Chapter 68
Elise’s POV
Nothing could prepare me for Rygan’s wrath. I was speechless when I saw myself naked and quickly wrapped myself in the sheets with Kyren by my side. My head still felt foggy as I sat up.
1 thought it was a dream with Rygan. I imagined he left the hall and came for me, claimed me as his, and we made love, but how could he when I told him to stay back? It wasn’t him, but Kyren, whom I was with instead!
My hands quivered as I raised them to feel a pulsing mark on my skin. “Oh, moon!” Alvira said in horror, “Elise, how could you do this with the enemy? How could you let him mark you?” I watched Alvira say her pretentious yet overly expressive words of sickly-sweet concern to set Rygan over the edge as he raged; in seconds, he had lunged Kyren to the wall.
They both slammed into the headboard, split by the impact. That’s why I jumped off the bed with a scream on my lips. I crawled back in shame and hurriedly searched for my robe in mortification.
“Both of you stop this at once!” I heard Alvira scream in horror, but it had gotten worse when they both slammed into the large wooden box, both wrestling with claws and canines out.
They had both instantly shifted into their wolves, their adrenaline pumping in their veins as Rygan’s midnight black wolf fought with a dark brown one belonging to Kyren. They both collided on my balcony and fell outside.
I felt numb watching Alvira run out of the room and outside while I was stuck in limbo. My body felt violated, and I couldn’t remember anything. It all became worse when I felt an ache in my wrist. I saw a bite mark from Kyren; he had claimed me when I was clearly out of it.
“No, no, this isn’t happening to me, no!” I cried with mortification at that p***ing, toothed mark on my skin. What happened last night? I cannot remember anything! I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
The sound of trees crashing was what brought me back to reality. I took a breath and ran down the steps. The whole backyard was trashed from their fight. There was no hesitation, just brutal bloodlust that ran through them both.
“What the heck is happening here? D**n it, the treaty!” Taz roared with Kaide by his side, both of them confused. The fight must have woken the whole pack up, as Taz made no hesitation to shift to his animal.
Kaide came to my side, and he immediately took in the scent of Kyren on me. I couldn’t read what was in his gaze, but I noticed his gaze on my bitten wrist. I quickly covered it with my hands, ashamed. “Kaide, I don’t know what happened; I swear I thought it-”
He ignored me, changing into his wolves as they all circled Kyren; that monster’s gaze slid to mine before he changed back into his human form, his arms up in defeat. But one of his hands was severely damaged by Rygan’s bite, bleeding as he held his left side with a grunt.
“Rygan, I don’t remember, I swear. I sent down the bond, but I got no response. It was still before dawn, and the sun was rising slightly. I clung onto my robe as Rygan and his betas changed back to human form.
“I did not come here to fight.”
“Yet you touched one of my own, you b***rd, which is mine!” Rygan snarls at Kyren. With Kaide hiding him back.
“I did not touch her; she called to me to talk and agreed to be mine, and we slept together.”
“Liar!” I scream, waning their attention as they turn to me. “You are a liar; you must have drugged me and forced me.”
“Then explain why no one came to your rescue, why I have a matching bite to the one on
your body on my neck, Elise; these love bites show you wanted me in your bed,” he argues, and I’m speechless. Yesterday I felt so hot that the remains of heat shot back up, and I thought aw Rygan in my dreams; now it was someone else, Kyren.
“No. 1-1 didn’t!” I’m lost for words, mortified as Kyren smiles in victory, surrounded by all the judging faces. I could feel my anxiety brewing.
“Elise. I thought you said you ran away from him? How did you let him make you betray us?” Alvira says. I wanted to claw out her eyes as she said that she wasn’t helping matters at all, but we were surrounded by elders, pack members, and other people who had borne witness to the bond. A bond that I presumably allowed, no, was compelled to
“And by our laws, my bonded mate must be brought to me, or else war will be waged on the pack. Remember, Rygan, you stole my woman first, and I’m just getting her back,” he says, his lips stitched to a wicked grin.Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.
One of Kyren’s subordinates tried to make a move to touch Elise, but Rygan sped like lightning before he could touch her and snapped his head clean off his body. “She isn’t going anywhere,” he growls to Kyren.
“You have given your answer, Rygan. Then a duel will ensue in ten days; I give you only ten days to give me my woman, or hell will be raised on your pack and will be to the ground.” He says. Kyren then looks. I could feel a sick feeling rush through my blood as he mutters, “See you soon, my love,” he says to me before he shifts back to his wolf.
One loud howl and his men were gathered as they s**d out, leaving the garden battered and wrecked. My legs weakened as I fell to the cold, dewy grass, still perplexed by what happened.
Kyren had forced a mating mark on me, and I was going to be his now. “Get up, Red,” I hear Taz tell me. “We have to talk about this; tell us everything that happened,” Taz says to me calmly. I could tell he was holding out from his rage as we went inside.
I feel that prickly sickness rise in me but a warm hand turned me around, I meet Rygan’s gaze, a flash of betrayal and sadness in them as he traces my face, he reached to hold me but froze in place before he backed away.
Rygan hasn’t even spoke to me once; the males got dressed while I protested against wearing anything else apart from my robe, which was already dirty. And I felt dirty after being touched by that monster.i only wanted this to be over.
I am left waiting in the study as they head to talk to the elders, who bore witness to the whole situation as my fate was being declared next door by elders who hate me. The door opens, and Alvira trudges in.
There was no emotion on her face as she sat in the chair f***st from me. I had no strength to speak to her, knowing it could all end in a fight. But what was that unsettling look on her face?
This time Kaide enters and walks to me; he kneels right in front of me, worried over his gaze as he holds my hand. “Don’t worry, we’ll see a way through this,” Kaide tells me.
“What was the decision?” I ask him, but he falls silent.
“Kaide, please,” I beg.
“The elders all came to a unified standing that the mating marks were mutual, and you were sirens bride-to-be will be given” to him…f**k, this is all messed up,” he mutters with a curse.
He did not need to fully explain; a part of me already expected they’d react that way. Even Kaide’s touching me felt cold now. The door opened, and this time Rygan walked in. He was shrouded in pheromones of pulsing rage as he stepped further into the room.
I could barely breathe by just looking at him; this man had protected me from being taken by Kyren’s men at that moment, but was he thinking now? “I need the room,” he says cleanly. “El, stay.”
Those were the only words I heard directed at me all day. I sat frozen in fear. I felt like I could throw up at that moment. The silence in the room made me feel like I was standing on needles.
I watched as his hand thrummed slowly on the table, his eyes filled with guilt and pain, but moreover, rage, like he couldn’t still process what happened, and neither could I.
“Tell me what happened. How could that happen?”
“Kyren must have planned this; I can’t explain how he even knew where my room was, but he must have planned it with someone,” I explained frantically.
“The elders…
They…you won’t leave, I’ll make sure of that he called quietly, still unsure of my fate or if he should trust me.
“Rygan, you have to believe me; I don’t know how Kyren got In my bed, I don’t remember it. I swear to you. I say frantically, but I couldn’t imagine the weight of his next words, which hit me deeply.
“Is this payback for what happened with Alvira, so you chose to sleep with him and chose him instead?” Did he ask me?
That was when I felt the world crumble under my feet, and I exploded in rage as I couldn’t control the anger in me, raising my hands to hit the alpha king of the black moon pack hard on his cheeks.