The Sister I Raised Became My Husband’s Mate

POV of Seraphina

Blood scented the east wing before I reached Liora's chamber.

Cassian's blood. Liora's blood. The two tangled together like mating perfume.

The door had been ripped from its hinges. Four guards lay pinned against the walls beneath Cassian's dominance, unable to move.

He was on one knee beside the bed.

One hand gripped Liora's nape. The other had split the bedpost. Her eyes were pure gold, her body half-shifted, and her fangs were buried in his throat.

She was not tearing him.

She was holding him in the oldest claiming rite our kind knew.

Cassian looked at me through the gold haze.

"Do not come closer."

"Why haven't you commanded her to release?"

"Every dominance order sounds like a mate-call to her wolf. She bites deeper when I push."

Liora's claws flexed in his shoulders. Cassian's wolf answered with a low, approving rumble that made my own wolf howl.

"I need to see you," he said. "My wolf wants me to turn and mark her. Look at me so I remember why I won't."

I crossed the room.

The silver thread between them had thickened into a rope. I cupped Cassian's face and aligned our original marks. Through the bond, his conflict hit me: love, terror, rage, and a marking instinct so violent it nearly drowned everything else.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

The flesh around Liora's fangs was beginning to seal.

I drew the silver blade from my belt.

Cassian saw it. "Do it."

"It will burn your wolf-soul."

"Do it before I bite her back."

I drove the blade beside Liora's fangs and cut through the forming mark.

Cassian screamed.

The silver rope shattered. Liora flew backward across the bed, and Cassian collapsed into my arms, shaking hard enough that his teeth struck together.

"I didn't turn," he gasped into my neck. "I didn't mark her."

"I know."

Thalia worked quickly, but the punctures refused to close. Silver lines crawled around them, forming half a crescent.

"Mate echo," she said. "The full bond did not complete, but her wolf essence entered his blood. They will share pain, dreams, and emotionally charged memories."

Cassian rose. "Remove it."

"The safest method is completion."

"Next."

"Silver cauterization. Less than thirty percent chance of success. Failure could destroy your wolf."

"Prepare it."

Elder Malric entered with three council members before Thalia could answer. His gaze settled on the half-mark with satisfaction too quick to hide.

"The Moon has confirmed Her choice. By pack law, an incomplete second bond must be completed before midnight."

Cassian's power cracked the plaster. "Get out."

A female elder turned to me with rehearsed pity. "Liora would not replace you. You would remain Luna. She would soothe the Alpha's wolf and carry the heir the pack requires."

Cassian had her against the wall before anyone moved.

"Speak of breeding Liora again," he said softly, "and I will remove your tongue."

I touched his wrist. He released her at once.

Malric noticed. So did every elder in the room.

"Then let Seraphina reinforce the original mark," he said. "A fresh claim may suppress the echo."

Cassian turned to me and bared the untouched side of his throat.

"Mark me. Cover her scent."

I stepped back.

Pain crossed his face. "Why?"

"Because I already claimed you. I will not bite you again every time another wolf decides you belong to her. If fifteen years require a fresh wound to remain real, then we have already lost."

The elders left under guard. Thalia followed to prepare restraints for Liora.

Alone, Cassian stood behind me at the vanity.

"Ask me what happened."

I met his reflection. "What did you feel when she bit you?"

He closed his eyes. "Pain. Then recognition. My wolf wanted me to turn."

"And you?"

His silence told me the answer would hurt.

"My body wanted to finish it too."

I gripped the vanity.

"It was the bond," he said. "The drug. Instinct."

"The only thing that stopped you was a memory of me."

"A memory of who I am with you." He came closer. "I am not my instinct. I chose you."

Before I could answer, the half-mark flared.

"She's awake," he rasped. "Terrified."

"Go check on her."

"Order me to stay."

He sounded desperate for me to be selfish, but I could not use Liora's pain as proof of his loyalty.

"Go."

I followed him to the east wing.

Liora lay restrained with silver bands, blood cleaned from her mouth. She remembered drinking medicine brought by an attendant, then nothing until she woke.

"For one second before I bit him, I was conscious," she whispered. "My wolf was happy because it thought he would finally be mine."

Before the echo returned, I questioned the attendant who had brought the medicine. She was seventeen, newly assigned, and terrified enough to confess before I raised my voice. A senior healer had handed her the cup in the corridor and told her it contained moonroot for Liora's pain. The healer's name was absent from the duty roster.

"Describe him," I said.

"Grey gloves. Elder's ring. He smelled of cedar smoke."

Malric always burned cedar in council chambers to hide the scent of blood ink.

Cassian heard the detail and went very still. Rage moved through our bond, hot enough to blister.

"Not yet," I warned. "We need him alive long enough to name the others."

Cassian looked toward Liora's restraints. "He used her twice."

"Then we make certain there is not a third."

The mate echo surged.

Silver flooded her eyes. She began speaking from Cassian's memories: snow, blood, the night he carried me from the eastern outpost. She repeated words only he and I had shared.

Then she called me by the name Cassian had given me after our miscarriage.

"Little Star."

The room went silent.

Cassian looked ill. "I didn't show her."

"I know."

Liora's hand drifted to her flat stomach. Her voice changed again, hollow and distant.

"He never told you."

Cassian froze.

"The child you lost," she said, staring at me through silver eyes. "It was not a natural miscarriage."

I turned to my husband.

"What is she talking about?"

He did not answer.