KAEL POV
The moment the carriage disappears from sight, Kael's entire body goes rigid.
The pain hits him like nothing he's ever felt before. It's not in his muscles or his bones. It's deeper than that. It's in his soul. It's in the bond that's supposed to tie him to his mate, and instead of connecting them, it's tearing him apart from the inside.
His wolf is screaming.
Not howling. Screaming. It's a sound that only exists inside his skin, a desperate, primal wail that demands he do something. Anything. It doesn't matter what. Just move. Just go after her. Just fix this before the rejection poisons them both completely.
Kael forces himself to stay still.
Every muscle in his body is shaking. Every nerve is on fire. The bond is pulling him toward her like gravity, and refusing to go is the hardest thing he's ever done. It's harder than taking control of the pack. It's harder than fighting wars. It's harder than watching his father die.
Because this time the pain isn't coming from outside him.
This time he caused it.
Through the bond, he can feel her. He can feel her sitting in the carriage on the way to Ironfang. He can feel her agony. He can feel the way his rejection is burning through her like poison. She's trying to hold it together, trying to stay composed, but he can sense the cracks forming in her control.
And he caused that.
His own mate is suffering because of him, and the knowledge of that is worse than any physical pain he's ever endured.
Kael turns and walks away from the ceremony grounds without looking at anyone. He doesn't acknowledge Thorne or Mira or any of the warriors who are waiting for orders. He just moves toward the Ironfang compound like a man walking toward his own execution.
He locks himself in his quarters and doesn't come out.
The pain in the bond is relentless. It doesn't fade. It doesn't lessen. It just gets worse as the hours pass and Eden gets closer to the Ironfang compound. He can feel her exhaustion. He can feel her fear. He can feel the moment she realizes that she's about to walk into a territory full of wolves who are going to blame her for the failed treaty.
Kael sits on his bed with his head in his hands, and he feels his control crumbling piece by piece.
His wolf wants to shift. It wants to break free and run toward her. It wants to tear through anything that stands between them. But shifting would mean losing the last bit of humanity he has left, and he needs to hold onto that or he's going to lose everything.
A knock comes at his door.
Kael doesn't answer.
Thorne's voice comes through the wooden barrier. He's trying to talk sense into Kael, trying to tell him that rejecting a fated mate bond isn't something his body can survive long term. The bond is designed to pull two people together, not push them apart. Fighting against it is fighting against nature itself, and nature always wins eventually.
Kael still doesn't answer.
Later, Mira arrives with strategy and plans and a proposal about what to do with Eden now that she's been rejected. She suggests sending her back to Silvercrest. She suggests using her as a bargaining chip. She suggests that Kael made the right choice in rejecting her because a wife from the enemy pack can't be trusted anyway.
Something inside Kael wants to rip her throat out for suggesting that.
He locks the door tighter instead.
Hours pass like days.
The bond between him and Eden stretches taut like a rope being pulled at both ends. Every moment that passes, every mile that grows between them, makes the pain worse. The rejection should have broken the bond. Should have severed the connection completely. But fated mate bonds don't work that way. Rejecting a fated mate doesn't kill the bond.
It just poisons it.
It just creates agony for both people involved.
Kael can feel her approaching Ironfang territory. He can feel her anxiety spiking. He can feel her trying to brace herself for what's about to happen. The guards are going to march her through the compound. Thousands of wolves are going to see that she's been rejected by their Alpha. They're going to understand that she's unprotected and vulnerable and alone in enemy territory.
The thought makes his wolf lose its mind.
It claws at his skin. It demands that Kael get up and go to her immediately. It demands that he claim her properly this time, that he accept the bond, that he tell every wolf in his pack that she belongs to him and anyone who touches her will die.
But his human mind is still fighting.
Still insisting that vulnerability is weakness. That love is a weapon. That accepting her would destroy everything he's built.
The internal war is tearing him apart.
Kael stands and walks to his window, looking out at the territories below. Somewhere out there, Eden is arriving at Ironfang. Somewhere out there, she's about to face a lifetime of being unwanted by the man she's supposed to be bonded to.
The guilt is suffocating.
He did that to her.
He created that situation because he was too afraid to let himself feel anything. Because he was too damaged by his own past to accept something good even when it was right in front of him.
His father was wrong.
The realization comes like a physical blow.
Love isn't a weapon. Love is the most powerful thing in existence, and rejecting it doesn't make someone strong. It just makes them broken in new ways.
Kael has to fix this.
He has to find a way to accept the bond before it kills them both.
A knock comes at his door again, harder this time. Thorne's voice is urgent.
"Kael, you need to come out. We just got word from the compound."
Kael doesn't respond. He can't deal with strategy right now. He can't deal with anything except the agony in his chest.
Thorne opens the door anyway because they're close enough that Thorne knows Kael won't actually kill him for it.
"Eden collapsed," Thorne says. The words come out fast, almost panicked. "Three hours after she arrived. She walked into her room and just collapsed. The servants found her unconscious on the floor."
The world stops.
Everything stops.
Kael's entire body goes cold.
"Where is she?"
"Still unconscious. The healers think the bond rejection might have caused some kind of physical reaction. They don't know if she'll wake up or if the rejection might have broken something inside her that can't be fixed."
Kael moves before his mind even registers what he's doing.
He's moving toward the door. He's moving toward his wolf form. He's moving toward Eden like the bond is the only thing that matters now, like all his careful control and walls don't mean anything compared to the possibility that he might have killed her with his own rejection.
"Kael, wait," Thorne says, but Kael is already past him.
He shifts as he runs, his body transforming into his wolf form. The beast that he's spent three hundred years keeping caged is finally free, and it has one single purpose now.
Get to Eden.
Save her.
Fix what he broke before it's too late.