Page 17

THIRTEEN

SERAPHINA

T he audacity of this man—king or not—to suggest she would end up institutionalized because of her psychic powers was infuriating. Seraphina inhaled sharply, the salty breeze doing nothing to cool her rising temper.

"How dare you," she hissed, shrugging his coat from her shoulders and thrusting it toward his chest. "You don't get to decide my fate or tell me I'm unstable. I've managed my entire life just fine without your help or your island of wolf people."

Orion caught his coat with one hand, his expression softening as he studied her. The wind tousled his hair, those bright eyes never leaving her face.

"That's not what I meant," Orion said, his deep voice gentler now.

"You weren't experiencing visions before your thirtieth birthday.

The world you knew made sense to you—the stars in their predictable orbits, the laws of physics, and the comfort of scientific explanation.

" He stepped closer, not intimidated by her anger.

"But now you're experiencing something science can't explain, and the human world has no framework for understanding it. "

She crossed her arms but found her anger beginning to deflate. He wasn't wrong. What would she tell her colleagues? Her friends? That she could see the future? They would think she had lost her mind.

"I don't want to control you, Seraphina," Orion continued. "I want to help you control this gift, so it doesn't control you."

The sincerity in his voice made her pause. "How?"

"Let me show you." He set his coat onto the white sand and extended his hand. "A simple meditation exercise."

Seraphina hesitated before placing her hand in his. The connection sent an immediate warmth shooting up her arm, but no vision this time—just an awareness, a heightened sense of him.

"Close your eyes," he instructed, his thumb making small circles on her palm. "Focus on your breathing first."

She did as he asked, feeling slightly foolish standing there on the beach with her eyes closed. The sound of waves crashing against the shore filled her ears.

"Now, instead of waiting for the visions to assault you, I want you to reach for one," Orion said softly. "Picture something—anything—and try to see beyond its present state."

Seraphina furrowed her brow. "That sounds impossible."

"You're an astronomer. You understand that stars exist in states we can only predict because light takes time to reach us. Your gift works similarly. You're seeing light—information—from moments that haven't reached everyone else yet."

The scientific analogy resonated with her. She squeezed his hand and concentrated, picturing the observatory where they'd stood yesterday.

At first, nothing happened. Then, like a lens coming into focus, she saw the observatory—not as it was yesterday, but as it would be tonight. The ceiling opened to the stars, a meteor shower streaking across the sky.

Her eyes flew open. "There's going to be a meteor shower tonight."

Orion's smile was triumphant. "You called the vision. You controlled it."

"But how do you know I'm right?"

"Because I've lived under these stars for a bit. The Leonids peak tonight." His eyes sparkled with appreciation. "That was remarkable, Seraphina. Most novice Lunas take weeks to achieve that level of control."

Pride bloomed in her chest. "It was... easier than I expected."

"That's because we're together." Orion stepped impossibly closer. "Our energies complement each other. The bond enhances your ability to channel your gift rather than being ambushed by it."

Seraphina found herself leaning toward him, drawn by some invisible force. "And if I leave?"

"You'll learn to manage it, eventually, but it will be harder, and probably lonelier." His hand moved to cup her cheek. "Everything is easier when mates are together. It's how we're designed."

"Mates," she repeated, testing the word on her tongue. Two days ago, she would have laughed at the concept. Now, standing before this alpha male who commanded not just a pack but her very senses, it didn't seem so absurd.

"Try another one," he encouraged. "Something more challenging."

Seraphina nodded, closing her eyes again. This time she pictured Orion himself, curious what the future might show her.

The vision that formed wasn't what she expected. It wasn't Orion in danger or Orion at some royal function. It was Orion laughing, his head thrown back in genuine joy, as she said something that amused him. The intimacy of it, the easy companionship it suggested, made her heart ache with longing.

"What did you see?" he asked when she opened her eyes.

"You," she admitted. "Happy."

Something shifted inside her like puzzle pieces clicking together.

