7

7
Shackles of the Bond

Nadine’s POV

The door groaned open again, hours later, and I knew it was him before I saw him.

His presence rolled through the chamber like a storm front, the kind that split the sky in two. My wolf reacted before I could stop her ears pricking, body tensing, my heart thundering against my ribs.

The bond.

That cursed, merciless bond.

I pulled the blanket tighter around myself and forced my face into stone, refusing to let him see how his nearness pulled at me like a hook in my chest.

Madden stepped into the firelight, taller than I remembered, broader too. His black military coat framed his body, the collar stiff, the silver insignia of the Lycan King gleaming at his shoulder. His eyes glowed faintly, golden flecks alive like embers in the dark.

I hated that he was still beautiful.

I hated that I noticed.

“You’re awake,” he said flatly, shutting the door behind him. His voice was a blade sharp, cold, meant to cut.

“Unfortunately,” I muttered, turning my face away.

He moved closer, each step measured, as though he feared that if he moved too fast, the beast inside him would lunge. He stopped only a few feet from the bed, his gaze dragging over me like a whip.

“You thought you could run forever?” he asked, his voice low, laced with something dangerous. “That I would simply forget you?”

I swallowed, lifting my chin even though my insides trembled. “I didn’t think anything. I only hoped.”

His jaw ticked. He leaned closer, and his scent, dark cedar and smoke, threaded with the unmistakable edge of wolf musk, wrapped around me. My traitorous wolf pushed against me, whining to reach for him, to breathe him in deeper. I shoved her down with every ounce of willpower I had.

“You left me,” he said, each word hammered with fury. “You rejected me. You, who were made for me my true mate. Do you know what that did to me? To my kingdom?”

I laughed bitterly, though my throat felt tight. “Oh, forgive me, Your Majesty. Did my absence ruffle your crown? Did your people pity the great Lycan King abandoned by a mere omega?”

His hand shot out before I saw it coming, claws half unsheathed as he grabbed the bedpost beside my head. The wood cracked beneath his grip, splinters scattering across the velvet sheets. His face was inches from mine, his eyes burning straight through me.

“You made me feral.” His voice was raw now, stripped of its iron calm. “You think this is a game? You broke me. And because of you, she died.”

Seraphine.

The name was unspoken, but it cut me all the same.

My chest ached, but I refused to look away. “You blame me for her death? I never touched her. I never wanted her throne, or your pack, or your bloody kingdom. All I wanted was to be free of you.”

“Free of me?” His laugh was bitter, violent. “You think you had that choice? You were mine, Nadine. From the moment the bond was sealed in blood, you were mine.”

I spat at his feet, venom flooding my throat. “I will never be yours.”

The silence that followed was suffocating. His gaze dropped to the spit on the floor, then back to me, his eyes glacial now, the golden flecks swallowed by shadow.

“You dare?” he whispered, more to himself than to me. Then louder: “You dare, after everything you’ve done?”

“I dare because you don’t own me,” I snapped. My voice cracked, but I forced it louder, steadier. “You think the bond makes me yours, but it doesn’t. It’s chains, Madden, nothing more. And I’d rather die in them than bow to you.”

His chest rose and fell, heavy with barely controlled rage. For a heartbeat, I thought he might strike me. His claws dug into the bedpost, the wood groaning until finally it snapped off in his grip. He hurled it into the fire, sparks erupting like angry stars.

“You want death?” he said darkly. “No. You don’t deserve death. You deserve to feel what I felt when you left me feral. When I tore through my own kingdom because the bond burned me alive. When Seraphine’s blood soaked the stones because of your cowardice.”

I flinched despite myself.

“Do you know what it’s like,” he hissed, “to hear her scream your name with her last breath? To watch her die because her king, her mate, was broken?”

My stomach twisted. “You think I killed her? No, Madden. That guilt is yours alone. Maybe if you weren’t so obsessed with power, if you weren’t so blind, you could’ve saved her. Don’t you dare lay her death at my feet.”

His hand slammed against the wall beside me, rattling the stone. The bond surged, snarling, aching, desperate. My wolf clawed inside me, begging to reach for him, to ease the torment in his voice. My own body betrayed me breath shallow, pulse racing, every nerve alive with his nearness.

No. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.

I bit my tongue until I tasted blood, using the pain as an anchor.

He leaned in, so close the heat of his breath brushed my lips. “You feel it too,” he whispered. “Don’t lie to me. Every breath, every heartbeat you can’t fight the bond. It will break you.”

I forced a laugh, though my voice shook. “I’d rather shatter into dust than belong to you.”

For a moment, the fury in his gaze softened just a flicker, like he almost believed me. Then it hardened again, his mask snapping back into place.

“Very well,” he said coldly. “If you won’t bow willingly, you’ll rot until you do.”

My stomach dropped. “What?”

He turned sharply, motioning to the guards outside the door. Two Lycans entered, tall, hulking, their eyes glowing faintly in obedience.

“Take her,” Madden ordered. His voice was ice now, devoid of any hint of the man I once thought he could be. “Lock her in the palace dungeon. She is not to leave unless I command it.”

The guards moved toward me. I scrambled back against the headboard, clutching the sheets tighter. “No. You can’t ”

Madden’s eyes snapped to mine, silencing me with a single look. “You wanted freedom, Nadine. You wanted to run from me. Consider this your freedom.”

The guards’ hands clamped around my arms, dragging me from the bed. I kicked, thrashed, the sheets slipping away until I stood in nothing but my undergarments, my dignity stripped bare. Heat rushed to my cheeks, but Madden didn’t flinch. He didn’t look away. His gaze burned over me, not with lust, but with a cruel, punishing ownership.

“Cover her,” he snapped to the guards, tossing his coat onto the floor.

One of them draped it over my shoulders. The scent of him swallowed me whole cedar, smoke, fury. My wolf whimpered, my stomach turning.

“Damn you,” I spat at him as they dragged me toward the door. “Damn you, Madden. Whatever bond ties me to you, I will rip it out with my own hands before I ever bow to you again.”

His expression didn’t change. Only his eyes, glowing faintly gold, followed me as the guards pulled me into the hall.

And then the heavy door shut between us, sealing me into a nightmare I had spent years running from.

But even in the corridor, even as the cold stone scraped my bare feet and the dungeons loomed ahead, the bond thrummed inside me like a curse.

Every breath near him had set my wolf on edge.

And I hated myself more than I hated him for feeling it.