I was dressed in a gown of molten gold, standing beside Damen in a ballroom that felt like a dream. Chandeliers cast warm light over the marble floor, and vampires in elegant suits swirled around us, but my mind was elsewhere, on what was supposed to happen once the party ended. A week ago, we’d told his grandfather we wanted to bond. Ian Cromwell had revealed the truth about the Accords—that a vampire who drinks a werewolf’s blood becomes mortal again.
I’d been sure Damen would end things with me, but instead, he looked almost hopeful at the idea of aging, of growing old like a regular human. “I hate being a vampire,” he’d confessed. “I’d love to be able to sleep, to have food, to think about something other than blood all the time. ”
His grandfather had warned us it would mean disappearing forever, leaving everything behind.
Damen was willing. I told him I was too, but the thought of never seeing my pack again—never laughing with Emma, never hearing Jake and Vivien argue—was a weight I carried in my chest. My real secret wasn’t that I was about to become a vampire’s bride. It was that I was still mated to Nate.
A fact that had already condemned me to a packless life. At the ball, I scanned the crowd and froze. Three familiar figures were weaving toward us—Harry, flanked by Vivien and Jake. My Alpha.
My packmates. Here, in a sea of vampires. “Why are they here? ” I choked out, gripping Damen’s arm.
“Werewolves sometimes attend these events for diplomacy,” he said, but his tone was steady in a way that didn’t calm me. Damen walked over to Harry and led him toward a balcony for a private conversation. When Harry came back inside and Damen returned to me, I demanded to know what he’d said. “I asked him to relay a message to your friend Emma,” Damen said, kissing my forehead.
That’s when someone pulled him away from me. And suddenly, standing where he’d been, was Nate. “Hello, baby,” he said with a thunderous expression. I looked behind him.
Damen winced, having been thrown against a wall. “What are you doing here? ” I managed. “What am I doing here?
” Nate grabbed my wrist, twisting it painfully. “What are you doing here? And don’t think about lying to me. ”
Damen tried to intervene, but Nate grabbed his throat and walked him backwards.
I threw myself at Nate’s back, screaming for him to stop. But Nate’s eyes were fixed on Damen, and in a burst of rage, he bit right into my vampire’s neck. Before I could even react, he pushed Damen off the balcony. I screamed, jumping onto Nate’s back, wrapping my arms around his neck with all my strength.
“You bit him! He bit Damian! ”
I would have killed him. I meant it.
He’d taken everything from me, and I was going to end his life right there. But Harry’s voice boomed behind me. “Chloe, stop. ”
My Alpha’s command hit me like a wall, and my arms loosened on their own.
I screamed in frustration, sending Harry a betrayed look. Then a scream echoed from below. I kicked off my shoes and jumped over the railing, running toward the small crowd gathered in the gardens. Damen lay at my feet, blood dripping from his neck, eyes closed.
I fell beside him, tried to shake him awake. There was blood on my hands. So much blood. I watched Ian Cromwell kneel beside his grandson.
“He’s dead,” a man said. “Werewolf bite. ”
Cromwell’s head snapped toward me. “What’s the meaning of this?
”
I couldn’t form words. Then Alexandra pointed at me. “She knows this wolf! He’s her mate!
”
I said it. “He’s my mate. He killed Damian because of me. ”
But when Cromwell looked at me, his face twisted.
“You betrayed us. I trusted you. I stood by your engagement despite everyone being against it. ”
Then it got worse.
“How come no one, not even I, realized what you are? ” he accused. “There must be some magic involved for you to dupe us all. ”
I gaped at him.
What was he talking about? He was the one who’d hired me. He was the one who’d told me to hide that I was a werewolf. “Take her away,” he barked.
“She will stand trial. ”
“I was hired to be his bodyguard! ” I cried. “You hired me, Mr.
Cromwell. Vivien was there! ”
But Vivien looked at me with a blank, utterly confused expression. She had no memory of it.
