The mating auction was where you went when no one wanted you. Claire stood among the desperate women who had been passed over or discarded, but unlike the others, she didn’t try to make herself look beautiful. She didn’t care anymore. Her father had sold her off to the highest bidder, and the highest bidder turned out to be the Alpha King, Ellion.
He was cold, distant, and terrifying, but he was her only escape from a life of shame and imprisonment. She would take him over her father’s cruelty any day. The contract was simple. She would produce an heir, and in exchange, she would live in the palace, protected from the world that had condemned her.
But the night of their mating, Ellion made it clear he wanted nothing to do with her. He left her untouched and alone, with no explanation. Claire spent her days wandering the halls, a queen in name only, married to a man who wouldn’t even look at her. She told herself she didn’t need his love.
She just needed his name. But the Alpha King was hiding something. He was sick, wasting away with a mysterious illness that no healer could cure. As his condition worsened, Claire couldn’t stop herself from caring.
She noticed things about him, the way his eyes softened when he looked at their son Milo, the way he kept his distance to protect her from his darkness. She wanted to hate him, but she couldn’t. Not when she saw the pain etched into every line of his face. The night of Milo’s birth, the tension between them cracked.
Ellion held their son with trembling hands, his eyes filled with wonder and fear. Claire saw the truth then. He never wanted her to love him because he didn’t expect to survive long enough to deserve it. He was dying, and he knew it.
When she confronted him, he finally admitted it. “I never wanted to drag you into this,” he said, his voice barely a whisper. “I’m cursed, Claire. And the curse will take me soon.
”
Claire refused to accept it. She forced her way into the royal council meeting, demanding to know what was being done to save her mate. The healers had given up, the medicines had failed. She pulled rank, threatening to disband the council entirely until someone told her the truth.
“Bring me a witch,” she commanded. “Or find me someone who can actually help me save my king. ”
The old earth witch arrived that afternoon, sharp-eyed and gnarled-handed. She examined Ellion carefully while Claire hovered nearby, Milo asleep against her shoulder.
“Ice magic,” the witch said finally. “A curse rooted deep in his bloodline, very old, very powerful. ” Claire asked if she could break it, but the witch shook her head. “It’s a family curse, not just his own.
That makes it much more difficult. ” Claire looked down at Milo, her heart freezing. “Does that mean my son will be cursed too? ” “It’s possible,” the witch said gently.
Then the old woman studied Claire more closely, her eyes sharpening with recognition. “Fire would be most effective against ice,” she said. “But I’m an earth elementalist. ” Claire latched onto the hope.
“I’m a fire witch. Could my magic work? ” But the witch shook her head again, her expression turning thoughtful. “Your magic is bound.
I can feel the seal on you. ” Claire’s heart sank. “Yes, my father had me bound years ago after someone died. ” The witch stepped closer, peering at Claire’s face.
“Is your father Alister Crane? ” Claire nodded, confused. “I knew his mother,” the witch said. “Isabelle was my twin sister.
Your grandmother was a witch. ”
The world tilted. Claire’s grandmother had been a witch, and her grandfather had her killed when he found out, accusing her of a fabricated crime. The magic had passed down through her father, and he had always blamed Claire’s mother for her witchcraft, convinced it was proof of an affair.
But the magic had come from him all along. Claire understood everything now, why her father had always hated her, why he had been so eager to bind her powers, why he had refused to believe a single word she said. She needed to confront him, and she needed him to release the seal. Claire rode through the afternoon, pushing her horse hard, flanked by royal guards.
The Crane estate loomed before her as the sun began to set. She shoved past the servants and found her father by the fireplace, a glass of wine in his hand. When he saw her, his face twisted with disgust. “How dare you show your face here?
” he spat. Claire cut straight to the point. “I need you to release my bind. Now.
The Alpha King is dying, and I need my magic to save him. ” But her father refused, calling her a dangerous criminal who should never have her magic unleashed on the world again. Claire pushed back, telling him the truth she had only just learned. “The witch powers came from you.
Your mother was a witch. You’ve known all along. ”
Her father’s face went pale, then red with rage. His sister Celia stood frozen in the corner, her hand over her mouth.
Alister admitted it, his voice flat and casual, as if discussing the weather. “Of course I knew. I needed your powers bound, and your mother had to go. ” Claire’s blood ran cold.
He had killed their mother to keep the secret, had bound Claire’s magic and then killed Eric, Celia’s lover, framing Claire for the murder to get rid of “the reminder of his shame. ”
Celia’s fist connected with her father’s nose with a sickening crunch. He stumbled backward, hit his head on the mantle, and collapsed unconscious. Claire and Celia stared at each other across his body.
They had spent years hating each other, believing the lies their father had planted between them. But now the truth had shattered everything. Celia ran to fetch the seal that would break Claire’s bind, and Claire stood over her father, feeling nothing but emptiness. When Claire returned to the castle, she pressed her burning hands against Ellion’s frozen chest, terrified she would hurt him.
But the ice melted, and the frost receded. Days later, Ellion opened his eyes. “You’re alive,” she sobbed. “You’re alive.
”
Six months later, Claire stood in the training courtyard, flames dancing between her fingers. She was finally learning to control the magic that had been stolen from her for years. Ellion was healthy, the curse broken completely for him and for their son Milo. Celia had joined the council, testifying against their father, who now sat in a cell convicted of murder and conspiracy.
And Claire had found something she never expected, love with the king who had once been a stranger, a partner in every sense. She found Ellion in the gardens by the roses, Milo napping against her shoulder. He pulled her close and kissed her temple, the warmth of his skin a constant reminder of how close they had come to losing everything. “You saved me, Claire,” he said softly.
“In every way a person can be saved. ” She smiled. “We saved each other. ” They had both entered their marriage seeking escape, but love had found them anyway.
And in loving each other, they had freed not just themselves, but an entire kingdom.
