Chapter 78 Crest Center
The council chamber erupted in gasps and protests.
"That's outrageous, Freya! This woman is cursed and the king could be affected by proximity."
"Yes, the king has suffered enough. Why must he march with her to the crest center?"
"Silence!" Freya's voice, though old, sounded with authority that made even the loudest councilors shut their mouths. "You know nothing of what you speak. I see the spirit that moves around the king and she must lure it out from him. The ghost that haunts him will only emerge in her presence."
"I possess no spirit." Adrian's voice sounded firm and certain. "I am not mad. What I saw was real."
But no one believed him. At that moment Adrian felt slight doubt creeping into his own certainty. How could Freya not see that the mate pull had led to his chains that night? How could she not understand it was Lila's danger calling to him through the bond?
But his doubt was as frail as his will right now because no one except himself believed his version of events. Not even Marcus had accepted that the screaming and vision had been caused by a wolf's cry he'd heard through the mate bond. Everyone thought he'd gone mad with curse or possession.
"Your eyes are too blind, my king." Freya's voice cut through his spiraling thoughts. "We must commence this immediately because the time of the moon is now! The full moon rises and we cannot delay."
That was when it dawned on Lila that midnight had just struck. Her eyes had deliberately ignored Adrian throughout the time she'd stood in the witness box awaiting judgment.
She'd tried to block out the pain, that excruciating agony she'd thought she was finally free from when she fled. But it hit her hard the moment she'd entered, and surprisingly he hadn't blocked her out with those walls of his. He'd left his emotions open and raw and bleeding for her to feel.
Just as they moved her out of the witness box where she'd stood for judgment, her eyes finally met Adrian's properly. Those ice-blue eyes locked with hers and all she could see was pain so deep it seemed bottomless.
Adrian's face was stern as he stepped down from the throne and took her arm. His hand
was soft and warm and moderately calming even though she hated to admit it affected her at all.
They walked together, matched like couples heading to their wedding rather than their destruction, moving toward the crest center where the end would begin.
The councils followed behind in solemn procession. Everyone was required to witness this ritual, to see the curse broken with their own eyes.
"What will become of my life after this? Will I be free?" Lila asked quietly as they walked through moonlit corridors.
"Do you think you can ever be free from me?" Adrian's voice came out rough, his eyes glaring red with wolf rising behind them. "Do you truly believe severing the bond will erase what we are to each other?"
"I will no longer be your mate. I will be dead to you. The bond will be gone and you'll feel nothing."
"You will be alive and you will never be dead to me." His grip on her arm tightened. "The bond may break but my wolf knows what you are. My heart knows. That doesn't change because some ritual severs the connection."
Lila stopped walking and pulled her arm from his grip. They had reached the center of the crest, standing where moonlight fell like a spotlight. But they seemed to have forgotten their audience, lost in this final conversation.
"You don't get to decide my life, Adrian. You won't own me after this."
"I have decided to keep you as my slave." The words came out harsh and possessive.
"You?" Lila scoffed, anger finally breaking through her resignation. "On whose decree? I was never sold to you, Adrian. I came here of free will and I demand I leave the same way."
"I'm sorry, Lila, but your father set this arrangement for you." Adrian's voice carried regret but also finality. "He sold you to be the slave of the Northern Kingdom rather than leave you a lone wolf with no pack protection. It was part of the agreement when he handed you over to Keal."
The truth made her stagger backward as if she'd been physically struck. So that was why she'd been left alone in her room.
That was why none of her family had stood beside her bed to witness her waking. No wonder her father had rejected and banished her so easily. She'd already been sold like livestock to pay some debt or secure some advantage.
When she'd thought she was coming to safety, her family had been disposing of her like refuse. The betrayal cut deeper than any physical wound. Tears fell from her eyes before she could stop them.
Adrian saw the tear drop fall from Lila's face and couldn't control himself any longer. He moved with the fastest reflex anyone had ever seen, closing the distance between them and pulling Lila close.
His hands gripped her waist and drew her against his body so tightly there was no space between them. His breath lingered on her face, warm and desperate. With one finger tipped with elongated claws he wiped her tear away with impossible gentleness.
Clearly Adrian wasn't in control anymore. It was his wolf taking over, drawn by her pain and beauty and the moon's power amplifying everything.
Because under the effect of the full moon's direct light, the true nature of everyone present was revealed. Wolves began to surface whether their humans wanted it or not.
But Lila's wolf remained strangely hidden, Red refusing to fully emerge. Only Adrian could see the red tint beginning to glow in her eyes, could see her hair brightening to the color of flames. She didn't transform but her beauty radiated more brightly than anything he'd ever witnessed, amplified by moonlight and wolf power combining.
"No, Adrian, you must resist!" Freya's voice echoed across the crest center. "You should not be tempted by this. The ritual requires rejection, not claiming!"
But her words had no effect on Adrian. He couldn't control the pull and the overwhelming urge to claim Lila properly.
This wasn't what he was supposed to do, wasn't what anyone had planned, but the moon and the mate bond and three years of denial were combining into something impossible to fight.
The councils stood frozen, fear written across every face. They were too scared to approach and physically separate the cursed mate from their king. What if touching her infected them? What if the curse spread through contact?
"You must resist!" Freya shouted again but the words felt like distant echoes that couldn't penetrate the bubble of power surrounding the mates.
Adrian lifted Lila's chin so her eyes met his fully. He brushed a strand of flame-bright hair from her face and held her like she was the most precious thing in all five kingdoms.
"You don't have to cry, Red." His wolf's voice rumbled through Adrian's throat, deeper and more primal than his human speech. "You will not be taken from me. This is the biggest mistake they ever made, putting us both before the moon's full power."
His teeth elongated fully, canines sharp and ready for the claiming bite. Lila was overpowered by her own wolf, Red surging just beneath her skin. Although she didn't transform, she responded instinctively to Adrian's touch. Her body melted against his, head tilting to expose her neck in submission.
Before anyone could stop him, before he could second-guess or hesitate, Adrian kissed her deeply and aggressively. His mouth claimed hers with three years of pent-up hunger and desperation. The bond roared to life between them, stronger than it had ever been, amplified by moonlight until it felt like fire burning through their veins.
"Hurry!" Freya's voice finally penetrated Adrian's consciousness, sharp with genuine fear. "Someone must stop them! They must not mark each other or the ritual will fail completely!"
The whole crest center had turned to chaos. Councilors shouted contradicting orders. Guards stood paralyzed between duty and terror. The power Adrian and Lila emanated wasn't anything anyone had anticipated. No common wolves in all recorded history had possessed this level of mate bond strength.
The air around them shimmered with visible energy. Moonlight seemed to bend and concentrate on their joined forms. The ground beneath their feet vibrated with power that made stones crack.
Freya stared in growing horror as understanding dawned. They were true mates in the purest sense, bonds created directly by the Goddess herself without any human interference or arrangement. But she'd been paid handsomely to ensure they rejected each other, bribed by forces that wanted this bond destroyed.
Many lives had already been lost to the curse but this was never what she'd anticipated would happen. The power of the mate bond pull playing out openly under the full moon's amplification? This was disaster beyond anything she'd foreseen.
If they completed the claiming bite now, if Adrian marked Lila under the moon's direct witness, the bond would become permanent and irreversible. No ritual could sever what the Goddess herself would seal. The curse would either lift completely or consume them all.
Freya's hands shook as she realized she might have doomed the entire kingdom by bringing them here.