Chapter 5: The Dangerous Temptation
Elara POV
I couldn't do this anymore.
Three days had passed since my wedding night—three days of playing the perfect queen while my world crumbled around me. Three days of forcing smiles when nobles congratulated me. Three days of sitting beside Cassian, pretending I belonged there.
Three nights of lying in his bed while my body ached for another man.
I pressed my hands against my still-flat stomach, feeling that flutter of new life. Darius's child. Growing inside me while I shared a bed with his brother.
The guilt was eating me alive.
"Your Majesty?" My lady-in-waiting, Sarah, peered around the door. "King Cassian is asking for you. He's in his study."
My stomach clenched. "Tell him I'll be there shortly."
She curtsied and left. I stared at my reflection in the mirror, trying to compose myself. Dark circles shadowed my eyes. My skin looked pale, drawn.
I looked like a woman keeping terrible secrets.
In Cassian's study, I found him bent over a map covered in red pins. Battle plans. Always battle plans with him.
"You wanted to see me?" I kept my voice steady.
He looked up, and something cold flickered in his dark eyes. "We need to discuss your behavior at yesterday's court presentation."
My blood turned to ice. "My behavior?"
"Your wolf bowed to my brother. In front of half the kingdom." He set down his quill with deliberate care. "Care to explain?"
I scrambled for an excuse. "I was overwhelmed. All those people watching, the formal protocol. I must have gotten confused about where to look."
"Confused." His voice was flat. "My queen was confused about who her mate is."
The word 'mate' hit like a slap. "Cassian, I—"
"Do you think I'm stupid, Elara?" He stood, moving around the desk toward me. "Do you think I haven't noticed the way you flinch when I touch you? The way you stare at nothing during our... intimate moments?"
Heat flooded my face. He was right. Even when he kissed me, held me, claimed his husbandly rights, I felt nothing. My body was there, but my heart and soul belonged to another.
"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I'm still adjusting. This is all new to me."
"New." He stopped directly in front of me, close enough that I could smell his cologne. "What's new is the way my brother looks at you like he wants to devour you."
My heart hammered against my ribs. "I don't know what you mean."
"Don't lie to me." His hand shot out, gripping my chin and forcing me to meet his eyes. "I won't be made a fool in my own kingdom. If you're hiding something, I'll find out."
Terror crawled up my throat. If he discovered the truth—about the mate bond, about that night in the garden, about the child—he'd kill us both.
"I'm not hiding anything," I said, the lie burning my tongue.
He studied my face for a long moment, then released me. "Good. Because tomorrow I'm announcing Darius's engagement to Lady Catherine of the Northern Clans. A nice, sensible match that will take him far from court."
The words hit me like a physical blow. Darius, married to someone else. Gone forever.
"I... that's wonderful news," I managed.
"Isn't it?" Cassian smiled, but there was no warmth in it. "I'm sure you'll be very happy for him."
I nodded and fled before he could see me fall apart.
That night, I couldn't bear lying beside Cassian, pretending to sleep while my heart shattered. After he dozed off, I slipped from bed and wrapped a cloak around my nightgown.
I needed air. Space. Somewhere to breathe that didn't smell like him.
The temple called to me—ancient stone walls and flickering candles, a place where I could pray for strength I didn't have.
The building was empty at this hour, filled with dancing shadows and the scent of incense. I knelt before the altar, staring up at the carved image of the Moon Goddess.
"Help me," I whispered. "Show me how to do the right thing."
But even as I prayed, I knew what the right thing was. Accept Darius's marriage. Raise his child as Cassian's heir. Spend the rest of my life pretending my heart didn't belong to another man.
The thought made me want to scream.
"Couldn't sleep either?"
I spun around to find Darius in the doorway, still dressed but rumpled, like he'd been pacing his room. Moonlight from the high windows caught in his dark hair.
"You shouldn't be here," I breathed.
"Neither should you." He stepped inside, closing the door behind him. "But here we are."
The mate bond flared to life between us, making my skin tingle. Even across the temple, I could feel his presence like heat against my back.
"Cassian told me," I said. "About your engagement."
Darius's jaw clenched. "Did he."
"Lady Catherine is very beautiful. Very suitable."
"I don't want suitable." He moved closer, and I felt my resolve cracking. "I want you."
"You can't have me." The words came out broken. "You know you can't."
"Can't I?" He was directly behind me now, so close his breath stirred my hair. "Tell me you feel nothing when I'm near. Tell me your wolf doesn't sing for mine."
I couldn't. My wolf was practically howling with need, pressing against my ribs, desperate to turn around and throw myself into his arms.
"It doesn't matter what I feel," I whispered.
"It's the only thing that matters." His hands settled on my shoulders, warm and steady. "The goddess chose us, Elara. Not politics. Not peace treaties. Us."
"The goddess is cruel."
"The goddess is wise." He turned me slowly to face him. "Look at me."
I should have kept my eyes closed. Should have pulled away. Instead, I looked up into his storm-gray eyes and felt my world tilt.
"I love you," he said simply. "I loved you the moment our eyes met. I'll love you until the day I die, whether you're in my arms or not."
Tears spilled down my cheeks. "Darius..."
"Marry me." The words came out fierce, desperate. "Run away with me. Tonight. We'll go somewhere Cassian can't follow. Start over."
"I can't abandon my people. The peace—"
"Will survive without a political marriage that makes us both miserable." He cupped my face in his hands. "Choose love, Elara. Choose us."
God help me, I wanted to. Every fiber of my being screamed yes. But I thought of the war, the death, the children who would starve if the peace failed.
"I can't," I whispered.
His face crumpled with pain. "Then tell me to leave. Tell me you never want to see me again, and I'll walk out that door right now."
I opened my mouth to say the words. To end this before it destroyed us all.
Nothing came out.
"Tell me to leave, Elara," he said again, stepping closer. His body was a breath away from mine now. "Or I'll never let you go."
My hands trembled. My wolf clawed at my chest, begging me to reach for him.
"I..." I couldn't speak. Couldn't think. Could only stare into his eyes and burn.
He backed me slowly against the altar, his hands sliding down to grip my hips possessively. "Say it. Tell me to go."
But I couldn't. My body betrayed me completely, trembling not with fear but with desperate, wild hunger. The mate bond sang between us, drowning out every rational thought.
"Elara." My name was a growl on his lips, his fingers digging into my hips like he'd never let me go. "If you don't tell me to stop—"
"So this is why your wolf won't bow to me."
The voice cut through the temple like a blade. Cold. Furious. Deadly.
Cassian stepped from the shadows near the door, his dark eyes blazing with rage. He'd been watching us. Listening.
My blood turned to ice as his gaze traveled from Darius's hands gripping my hips to my flushed face to our bodies pressed intimately together.
"Your Majesty," Darius said carefully, his hands not moving from my body. Protecting me even now.
"Get your hands off my wife." Cassian's voice was deadly quiet.
"She's not your wife." Darius's grip tightened on me. "She's my mate."
The words hung in the temple air like a war cry.
Cassian drew his sword in one smooth motion, the blade singing against the scabbard. "Then you can die with her."