Chapter 4
I turned my back on the withered arm and pressed the brass button on the knob. The lock snapped into place with a sharp click.
"Happy?" I asked.
Seraphina didn't answer. The mattress springs groaned. She shoved herself upright, using her one healthy arm to drag her body forward. She swayed, her bare feet scraping across the floorboards. She nearly pitched forward into the vanity table.
"Stay there," I warned, raising my hands.
"Look at me," she demanded, her voice a wet rasp.
"I'm looking at a dead woman walking," I said. "I should scream for the guards. Let the whole pack see their invincible Luna now."
"They won't care," she spat. "They only care about his power."
"They care about the Frost Ridge alliance. They respect your strength."
"There is no alliance, Aria. It's a slaughter."
She seized the lapels of her silk robe. With a violent jerk, she yanked them apart. The fabric tore at the seam, exposing her collarbone.
"Look at what your Alpha did," she ordered.
I stepped closer, keeping my guard up. My eyes fell to the mating mark. It sat exactly where Kael had bitten her at the altar. But it wasn't a standard crescent scar.
The flesh lay split wide open. Black, necrotic tissue formed jagged lines, cutting a specific geometric pattern into her skin.
It formed a rune.
A horrific stench hit my nose. Rotting meat mixed with stagnant swamp water.
"That isn't a mating bond," I said, covering my nose with my free hand.
"No," she agreed. "It's a tether."
"What kind of tether?"
"The kind that doesn't release until the vessel is empty."
Seraphina lunged forward. Her right hand clamped around my wrist. Her grip possessed a frantic, desperate strength.
"Get off me!" I shouted, yanking my arm backward.
"Feel it!" she yelled.
She pulled me forward and slammed my palm flat against her chest. My fingertips brushed the raised, crusty edge of the black rune.
Ice immediately spiked through my veins. The freezing sensation shot up my forearm, locking my elbow and numbing my shoulder joint. My vision blurred for a fraction of a second.
A rhythmic pulsing beat against my palm. It didn't match her heartbeat. It moved faster. A violent, greedy suction.
"Stop!" I gasped, twisting my wrist.
She dug her nails into my skin, holding me against the rot. "Do you feel him?"
I closed my eyes. The sensation overwhelmed my senses. I felt Kael. His oppressive, heavy aura coated the black lines of the wound. It pulled relentlessly. It acted like a siphon, dragging a steady stream of warmth and vitality out of Seraphina's body and funneling it straight into the invisible link.
"He's draining you," I whispered, my voice trembling.
"He feeds on raw strength," she replied, her eyes wide and bloodshot. "He needed the strongest she-wolf in the north. Not to rule beside him. To fuel him."
My stomach violently turned. I gagged, stumbling back a step. The anger I held for the woman who stole my mate vanished. I stared at her sunken cheeks and trembling lips.
Kael hadn't chosen her for a political alliance. He chose her as livestock.
"You're just food to him," I said.
"He rejected you at the altar," Seraphina said, the pieces finally clicking together. "Not because you were an Omega."
"Because I had no power to steal," I confirmed. "I was useless to a parasite."
"He broke your sacred bond just to chain himself to a fresh vessel."
"And you volunteered for the slaughter." A bitter laugh scraped up her throat. "I walked right up to the altar and handed him the knife."
I stared at the black lines eating away at her flesh. "How long does it take?"
"Days. Maybe a week," she choked out. "Until the host is empty. Until my bones turn to dust."
"Your father's soldiers are arriving tomorrow," I reminded her. "They will see this. They will kill him."
"They won't see anything." She dropped my wrist. Her arm fell limply to her side. "He will hide me. Or he will finish me tonight and tell them the rogues attacked the border."
I rubbed my frozen fingers, trying to restore the circulation. The coldness of Kael's greed still clung to my skin.
"Why tell me?" I asked. "Why show the maid?"
"Because you know the secret passages out of this territory," she said. "You used to sneak out when we were kids."
"You want me to help you escape?"
"I want you to get a message to my father."
"I'm not a messenger, Luna. I'm a servant."
"You are the only person in this pack who hates him as much as I do right now."
She took a staggering step toward me. Her ruined left arm knocked a perfume bottle off the vanity. It shattered against the floorboards, sending glass flying across the white rug.
"If he consumes my power, no one in the north will be able to stop him," Seraphina warned. "He will slaughter every pack from here to the coast."
"He's already the strongest Alpha."
"He's a monster who wants to be a god."
I looked at the door, then back to her withered arm. "If I run, he will hunt me down."
"If you stay, he will kill you anyway," she countered. "You know too much. You saw the blood. You saw the brush."
"I can just keep my mouth shut."
"Do you honestly believe he leaves loose ends?"
I didn't answer. Kael's face flashed in my mind. The arrogant smirk. The cold dismissal. The way he inhaled the scent of her sickness with a satisfied hum. She was right. He would snap my neck the second I outlived my usefulness.
"What is the message?" I asked.
"Tell my father the bond is a curse," she said, her voice dropping to a frantic whisper. "Tell him to burn the Blood Moon territory to the ground."
"He won't believe an Omega."
"He will believe this."
She clawed at her neck. Her fingers dug into the silver clasp of the Alpha female's necklace. She ripped it off, breaking the chain. The heavy wolf head pendant hit her palm.
She shoved the metal into my hand.
"Take it," she ordered.
"If they catch me with this, they'll execute me for theft."
"Then run fast, Aria."
A heavy thud echoed from the hallway.
The unmistakable sound of military footwear striking the hardwood floor. The steps moved closer, heavy and purposeful.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
"He's back," I whispered.
Seraphina's eyes widened in sheer terror. She scrambled backward, her legs tangling in her torn silk robe. She hit the edge of the mattress and crawled up onto the sheets, pulling the velvet blanket over her ruined arm.
"Hide the necklace," she hissed.
I buried the silver pendant deep into the pocket of my scratchy gray uniform. The metal felt like a block of ice against my thigh.
The footsteps stopped right outside the master bedroom.
A heavy fist pounded against the wood.
"Open the door, Omega," Kael's voice boomed through the panels.
I froze. My feet refused to move.
The brass doorknob violently twisted downward.
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