Updated Dec 14, 2025 • ~8 min read
ALARIC
I followed her.
Improper? Yes. Stalking? Probably. But the bond left me no choice. Every hour she spent in witch territory was agony—physical pain that made breathing difficult, made thinking impossible.
So I did what any desperate mate would do: I crossed into witch lands without permission.
“Your Highness, this is madness,” Celine hissed as we approached the border. “If they catch you—”
“They’ll what? Kill me? At least then the bond would stop hurting.”
“You don’t mean that.”
I didn’t. But I was in no state to be rational. Three days since Cassia had been threatened with exile. Three days of feeling her fear, her grief, her desperate attempts to find a solution that didn’t exist.
Three days of her trying to block me out while the bond dragged us both deeper into connection.
I couldn’t stay away anymore.
We crossed at dusk. Celine’s cloaking spell hid us from casual observers, but any witch with sense would feel vampire presence. We’d have maybe an hour before someone noticed.
I tracked Cassia by the bond—a golden thread pulling me toward her cabin on the edge of pack lands. Close enough to belong. Far enough to escape.
She was outside, gathering firewood. Alone. Perfect.
I approached slowly. Didn’t want to startle her into throwing fire at my face again.
She sensed me before she saw me. Spun, wood clattering to the ground, magic sparking across her hands.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Checking on you.”
“By invading my territory? Are you insane?”
“Probably.” I stopped a respectful distance away. Close enough to ease the bond’s ache. Far enough to give her space. “You’ve been blocking me. I was worried.”
“So you committed an act of war by crossing our border without permission?”
“It’s not war if I come alone. It’s just…” I struggled for words. “Concern. For my mate.”
She flinched at the word. Hated it. I felt her rejection of the title through the bond.
“I’m not your mate. I’m the sister of the man you murdered, cursed with an impossible bond because fate has a sick sense of humor.”
“Cassia—”
“Go home, Alaric. Before someone sees you and this gets worse.”
“It’s already worse. They’re threatening to exile you.”
“You felt that?”
“I feel everything. Every moment of your fear. Every time you consider just letting them break the bond so you can be free of me. Every—” My voice cracked. “Every time you hate me a little more.”
She stared at me. Magic still dancing across her skin but no longer actively threatening.
“You’re not supposed to care,” she said finally. “You’re supposed to be the monster. The heartless vampire prince who killed for duty and felt nothing.”
“I wish I was. It would be easier.” I took a careful step closer. “But I’m not. I’m just a man who made a terrible choice and has to live with the consequences. And one of those consequences is being bound to someone I—”
I cut myself off. Too soon. Too much.
But she heard it anyway. Felt it through the bond. “Don’t. Don’t you dare say you love me.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“You were thinking it.”
“I was thinking I care about you. That’s not the same thing.”
“It’s close enough to be terrifying.” She sat on the chopped wood pile. Looked exhausted. “Why are you really here?”
“Because you’re scared and alone and facing exile, and I couldn’t stay away.” I sat beside her—not touching, but close. “Because the bond won’t let me rest while you’re suffering. Because—” I took a breath. “Because if they exile you, I want you to know you have somewhere to go.”
“Vampire territory.”
“My territory specifically. Under my protection. As my…” I hesitated. “As my acknowledged mate, if you’ll accept it.”
“You want me to go from witch lands to vampire court? From people who hate me for the bond to people who’ll hate me for being witch?”
“Some will hate you. Others will see you as an asset—a bridge between our peoples. And all of them will respect you because you’re mine.”
The possessiveness in my voice made her look up sharply.
“I’m not yours.”
“The bond says differently.”
“Fuck the bond.”
“I’ve been trying to. It’s remarkably persistent.” I managed a smile. “Look, I know this isn’t ideal. I know you hate me. I know every moment of this is torture. But Cassia—I’m offering you sanctuary. A place where you won’t be punished for fate’s choice.”
