8

8
The Night I Broke Us

Nadine’s POV

The dungeon walls sweated with dampness. Chains rattled when I shifted, my wrists aching where the cold iron pressed against skin.

Down here, time had no meaning. There was only the scrape of rats across the stones, the drip-drip of unseen water, and the hollow echo of my own thoughts.

But thoughts were dangerous things. They clawed open wounds I had stitched shut years ago.

And tonight, as the torchlight outside flickered low, my mind dragged me back. Back to the night it all shattered.

Flashback

The moon had been full that night. A swollen, silver eye watching as though the Goddess herself bore witness to my crime.

I remembered standing in the throne hall, trembling, but not from awe. Madden’s eyes those golden, molten eyes had been fixed on me like a brand, hot and heavy, pinning me to the floor.

“You’re mine,” he had said, voice unshakable, final.

I’d felt it then, the bond snapping shut around us like steel shackles. The air had shifted, every nerve inside me alive with him. My wolf had howled in recognition, desperate, hungry.

But my heart screamed no.

I was twenty-three, too young, too broken, too small to be chained to the Lycan King. I had grown up watching my mother bow to men until her spine bent. I had promised myself I would never be that.

I remembered lifting my chin, though my knees nearly buckled. “I reject you, Madden Velarion.”

The silence afterward had been suffocating. The courtiers gasped, their whispers like knives.

Madden’s face Gods, I could still see it shifting from shock, to disbelief, to something darker. His hands trembled, claws pushing through skin. His wolf had surged, wild, furious.

“You dare,” he had said, each syllable dripping with rage, “to reject me?”

My lips had parted, the words tearing from me with the force of survival. “I dare. I would rather die than belong to you.”

And then chaos. The bond had torn, or tried to. I had felt it twist inside me, a raw ripping that left me gasping, choking on my own heartbeat. His roar had filled the hall, shaking the very stones. Guards had rushed forward. My mother screamed.

I had run.

Run until my lungs bled, until my feet split, until the human world swallowed me whole.

And behind me, I had left a king feral and a kingdom in ruin.

Present

My eyes snapped open, the dungeon’s darkness rushing back in. My chest heaved, sweat cooling against my skin. Even after all these years, that night still haunted me Madden’s roar still lodged in my bones, the memory of my wolf’s desperate cry gnawing at me.

Chains rattled again, not from me this time.

The door scraped open.

And there he was.

Madden filled the doorway, a shadow crowned in fury. He stepped inside with the weight of command, his boots striking the stone floor in sharp echoes. A torchlight burned behind him, gilding the edges of his frame in molten fire.

I sat up, back pressed against the wall, forcing my chin high despite the tremor in my body.

“What do you want?” I spat, my voice sharper than I felt.

He studied me for a long moment, his gaze slow, deliberate. “I came to see how the traitor is faring.”

“I’m not a traitor,” I hissed. “I never belonged to your throne. I never asked for your bond.”

“You didn’t have to ask,” he said, crouching down to my level. His face was infuriatingly calm, his eyes smoldering. “The bond chose. You spat on it. On me. On everything that was meant to be.”

I bit the inside of my cheek, tasting blood, forcing my eyes away from his. But the bond pulsed, traitorous, pulling me back. Every breath he took seemed to echo in my lungs. Every flicker of gold in his eyes made my wolf thrash inside me.

“I want my mother,” I said suddenly, forcing the words out like a shield. “Where is she? Is she alive? She was sick when I left her ”

His lips curled into something between a smirk and a snarl. “So that’s why you risked crawling back into my world. For her.”

I glared, my heart pounding. “Where is she?”

He leaned closer, so close I could feel the warmth of his breath ghosting across my skin. “Safe,” he said softly, mockingly. “Better than you deserve. She’s in my palace infirmary. Fed. Warm. Looked after by the best healers my kingdom has left.”

Relief punched through me, sharp and sudden. I nearly sagged against the wall, but I caught myself. No. This was a trick. A trap. He wanted me weak, pliant.

“What did you do to her?” I demanded, my voice trembling.

His smirk deepened, his eyes flicking over my face as though savoring every twitch, every crack. “Nothing. Yet. Though it’s amusing how quickly your tongue softens when it comes to her. If I wanted, Nadine, I could snap my fingers and she’d vanish from this world. Just as Seraphine did.”

I lunged against the chains, fury flooding me. “Don’t you dare ”

His hand shot out, catching my chin in his grip. Claws pressed lightly against my jaw, not enough to cut, but enough to remind me he could. His golden eyes burned into mine, cruel and intimate all at once.

“You feel it, don’t you?” he whispered. “The bond. It eats you alive, same as it does me. Every time you breathe me in, every time your wolf claws to reach me, you know you’re lying to yourself.”

I forced a laugh, bitter and broken. “If the bond ties me to you, then the Goddess is crueler than I thought.”

His claws pressed harder, a dangerous glint flashing in his eyes. But then, just as quickly, he released me. My head snapped back against the wall, the iron biting into my shoulders.

“Rest,” he said simply, straightening. “You’ll need your strength.”

“For what?” I asked warily.

He looked at me for a long moment, something unreadable flickering in his gaze. Then his voice dropped to a low rumble.

“For survival.”

And just like that, he turned and walked out, leaving the cell door to slam shut with a finality that rattled my bones.

I sat there, trembling, fury and shame tangling in my veins.

He wanted to break me.

But I swore to the Goddess feral king or not, mate bond or not I would never bow to him.