The warmth of his hand in hers seemed to travel upward, spreading through her body and into her mind—transforming the fear that had been clouding her thoughts since her birthday.

Where she once saw a burden, she now recognized a gift.

"It's not a curse," Seraphina whispered, almost to herself. "These visions... they're windows, aren't they? Glimpses of possibilities that I can help shape."

The gentle pressure of Orion's fingers tightened around hers. "That's exactly what they are. Your power isn't meant to terrify you, it's meant to guide you—guide us."

She gazed up at him, the sun casting golden highlights across his chiseled features. His bright eyes focused on her with such immediate intensity that it took the breath out of her lungs for a moment.

"Could you see it?" she finally managed, remembering how he'd shared her vision the night before. "What I just saw of you?"

A knowing smile curved his lips, revealing his perfect white teeth against his neatly trimmed beard. "Yes. I saw myself laughing with you. Being... unburdened. It's not something I experience often."

"It looked good on you," she said, surprised by her own boldness.

"You bring it out in me." His voice dropped lower, rumbling from his chest. "One day with you has done what centuries couldn't."

The ocean breeze lifted strands of her black hair, and Orion reached out to brush them away from her cheek. His fingertips lingered, sending shivers throughout her body.

"This is crazy," Seraphina said, yet she didn't pull away. "I barely know you, and yet..."

"And yet?" The question was a challenge and an invitation.

"And yet I feel like I've known you forever." The words tumbled out. "It's not logical. I'm a scientist. I should be questioning everything about this situation, but when I'm with you..."

"When you're with me?" Orion prompted, leaning forward until the fabric of his shirt brushed against her bare shoulder.

Seraphina took a steadying breath, gathering her courage.

The rational part of her brain—the astronomer who calculated celestial movements and probability factors—was screaming that this was absurd.

But her newly awakened senses told her something different: that this connection with Orion was as real and powerful as gravity.

"When I'm with you, I want things I've never wanted," she whispered. "I'm drawn to you in ways that defy explanation. I've been... thinking about you. Wanting you. Since the moment I saw you."

Orion's eyes darkened, stormy gray like thunderclouds gathering on the horizon. His posture shifted slightly—shoulders squaring, chin lifting, every inch the alpha male claiming his territory.

"I've wanted you from the moment I first sensed your awakening," he confessed, his thumb tracing a path along her jawline.

"For centuries, I've ruled without a true partner.

I've led my pack, fought battles, protected my people—but always doing it alone.

Then you appeared, and suddenly everything I thought I knew about myself, about what I wanted, changed. "

"What do you want now?" Seraphina asked, unable to look away from his intense gaze.

"You," he said simply, the word carrying the weight of four hundred years of solitude. "In every way possible. As my Luna, my partner, and my lover."

The possessive growl underlying his words sent a delicious shiver through her. Whatever strange magic bound them— whether it was wolf instinct or cosmic fate—Seraphina could no longer deny its power.

Her mind raced with the implications of everything she'd learned since her birthday: psychic visions, wolf shifters, and being someone's destined mate. It was beyond overwhelming.

"This is all so much," Seraphina said, her voice catching as she gazed at him. "Can we just... forget about it all for a moment? The Luna responsibilities, the powers, everything you've told me in the last day."

Her eyes searched his face, drinking in the sharp lines of his jaw, and the subtle curve of his lips beneath his neat beard.

"Could we pretend that nothing else is going on in the whole world? That only we exist in this mere moment—just a man and a woman who both clearly want each other?"

The corners of his mouth lifted in a smile that sent her heart racing. He raised one hand to cup her cheek, his thumb grazing her lower lip in a touch so light, it might have been imaginary.

"This is much more than a mere moment to me," Orion said, his voice lowering to a silken rumble that seemed to vibrate through her bones. "And I'm going to make sure you remember this no matter what else happens between us."

Before she could respond, he dipped his head and captured her lips with his. The kiss started soft, almost tentative—a question more than a demand. But when Seraphina sighed against his mouth, something primitive and powerful uncoiled within him.

