Chapter 1
I've signed the mate bond with Kael Nightshade, Lord of the Black Panther Clan, twenty-one times.
And dissolved it twenty-one times.
Not because we didn't love each other.
But because every few months, she comes back.
Seraphine. His first love. The angel who shattered her wings saving him, leaving her mind fractured and fragile.
"Seeing the mate mark sends her into psychotic breaks," he'd say, burning the bond from my skin. "I owe her my life."
So I'd erase the mark. Burn the contract. Pretend we were never bound.
The first time, I cried and begged. He backhanded me: "Cut the bullshit. We'll rebond once she's back in the sanatorium."
The thirteenth time, I followed them to a tavern and watched him tenderly kiss the scarred stumps where her wings used to be. When I confronted them, he knocked me down and locked me in enchanted restraints for seven days straight.
Sign. Burn. Erase. An endless cycle I couldn't escape.
Until the twenty-first time.
Fire engulfed the manor. Seraphine and I were trapped in different wings. Kael could only save one of us.
"Kael!" I collapsed at the window, smoke choking my lungs. "I'm pregnant—please—"
He shifted into his panther form and bolted toward her room.
The guards dragged me out thirty minutes later. Third-degree burns across my back, lungs filled with ash, blood pooling beneath me.
No heartbeat.
Kael stood in the safe zone, holding an unscathed Seraphine in his arms. From the moment the flames erupted until they pulled me from the rubble, he never looked back.
Not once.
The twenty-first dissolution was my choice.
There won't be a twenty-second.
Nora's POV
"We're dissolving the bond."
First day out of the hospital, I slid the blood-signed dissolution contract across the table to Kael.
He was cleaning his silver blade. His hand froze. Those golden eyes snapped up.
"What?"
"Dissolve the bond. Seraphine's coming back in two days."
He stared at the blood seal on the parchment. His jaw tightened. Without a word, he grabbed the blade and sliced his palm open. Blood dripped onto the contract, dark crimson runes spreading across the surface.
Seraphine. His first love.
Seven years ago, she'd sacrificed her wings—the Golden Eagle Clan's greatest pride—to save him from captivity. The healers said her mind was fragile now. Seeing the mate mark triggered her episodes.
So every time she came back from the sanatorium, I had to disappear. Dissolve the bond. Erase the mark.
Twenty-one times now.
Kael walked to the fireplace and tossed the contract in. Flames devoured it.
A sharp pain lanced through my chest—the bond breaking, like a thread being severed inside me.
I closed my eyes and bit down hard.
"You're being surprisingly obedient today." Kael watched the contract turn to ash. "Finally learned your place."
He turned to leave, then stopped. His gaze dropped to my left wrist.
The fresh scar twisted across my skin. The wound was still seeping blood, edges red and raw.
His hand shot out and grabbed my wrist. "What the hell is this?"
"The mate mark," I said. "I removed it early. For Seraphine."
His grip tightened. "Are you INSANE?! You're supposed to wait three days after dissolving the bond! This could—"
"Could what?" I met his gaze. "Hurt? Kill me?"
I pulled my wrist free. "I know the risks. Seraphine fainted when she saw the mark last time. I couldn't let that happen again."
Kael went still.
The fifteenth dissolution. Seraphine had glimpsed the mark on my wrist and collapsed on the spot. Kael had been LIVID. Said I'd done it on purpose. He'd thrown me into the fire cage—those enchanted flame-woven bars that couldn't kill you, but made every inch of skin feel like it was being stripped raw.
I stayed locked in there a day and a night. Skin blistered red, fever so high I couldn't form words.
Clan members passed by. Not one looked at me. Not one offered water.
Because they despised me. I was just human. No beast form. No power. Unworthy of being their lord's mate.
He stared at the bloody scar, then released my wrist. "Fine. Kill yourself if you want." His voice went flat. "Not my problem."
I turned to pack. Five years, and I'd moved in and out of this house twenty times. Each time thinking it was the last. Each time clinging to some pathetic hope.
Now, I just wanted to escape.
"Nora."
I looked up. Kael was leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed.
"Three weeks. When Seraphine goes back to the sanatorium, we'll rebond." His tone was matter-of-fact. "Where are you staying?"
"With Lyra."
"Your elf friend?" His eyes narrowed. "For how long?"
"Three weeks."
"Good." He straightened. "You better behave while you're gone. No drama. No stupid stunts."
I looked at him.
Five years ago at the Clan Festival, he'd held me on that platform and declared to everyone: "She is my mate." Back then, his eyes burned with this raw possessive intensity that made me believe I was actually wanted.
Now, all I saw was irritation.
"I won't cause any trouble," I said quietly. "You won't even know I exist."
He paused. "Good. Once Seraphine leaves, I'll make it up to you. You wanted to attend the Starlight Ball, didn't you? I'll have them prepare a gown—"
"Don't bother."
The words came out flat. Final.
His brows snapped together. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Exactly what it sounds like." I met his gaze. "I don't need compensation."
"Nora." His voice dropped. "What game are you playing?"
"No game."
"Then what the HELL is this?" He pushed off the doorframe and stepped closer. "This attitude. Are you still sulking about the fire cage? Is that it?"
I stared at him.
After the miscarriage, he never once asked if I was in pain.
He just explained over and over why he HAD to choose Seraphine. As if enough justification made losing our child acceptable.
"And that baby—" His voice turned cold. "Don't think I don't know you got pregnant on purpose. Trying to trap me with a cub?" He let out a harsh laugh. "I saw through that pathetic scheme from day one."
My heart felt like it was being crushed.
"Maybe you're right," I said softly. I grabbed my suitcase and turned toward the door. "Maybe I did overestimate myself."
"Nora—"
I walked out before he could finish.
The car pulled away from Nightshade territory.
In the rearview mirror, the estate receded—black spires piercing the amber sky, stone panthers guarding the entrance, golden eyes coldly watching my departure.
I used to think that place was home.
Now I understood. It was just a gilded cage. One that had trapped me for five years.
The hollow in my chest kept growing, like someone was carving me out piece by piece.
But it didn't hurt anymore.
When you hurt long enough, you go numb.
I pulled out the communication crystal. Channeled a thread of magic into it. The crystal glowed faintly.
Three heartbeats later, it connected.
A low female voice came through.
I closed my eyes. "Mother..."
Silence.
Only the crystal's soft hum.
"It's me. I'm sorry." My eyes burned. "I want... to come home."
