Serena POV
Gideon stepped into the pitch-black chamber. He moved with a quietness alien to Silas — his footfalls light, almost prayerful. I kept my eyes closed, my breathing slow.
The mattress dipped as he sat on the edge of the bed.
“Luna?” he whispered.
His voice was gentle, devoid of the harsh arrogance I knew. I did not stir.
I felt his cold fingers brush against the silk blindfold over my eyes. He slowly untied the ribbon, and the blindfold slid away. Pale moonlight spilled across my face.
Gideon let out a breath that was not entirely steady. He reached out, his thumb gently tracing the line of my jaw.
The instant his flesh met mine, a convulsion — violent and exquisite — tore through my entire being. A deep, resonant thrumming in my bones recognized its counterpart. My soul trembled. My hidden White Wolf let out a silent, deafening howl within the confines of my mind.
How was this possible? The Moon Goddess assigns mates to bring together two halves of a single soul. How could this manufactured thing, this soulless homunculus, provoke the primal recognition coded into my very blood?
Gideon snatched his hand back as if scalded. His breathing grew ragged.
“If only I were real,” he whispered into the gloom, his voice thick with sorrow. “If only I possessed a wolf. I would splinter the very gates of this manor with my bare hands to stand as your true Alpha.”
He leaned down and pressed a soft, trembling kiss to my forehead. Then, with an abruptness that spoke of desperate self-control, he stood and retreated to the bathroom. I heard the rush of the shower — an icy deluge.
I slowly opened my eyes. My White Wolf paced the cage of my mind, its silent roars demanding vengeance. Silas had not merely betrayed me; he had defiled me. He had broken the most profound laws of the Goddess. He had forsaken his pack, his mate, for a Rogue. And he had created a being capable of love, only to deny it the right to exist.
When Gideon returned, a faint tremor shook his frame. He lay down at the far edge of the bed, a rigid and unwilling sentinel, his arm placed awkwardly around my waist.
I stared up at the canopy, my mind a cold engine of calculation. But threaded through the icy fury, there was something new.
He is as much a victim as I am.
The next morning, I awoke in an empty bed. No false memories implanted. The morning was quiet, my mind my own. A note lay on the bedside table, penned in Silas’s hand — but I knew it was Gideon’s.
I closed my eyes, reaching out through Mind-Link. Elara. Access the secret maternity records. Find a Rogue named Lyra.
A long pause. Then: Serena… I found it. Lyra is just over a month with child. Silas is named as the sire.
The final ugly piece clicked into place.
You must initiate the Rejection, Serena!
No.
But he has betrayed you!
I will not grant him the satisfaction of a clean schism. I am not going to reject him. I am going to dismantle him.
And the tool of his destruction is already sleeping in my bed.
