Seraphina
I woke up drenched in sweat.
My skin was on fire — not just warm, not just restless. Burning. Like something inside me had snapped loose and now it was clawing to the surface. My nightdress clung to me, soaked and twisted, my sheets tangled around my legs like restraints I didn't remember fighting.
I sat up, panting, heart thundering in my chest.
What the hell was happening to me?
My thighs rubbed together. It sent a bolt of heat straight to my core, so strong I moaned — aloud. Shame curled in my stomach, but it was buried beneath something deeper. Need.
Not hunger. Not thirst. A carnal, desperate, primal urge.
I stumbled from the bed and nearly fell to the floor. My knees buckled. The ache between my legs pulsed in time with my heartbeat.
Was this the heat Kael had warned me about?
Was this what it meant to be a wolf?
The moonlight streaming through the windows felt like a touch — soft, sharp, too intimate. I could smell everything. The guards outside the door. The fire down the hall. Him.
Kael.
His scent slammed into me like a punch. Smoke, pine, leather, sin. I pressed my palm against the wall, trying to breathe through it, but it made it worse. The bond was awake now, hungry and demanding.
I needed him.
My body was screaming for him.
But my mind… my mind remembered too much.
His lies. His silence. The painting. The blood.
The truth.
He'd burned my past to the ground. And now my future was chained to him?
"No," I growled. "No, I won't give in."
I grabbed the dagger from the nightstand — Kael had left it there, probably as some sick token of protection. I wasn't sure who he thought I needed protecting from.
Probably him.
I yanked open the chamber doors.
Two guards snapped to attention. They looked at me — wide-eyed, stunned — and immediately caught the scent rolling off me in waves.
One of them swallowed hard. "My Lady… the Alpha gave orders—"
"I don't care," I snapped.
Their wolves bowed to me before they could stop it. Instinct. Power. I didn't know how to control it yet, but I felt it — they did, too. My bloodline was awakening, and whatever I was… it wasn't weak.
I pushed past them and stalked through the corridor, fury and fire pulsing through my veins. The fortress was too quiet. The walls felt like they were closing in.
And then I heard him.
Kael. Arguing.
I followed the voice to a war room — the one I wasn't supposed to find again. The door was cracked. I peeked through.
Rael stood across from Kael, arms folded, his expression grim.
"She's in heat," Kael growled. "It's started. I can feel it."
"Then mark her," Rael said. "You don't have time."
"No." His voice was pained. "Not like this. Not when she still hates me."
"She'll never stop hating you. And if she rejects you during the bond—"
"I'll survive it."
"No, you won't."
Kael slammed his fist into the wall. It cracked. Dust fell.
"I'm not going to take her like that," he snarled. "I won't force her. I'll lock myself down if I have to."
My breath caught.
Force me?
Is that what this was about?
He was resisting the bond. For me.
I didn't understand it. I didn't want to.
Because every word made it harder to hate him.
And I needed to hate him.
But my body — my traitorous, aching, out-of-control body — had already decided.
I stepped into the room.
Both men turned.
Kael's eyes snapped to mine — glowing, primal, wild. The bond flared. I felt it. So did he.
"Get out," he told Rael without looking away.
Rael didn't argue. He left. Fast.
Kael stood there, breathing hard, fists clenched.
"You should be in bed," he said roughly. "This isn't the time."
"I'm not your pet," I snapped. "And I'm not afraid of you."
"You should be."
I took another step. The fire inside me raged.
"I'm burning," I whispered. "Fix it."
His eyes darkened. "Don't tempt me, Seraphina."
"I'm not tempting you. I'm commanding you."
Kael growled, his control breaking as he crossed the space between us and slammed me against the wall — one hand gripping my hip, the other buried in my hair.
"You're in heat," he rasped. "You don't know what you're asking for."
"I do."
"No, you don't. If I touch you like this—if I mark you—there's no going back. You'll be mine. Forever. Even if you hate me."
I looked him in the eyes. My lips trembled.
"I already hate you."
Then I kissed him.