Chapter 3

The next morning, Damian knocked on my door.

He held out a velvet box, his movements stiff.

"This is for you," he said, his tone dripping with forced appeasement. "An apology for last night."

I opened the box. Inside was a moonstone the size of my fist.

"It's beautiful."

"I found it deep in our territory," he said, a flicker of pride in his eyes. "It's full of energy."

I almost laughed in his face.

The stone's energy was coming from the twelve focusing arrays I had set up three months ago.

He was gifting me my own power and expecting a thank you.

"Damian, why do you think this stone has so much power?"

"Because our land is blessed?"

"Because it's absorbing the overflow energy from the focusing arrays I set up across the territory," I said, watching the expression on his face freeze. "Without them, this territory will revert to a barren wasteland in three days."

His face went pale.

"You never told me about any of this!"

"You never asked."

The door swung open. Reina interrupted us. "Damian, are you in here? Lyra, perfect. I need you to give Isla the instructions for all the protective runes."

"Why?"

"Isla feels your runes are... lacking. She insists that traditional blood runes would be far more stable."

"Those runes are bound to my bloodline," I said calmly. "No one else can use them."

"Bound?"

"It means if anyone else tries to alter them, it will trigger a magical explosion," I said, looking her dead in the eye. "Powerful enough to level this entire estate."

"Is that a threat?" Damian’s voice went cold.

"I'm stating a fact," I said, turning to him. "You rely on my power, but you've never once considered the consequences."

"Then draw new ones!" Reina demanded.

"No." My refusal was absolute. "Standard runes can't handle the force of the Blood Moon ceremony. You will all die."

"That's not for you to decide!" she shrieked.

I looked at them, done with arguing.

I turned, walked out of the room, and went straight to the forbidden forest on the back mountain.

Beneath an ancient oak, I opened a portal.

"Your Highness," my most trusted warrior, Marcus, knelt on one knee.

"Rise," I said, getting straight to the point. "Investigate Isla. And everything about her past with Damian. I want to know it all."

It was late when I returned to the manor.

I walked to the master bedroom.

The door was unlocked.

The moment I opened the door, the wrongness hit me.

The air was thick with Isla’s cheap incense, but beneath it… something else.

A scent that made my blood freeze.

Damian's arousal.

My territory, my home, my bed—all of it had been defiled.

The sight before me made my blood boil.

Isla was lounging on my bed.

She was wearing one of my silk robes, the sash hanging open to reveal the skin underneath.

And Damian was sitting on the edge of the bed.

His hand was on her thigh as they channeled their energy into the "Unity Stone" on the nightstand.

They were using her tainted aura to corrupt the sacred mate-bond I had sealed within the stone.

This wasn't just cheating.

It was a desecration. A theft of my soul.