His arm snaked around her waist, pulling her flush against his solid chest. His other hand threaded through her hair, angling her head to deepen the kiss.

His lips became fierce, claiming her with a possessiveness that should have frightened her but instead ignited something primal within her own body.

It was the best kiss Seraphina had ever experienced, and yet somehow it felt like coming home to something familiar deep in her body and soul. As if her cells recognized his on a molecular level, as if every kiss before this one had merely been practice for this moment of perfect communion.

Seraphina's analytical mind tried briefly to catalog the sensations—the slight rasp of his beard against her skin, the taste of salt and something uniquely him, and the solidness of his body against hers.

But then his tongue swept against the seam of her lips, and all scientific inquiry dissolved into pure sensation.

Her hands, which had been pressed against his chest, slid up to his shoulders and around his neck. She pulled herself closer, rising onto her tiptoes to press herself more firmly against him. A small sound—half sigh, half moan—escaped her throat.

Orion growled in response, the sound vibrating from his chest into hers.

His kiss turned deeper, more demanding, as if he were trying to consume her.

One large hand splayed across her lower back, his fingers pressing into the curve just above her backside, while the other cupped the back of her head.

When they finally broke apart, both breathing heavily, Seraphina felt dazed. Her lips throbbed pleasantly, and her whole body hummed with awareness. The logical part of her brain seemed to have short-circuited.

"That was..." she whispered, unable to find words adequate to describe what had just happened.

"Only the beginning," Orion promised, his eyes darker with desire. He pressed his forehead against hers, his breath mingling with her own. "Tell me you felt it too."

"Yes," she admitted, her voice barely audible above the sound of the waves. "It's like... like finding a star you've been searching for your whole life without even knowing you were looking for it."

He smiled then, a genuine smile that transformed his usual stern features. "My astronomer," he murmured, placing a softer kiss on her lips. "Finding poetry in the stars."

Before Seraphina could truly process what was happening, Orion swept her up in his arms with an effortless motion that left her breathless. Her feet dangled in the air as he cradled her against his chest, one arm supporting her back, the other beneath her knees.

"What are you doing?" she gasped, instinctively wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Honoring your request," he replied, his voice a rumbling baritone against her ear. "Forgetting the world."

He strode across the white sand with determined steps, her weight seemingly nothing to him.

Seraphina felt the solid warmth of his chest against her side, and the steady rhythm of his heartbeat beneath her fingers.

This close, his scent enveloped her—pine and ocean uniquely male that made her head swim.

"I can walk, you know," she protested weakly, though she didn't truly want him to put her down.

"I know." His eyes never left the path ahead as they approached the castle. "But I've waited centuries to carry my Luna to my bed. Indulge me."

The possessiveness in his tone sent delicious shivers through her.

She had never been with a man so unapologetically dominant and so certain of what he wanted.

The scientist in her observed with fascination how her body responded to his alpha presence—her temperature rising, her breathing quickening, and her skin hyper-sensitive where it touched his.

Through the grand entrance they went, past startled staff who quickly averted their eyes with knowing smiles.

Up the sweeping staircase, and down corridors lined with ancient tapestries and ornate sconces.

Orion carried her as if she weighed nothing, his breathing steady, and his pace unhurried yet purposeful.

"Your castle is like a maze," she murmured, trying to memorize the route.

"You'll learn every corner of it," he promised, the certainty in his voice making her heart flutter.

They reached an imposing set of double doors carved with intricate wolf motifs. Without putting her down, Orion pushed them open with his shoulder, revealing a sumptuous chamber beyond.

"Welcome to my private sanctuary," he said, finally setting her gently on her feet.

Seraphina turned slowly, taking in the massive four-poster bed draped in midnight blue silks, the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the ocean, and the fireplace crackling with golden flames. It was masculine yet elegant, powerful yet inviting.

Just like its owner.