Chapter 70: Next On The Line

Selene’s POV

This strange man wanted to ruin Lucian and Tessa’s wedding. Not that it mattered anymore ... they were already married. The damage was done.

This William person stood there in front of everyone and declared that he was the last of Icefang. That his father had survived the war, purified the bloodline in secret, and carried it forward all the way to this moment. He said he’d come here to claim his mate. That he intended to rebuild Icefang from the ground up.

I could’ve believed everything else. I could’ve entertained the whole story.

But his mate? Me? Hell no. No way in fate was I that man’s mate.

Could someone even have more than two mates? The thought alone was absurd. I didn’t want to look at him. I didn’t want to know what his face looked like. As far as I was concerned, he was one of those people who got a kick out of walking into a room and talking absolute trash.

"Hey, mister wolf," the supreme elder cut in, his voice steady and authoritative. "As you can see, we’ve just concluded a wedding. Bring your case to the council first thing tomorrow morning. But for now, let the Alpha and his Luna celebrate."

Cheers broke out across the hall. Drinks were being passed around. Music filled the air.

And I stood there, hollow, watching it all like I was a ghost at my own funeral.

This was one of the worst days of my life. Maybe the worst.

I kept trying to catch Lucian’s eyes, but he wouldn’t look at me. Not even once. He was overwhelmed, I told myself. Filled with everything the moment had piled on him. But deep down I knew ... he was avoiding me deliberately.

I couldn’t pretend. I couldn’t manufacture a smile and paste it on my face like everything was fine. I didn’t wish them a happy married life. I didn’t even try. What I actually wished ... deep in that bitter, ugly corner of my heart ... was that the marriage would fall apart as fast as it had come together.

That made me a bad person, didn’t it? Maybe. But it was the truth.

The final procession began. Lucian and Tessa were supposed to dance out of the hall together. Tessa danced. Lucian just walked beside her, stiff and unreadable. They moved out to the garden where the reception was being held, and I stood there watching them disappear through the doors.

And the thought that crept into my mind after that ... the one I couldn’t stop ... was that tonight, Tessa would expect Lucian to take her to bed. She’d get all of him. Every part of him that I’d wanted.

She was a thief and a bitch, and life was deeply, painfully ironic.

I refused to let it show. I straightened my spine, walked out to the reception, and went directly to the newly married couple. I stretched out my hand.

How does one fake that? How do you extend a hand in congratulations to the person who took everything from you?

Somehow I did it.

"Congratulations, Tessa and Lucian," I said.

Tessa smiled wide and bright, all teeth, like she’d won and wanted to make sure I knew it. "Thank you," she said.

Lucian gave me a cold, clipped response. He didn’t even hold my gaze for two full seconds. I never thought I’d see the day ... a powerful king, a man who had touched me and looked at me like I was the only woman in any room ... hesitant to meet my eyes.

"Hey, Selene."

I turned. I already knew the voice before I saw the face.

Kael.

"Kael. It’s good to see you," I said.

He pulled me into a hug without warning. It was the kind of hug that said he knew exactly what I was going through, and he thought I needed it.

He wasn’t wrong. But I wasn’t about to admit that.

"I just thought you needed that," he said when he pulled back.

I stiffened. Was he pitying me? Was this sympathy? Because it felt dangerously close to a reminder that my pain was visible.

"I’m fine," I told him flatly.

Kael had walked in on me and Lucian once ... caught us in the middle of something we probably shouldn’t have been doing. He knew exactly how close we’d been. He wasn’t guessing. He knew.

I had nothing left to do at that reception. I just needed a moment alone before I took my leave, so I slipped away to find the bathroom.

I pushed the door open and stopped.

William Steelborn was standing inside.

"Mate," he said, the word falling out of his mouth like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Don’t you dare call me that again," I said, my voice low and sharp. "And what are you doing in here? Did you not see the sign? This is a ladies’ bathroom."

"I saw you come in," he said, completely unbothered. "I just wanted a quick word before you left."

"So you’re stalking me now?"

"Something like that," he replied.

I stared at him. This wolf was genuinely, spectacularly dumb. What the hell was wrong with him?

