Rhiannon's POV
Pain exploded through my hand where our blood touched.
But that wasn't the worst part.
The worst part was the flood of him crashing into my mind like a tidal wave. Emotions that weren't mine—cold fury, crushing guilt, bone-deep exhaustion, and something darker I couldn't name—slammed into me so hard I gasped.
"What—" I tried to pull my hand back, but Caspian's grip was iron.
His eyes had gone wide, his carefully controlled mask cracking. He felt it too. Whatever this was, it wasn't supposed to be this strong.
"Don't break contact," Elder Moira warned, her voice cutting through the chaos in my head. "The bond must complete, or you'll both be destroyed."
Magic surged between our joined palms—ancient, powerful, wrong. It felt like lightning in my veins, burning and building until I thought I'd shatter from it.
Through the connection, I felt Caspian's shock. His resistance. And underneath it all, a yawning pit of guilt so deep it made my own seem small.
He regrets it, I realized with horror. He regrets Kieran's death.
"No," I whispered. "No, you don't get to feel guilty. You don't get to—"
The magic peaked. Elder Moira's chanting reached a crescendo.
The bond snapped into place.
I screamed.
It felt like being torn apart and stitched back together wrong. Like someone had reached into my chest and tied my heart to his with razor wire. Every emotion he'd ever buried, every secret he'd ever hidden, every nightmare that haunted him—I felt it all.
And he felt mine.
His grief. My rage. His fear. My hatred. All of it tangled together until I couldn't tell where I ended and he began.
"It's done," Elder Moira said quietly.
Caspian dropped my hand like I'd burned him. He staggered back, his breathing ragged, his silver eyes wild with something that looked almost like panic.
I fell to my knees, clutching my chest. The bond pulsed between us—a living thing I couldn't escape. I could feel him even now, feel his racing heart, feel his desperate attempt to slam walls back up around his emotions.
"What did you do?" Caspian's voice was raw. "This isn't—bonds aren't supposed to—"
"This bond is old magic," Elder Moira interrupted calmly. "Older than either of your packs. It chose you both long before we did." Her white eyes seemed to see straight through us. "And it will not let you hide from each other."
I looked up at Caspian from where I knelt on the floor. Through the bond, I felt his horror, his rage, his—
He's afraid, I realized. The great Executioner King is terrified.
"Get out of my head," he snarled.
"I'm not trying to—"
"Both of you must learn to control the connection," Elder Moira said. "For now, it will be overwhelming. Strong emotions will bleed through. Lies will be impossible. Your wolves will recognize each other as—"
"Don't say it," Caspian cut her off. His hands were clenched into fists. "Don't call us mates. This is a political arrangement. Nothing more."
The bond flared with his lie, and we both flinched from the pain.
"You cannot lie to each other," Elder Moira said simply. "The bond knows truth. The sooner you accept that, the easier this will be."
I forced myself to stand, though my legs shook. "How do I make it stop?"
"You can't. It's permanent."
Permanent. The word echoed in my head like a death sentence. I was tied forever to this man. This monster who'd killed my brother. And now I could feel every emotion he tried to hide.
Including the guilt that was eating him alive.
"You'll come to Blackthorn Fortress tonight," Caspian said, his voice cold and formal again. He'd rebuilt his walls, but I could feel them now—feel how much effort it took him to sound unaffected. "As my mate, you'll be expected to fulfill certain duties."
"Don't call me that." The words came out sharper than I intended. "I'll fulfill the treaty requirements. Nothing more."
Another flare of pain through the bond when we both lied. Because we both knew there was no escaping this now. We were bound—body, mind, and soul.
"The guards will escort you," Caspian said. He wouldn't look at me. "I have matters to attend to first."
He turned and strode from the temple, his back rigid.
The moment he was gone, I could breathe again. But I could still feel him—a constant presence at the edge of my mind, like a shadow I couldn't shake.
"Why is it so strong?" I asked Elder Moira. "You said this was old magic. What does that mean?"
She studied me with those unsettling white eyes. "It means the bond has a purpose beyond peace between packs. It means you two were chosen specifically because together, you have the power to—"
"Elder Moira." A sharp voice interrupted from the doorway. A woman stepped in, hooded and cloaked. "The council requires your presence. Immediately."
Something about her voice made my skin crawl. It was familiar somehow.
Elder Moira frowned. "I'm not finished—"
"Now." The woman's tone left no room for argument.
The Elder sighed and turned to me. "We'll speak again soon. Until then, be careful. This bond is powerful, but it's also dangerous. There are those who don't want it to succeed."
She followed the hooded woman out, leaving me alone in the temple.
I stood there, hand still bleeding, feeling Caspian's emotions pulse through the bond like a second heartbeat. Distantly, I felt his anger, his confusion, his desperate need to be alone.
And underneath it all, that endless, crushing guilt.
My hand went to my boot, feeling the outline of the vial hidden there. The poison that could end all this.
But as I touched it, the bond flared with warning. Like it knew. Like it was trying to stop me.
What are you? I thought at the connection. What did they do to us?
No answer came. Just the steady pulse of Caspian's heartbeat, now forever tied to mine.
A Blackthorn guard appeared in the doorway. "Time to go. The Alpha is waiting at the fortress."
I took a shaky breath and followed him out into the dying light.
The fortress. Enemy territory. Where I'd be trapped with a man whose every emotion I could feel, who could feel mine in return.
A man I was supposed to kill.
A man I was now bound to for life.
As the wagon carried me toward Blackthorn territory, I felt it—a sudden spike of pain through the bond. Not emotional pain. Physical.
Caspian was hurt.
And through our connection, I felt something else. Something that made my blood run cold.
Poison.
Someone had poisoned him. Not with shadowroot like the vial in my boot. Something else. Something that had been killing him slowly for months.
The bond pulsed with the truth: My mate—no, not mate, treaty partner—was dying.
And I was the only one who could feel it.