Chapter 106: _ Mated to the Wolf Prince

I studied the man holding me. The notorious womanizer. The Wolf Prince who had made a sport of taking what he wanted and leaving before anything could ask him to stay.

"You really don’t know if you can love me?" I whispered.

"No." His gaze held mine. "But I know I want the chance to find out. With you. To actually get to know you."

My heart gave a treacherous little flutter. "And you understand what marking me means?"

"I understand that the court will have opinions. My father will have a fit. Half the noble families will probably decide I’ve lost my mind." His grin returned, wicked and unmistakably Ivar. "And you’ll become even more insufferable than you already are."

I gasped. "You arrogant..."

"But I’ll be the one who has to live with you," he interrupted, leaning closer. "So I suppose I’ll manage."

I tried to glare at him. Unfortunately, my heart had apparently decided to abandon me in favour of this insufferable wolf.

Then his expression softened.

"Tell me you want this, Elira. Not because my wolf recognizes you. Not because you think a prince choosing you means you’ve finally won something. And not because you think you owe me anything."

His forehead rested against mine. "Tell me because it’s what you want."

I searched his face, looking for the arrogance, the mockery, the effortless certainty of a man who’d never had to question whether a woman would say yes.

For once, I found none of it.

"I want this. I want you."

His breath caught, so faintly that I might have imagined it.

"And I know exactly what it could cost me," I continued. "I’m still choosing it."

Something unguarded flickered across his face. "Then I won’t make you regret giving me the chance."

It wasn’t a declaration of love or a promise that everything would work out. It was Ivar Wulfram, a man who’d never wanted to stay, asking for the chance to learn how.

And somehow, I wanted to give him that chance.

I tilted my head back against the wall, exposing the sensitive column of my throat to him. "Then do it."

He gulped. "Wait. Us wolves have a little vow ritual we do before this."

I raised a questioning brow and he cleared his throat.

"I, Ivar Wulfram, accept Elira No-One as my one true mate. I vow to adore you, to protect you, and to stand beside you for as long as I draw breath. I will not ask you to shrink yourself to fit into my world, nor will I demand that you surrender yours to belong in mine."

His hands tightened around me.

"And when my last breath leaves my body, when my wolf walks beyond the reach of the living, let him find you wherever the stars have carried you. Let him follow you beyond death, beyond darkness, beyond every boundary this world has ever placed between us."

His forehead rested against mine. "This is my choice, Elira. My wolf may have recognized you before I understood who you are, but I am choosing you with every part of myself."

Only when my eyes stung did I realize the tears pooling in them. "Oh, Ivar..." I breathed.

He continued with a smile now, "I choose you in this life. And if there is anything beyond it, I’ll choose you there, too."

No one had ever sworn to live for me... to protect me in life and even in death. I had never known what it was like to be desired with such an intensity that transcended even life itself.

But this time, I wasn’t simply being chosen.

I was choosing him, too.

And whatever waited for me beyond these stone walls, whatever this bond would cost us both, I would face it because I’d decided I wanted that future... not because anyone had decided it for me.

My eyes shut for a teardrop that ran straight down my cheek, landing on Ivar’s collarbone before he let out a growl that sounded entirely animal.

His elongated royal fangs extended from his gums, gleaming faintly in the dim light. He dragged his mouth across my collarbone before burying his fangs deep into the junction between my neck and shoulder.

A sharp spasm shot through my nerves, and for one breathless instant, pain swallowed everything.

Then the magic came.

It surged through my veins like liquid fire, flooding every corner of my body with a warmth so ancient it felt as though something buried beneath my skin had finally awakened.

I gasped against Ivar’s shoulder, feeling the bond steering itself into me with the force of a thousand invisible chains locking into a single point between our souls.

Beneath his fangs, my skin burned. I felt the shape of his mark forming against my neck, each pulse of magic sinking deeper until I could no longer tell where my heartbeat ended and his began.

Then something answered.

A deep THRUM shook through the stone beneath our feet.

The flames in the nearby sconces surged blue. Every window along the cloister rattled in its frame.

Ivar jerked back. His eyes widened as the magic rippled outward from the mark. For one impossible moment, I felt him everywhere... not just in his hands around my waist, but somewhere beneath my ribs, woven into the strange threads that had been pulling me toward the princes since the day I arrived at Last Bastion.

And far beyond the alcove, something answered the pulse. I didn’t know what it was. I only knew the bond had done more than join us... It had announced us.

Ivar’s palm flew to the mark on my neck. His expression shifted from triumph to stunned disbelief.

"Elira," he whispered.

I touched the mark with trembling fingers. It was warm beneath my skin, alive with a faint pulse of its own.

I, Elira No-One, had bound myself to Ivar Wulfram, Wolf Prince, and let it be known that it wasn’t because the bond had demanded it or because a prince had claimed me.

It was because I had chosen him. And now the entire realm might have felt me choose.