And as I was dragged away, I realized what I should have seen all along. The vampire with compulsion powers, compelled to forget. Marco Rossi not knowing Damen was at his club. Nate having no idea why he was here.
Jake and Vivien having no recollection of me being hired. It all clicked. “It was you! ” I screamed, trying to throw myself at Cromwell.
“You did this! You killed him! ”
And in a voice meant only for me, he said, “You may not have killed him directly, but I will make you pay for harming my grandson. ”
Then he smirked.
And we both knew the one behind Damen’s death was none other than him. —
I spent hours locked in a cold, damp cell, my gold gown clinging to my skin. Nate was in the cell next to mine, and the memories kept flooding back—dreamlike fragments of meeting Cromwell under the vampire’s compulsion. He’d asked me questions, molded my mind, made me receptive to his suggestions.
He’d told me working for him as his grandson’s bodyguard was the perfect solution to my problems. And the worst part—he’d come to me after I moved in with Damen, urging me to seduce him. To tempt him into drinking from me. “Who cares why,” Nate groaned from his cell.
“We’re as good as dead here. ”
“Shut up,” I snapped. Then Harry came. He held my hand through the bars and told me it was his fault for not protecting me.
He didn’t blame me for what Nate had done. “Do you know what happened with that vampire? ” he asked. “Was it true you were going to be his bride?
”
“Yes,” I said. “I agreed because I loved him. ”
Harry’s face softened. “I’m sorry for your loss.
”
Then he gave me the news. “Cromwell wants both your heads. With how public Nate’s attack was, I don’t see how we can object to public retribution. Vivien and Jake will get you out tonight.
”
“I’m not running away,” I said. “If they request that you pay for my crimes instead, so be it. ”
I shook my head. “I want justice for Damen.
I’ll have no chance of getting it by running. ”
“Once you’re declared guilty, we won’t be able to get you out. ”
“Then so be it. ”
—
The day of the trial, Nate and I were escorted to a gothic church filled with vampires and werewolves.
Ian Cromwell stood at the altar, gavel in hand, looking down at me with cold, calculated eyes. “Two months ago, this woman manipulated her way into my grandson Damen’s life and convinced him to take her as his bride, to weaken him with her werewolf blood,” he announced. Harry objected, reminding them that the Accords forbade telling other wolves about werewolf blood’s effect on vampires. Then he offered himself to be truth-compelled.
Cromwell backed down, not wanting to be tested himself. “How did you meet my grandson? ” Cromwell asked me. “You introduced us,” I said.
“You hired me to be his bodyguard. ”
“I did no such thing. ”
“Don’t deny there were attempts on Damen’s life before I started working for you. He was poisoned.
A vampire tried to kidnap him. ”
“But that doesn’t change the fact that everyone saw him bite Damen two days ago,” Cromwell replied. “I didn’t know Damen then,” I argued. “There was no reason for Nate to be behind those attempts.
You hired me to protect him! ”
“I did no such thing. ”
“I loved him! ” I gasped, tears threatening to break me.
“You know I did. We came to you together. You made me lie. You used your powers on me!
”
For a moment, his eyes widened. He hadn’t expected me to say that. But then he waved Nate forward. “He is your mate,” Cromwell said.
“And everyone saw him kill Damian. Do you deny it? ”
Nate’s voice was vacant, almost as if he was speaking under a spell. “I thought if I could convince you to stop the increase of vampire attacks, it would get me back on my Alpha’s good side.
I thought harming your grandson would pressure you into helping us. ”
“Did Chloe know about your intentions? ” Cromwell pressed. “She did.
She didn’t like it because she cared about Damen. But Khloe’s my mate. Our bond will always come first. ”
I screamed in rage and plunged toward him.
I wanted to strangle him. “I loved him! ” I yelled as strong arms held me back. “I loved him more than I’ve ever loved you!
”
“Enough! ” Cromwell shouted. “He confessed. This trial is over.
