. Every movement feels like walking through broken glass. Even breathing hurts because the bond is wound so tight around her chest that it's suffocating her.
This is what rejection does.
The bond is designed to pull two people together. It's supposed to create a connection so strong that being apart causes physical agony. But instead of using that pain to drive them toward each other, Kael is using it as proof that she's not worth the vulnerability.
The door opens, and Sienna rushes in.
Her friend looks like she hasn't slept since the ceremony. Her eyes are red and her hair is messy and she's wearing the clothes of an Ironfang servant, which means someone gave her a job just to keep her busy.
"You're awake," Sienna says, moving to the bed. "Thank the gods. You've been unconscious for hours and I thought you were going to die and I didn't know what to do about it."
Eden tries to smile, but it feels like her face is made of stone. Everything about her feels broken right now. The only thing that's keeping her from completely falling apart is the knowledge that if she breaks, if she shows weakness, then Sienna will pay the price for it too.
"I'm alive," Eden says. Her voice sounds distant even to her own ears. "Barely."
Sienna helps her out of bed and into a bath that's already prepared. The water is warm, and it helps a little with the ache in her muscles. But nothing helps with the bond. Nothing helps with the fact that her mate is somewhere in this compound, probably hating her, probably wishing he'd never seen her in the first place.
The other servants keep their distance from her while she bathes.
Eden notices the way they watch her from the corners of the room. The way they whisper to each other when they think she can't hear. The way they make eye contact and then look away quickly like she's something dangerous.
A Silvercrest bride.
A rejected mate.
A symbol of a failed peace treaty.
Of course they hate her.
When she's dressed in fresh clothes, Sienna takes her to the main hall for food. The moment they enter the space, conversation stops. Wolves are eating at long tables, and they all turn to look at Eden like she's a predator that just walked into their territory.
Which, technically, she is.
But right now she feels less like a predator and more like prey.
Mira is sitting at a table near the front of the hall. The Ironfang War Captain looks at Eden with an expression that's pure satisfaction. Like watching Eden get rejected by Kael was the best thing that's happened to her in years.
Maybe it was.
Thorne is sitting next to her, and he looks away quickly when their eyes meet. Like he's ashamed to be associated with her. Like her rejection by the Alpha has made her somehow less worthy of basic acknowledgment.
Eden forces herself to eat anyway.
She takes food that she doesn't want. She chews even though it tastes like ash. She swallows even though her throat feels like it's closing up. Because if she doesn't eat, if she doesn't maintain her strength, then she's already given up.
And she's not ready to give up yet.
The first day blurs into the second day, and then into the first night.
Sienna sleeps in a small room connected to Eden's chamber. The Ironfang compound is massive, all stone corridors and high ceilings and the constant awareness that thousands of wolves are surrounding them, watching them, judging them.
Eden lies in bed long after nightfall, staring at the ceiling and trying not to think about how much her body hurts.
Then the bond shifts.
It's sudden and violent and so overwhelming that Eden almost cries out.
She can feel Kael's emotions flooding through the connection like a tidal wave. Not sadness. Not regret. Something darker. Something more chaotic.
Rage. Pure, burning, uncontrolled rage.
It's directed at her.
No. It's directed at himself.
It's directed at everything.
The emotions are so intense and so dark that they're suffocating her. It feels like she's drowning in his anger. It feels like his despair is becoming her despair. It feels like he's locked himself away somewhere and he's destroying everything around him because he can't destroy himself.
Eden tries to push back through the bond, tries to send him some kind of reassurance. But every emotion she sends gets swallowed up by the chaos coming from his side.
He's not okay.
He's completely falling apart.
And somehow that's worse than the rejection because it means he's not fine with his choice. It means he's suffering just as much as she is. It means the walls he built aren't protecting him. They're just keeping him trapped with his own pain.
The bond pulls tighter.
The pain gets worse.
And Eden realizes something that terrifies her more than anything else could.
She's trapped here.
She's trapped in a territory full of wolves who hate her. She's trapped with a mate who rejected her publicly. She's trapped with emotions so dark and chaotic that she doesn't know if either of them will survive what comes next.
The bond is supposed to be beautiful.
The bond is supposed to be the greatest gift a werewolf can receive.
But right now, in this cold stone room that smells like the man who rejected her, the bond feels like a prison.
And the worst part is that she can feel him on the other side of it, and she knows he feels exactly the same way.