POV Luella
I ran from Kairel as quickly as my feelings for him flared up.
Why is this happening? I shouldn't feel this.
I ran to Tobias's chambers, trying to pretend everything was normal between us. He'd asked me to come, said we needed to spend time together to strengthen our bond before the wedding.
Maybe if I act like nothing has changed, I can forget about Kyrell's kiss.
"You look beautiful tonight," Tobias said, moving closer to me. His brown eyes were warm, his scent carrying that familiar clean, safe smell.
He's being gentle. This is what I should want.
When he pulled me into his arms and kissed me, I waited for the artificial bond to create its usual warmth and contentment. Instead, something felt wrong. Very wrong.
Why doesn't this feel right anymore? What's changed?
The artificial bond that had been controlling my feelings for months began to crack. I could feel it breaking apart inside me, leaving behind something cold and empty.
Something's happening. The bond is... fading.
Mid-kiss, horror washed over me as I realized I felt nothing but growing revulsion for his touch. My body began to reject him violently, my stomach turning as his hands moved over my skin.
I'm going to be sick. I need to get away from him.
"Stop," I gasped, pushing him away.
"What's wrong?" Tobias asked, but his eyes weren't concerned. They were calculating, watching my reaction with cold interest.
He knows something. His scent isn't worried—it's expectant.
My body's violent rejection became so intense that I actually became physically sick, bile rising in my throat. I ran to his washbasin and retched, my wolf howling inside me with distress.
What's happening to me? Why is my body rejecting my own mate?
"I have to go," I managed, wiping my mouth with a shaking hand.
"Of course," Tobias said smoothly. "Rest well, my dear."
He doesn't seem surprised. He's not following me or trying to help.
I fled to my chambers, my mind spinning with confusion. Free from the magical influence for the first time in months, I felt like I was seeing the world clearly for the first time.
The bond was fake. It was artificial. That's why it felt wrong.
But if the bond with Tobias was artificial, then what did that make me? What did that make everything I'd felt?
The answer came like a lightning strike the next morning during training exercises in the courtyard. I was watching from my balcony when I saw Kyrell across the yard, practicing sword work with deadly precision.
He's beautiful when he fights. Dangerous and graceful and—
Our eyes met across the distance, and the world stopped.
Oh goddess. Oh no.
The recognition hit me like a physical blow. This was it. This was what a real mate bond felt like. Not the gentle warmth of the artificial connection, but a consuming fire that threatened to burn me alive.
He's my true mate. Kyrell is my true mate.
The intensity of our true connection was overwhelming. Every cell in my body screamed for him, every breath I took felt incomplete without his scent, every heartbeat echoed with the need to be near him.
This is what I've been missing. This burning, desperate need.
I gripped the balcony railing as the force of the bond crashed over me. Months of artificial suppression had been holding back an ocean, and now the dam had broken completely.
I can't breathe. I can't think. I need him.
Kyrell had gone completely still in the courtyard below, his sword forgotten in his hand as he stared up at me with those black eyes wide with shock and understanding.
He feels it too. He knows what this is.
The desperate need to reach him, to touch him, to complete the bond that had been denied for so long, bordered on madness. My previous attraction to him seemed pale by comparison to this consuming fire.
I have to get to him. I have to—
The overwhelming pull toward him became too much for my body to handle. My knees buckled, and I collapsed on the balcony floor, gasping for air as the true mate bond tried to drag my soul toward his.
I can't handle this. It's too much, too intense.
Through my blurred vision, I could see Kyrell dropping his sword and running toward the castle, his face twisted with concern and desperate need.
He's coming for me. My mate is coming.
But before Kyrell could reach me, Tobias appeared on my balcony. He must have been watching, waiting for this moment.
"So," he said, his voice completely different from anything I'd ever heard from him before. "The artificial bond finally wore off."
He knew. He's known all along.
His perfect princely mask cracked completely, revealing something cold and calculating underneath. "I was wondering how long the potion would last. Turns out it was just long enough to get you to the altar."
Potion? He drugged me?
"You drugged me," I gasped, still struggling to breathe through the overwhelming force of the true bond.
"Every goblet of water, every glass of wine, every meal we shared," Tobias said with satisfaction. "A lovely little concoction that creates artificial mate bonds. Very useful for political marriages."
Everything was a lie. Everything I felt for him was fake.
"The only problem," he continued, his brown eyes now cold with fury, "is that your real mate is the brother I've spent years trying to destroy."
He knows Kyrell is my true mate. He's always known.
I could hear footsteps pounding up the stairs, could smell Kyrell's familiar dark scent getting stronger as he raced toward me.
He's coming. My real mate is coming for me.
"This is inconvenient," Tobias said calmly, pulling a knife from his belt. "I can't have you bonding with Kyrell now. Not when I'm so close to having everything I want."
He's going to kill me rather than lose control.
The artificial bond was completely gone now, leaving me free to see Tobias for what he really was—a manipulative monster who had been poisoning me for months to make me compliant.
I was never in love with him. It was all poison and lies.
"Luella!" Kyrell's voice roared from the stairwell, filled with desperate need and protective fury.
My mate. He's here.