Bound and Burned by the One I Loved novel Chapter 1

Smoke filled my lungs—thick, black, choking.

Five months pregnant, I woke to the scent of burning pine and sacred oak smoldering.

Through the haze, I saw her: Eira, my fated mate’s foster sister, his “little sister of the pack,” pouring accelerant on our den threshold.

I didn’t call him.

Last life, I screamed through our bond.

Cassian—my fated mate, my Alpha, the wolf I’d loved since we were six—came for me. Pulled me from the flames while Eira burned to charcoal behind us.

For the remaining months of my pregnancy, he played the perfect expectant father, arranging the finest care, attending every checkup, his devotion unwavering.

But on the fourth night after our daughter was born, he dragged us to the Blood Moon altar. He stood on the High Rock and gave the order.

Pin me to the pyre. Light the flame beneath our daughter’s body first, then mine.“You let Eira burn,” he’d said, while smoke choked my lungs. “So you burn with what you loved.”

When I opened my eyes, I was back on the floor of our burning den.

This time, I pressed wet moss to my muzzle and dialed the public emergency channel. Let him choose her again. But in front of everyone.

The roof beam fell at minute three. Wood cracked across my shoulder—bone snapped, I screamed, smoke swallowed the sound. Another beam caught my thighs. Blood pooled fast, soaking the nest I’d built for her. My daughter—still safe in my womb, five months along—kicked once, weak, then went still.

I felt him through the wood. Massive paws hitting earth. His silver wolf tearing through brush.

Cassian had arrived.

I heard Eira first. “Cassian—I can’t breathe—”

Fur to skin. Him lifting her. Her face pressed to his neck. “I’ve got you. Always.”

He walked past the burning entrance. Past the threshold. Past his fated mate and his pup dying in the smoke.

I turned my head. Smoke burned my eyes. I couldn’t stop coughing.

A boot caught my ribs. Casual. Like checking dead prey. His second, Bryn. “Jealous enough to burn your own den. Too bad the Alpha isn’t watching.”

I crawled forward, nails breaking on stone. My pelt was singed, skin blistering. The cooling salves—the ones that could have saved her—were being applied to Eira’s unburned wrists three miles away.

I begged them, voice raw. “Please... the pup...”

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