9

9
The Luna’s Ghost

Nadine’s POV

The chains came off with a metallic snap. It was huge and had a shiny silvery color to it. It looked intimidating just staring at it.

I rubbed my wrists, skin raw where iron had bitten deep, but I didn’t thank the guard. I didn’t even look at him. My pride wouldn’t allow it. If I met anyone’s gaze now, they’d see it the weakness I refused to show.

“Move.” The guard’s voice was curt, as though he couldn’t stomach being in the same space with me for long.

I walked, though my legs trembled from too many nights on stone floors. The air shifted as we moved deeper into the palace. It was warmer here, richer perfumed with burning cedar and something darker, sharper, that made my wolf stir.

Him.

I hated that. Hated that my lungs knew the scent of Madden Velarion like it was carved into my very marrow.

The guard stopped before a set of double doors, carved with the crest of the Lycan line. The wood gleamed, polished so often it seemed to hold the light itself. He pushed them open without ceremony, gesturing me inside.

And then I froze.

The room beyond wasn’t just a chamber. It was hers.

Silken curtains hung from golden rods. A balcony spilled moonlight across marble floors. A canopy bed stood at the center, draped in crimson and ivory. The Luna’s chambers.

Seraphine’s ghost lingered in every corner.

My chest clenched. They had brought me here to the place of the woman whose death I was blamed for, the woman who should have been his forever. It was a cruelty so sharp it almost made me laugh.

Almost.

The door shut behind me with a hollow thud.

And then I felt it. That shift in the air, heavy, electric. My wolf’s ears pricked. It was always like that. I had ears so sharp that I could pick up a single footstep.

He was here.

I didn’t turn at first. I let the silence stretch, my heart pounding in my throat. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing me startled.

“You’ll find this more comfortable than a dungeon,” his voice drawled, smooth as smoke.

Slowly, I turned to look at him.

Madden leaned against the balcony railing, the moon behind him turning his figure into something carved from shadow and flame. His golden eyes glowed, catching the light like a predator at rest. It gave an eerie glow to it. Silver and golden curtains. Th tile waxed that it could blind you with it's glory. The celling well built in with glowing chandelier that made it look ancient.

Comfortable? No. A cage was a cage, no matter how fine the sheets.

“You brought me to her room,” I said, my voice cold, though my throat burned.

He tilted his head, studying me. “You noticed.”

“Of course I noticed.” My hands balled into fists. “You want me to suffocate in her memory. To feel the weight of what you think I stole from you.”

A smirk curved his mouth, infuriatingly calm. “Good. Then it’s working.”

My wolf growled, pacing, clawing at the inside of my chest. She didn’t want to fight. She wanted to close the distance, to breathe him in, to bare our throat. I shoved her back, furious at myself.

I would not bow.

“Why am I here?” I demanded.

“To test something.” His voice lowered, dangerous, intimate. He pushed off the railing and crossed the room in slow, deliberate strides. Every step seemed to pull the air tighter around me, as though the bond itself strained against invisible leashes.

I backed away until my spine hit the bedpost.

He stopped in front of me, close enough that his scent wrapped around me earth after rain, cedarwood, smoke. My wolf whimpered. My skin burned.

But he didn’t touch me. Not a single brush of his hand.

Instead, he leaned down, his breath ghosting across my ear. “Your body remembers me,” he murmured. “Even if you pretend to forget.”

Heat rushed to my face. Fury tangled with something far worse than need. My knees threatened to give, and I cursed myself for it.

“Lies,” I hissed, though my voice cracked.

He chuckled, low and cruel. “Is it? Then why is your heart racing? Why does your wolf claw at your skin when I’m near?”

I slammed my hands against his chest, shoving him back. He barely moved, but the defiance steadied me. “You are nothing to me,” I spat. “Whatever this bond is, it’s a curse. I rejected you once, and I’ll do it again.”

For a moment, silence stretched between us. His golden eyes burned into mine, searching, weighing.

Then his mouth curved, not into a smile but something darker. “We’ll see,” he said softly. “The bond is patient. And cruel. It will break you from the inside, Nadine. And when it does, you’ll crawl to me.”

My throat tightened. “I’d rather die.”

His expression didn’t change, but his gaze darkened, flicking over my face, my neck, lingering a heartbeat too long at the pulse that betrayed me. My skin prickled where his eyes traveled, as though they branded me without touch.

Then he stepped back, retreating toward the balcony once more, his presence a tide that receded but never disappeared.

“Sleep,” he said, as if dismissing me. “You’ll need your strength. Tomorrow, you begin to prove whether you belong here…or whether the dungeon is where you’ll rot.”

He turned, his broad frame silhouetted in the moonlight, and for the briefest moment, I saw something flicker across his face. Something unguarded.

But then it was gone, shuttered behind that cruel, impenetrable mask.

The door closed behind him, leaving me alone in Luna’s bed, drowning in silks that reeked of memory and mockery.

I lay there, staring at the ceiling, my wolf restless beneath my skin.

Every part of me knew one thing: I hated him.

And yet, traitor that she was, my wolf only whispered back: mate.