Updated Dec 14, 2025 • ~10 min read
FOUR DAYS LATER
ALARIC
I didn’t want to be here.
The witch territories smelled like earth magic and old grudges. Every pair of eyes that tracked my movements through the neutral hall held centuries of hatred. The Blood Wars had ended officially fifty years ago, but peace treaties didn’t erase memory.
Or forgiveness.
“Your Highness.” Celine, my court advisor, appeared at my elbow. “The witch elders are ready for preliminary talks.”
“Tell them I’ll be there shortly.” I adjusted my formal coat—black silk embroidered with the Ravencrest crest. Armor of a different kind.
“Are you certain you should be here?” Celine’s voice dropped. “After the Silverfang execution, tensions are—”
“I’m aware.” Three months since I’d driven a stake through Kael Silverfang’s heart. Three months of carrying that weight.
I’d had no choice. The evidence had been clear: Kael was passing military intelligence to vampire enemies. Treason, by any definition. The law demanded execution.
But something about it had felt wrong. The way Kael had refused to defend himself. The way he’d looked at me before the end—not with fear, but with something like pity.
I’d done my duty to the crown. Followed every protocol. And still, I couldn’t sleep without seeing his face.
“The Silverfang daughter is here,” Celine added carefully. “Cassia. She’s attending as her mother’s aide.”
My jaw tightened. Of course she was. The sister of the man I’d executed. Here. In the same hall.
“Keep her away from me.”
“That may prove difficult, Your Highness. Protocol demands—”
“I don’t care about protocol. Keep. Her. Away.”
What would I even say to her? I’m sorry I killed your brother, but he was a traitor? Sorry I followed the law? Sorry my duty required his death?
There were no words that would make that right.
I entered the council chamber. Witch elders lined one side of the long table, vampire representatives the other. Ancient enemies forced into civility by necessity—both sides bleeding resources, both sides tired of war even if they wouldn’t admit it.
My mother, Queen Seraphine, had sent me as her proxy. A test of my loyalty after the Silverfang situation. She’d made it clear: broker favorable terms or don’t bother coming home.
I took my seat. Scanned the room. Noted exits, potential threats, the positioning of—
And then I saw her.
Across the hall. Dark hair cascading over one shoulder. Golden eyes that burned with barely contained rage. South Asian features that would have been beautiful if not for the hatred radiating from every line of her body.
Cassia Silverfang.
The resemblance to her brother was striking. Same proud bearing. Same fierce intelligence in her gaze. Same—
The world tilted.
Everything in me—vampire, man, soul I’d thought long dead—surged forward with one word: MINE.
No.
Oh gods, no.
The mate bond. Snapping into place like a hook through my chest, pulling me toward her with force that stole my breath. Impossible. Witch-vampire bonds hadn’t existed in five hundred years. Not since the last one had ended in war and genocide.
But there was no mistaking this. The bond hummed through every cell, every nerve, screaming that she was mine, I was hers, we belonged together in a way that transcended species and history and—
She felt it too. I watched her stumble, hand flying to her chest. Watched her eyes go wide with horror as she looked at me and understood.
Fate had given me a mate.
The sister of the man I’d executed.
The cruelty of it was exquisite.
“Your Highness?” Celine’s voice cut through my spiral. “What’s wrong? You’ve gone pale.”
I couldn’t speak. Could only stare as Cassia pushed back from her seat, magic sparking across her fingertips—fire magic, I noted distantly, even as my vampire hissed PROTECT when she looked violent.
The elders were talking. Something about trade negotiations. I heard none of it.
Cassia was standing now. Walking toward me. Every eye in the hall tracked her movement. Theia Moonstone reached for her daughter, missed.
She stopped in front of me. Close enough that I could smell her—cedar and smoke and magic that called to something primal in my blood.
The bond sang. Rejoiced. Finally.
She raised her hand.
Slapped me.
Hard enough to draw blood. Hard enough that the crack echoed through the suddenly silent hall.
“You killed my brother.” Her voice shook. Not with fear. With rage so pure it burned.
I should speak. Should explain. Should do something other than stare at her like she was the sun and I’d been living in darkness.
But the bond was screaming at me to touch her, to pull her close, to never let go. Even as she looked at me with murder in her eyes.
“I—” I managed.
“Don’t.” She stepped closer. I could see gold flecks in her irises. Could feel heat radiating from her skin. “Don’t you dare try to justify it. Don’t you dare tell me he was a traitor. He was trying to SAVE both our peoples. And you killed him for it.”
“The evidence—”
“Fuck your evidence.” Magic flared around her. Several vampires reached for weapons. “You executed an innocent man. And I will make you pay for it.”
She turned and ran from the hall.
The bond howled. Demanded I chase her. Demanded I fix this, protect her, claim her.
