Nyra did not bow when Alpha Kaelen approached her on the battlements.
She knelt.
Executioners did not serve the throne.
They were bound to it.
"I did not summon you," she said evenly, her gaze fixed on the valley below Nightfall Dominion.
"No," Kaelen replied, stepping beside her. "But I knew you would come here."
The wind howled between them, cold and sharp, yet it did nothing to cool the strange heat coiling beneath her skin.
Her wolf was alert.
Aware.
Focused entirely on him.
It was wrong.
She had trained her wolf into silence years ago. Beaten instinct into obedience. Smothered emotion until nothing remained but discipline.
But tonight, it refused to obey.
"You interfered," she said, voice steady. "In the execution."
"I did."
"You have never done that."
"I know."
Silence stretched.
Dangerous silence.
She could feel him watching her, studying her—not as a ruler observes a weapon, but as a man studies something he does not fully understand.
"Look at me, Nyra."
It was not a command.
It was worse.
It was a request.
Slowly, she lifted her eyes.
The moment their gazes locked again, the air shifted violently. Her wolf surged forward with a low, possessive snarl that she barely managed to suppress.
Kaelen inhaled sharply.
He felt it too.
"You felt it," he said quietly.
"I felt nothing," she lied.
A flicker of something—almost amusement—passed through his eyes.
"You're many things," he murmured. "But you are not a liar."
Her jaw tightened.
"Executioners do not feel bonds," she said flatly. "We are oath-bound. Stripped of mating rights. Stripped of claim. Stripped of weakness."
The words had been drilled into her since childhood.
No mate.
No family.
No attachment.
Only duty.
Kaelen's expression darkened.
"Who told you that?" he asked.
"The law."
"The council wrote that law," he replied evenly. "Not the moon."
Her breath caught.
The moon.
Her wolf stirred at the word.
Before she could respond, the sound of a horn echoed from the courtyard below.
Three long blasts.
Council summons.
At this hour?
Kaelen's expression hardened instantly, the warmth gone, replaced with cold authority.
"They move faster than I expected," he muttered.
"Who?" she demanded.
Instead of answering, he turned toward the stairwell. "Come."
She followed without hesitation.
Because no matter what her wolf felt—
Her body still obeyed.
The council chamber was carved into the stone beneath the keep, torches lining the circular walls. The air inside was suffocating—thick with politics and old power.
Six elders sat around the crescent table.
Watching.
Waiting.
Nyra stood at Kaelen's right, silent and still, her presence both shield and threat.
Elder Morvain leaned forward, fingers steepled.
"Alpha," he began smoothly, "your interference tonight has caused unrest."
Kaelen remained calm. "A ruler may alter his decisions."
"Not without council vote."
"I am the Alpha."
A pause.
Heavy.
Calculated.
Morvain's gaze slid to Nyra.
"Perhaps," the elder continued, "we should address the true disturbance."
Nyra did not flinch.
But her wolf did.
"The executioner reacted," Morvain said carefully. "There was hesitation."
A lie.
She had faltered for half a second.
Half a second was all they needed.
Kaelen's voice dropped dangerously low. "Mind your accusation."
"We accuse nothing," Morvain replied smoothly. "We observe."
Another elder spoke. "The bond."
The word landed like a blade.
Nyra's pulse spiked—but her face remained carved from stone.
"There is no bond," she said coldly.
Morvain's thin smile widened.
"Then you will not object to the Blood Oath reinforcement."
The room went silent.
Kaelen's posture shifted.
Subtle.
Protective.
"No," he said.
It wasn't loud.
But it carried power.
The elders stiffened.
"The oath binds the executioner to the throne," Morvain replied. "If it is weakening—"
"It is not," Kaelen interrupted.
"Then prove it."
Morvain gestured toward the center of the chamber where a stone basin carved with ancient runes sat waiting.
Nyra understood immediately.
The reinforcement ritual.
It would tighten the magic woven into her bones as a child.
Make obedience absolute.
Erase any… interference.
Her wolf recoiled violently.
No.
Something inside her resisted for the first time in years.
Kaelen turned to her, eyes locking with hers.
And for the first time since she had known him—
She saw fear there.
Not for himself.
For her.
"If you submit," he said quietly so only she could hear, "it will seal what you felt tonight."
Her throat tightened.
Seal it.
Erase it.
End whatever had sparked between them before it could become something uncontrollable.
Something forbidden.
She was the Executioner.
She was built for obedience.
Without hesitation, Nyra stepped toward the basin.
The elders smiled.
Kaelen's hand shot out, gripping her wrist.
The contact was electric.
Explosive.
The room seemed to tilt.
The runes along the basin flickered violently.
And then—
They cracked.
A sharp fracture split through the stone.
The magic meant to bind her flared—and shattered.
The entire chamber shook.
Gasps filled the room.
Nyra staggered back, heart racing.
The oath.
It had not strengthened.
It had broken.
Morvain stood abruptly. "Impossible—"
Kaelen stepped in front of her, his voice thunderous.
"It appears," he said slowly, dangerously, "that the Executioner is no longer bound as you intended."
Silence fell like a guillotine.
Nyra stared at her hands.
For the first time in her life—
She felt untethered.
Free.
And utterly exposed.
The elders were no longer watching her like a weapon.
They were watching her like a threat.
And Kaelen—
Kaelen was watching her like she was something far more dangerous than that.