I demand Nate’s execution and Chloe’s lifelong imprisonment. ”
Take me instead, I wanted to say. I had no reason left to live. But then Emma’s voice boomed across the room.
“I object. ”
I froze. Emma stood among the crowd, looking determined. “You object?
” Cromwell let out a stunned laugh. “To what exactly? ”
“To all of this,” she said, waving her hand around. “I mean, who’s to say you vampires haven’t faked his death to stir up trouble with us?
”
Cromwell pinched the bridge of his nose. “Bring Damen’s body,” he ordered. They carried in an open coffin, and my heart shattered all over again. Damen lay there, serene, beautiful, as if merely asleep.
“May I check the body from up close? ” Emma asked, batting her eyelashes. She practically skipped to the coffin, then suddenly gasped and pointed to the back of the church. “What is that?
”
While everyone turned to look, she shoved a vial of something between Damen’s parted lips. And then his eyes snapped open. He sat up, gasping for air, his shoulders sagging in relief as he saw Emma. “Chloe,” he whispered, and his slow, loving smile stole the breath from my lungs.
I dropped to my knees. He was alive. He was alive. “Oh look,” Emma said in a bored tone.
“He’s alive. Who would have thought. ”
Damen thanked her, and she swung her arm back and punched him right in the jaw. —
Turns out, Damen had died before.
Not just once—there was a family secret. When vampires of his bloodline die, they wake up on the day they first became vampires. And he’d done it four times now, each time meeting me, falling for me, and watching me die at Nate’s hands before he was thrown back to the past. He’d known about his grandfather’s plan.
Ian had wanted Damen to unknowingly drink my blood—a werewolf’s blood—to make him mortal enough to stay dead. He’d used me as the instrument of his grandson’s destruction. Damen had compelled Harry to help Emma retrieve a potion that would wake him from his death-like state, if mixed with a drop of my blood. Emma had brought him back.
When Damen confronted his grandfather, Cromwell tried to freeze everyone in the church with his compulsion. But I was immune now—a vampire’s bride becomes immune to all vampires’ compulsion after the blood ceremony. And since Damen had ensured we’d be bonded before the ceremony, in case it was interrupted, I was the only person in the world who was immune to his grandfather’s powers. I fought Cromwell’s minions, holding him in place as Damen forced him to wake everyone up.
Then, with the entire church witnessing, Damen pointed to his crumpled grandfather. “He tried to kill me. Court dismissed. ”
—
Two weeks later, I stood outside our party, watching Rose and Emma laughing together.
Beside me, Damen was preventing his younger sister from sneaking a drink. I took a deep breath. “I need to speak to Nate. Alone.
To settle things between us. ”
Damen had refused to let me go alone, so we walked together into the woods until we reached my favorite spot—a tree trunk I used to escape to as a girl. “He should be here soon,” I told Damen. Nate emerged from the branches.
“What is he doing here? ” he snarled, seeing Damen. “This is between you and me,” I said. “Everyone said to meet alone.
Or were you too afraid I’d bring someone? ”
Nate’s eyes narrowed. “What do you want? ”
“I want you to reject our bond.
”
He crossed his arms defensively. “Then do it yourself. ”
“I can’t. And don’t think that means I still have feelings for you.
If I break the bond, the separation will make you go feral. You’ll kill me and anyone who stands in your way. I saw it last time with Harry and Emma. ”
“I wouldn’t hurt you,” he protested.
“You already have. Multiple times. Your issues aren’t mine to bear anymore. I’m asking you, no—I’m telling you—reject our bond.
Either way, this is the last time I will ever speak to you. The bond won’t change my decision. ”
I walked away with Damen, hand in hand. I didn’t know if Nate would do it.
I’d said I didn’t care. And I meant it. As we reached the house, a sudden weight lifted from my very soul. It hit me so strongly I felt dizzy.
“I think Nate just rejected our bond,” I told Damen, throwing myself into his arms. “I’m free. ”
I braced for the pain and desolation of severance. But Damen pressed his lips to mine, and to my amazement, it never came.
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