I remained seated through sheer force of will.
The hall erupted in chaos. Elders shouting. Advisors demanding explanations. Security moving to intercept Cassia.
And I sat there, bleeding from where she’d struck me, feeling the mate bond stretch and strain as she put distance between us.
“Your Highness.” Celine gripped my arm. “Your eyes. They’re—”
“I know.” I could feel them: silver gone to black. The vampire in me reacting to its mate. Visible proof of what had just happened.
“That’s impossible. Witch-vampire bonds don’t—”
“They do now.” I stood. My hands were shaking. “Call off the security. Don’t touch her.”
“My lord, she assaulted you in—”
“She’s my mate.” The words tasted like ash and honey. “No one touches her. That’s an order.”
Celine stared. Then, carefully: “This complicates things.”
That was an understatement.
I’d killed her brother. She wanted me dead. The bond wanted forever.
And I—
I wanted to chase after her. To drop to my knees and beg forgiveness I didn’t deserve. To explain that I’d had no choice, that the law had demanded execution, that I carried the weight of it every day.
But more than that, deeper than that, the bond wanted to claim her. To mark her as mine. To protect her from every threat including her own grief.
“Dismiss the council for today,” I said. “Tell them talks will resume tomorrow.”
“Your Highness, your mother will be furious if—”
“My mother isn’t here.” I turned to face her. “And I am suddenly dealing with a situation that hasn’t occurred in five hundred years. She can be furious from a distance.”
I left the hall. Followed Cassia’s scent—cedar and smoke—through corridors until I found her in a garden courtyard. Alone. Shaking with suppressed rage or tears or both.
I should leave. Should give her space. Should let the bond settle before attempting contact.
Instead, I found myself speaking. “I’m sorry.”
She whirled. Fire danced across her palms. “You followed me?”
“The bond—”
“Fuck the bond.” But even as she said it, I felt her fighting the pull. Felt how hard it was for her to maintain distance when everything screamed for closeness. “This isn’t real. This is some vampire trick.”
“I wish it was.” I kept my distance, hands visible and empty. “Believe me, if I could undo this, I would.”
“Because you’re stuck with the sister of a man you murdered?”
“Because you deserve better. Better than a mate who hurt you. Better than being tied to the person you hate most.”
That seemed to catch her off guard. Some of the fire dimmed.
“Why?” she asked quietly. “Why did you kill him? He was trying to help.”
“He was caught passing intelligence to our enemies. I had evidence. Documents. Intercepted messages.” I’d memorized every piece. Searching for something, anything that would justify mercy. “The law is clear. Treason demands execution.”
“And you just followed orders? Like a good little soldier?”
“I’m a prince. I don’t have the luxury of choosing which laws to enforce.”
“You had the luxury of mercy.”
“Not when the law demands death.” The words came out harder than intended. “Not when showing mercy would have been seen as weakness. Not when my crown—”
“So you chose your crown over his life.”
“I chose my duty over my personal feelings.”
“And what were your personal feelings?” She stepped closer, searching my face. “Did you feel anything when you killed him? Or is murder just another task for you?”
I looked at her. Let her see the truth in my eyes.
“I felt everything. His fear. His disappointment. His certainty that I was making a mistake.” I’d felt it through the blood link—every condemned vampire got a final drink to ease the passing. Kael’s blood had shown me things. Truths I hadn’t understood until too late. “And after, I felt the absence. The weight of a life taken, even in service of the law.”
She was close enough now that I could feel the heat of her magic. Close enough that the bond purred, satisfied at the proximity.
“I don’t believe you,” she whispered. “You’re lying to manipulate me. To use this bond to—”
“I’m not lying.” I met her gaze. Let her see every scar, every regret, every night I’d spent unable to sleep for seeing her brother’s face. “I killed him because my duty demanded it. And I will carry that weight until I die. But Cassia—I am truly, deeply sorry for your loss.”
She stared at me for a long moment. Then her magic flared, and she was gone—teleported in a flash of golden light.
The bond stretched. Protested. But didn’t break.
Couldn’t break, no matter how much either of us might wish it.
I stood in the garden alone and let myself feel the full weight of it: The cruel joke fate had played. Giving me a mate I could never have. A woman who would spend eternity hating me for the most justifiable and unforgivable thing I’d ever done.
My phone buzzed. Text from my mother: How go the negotiations?
I looked at the message. Thought about how to explain that I’d just discovered my mate was a witch whose brother I’d executed and who wanted me dead.
Decided against honesty.
Complicated, I typed back.
That was putting it mildly.
The bond hummed in my chest. A constant reminder that somewhere in this territory, she existed. Breathing. Hating me. Connected to me by forces neither of us understood or wanted.
I’d done my duty three months ago.
Now I would pay the price.
Forever.
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