Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy Chapter 47

ARIA

"Enough," I heard myself say, stepping forward despite Nina's grip on my arm. "Kael, that's enough. He's beaten."

Kael's golden eyes found mine across the clearing, and I saw the wolf struggling with the man inside. The urge to kill, to eliminate the threat permanently, versus the need to maintain honor and law.

*He hurt Ivory,* Kael's mental voice was savage. *He attacked during a sacred ceremony. He deserves death.*

*He deserves justice,* I countered, moving closer despite every instinct screaming at me to stay back from an Alpha in full battle mode. *Council justice. A formal trial. Don't let him turn you into the monster he's become.*

It was the right thing to say. I felt Kael's wolf recoil from the comparison, felt his human consciousness reassert control over the battle rage.

Slowly, deliberately, Kael stepped back from Damon's prone form.

Damon rolled to his side, gasping, his hand going to his throat where Kael's teeth had pressed but not pierced. When he looked up at me, I saw something broken in his eyes. Something that had finally accepted defeat.

"Aria," he rasped, and there was my name again in that pleading tone I'd heard too many times before. "Please. I love you. I've always loved you. Don't do this. Don't choose him over me. We could—"

"No," I cut him off, my voice harder than I'd ever heard it. "We couldn't. Not now. Not ever. You made your choice years ago, Damon. You chose Sera. You chose duty and politics over me. And then when I finally moved on, you decided you wanted me back—not because you love me, but because you can't handle losing. Because your pride can't accept that I chose someone else."

"That's not true," he tried to protest, struggling to sit up. "I do love you. I see it now. See how much I need you—"

"You need to possess me," I interrupted. "There's a difference. You imprisoned your Luna and your mate, Damon. You hurt a woman who only tried to help me—to help us. You stormed a sacred ceremony with violence and threats. That's not love. That's obsession. And I want nothing to do with it."

I turned to the guards, my voice taking on the authority of a Luna making a command. "Take Alpha Cross and his wolves to the dungeons. They'll be held there until the Council can convene to try them for their crimes—attacking during a bonding ceremony, assaulting a pack member, threatening a newly bonded Luna."

The guards moved forward immediately, their respect for my authority evident in how quickly they obeyed. Damon tried to resist, tried to argue, but he was outnumbered and beaten. His wolves surrendered without much fight—they'd seen their Alpha defeated, seen the futility of continuing this battle.

As they were being led away, Damon looked back at me one last time. "This isn't over, Aria. We're fated mates. The bond between us—it doesn't just disappear because you put some other Alpha's mark on your neck."

"Watch me make it disappear," I said coldly. "The Council will make sure of that."

Only when he was completely out of sight did I allow myself to move. To run across the blood-stained ceremonial clearing toward where Kael still stood in wolf form, his sides heaving, blood matting his dark fur.

Nina was right behind me, a robe in her hands—apparently she'd had the foresight to grab one at some point during the chaos.

*Kael,* I reached through the bond. *Can you shift back? Please, try to shift back.*

I felt his uncertainty, his fear that he wouldn't be able to. That defeating Damon in wolf form had somehow locked him back into the curse he'd just escaped.

But then his form began to shimmer, to shift, bones cracking and reforming as fur receded and human skin emerged.

It took longer than the shift to wolf form had. He clearly struggled with it, gasping and shaking as his body fought to remember how to be human. But gradually, inch by inch, Kael returned to his human form.

He collapsed to his knees the moment the transformation completed, his body covered in cuts and bruises from the fight, blood streaming from a particularly nasty gash across his ribs. Nina was there immediately with the robe, helping me wrap it around him, preserving his modesty in front of the assembled crowd.

"I did it," he panted, looking up at me with wonder in those golden eyes. "I shifted back. I'm still—I'm still human."

"You're still human," I confirmed, my hands shaking as I cupped his face. "You're okay. The curse—it's really broken."

Through the bond, I felt his relief, his joy, his disbelief that this was real. That he was really free.

But I also felt his exhaustion, his pain from the fight, his worry about Ivory.

"We need to check on Ivory," he said, trying to stand and swaying dangerously. "She's hurt because of me. Because she protected us."

"She's at the clinic," Nina assured him. "Eliza has her. But Kael, you're hurt too. You need treatment—"

"After," Kael insisted, his stubbornness evident even in his weakened state. "After I know Ivory's alright."

I looked at Nina, who sighed but nodded. Between us, we helped Kael to his feet, supporting him as we made our way through the clearing.

The pack had begun to disperse, most heading back to the pack house, some staying to help clean up the chaos Damon's attack had caused. As we passed, wolves bowed their heads respectfully—even some of the ones who'd been scowling earlier.

We'd been tested on our very first night as bonded mates. And we'd survived it.

But at what cost?