Chapter 10
SERAPHINA
I wake to the feeling of being watched.
The mate bond awareness prickles at my consciousness—I can sense him in the room even before I open my eyes. Last night we finally stopped fighting what our wolves demanded. Not because we wanted each other, but because eight days of resisting the pull was destroying us both.
Luna stirs weakly in my mind, sated but not content. Getting what she wanted—our mate’s claiming—hasn’t changed the reality that he despises me, or that I’m still his prisoner.
My hand flies to my throat where his mark sits—fresh and tender. The claiming was desperate, necessary, like scratching an itch that had become unbearable. Nothing more.
The soreness between my thighs reminds me of last night’s intensity, but there’s no warmth in the memory. We gave our wolves what they needed. That’s all it was.
He’s sitting on the edge of the bed, already dressed, his back rigid with tension. Even marked and mated, he can barely stand to be in the same room as me.
“Kieran?” My voice comes out rough.
He doesn’t turn around. “Get dressed.”
The coldness in his voice isn’t surprising. I never expected marking me would change how he feels about me—about what I cost him. We’re mated now, but we’re still enemies.
I pull on the gray dress from yesterday without comment. Through the bond, I can feel his guilt and self-loathing radiating from him like heat from a fire.
“Sit down.”
He finally turns to face me, and the look in his ice-blue eyes is exactly what I expected—the same frozen mask he wore when he first captured me.
I lower myself into one of the chairs.
He stays by the window, putting as much distance between us as possible in the small room. “Last night doesn’t change anything between us.”
I nod slowly. Of course it doesn’t. We were both just giving our wolves what they demanded so we could think straight again. Nothing more.
“I let my wolf control me.” His jaw clenches. “I let desire override duty. It won’t happen again.”
“I know.” My voice comes out flat.
The silence stretches between us. Through the bond, I can feel his determination, his iron resolve to never let his wolf override his control again.
“So what now?” I ask quietly.
“I won’t let it happen again.”
He straightens. “I, Kieran Frost, King of the Northern Territory, formally reject you, Seraphina of the Eastern Kingdom, as my mate.”
Pain explodes in my chest as his words hit me, radiating outward until every nerve in my body is screaming. The bond that formed last night, that golden thread connecting us, starts to fray and tear.
Luna howls in agony, a sound so broken it makes tears stream down my face. “No, no, no,” she whimpers. “He’s leaving us. He’s abandoning us.”
I double over in the chair, arms wrapped around my middle as if I can physically hold myself together. Through the damaged bond, I can feel his own agony. It’s destroying him, too.
But his face remains cold, carved from ice.
“You need to accept the rejection,” he says, and I hear the strain in his voice despite his attempts to hide it. “It’s the only way to sever the bond completely.”
I stare at him through the tears, my body already shaking from the partial rejection pain. Accepting it will make it worse, so much worse. But what’s the alternative? Stay connected to a man who despises me? Feel his hatred through the bond every day?
“Seraphina—”
“I accept.” The words come out broken. “I, Seraphina of the Eastern Kingdom, accept your rejection.”
The bond doesn’t just fray now—it shatters.
Pain like I’ve never experienced tears through me, worse than Marcus’s beating, worse than the silver chains. It feels like something essential is being ripped from my chest, leaving a gaping wound that won’t stop bleeding.
Luna’s howl becomes a keening wail that echoes through my mind until I can’t tell where her agony ends and mine begins.
I can’t breathe. Can’t think. Can’t do anything but feel the bond being torn away, piece by piece, until there’s nothing left but raw, bleeding emptiness where it used to be.
Through the pain, I’m distantly aware that I’ve collapsed to the floor, that I’m screaming, that tears are streaming down my face.
And through it all, I can see him standing there, his face pale, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. He’s feeling it too—I can see it in his eyes, in the tension of his body—but he doesn’t move. Doesn’t come to me. Doesn’t try to take it back.
He just stands there and watches me break apart.
The guards come for me three days after the rejection.
I’ve spent them lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling, feeling the empty space in my chest where the bond used to be. Luna hasn’t spoken since the severance; she’s just curled up in the back of my mind like a wounded animal. Food trays have come and gone, all untouched.
When the door opens, I don’t bother sitting up. Let them drag me to whatever fresh hell Kieran has planned. Execution, probably. Now that the bond is gone, there’s nothing stopping him.
“On your feet, Princess.”
The guard’s voice is gruff but not unkind. “You’re being moved.”
I force myself upright, my body weak from days without food. “Where?”
“You’re going home.”
The words don’t make sense at first. Home. The Eastern Kingdom. My parents.
“The Ice King is sending me back?” I hear the disbelief in my own voice.
“Yes.” He gestures to the door. “There’s a carriage waiting in the courtyard.”
I follow him on unsteady legs, my mind struggling to process this. Kieran is letting me go. After everything, he’s just… sending me home.
The fortress corridors are empty as we walk. Either it’s early enough that most people are still sleeping, or someone made sure I wouldn’t be seen. Probably the latter. Can’t have the disgraced prisoner parading through the halls.
When we reach the courtyard, I see the carriage—a plain, unmarked vehicle with no royal insignia. An older man sits in the driver’s seat, already holding the reins.
As I cross the courtyard, the hair on the back of my neck prickles. I glance up at the fortress windows and catch a glimpse of movement, someone watching from one of the high tower windows. Too far away to see clearly, but I know who it is.
Kieran. Watching me leave from a distance.
I climb into the carriage and don’t look back.
