Selene woke to the smell of food.
Her body ached in places she didn't want to think about. Her neck throbbed where his mark pulsed under her skin, a constant reminder that she belonged to someone now. Someone who wasn't Logan.
Logan.
The grief hit her like a fist to the chest. For a moment she couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't do anything but lie there and feel the absence of him. The matebond she'd had with Logan was gone. Severed. In its place was something else. Something that felt like chains wrapped around her soul.
She kept her eyes closed. Kept her breathing even. Listened.
Someone was in the room with her.
She could hear the soft clink of silverware against porcelain. The quiet sound of someone eating. And underneath it all, that scent. Pine and smoke and something ancient.
Him.
Through the matebond, she felt... calm. Patience. A steady, watchful presence that was nothing like the feral hunger from before.
Selene opened her eyes.
Theron sat in a chair by the window, a plate balanced on his knee. Morning light cut across his face, illuminating features she hadn't really looked at before. Strong jaw. Dark hair pushed back from his forehead. A scar running through his left eyebrow.
His eyes were gray.
Not gold. Not wolf.
Human.
He looked up when she stirred. Set down his fork. Watched her with an expression she couldn't read.
"You've been asleep for fourteen hours," he said. His voice was different too. Quieter. Controlled. No growl underneath it. "You need to eat."
Selene sat up slowly. The sheet fell away and she realized she was naked beneath it. She pulled the fabric up to her chest, covering herself.
Something flickered across his face. There and gone.
"There are clothes in the wardrobe," he said. "They should fit."
Selene didn't move. Didn't speak. Just stared at him, cataloging every difference between the man in front of her and the monster from last night.
Same face. Same body. But the eyes changed everything.
"You're wondering if I remember," he said. It wasn't a question.
"Do you?"
"Yes."
One word. No excuse. No justification.
Selene's hands trembled. She clenched them in the sheets to hide it.
"Your wolf," she said. The words tasted like acid. "That's your explanation? Your wolf did it, not you?"
"My wolf is me. I am my wolf." He set the plate aside and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "I'm not going to insult you by pretending otherwise."
"Then what? You just... lose control? The great King of the West can't control his own wolf?"
Something tightened in his jaw. "I have never lost control like that. Not once in twelve years since my first shift."
"And I'm supposed to believe that?"
"I don't care what you believe." His voice remained even, but she felt a flash of something through the matebond. Frustration. And underneath it, buried deep, that same thread of shame she'd felt last night. "I'm telling you the truth. My wolf has never taken over like that. Not with anyone."
Not with Velora, she thought. The name surfaced from somewhere, though she didn't know how she knew it.
"You have a wife," Selene said.
He didn't flinch. "Yes."
"Children?"
"A son. Riven. He's two." A pause. "And another on the way."
Selene laughed. The sound was broken glass and bitter poison. "So I'm, what? A mistress? A conquest? The enemy queen you fucked to prove a point?"
"You're my mate."
"I'm your prisoner."
"Those aren't mutually exclusive."
She moved before she knew she was going to. Launched herself off the bed, sheet forgotten, hands going for his throat. Her nails raked across his cheek before he caught her wrists.
He let her hit him.
She realized it a second later. He was faster than her. Stronger. He could have stopped her before she ever touched him. But he'd let her draw blood.
Now he held her wrists, firm but not painful, and looked at her with those gray eyes that saw too much.
"Feel better?" he asked.
"Fuck you."
"You did. Several times."
Selene spat in his face.
He didn't react. Just released one of her wrists long enough to wipe his cheek. Then he pulled her closer, not letting her retreat.
"You can hate me," he said quietly. "I expect you to. But you need to understand something, Selene."
Her name in his mouth made her flinch. She didn't know how he knew it. She'd never told him.
"You're not leaving this castle. You're not going back to East Varos. There's nothing left for you there."
"My people—"
"Are dead."
The words landed like blows. She knew it already. Had seen the bodies in the throne room. But hearing him say it, so matter-of-fact, so calm...
"The survivors are being given the choice to swear fealty to West Ashwood or leave the territory," he continued. "Most are choosing to leave. They'll scatter. Find other packs. In a month, East Varos won't exist anymore."
"You did this." Her voice cracked. "You destroyed everything."
Something shifted in his expression. Something she couldn't identify.
"Yes," he said. "I did."
Liar, a voice whispered in the back of her mind. She didn't know where it came from. Didn't know why she thought it. But something about his admission felt... off.
She filed it away. Information to examine later, when she wasn't naked and trapped and falling apart.
"What do you want from me?" she asked.
"I want you to eat breakfast." He released her wrists and stepped back. "I want you to rest. Recover. You lost a lot of blood yesterday, and the marking took more out of you than it should have."
"That's not what I meant."
"I know."
He walked to the wardrobe and pulled out a robe. Silk. Expensive. He held it out to her.
Selene didn't take it. "Answer me."
"You're my mate." He said it like that explained everything. Like it was simple. "My wolf chose you. The bond is complete. What I want is irrelevant."
"What do you want?" she repeated.
He was quiet for a long moment. The matebond flickered with emotions she couldn't quite parse. Conflict. Want. Something that might have been loneliness.
"I want you to stop fighting," he said finally. "I want you to accept what this is. I want—"
He stopped. Jaw tight. Like he'd been about to say something else and caught himself.
"What?"
"It doesn't matter."
"Tell me."
His eyes met hers. Gray and steady and ancient with something she didn't understand.
"I want you to look at me without flinching. Someday. That's what I want."
Selene stared at him. Of all the things she'd expected him to say, that wasn't on the list.
A knock at the door shattered the moment.
"Your Majesty." A woman's voice, cold and formal. "The Queen requests your presence in the council chamber. She says it's urgent."
Selene watched Theron's expression shutter. Watched the brief flash of irritation through the matebond before he locked it down.
"Tell her I'll be there within the hour," he said.
Footsteps retreated down the hall.
"The Queen," Selene repeated. "Your wife. Does she know I'm here? In her castle? In what I'm assuming is her bedroom?"
"This hasn't been Velora's bedroom in three years." His voice was flat. "And yes. She knows."
"How does she feel about you keeping your... mate... in her home?"
"Velora's feelings aren't your concern."
"They might be, if she decides to have me killed."
Something flickered in his eyes. "She won't."
"You sound very sure."
"Velora is many things. Stupid isn't one of them. She knows what you are to me. She won't touch you." A pause. "Not while I'm alive to stop her."
Not while I'm alive.
The words hung in the air. Selene filed them away with the other strange pieces of this puzzle.
Theron set the robe on the bed. "Eat. Rest. I'll send someone to attend you."
Selene stood in the center of the room, naked and marked and carrying a dead man's baby, and tried to make sense of what had just happened.
Why?
She walked to the window. Looked out at a castle she didn't recognize, a kingdom she was now trapped in, a future she'd never asked for.
Her hand stayed on her stomach.
I don't know what's happening, she thought at the life inside her. I don't know what he wants. I don't know how to survive this.
But I will.
For you, I will.
In that moment, standing in the morning light with a monster's mark on her neck, Selene made a vow.
Whatever it takes. Whatever I have to become. I will keep you safe.
Even from him.
Even from myself.
She reached for the robe.
She would eat. She would rest. She would play the role of captive mate.
And she would wait.
Because Selene Moonveil was not a woman who broke. She was a woman who bent, and planned, and survived.
And someday, when the moment was right, she would make them all pay.