Adrain's breath was ragged, his teeth grazing Lira's throat—too close, too intimate—his canines fully extended. The primal urge to mark pulsed between them, thick and heady.
Nyma's heart twisted.
Then—
Lira moved.
With a strength that belied her delicate frame, she shoved Adrain back against the rough bark of a tree, her fingers tangled in his hair. Before he could react, Lira sank her teeth into his mark—the sacred claim he bore from Nyma.
A growl tore from Adrain's throat—not in pain, but of pleasure.
Nyma felt it. The bond between them screamed, white-hot agony lancing through her chest as if Lira's teeth had torn into Nyam's flesh instead. She staggered, a whimper escaping before she could choke it back.
Nyma's vision tunnelled. Lunara, her she-wolf, raged inside her, claws scraping against the confines of Nyma's mind.
"Let me out," Lunara snarled, her voice a wildfire in Nyma's skull. "I'll rip her throat out. I'll tear him apart limb by limb—"
Nyma's bones ached to shift, her wolf's fury screaming for blood. But the moment her muscles tensed to lunge, a vicious cramp seized her womb—
The child.
Nyma stiffened, instinct overriding rage. If she shifted now, if she let her wolf take over, the transformation could kill her baby. Her claws retracted with a shudder.
"Lunara," Nyma snarled inwardly. "Protect our pup—"she commanded Lunara through their link, her tone like tempered steel. "No matter what happens. No matter what I do."
Her wolf howled in protest—a creature of teeth and vengeance, starved for Lira's throat—Lunara was wild, untamed, the kind of she-wolf that obeyed nothing but instinct. But in this, she did not argue. The wolf stilled, her fury coiling back—not extinguished, but controlled.
Their pup comes first.
Nyma inhaled sharply, setting her gaze on Lira once more. The woman was claiming her mate bond. Fine. If Nyma couldn't tear her into half, she'd do the next best thing. A storm was brewing inside her, and Lira would be the first to taste its wrath.
Lira had just pulled away from Adrain's neck, her lips smeared with his blood, her eyes alight with vicious triumph. She swayed slightly, as if waiting for something to shift, for the bond to recognize her.
But nothing happened. The mating mark did not change.
Nyma's mark did not fade.
Adrain's skin remained unmarred by her teeth, the sacred mating mark still Nyma's—still hers—no matter how desperately Lira had tried to rewrite it.
Lira's triumphant expression faltered. She pulled back, staring at Adrain's unbroken skin in disbelief.
Lira frowned, confusion flashing across her face before she schooled it into something cruel. She gripped Adrain's jaw, forcing his dazed gaze to meet hers. "You're mine. Mine."she breathed against his mouth, teeth gleaming as they sought his mark again—
The mating bond screamed.
Nyma doubled over as white-hot agony tore through her chest—as if Lira's teeth were sinking into herflesh instead. The world blurred at the edges, her vision swimming with unshed tears.
Before—A storm break lose.
The wind howled through the clearing like a living thing, trees shuddering under its wrath. Nyma straightened slowly, her breath uneven, her fingers twitching at her sides.
She had come here a fool.
She would leave a nightmare.
Lira barely had time to blink before Nyma moved.
With a growl so menacing it made the very air crackle, Nyma wrenched Lira away from Adrain with such force the woman was ripped from his grasp, sent her flying back like a ragdoll. Lira's body slammed into the earth, rolling once before catching herself on her hands and knees.
Nyma's anger suffocating the air around them, as Adrain—flinched. His golden eyes widened, lips still wet from Lira's kiss.
Nyma stopped just inches away, the heat of her anger rolling off her in waves. The scent of her mate was tainted now, corrupted by another woman's touch.
A sharp gasp left Lira's lips, but Nyma barely registered it. Her entire focus was on Adrian now. Her mate. The man who vowed himself to her. The man who stood there, bare-chested, smelling of another woman.
Adrian's mouth opened, perhaps to utter some pathetic excuse, but Nyma didn't give him the chance. "Nyma—" She didn't let him start.
"You bastard," she snarled, voice laced with the rawness of heartbreak and betrayal. "You did not just let another woman touch you," she yelled. "You let her bite the mark to rip it off."
With a snarl, Nyma lunged forward—her claws slashed across his chest, not deep enough to kill, but deep enough to scar.
Adrian staggered back, his body convulsing—not just from the pain, but from the shame gripping his heart, shock flashed across his face as blood welled from the wounds. His breath came in ragged gasps, eyes wide with disbelief as if he couldn't fathom the wrath bearing down upon him.
"You—" Adrain rasped, his golden eyes blown wide.
Lira shrieked from a distance, but Nyma didn't even glance at her. Her gaze was locked on Adrian, on the man who had shattered her world and expected mercy.
"You dishonor me. You dishonour our child." Her voice was a blade, cold and unforgiving. "So I will mark you as what you are—faithless."
Before he could react, her hand shot out, claws glowing with the ancient magic of the Luna's wrath. She pressed her palm against his chest, right over his heart.
The scent of burning flesh filled the air as the Infidelity Mark seared into his skin—a permanent brand, visible to all. A shame no wolf could ever erase, let alone a Lycan Prince.
The ancient, unforgiving magic branded him, spreading from her claws like wildfire, etching itself deep into his skin.
A mark like this wasn't just a wound. It was a curse. A stain on his soul, a declaration to every wolf in existence that he had betrayed his mate.
That he had failed.
Adrian's roar of pain echoed through the trees, raw and guttural, the sound of a man being marked by the very laws of the Moon Goddess. His hands clawed at his chest, but nothing could stop the magic carving its damning truth into him.
Lira gasped, her face draining of color. Adrian's Lycan was withering in pain. "No, no... You—you can't—"
Nyma's head whipped towards her, eyes blazing with the fury of a woman scorned. A slow, dangerous smile curled her lips.
"Run," she whispered. "Before I forget I'm a mother first. And let my wolf out to rip you apart, you better run and hide in a hole where I could never find you." Nyma's brown eyes glowed silver like the moon in its deadliest phase.