"I came here to claim you," he said. "And I will."

I laughed. Not a polite laugh ... a full, sharp laugh that bounced off the bathroom walls. I could tell it stung him, and honestly, good.

"I know it’s strange," he continued, not backing down. "Someone appearing out of nowhere to claim you. But I knew you were my mate the very first time I saw you ... when you were being judged in Bloodmoon."

I went still.

How the hell did he know about that?

"I didn’t come forward before Lucian claimed you because I wasn’t ready. We were still rebuilding, still pulling things together. I needed backup before I made a move." He said it calmly, like he’d been sitting on this information for years and had rehearsed exactly how he’d deliver it.

As much as I wanted to dismiss every word out of his mouth as garbage, something about it nagged at me. It connected in ways I didn’t want it to.

"I don’t want to see you again," I said firmly. "Don’t attempt to claim me. Don’t come near me. I don’t want anything to do with you. Please."

"You will have something to do with me, Selene Ironheart. Daughter of Caden Ironheart."

I looked at him hard.

He knew my name. My full name. My father’s name. This stranger had been tracking me ... watching me ... for longer than I even wanted to think about.

"If you’ll excuse me," I said, keeping my voice even, "I need to use the bathroom."

Another person walked in at that moment. He took the cue and left.

But the conversation didn’t leave with him. It stayed in my head, threading itself through every thought I tried to have. I shut it down. I refused to let it take root. I wasn’t doing this. Not tonight.

I went home to the breeders, let them wrap me in warmth, and slept like someone who was exhausted all the way down to her soul.

The next morning, I couldn’t stop thinking about William.

Against every instinct telling me to stay home, I decided to go to his court hearing.

"Be careful what you listen to," Valerie warned me before I left. "He might be trying to pull you in."

I told her I’d be careful, and I meant it.

By the time I arrived, William was already standing before the elders, presenting his case. I slipped in quietly and took a seat near the back. People noticed me. I knew they did. I sat still anyway.

"I came to claim my mate, as I stated yesterday," William said to the council. "And we are in the process of a kingdom rebuilding. I won’t disclose every detail of that here, only that I am a remnant of the Icefang pack. You believed we had gone extinct. We hadn’t."

"You call yourself a remnant," one of the elders said, leaning forward. "How are we to know you haven’t infiltrated this territory as a spy? That you’re not here to gather intelligence and report back for an attack?"

William smiled ... not nervously, but like the question genuinely amused him. "We could have done exactly that," he said. "Because nothing is going to stop Icefang from rising again. But I didn’t want it done that way. I wanted it done properly, peacefully, through the right channels. That’s why I’m standing in front of you now instead of coming through a different door."

The elder wrote something down, then leaned over and whispered to the one beside him.

"We’ll need two things," the elder said finally. "Tangible proof that you are a genuine remnant of Icefang, and tangible proof that you are the fated mate of Selene Ironheart."

"Draw my blood," William said. "On the condition that it’s returned to me after testing. And as for the mate bond ... we do the traditional mating match between myself and Selene. Let the bond speak for itself."

It was agreed. Stamped and settled.

"You’ll go to the lab to give your sample. The guards will escort you. We reconvene tomorrow," the elder said, and closed the book.

I sat there in the back of that room feeling like the walls were slowly pressing in.

I couldn’t be the property of everyone. I couldn’t keep getting pulled in different directions by fate and men and politics and pack bloodlines. I was one person. One woman. And nobody had asked me a single thing.

Lucian and Tessa were nowhere in the building. They were probably on their honeymoon somewhere, tangled up in each other, happy in ways I didn’t want to picture but kept picturing anyway.

Every time the thought crossed my mind, my chest tightened with a kind of pain I couldn’t name. Tessa was bringing something dangerous out of me. A version of myself I didn’t fully recognize ... colder, darker, more capable of cruelty than I liked to admit.

She had stolen my Alpha. She had stolen my friends. I hadn’t done nearly enough to her yet.

And now this stranger wanted to claim me on top of everything else.

Not in this life. Not in the next one either.

Let’s see who fate actually favours in the end.