I spin around, hope flaring so sharp that it hurts.
But she doesn’t say anything else. Just looks at me with those devastated eyes, and I realize she has said my name like a goodbye.
I step into the hallway and pull the door shut behind me.
The ragged sob that tears from her throat reaches me even through the wood, and something inside me shatters. I turn and press my palm flat against the closed door, my forehead resting on its cool surface.
She’s crying because of me. Breaking because of choices I made.
I’ve been trying to save her for lifetimes, yet all I’ve done is cause her pain.
My hand falls away from the door, and I walk down the hallway with the sound of her weeping following me like a curse.
Chapter Nine
Daciana
I stare at the basket sitting on my threshold.
Roasted chicken, still warm, wrapped in cloth. Fresh vegetables. A small loaf of crusty bread. Yesterday, it was meat sandwiches with thick slices of beef. The day before, a lamb stew that filled my room with its rich scent for hours.
Kieran.
I sigh and pick up the offering, retreating back into my room before anyone can see me. Before he can see me, if he’s somewhere nearby, watching.
It has been a week since his confession. Seven days since he told me we’re fated mates and my entire world was upended.
Seven days of hiding in this room, trying to ride out the effects of the bond that is suddenly awake between us.
I set the basket on my table and sink onto the edge of my bed, pressing my hands to my chest. My heart feels different now. It’s as if it has woken from a long slumber, beating with a rhythm that isn’t quite my own. My wolf is different, too—excited, restless, happy in a way that makes my skin crawl because I know it’s not real.
These aren’t my actual feelings. This is the fated mate bond.
I have to keep reminding myself of that. Every time my pulse quickens at his scent in the hallway. Every time my wolf whines and paces, wanting to go to him. Every time I catch myself thinking about the way he looked at me, the vulnerability in his eyes when he said those words.
“The women you’ve been seeing in those dreams—they’re you…We’re fated mates, Daciana.”
Everything is different now. Even the dreams have changed. Ever since that night, it’s like his confession altered something fundamental in me. I started using Selene’s herb tea more regularly, desperate for answers, and now I see things I didn’t before.
I see Kieran in different stages of life. Sometimes he’s younger, a boy with fear bright in his eyes, trying to be brave. Sometimes he’s older, grief carved so deep into his face it looks like it will never fade. But the more I see, the more I notice the pattern.
The fear. The loss. The way he holds the woman in my dreams—sometimes gently, sometimes with a grip so tight and desperate it makes my chest ache.
Like he’s trying to keep her from slipping away.
Like he’s trying to keep me from slipping away.
I shake my head sharply, stand up, and walk over to the window. I can’t think about this. Can’t let myself fall into the trap of believing this bond is something real, something that matters.
But my wolf whines, and my heart beats faster, and I hate how much I want to open that door and find him there.
Fourteen days pass like this.
Baskets appear at my door every morning—venison one day, pork roast with apples the next, thick meat pies that crumble in my hands. He always includes meat, like he knows what my wolf needs. What I need. But he keeps his distance. I haven’tseen him once since that night. Not in the corridors, not in the training grounds, not anywhere.
He’s not approaching me. Not trying to talk to me. And I appreciate that.
Although, while part of me is grateful for the space, another part of me, a part I don’t want to acknowledge, wants him to try. Wants him to seek me out, to push past my walls, to fight for…whatever this is.
