Alaeric"s Pov
The air in the dungeon turned to ice.
I couldn't breathe. My heart was slamming against my ribs like a battering ram, and my wolf was howling one single word over and over again.
Mate. Mate. Mate.
I stared through the iron bars at the girl on the floor. She was a mess. Her dress was shredded, her skin was covered in dirt and dried blood, and she looked like a light breeze could snap her in two.
This was her? This was the woman the Moon Goddess had chosen for me.
An Omega, a weak, trembling prisoner who had crawled onto my land like a dying animal.
"Alaeric?" Kael's voice sounded like it was coming from miles away. "What is it? You look like you've seen a ghost."
I didn't answer. I couldn't. The bond was pulling at me, a thick, invisible cord trying to drag me toward her. It was telling me to rip the door off its hinges, to wrap her in my cloak, and to kill anyone who had ever touched her.
But I wasn't just a man. I was a Lycan Prince. And my pack was on the edge of war.
I looked at her thin arms and the way she flinched when I breathed. How could she stand beside me? How could she handle the Bloodmoon Decay? She wouldn't last a week in my world. She would be a liability. A target.
If I accepted her, I would be choosing a broken girl over the safety of my entire kingdom. I would be breaking my promise to Selene and the Elders.
The heat in my blood turned into a cold, hard resolve. I wouldn't let a "fate" I didn't choose ruin everything I had built.
"Kael," I said, my voice sounding like grinding stone. "Open the door."
Kael looked at me, confused, but he pulled the heavy iron key from his belt and turned the lock. The door creaked open.
I stepped into the cell. The smell of her hit me like a physical blow, rain, wild lilies, and something sweet that made my head spin. It was the most intoxicating scent I had ever encountered.
The girl backed away She looked up at me, her eyes wide with terror.
"Please," she whispered. Her voice was tiny, broken. "Don't... don't kill me."
The sound of her voice sent a jolt of electricity straight to my soul. My wolf wanted to whimper. He wanted to have her, but I crushed that feeling.
"You're from Red Hollow," I barked, looming over her. I made sure my aura was heavy and terrifying. I wanted her to be scared. I needed her to be scared so I could push her away. "Why did Prince Kayden send you? Is he so desperate that he's using Omegas as spies now?"
She shook her head violently, tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm not a spy. He... he rejected me. He threw me out."
A rejection. The Prince of Red Hollow had found his mate and thrown her away.
My jaw tightened. Part of me wanted to ride to Red Hollow and rip Kayden's head off for touching what was mine. But the other part of me, the prince, saw an opportunity.
"Listen to me carefully," I said, leaning down so my face was inches from hers. I could feel the heat radiating from her skin. The bond was screaming at me to touch her, to comfort her.
Instead, I gripped the iron bars beside her head.
"I feel the bond," I growled, my eyes flashing a dangerous grey. "I know what you are to me. And I know you feel it, too."
She gasped, her breath hitching as she stared at me. She knew. She could feel the pull just as much as I could.
"But I am a Lycan Prince," I continued, my voice cold and heartless. "My pack needs a Luna who is strong. They need someone who can lead an army, not someone who can barely stand. You are weak, you are a mistake I cannot afford."
I saw the light in her eyes flicker and die. The hope I didn't even know she had vanished, replaced by a deep, hollow grief.
"I, Alaeric Blackthorn, Prince of the Lycan Throne... do not accept you as my Luna."
I didn't use the word "reject." Not yet. A full rejection would break her, and I didn't want her dead. I just wanted her out of my heart.
"You will stay in this pack," I said, standing up and looking down at her like she was a servant. "I will give you a place to sleep and food to eat. You will be safe here. But you will never be my mate. You will never be my Queen.
I turned my back on her before I could change my mind. My chest felt like it was being crushed by a giant's hand. The bond was throbbed with a dull, aching pain, but I forced myself to walk out of the cell.
Kael was standing in the hallway, his jaw dropped. He had heard everything.
"Alaeric... are you insane?" he whispered as I slammed the door shut. "That's your mate! You just threw away a fated bond!"
"She's an Omega, Kael," I snapped, walking fast so I didn't have to hear her cry. "Look at her. She wouldn't survive the first night of the curse. I'm doing her a favor."
"You're lying to yourself," Kael said, hurrying to keep up with my long strides. "You felt that spark. I saw it."
"It doesn't matter what I felt," I growled. "The pack comes first. Selene is the Luna they need. This girl... she's just a distraction."
But as I walked back up to my office, the scent of lilies and rain wouldn't leave my clothes. My wolf was silent now, a heavy, angry silence that felt like a storm waiting to break.
I had done what a Prince was supposed to do. I had chosen duty over desire.
So why did it feel like I had just walked into my own execution?