“In exchange for what?”
“Nothing. No expectations. No demands. Just… safety. And maybe, eventually, the chance to understand each other.”
She was quiet for a long time. The bond hummed between us, carrying emotions too complex to name.
“If I come to vampire territory,” she said slowly, “I’m not promising anything. Not acceptance. Not forgiveness. Not—” She gestured between us. “Not whatever this is supposed to become.”
“I know.”
“And if I hate it, if I can’t stand being near you, I leave.”
“Where would you go?”
Good question. Exiled from her pack. Unwelcome in most witch territories. Too dangerous for humans. The vampire court would be her only real option.
“I’ll figure something out,” she said stubbornly.
“Or you could stay and let me help you figure it out. Let me be the ally you need instead of the enemy you’re determined to see.”
“You killed my brother.”
“I did. And I’ll regret it for the rest of my immortal life. But Cassia—Kael’s dead. We’re alive. And we’re stuck with this bond whether we like it or not. We can spend eternity making each other miserable, or we can try to build something that honors his memory.”
“How does this honor his memory?”
“He wanted peace. Wanted witches and vampires to coexist. We could be that. The first successful witch-vampire bond in five hundred years. Proof that his dream was possible.”
She laughed—sharp, bitter. “You think us being together honors him? The man you executed?”
“I think him dying for peace and us choosing hate would make his sacrifice meaningless. But us finding a way forward despite everything? That might actually mean something.”
It was manipulation. We both knew it. Using her love for her brother to convince her to accept the bond.
But it was also true.
“I need time,” she said finally. “The council gave me six days. Let me use them to grieve properly. To say goodbye to this place. To—” Her voice broke. “To accept that everything I’ve ever known is ending.”
“Take your time. But know that when those six days are up, I’ll be waiting. With a place for you. With protection. With—” I stopped. Couldn’t say what I wanted to say. Too soon. Too complicated.
But she felt it anyway. Through the bond that betrayed every carefully hidden emotion.
“You’re going to make this impossible, aren’t you?” she whispered. “You’re going to be understanding and patient and protective. You’re going to make me see you as something other than the monster.”
“I’m going to try.”
“I hate you for that.”
“I know.”
We sat in silence as night fell. The bond settled, content with the proximity. Two people who shouldn’t exist, learning how to breathe the same air without spontaneously combusting.
Eventually, Sage appeared. Saw me. Pulled a silver knife.
“Back away from her, bloodsucker.”
“Sage, don’t—” Cassia stepped between us. “He’s just leaving.”
“Is he?” Sage didn’t lower the weapon. “Or is he here to convince you to give up everything for the bond?”
“I’m here to offer her choices she doesn’t currently have,” I said calmly. “What she does with those choices is up to her.”
“She chooses her pack. Her family. Her home.”
“Even if they exile her for something she didn’t choose?”
That shut Sage up. Because we all knew the council’s ultimatum was bullshit. Punishing Cassia for fate’s decision. Forcing her to choose between death and exile.
“Six days,” I told Cassia. “Then I’ll be at the border. Waiting. If you come, I’ll give you everything I promised. If you don’t—” I swallowed hard. “If you don’t, I’ll understand. And I’ll spend the rest of eternity feeling you suffer through this bond I can’t break.”
I left before she could respond. Before I could see rejection in her eyes. Before the bond could show me how much she hated that my offer was her best option.
Celine was waiting at the border. “Did it work?”
“I don’t know. She didn’t say no.”
“That’s progress.”
Was it? Or was I just a convenient escape from an impossible situation? Would she ever see me as more than the lesser evil?
The bond thrummed with her confusion. Her fear. Her reluctant acknowledgment that I’d been kind when I could have been cruel.
It wasn’t love. Wasn’t even like.
But it was something.
A crack in the wall.
A possibility.
Six days to see if that possibility grew into something real.
Or if it died along with every other hope I’d ever dared to have.
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