My body is still trembling, still responding to his proximity with a need so violent it makes me want to claw my own skin off. But my mind—my mind has latched onto something else entirely.

“Bound?” The word scrapes out of my throat as I try to change the topic back. “What do you mean, bound?”

Theron’s hand is still on my throat, his thumb tracing lazy patterns that send fire straight to my core. But I caught it—the shift in his expression. The narrowed eyes. The clenched jaw.

He thought this would go differently. Thought I’d be so desperate, so broken by heat and humiliation, that I’d let him take me against this tree like I’m nothing.

“Theron.” I force his name out, fighting against every instinct that screams at me to arch into his touch. “What did my parents do? Why can’t I leave?”

“Your mother never told you?” Something flickers across his face—surprise, maybe, or disbelief.

“Told me what?” My voice breaks.

What was she supposed to say? The illness consumed her quickly, mercilessly. I was just twelve. I only wanted my mom alive and well, I didn’t care about any family secrets.

He’s quiet for a moment, studying me. Then he steps back, and the loss of contact makes my skin scream in protest.

“Your parents were accused of treachery.”

The words hit me like a slap to my face. “What?”

“Plotting against the pack. Against my father, specifically.” He runs a hand through his hair, and for a moment he almost looks tired. “Your father was executed for it.”

My father. Fragments flash—deep voice, strong hands lifting me up, the smell of pine and leather. Gone.

Theron leans against a nearby tree. “Your mother was supposed to be next.”

“But she wasn’t.” My mind is racing, trying to piece together memories that don’t exist. “She raised me for another few years before—”

“Before she got sick and died. I know.” He’s watching me carefully now. “She didn’t die because my father showed mercy, Kira. She bought herself time.”

“I don’t understand…”

“Blood oath.” The words fall like stones. “Got on her knees before the entire council. Swore that she and her child would never betray the pack. Would never leave its borders. Bound you both to prove innocence.”

Blood oath.

The brands on my wrists burn at the words.

“She bound me?” Barely a whisper. “To a crime I didn’t commit?”

“She bound you to prove she didn’t commit it.” Something almost like sympathy crosses his face. Almost. “The magic would make betrayal impossible. Which meant you couldn’t have been planning it in the first place.”

I stare at him, trying to process this. Trying to understand.

“So I’m paying for a crime that might not have even happened? That I definitely had nothing to do with?”

“Blood debts don’t care about might or definitely.” His voice hardens like steel. “Your mother made the oath. For both of you.”

“I was a child!” The words tear out of me. “I didn’t ask for this!”

“You think I wanted this?” Real anger flashes now, raw and violent. “A mate bound by blood debt? Who can’t shift? Who the pack mocks? Who makes me look weak every single day?”

The words sting more than they should. “Then why didn’t you reject me years ago?”

“Because you were still useful.” The honesty is brutal. “A Luna who couldn’t leave, couldn’t betray, couldn’t do anything without pack permission? My father thought it was perfect. Convenient.”

“Your father,” I echo. “And you?”

“Now I go back to my mate. My chosen mate. And you…” He looks at me one last time. “You learn to live with what you are.”

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