Diana froze the moment Artemis spoke.
Her breath caught, heart slamming painfully against her ribs as the words echoed through her mind.
Our mate is outside.
For a long, suspended second, she couldn’t even blink. Her body refused to respond, muscles locked as if the air itself had turned to stone. Every instinct she had—every scar carved into her soul—rose screaming to the surface.
A rogue outside her door?
She would have already been moving. Grabbing her blades. Opening the door without fear, without hesitation, ready to end the threat before it could breathe her name.
But this wasn’t a rogue.
This was a mate.
And the last time she had stood face to face with a mate, she had been rejected—discarded like a weakness, like something unworthy of standing at an Alpha’s side.
Pain flic
