Chapter 20 Cassian

• THE RAW CONFESSION of Waldemar’s past, the searing pain of his brother’s death, had left Selene reeling. It didn't erase her captivity, nor the violation of the Moonbind, but it layered a disturbing empathy over her hatred. She saw now the desperate man beneath the demanding Alpha, burdened by inherited duty and personal grief. Her feelings were a tangled knot of resentment, fear, and a reluctant understanding that complicated her every thought. The intimate 'punishment' still resonated, a constant flush of shame mixed with a traitorous physical awareness of Waldemar that made her skin prickle whenever he was near.
• The precarious balance of their volatile truce was shattered two days later, not by an argument, nor by Waldemar’s relentless 'lessons,' but by the unannounced arrival of a new, unsettling presence at the Nightshade estate.
• Selene was in the grand parlor, attempting to lose herself in a forgotten book from Waldemar's personal library. The Moonbind hummed, a dull ache in her chest, signifying Waldemar’s presence somewhere within the mansion. The pack was unusually tense today; she could feel it in the subtle shifts of their emotions through the bond – a ripple of unease, a flicker of guarded curiosity, and an undercurrent of barely suppressed hostility from the guards stationed outside.