ROVIAN
She ran from me.
My mate actually ran from me like I was something to fear instead of the person fate had tied her to for the rest of her life.
The bond was screaming at me to chase her down. My wolf was practically tearing me apart from the inside, demanding I hunt her through the trees until I caught her and made her understand what we were to each other. Every instinct I had was howling at me to move, to follow her, to claim what was mine.
I forced my legs to stay planted where they were.
Chasing her down right now would be the worst thing I could do. If I ran her down like she was prey, I'd lose her forever.
I'd seen the terror in her eyes when she bolted. She wasn't just running from the bond. She was running from me.
From what I'd done to her.
Three years hadn't softened anything. Not her anger. Not her hatred. Not the memory of how thoroughly I'd destroyed her.
And why the fuck would it?
I'd spent two years making sure she knew exactly how worthless she was to me. I'd humiliated her publicly, repeatedly, and now the goddess had the audacity to tell her I was her mate?
The irony would've made me laugh if it wasn't currently ripping me to shreds.
But none of that changed the facts.
She was mine now.
Fated to me in ways that went deeper than love or marriage or any of the things I'd already killed between us. The bond tied our destinies together whether she wanted it or not.
Whether I deserved it or not.
Footsteps crunched through the underbrush behind me. I didn't bother turning around.
"Your Majesty." Thane's voice was carefully neutral. "We've secured the perimeter. There are no casualties. We've captured a dozen rogues, including their leader."
I barely processed the words. My entire focus was locked on the eastern tree line where I could still track Daphne's scent.
More footsteps came up behind me. I knew it was Caelan before he even spoke.
"Brother." His voice changed the second he got close enough to see my face. "You look like you've seen a ghost. What the hell happened?"
"I found her." The words came out rough. My voice didn't sound like my own.
"The healer?"
I shook my head slowly. My eyes were still fixed on the trees where she'd disappeared. "Daphne."
The silence that followed was thick enough to choke on.
Then Caelan sucked in a sharp breath. "Daphne? Your Daphne? She's here?"
"Yes."
"How is she? Where is she? Is she alright? Does she know you're here? Did you talk to her?"
"She's my mate."
The words sat heavy in the air between us.
Caelan just stared at me for a long moment. Then he let out a breath that was somewhere between a laugh and complete disbelief. "The goddess has a twisted sense of humor."
"She ran." I hadn't torn my eyes away from where she'd disappeared into the forest. "She tried to reject the bond."
The almost-laughter died on his face immediately. "After what you did to her, can you blame her?"
"No."
And I couldn't.
But it didn't change what I had to do.
The bond was pulling harder now. It was getting more insistent with every second I stood here instead of going after her. My wolf was losing the battle against my control. I needed to move. I needed to follow her. I needed to find her before something happened or before she got so far away I couldn't track her anymore.
"I have to go after her." My voice came out strained. "My wolf... I can barely control him right now."
Caelan's hand clamped down on my arm. "If you chase her down like a feral animal, you'll lose her forever. Think, Rovian."
I was thinking.
That was the goddessdamned problem.
My mind was running in twelve different directions at once and none of them were helping me figure out what to do next.
I'd just found my mate.
My wife.
The woman I'd spent three years tearing apart the continent looking for. And she was here. She was real. She was alive.
And she hated me so much she'd rather die than accept our bond.
On top of that, I was in the middle of upending an entire rogue territory because I was looking for a healer who could save my people from a plague that was killing them by the hundreds.
My brain was a complete mess.
But my body on the other hand? It knew exactly what it wanted.
I turned to Thane and pulled my arm free from Caelan's grip. "Bring the rogue leader to me. Then take the search party west. The healer is still out there somewhere. Find her."
"Your Majesty, are you sure you want to split up the group right now? We don't know how many more rogues are out here or if they're planning to regroup and attack."
"Do it."
I started walking before anyone could argue with me. I was following the bond. Following her scent. My thoughts were complete chaos but my feet knew exactly where they needed to go.
Caelan called after me from behind. "Don't do anything stupid!"
I didn't bother answering. I'd try not to do anything stupid. But I wasn't making any promises I couldn't keep.
The bond led me deeper into the forest. The pull was getting stronger with every step I took. Daphne had been running blind when she bolted from me, too panicked to think about where she was going or what was ahead of her.
One of my soldiers came crashing through the trees ahead of me. He was young and out of breath and looked relieved to see me standing there.
"Your Majesty." He sketched a quick bow even though he was still trying to catch his breath. "The ravine is blocking the path forward. We believe we found the healer. She's trapped down there."
Everything in my mind went very still.
I'd been looking for a healer named Elara. She was famous for treating the bleeding sickness with methods no one else had figured out yet.
She was the only lead I had to fixing the disaster that was the North right now.
"Show me," I said.
The soldier took off at a jog and I followed behind him. My bond with Daphne was getting stronger with every step I took. She was close. Very close.
I was about to kill two birds with one stone. I'd take the healer back to the North. And then I'd convince Daphne to come with me one way or another.
We reached the ravine and I could see about twenty of my soldiers clustered near the edge. All of them were looking down at something in the water below.
The bond was pounding behind my ribcage now. It was demanding and insistent and pulling at me so hard it almost physically hurt to stand still.
I scanned the area for Daphne as I walked forward. My men cleared a path without being asked or ordered to. One of them gestured down toward the water rushing by below us.
"There she is, Your Majesty."
I dragged my eyes away from the tree line and looked down into the ravine.
Everything in my chest went cold.
Daphne was standing in the shallow water at the bottom.
She was completely soaked from head to toe. Her dress was plastered to her body and her hair hung in wet ropes around her face and down past her shoulders. She had a large stick gripped in both hands and she was holding it out in front of her like a sword, swinging it at my soldiers like she fully intended to crack skulls if any of them tried to come near her.
And she was staring up at me with those blue eyes that looked like they wanted to personally obliterate me from existence.
Everything clicked into place at once.
Daphne was the healer.
Elara.
The famous healer who'd been treating the bleeding sickness better than anyone else in the entire realm. The woman I'd been searching for. The only person who could save my people from dying by the hundreds every single day.
She was my wife.
Dark satisfaction curled through my chest at the sheer irony of it all.
I'd searched for my wife for years and come up empty every single time. The moment I decided to put that search on hold and focus on finding the healer instead, I found the woman I'd been looking for all along. She'd been right here the entire time under a different name.
If I'd had any doubts before about fate or destiny or whatever you wanted to call it, I was certain now.
I looked down at her and took in everything about this moment. The defiant set of her shoulders. The way she was holding that stick like an actual weapon she knew how to use.
The absolute fury burning in her eyes when she looked at me.
She was magnificent.
Daphne and I were meant to be together.
The goddess had made sure of that in every possible way.
And I'd be damned if I let her walk around believing otherwise.