Aveline
By the time we reached the compound, I’d lost all sense of where we were. The forest had given way to a stretch of long, winding asphalt and empty night roads. Eventually, concrete swallowed everything—high black gates, steel fences lined with motion sensors, and biker guards posted like statues in the dark. The place screamed danger. Wolf territory disguised under the mask of a biker syndicate. Matteo didn’t speak as the gates opened for us. The men guarding the entrance dipped their heads in submission, though their eyes flicked to me with open curiosity and thinly veiled judgment. Aveline Carrington. The curse in the flesh. He parked in front of a long, low-slung building made of brick and steel, glowing faintly with amber light. A massive wolf emblem was etched into the iron doors. The Bloodshade crest. Matteo’s legacy. His fortress. I dismounted stiffly, every muscle in my body sore from riding tense and refusing to touch him. Matteo dismounted after me and jerked his head toward the building. “Inside. Now.” I didn’t move. He turned to me fully. “I’m not in the mood to drag you again.” I squared my shoulders. “Then don’t. I’m not a prisoner.” He laughed. A sharp, cold sound. “You just haven’t accepted your cage yet.” I followed him in without another word. Not because I was afraid—well, not just that—but because I was too exhausted to pick another fight. The hallways were sleek and dark, filled with the scent of smoke, pine, and leather. The place smelled like him. Each step deeper into this place felt like sinking into quicksand. We passed more of his men—some shifted, others not. They all stopped and stared, silent as Matteo led me like a ghost down a hallway and into a wide, spare room with black brick walls and a single bed. A cell dressed as a guest room. He stepped inside with me, arms crossed, expression unreadable. “This is where you’ll stay.” I turned to face him, fury beginning to claw its way back up. “Like hell I will.” “You’re not leaving.” “You think I’m going to sit here and let you punish me for something I didn’t do? For being born?” His gaze flickered. “You were born into them. That’s enough.” “You know nothing about me.” His voice dropped, quiet and dangerous. “I know you carry the blood of traitors. I know your family orchestrated the fall of mine.” “And I was sixteen! I didn’t even shift until I was twenty-one!” “I don’t care.” I took a step closer, shaking now. “You think this is justice? Forcing a mate bond you didn’t ask for? Caging me like an animal?” His eyes narrowed. “You think I asked for this?” he snarled. “You think I want to be bound to you? Of all people? Fate spat in my face the second it tied me to the girl I swore to destroy.” I felt it again—that cruel, invisible string pulling us together. That awful, magnetic tension between hate and something darker. Something we both didn’t want to name. “Then reject me,” I whispered. He was already shaking his head. “No.” “Why?!” His voice cracked open like thunder. “Because if I can’t kill you, I’ll own you!” We were close now, too close. The air snapped with the heat between us. My wolf snarled inside me, as much from confusion as from need. His scent was too strong. His presence overwhelming. I hated him. Hated the way his eyes tracked my every breath. Hated the bond that wanted me to feel anything for him. But gods help me, my body didn’t know the difference. “You can’t break me,” I said quietly. Something in his expression shifted. Something sharp. Wicked. Almost amused. He took a single step forward, closing the last of the space between us. His voice was low, but scorching. “Can’t I?” I lifted my chin, even as my heart thudded wildly. “You’ll never have me.” A growl ripped from his throat, and then his hands were in my hair, and his mouth was crashing down on mine. It wasn’t gentle. It wasn’t kind. It was punishment. A collision of rage, confusion, and heat. I gasped, and he took advantage—his tongue sweeping past my lips with bruising intensity, claiming, devouring. My hands pressed to his chest, whether to push or pull, I didn’t know. I was on fire, drowning and burning at the same time. His scent filled my head. His dominance coiled around my body like a leash. And worse—my wolf didn’t fight it. I hated myself for the sound that escaped me, hated the ache he lit inside me like a curse. Then just as suddenly, he tore away, breathing hard, eyes wild. We stood there in silence, both of us panting like we’d survived a war. I stared at him, lips tingling, heart still racing. “You kissed me,” I said, my voice a broken whisper. His expression hardened. “Don’t flatter yourself.” “You’re insane.” He turned without answering, his voice leaving one final command in the air like a death sentence. “Stay in this room. Try to escape, and I will chain you to the damn wall.” And with that, he was gone. I stood alone in the suffocating quiet, my lips still burning with the memory of his mouth. This wasn’t mating. This was war. And I was already losing. I stood there for what felt like hours after Matteo left, my body frozen in place, hands trembling slightly at my sides. The walls around me pressed closer, the silence screaming louder than any threat he could’ve uttered. I touched my lips. They still felt bruised. Still burned from the imprint of his mouth—a mouth that had kissed me like he wanted to ruin me. I didn’t want to admit what scared me more—that I had kissed him back, or that a part of me had wanted more. No. I shook my head violently. That wasn’t me. That was the bond. That was fate’s twisted little joke, trying to tie me to the one man who’d made it his life’s mission to end mine. I paced the room, fury and confusion knotting in my chest. Every part of me wanted to scream, to claw at the walls, to find a weakness in the brick and steel and tear it down. But I knew better. I wasn’t just being held prisoner—I was being studied. Watched. Every move I made from now on would be twisted and used against me. And worst of all? I couldn’t trust myself. My wolf was purring. Curling at the edge of my consciousness, satisfied and smug. She’d felt his dominance, accepted it like a balm. She didn’t care that he hated us. Didn’t care that he’d dragged us away from our only friend, from safety, from freedom. All she cared about was mate. I gritted my teeth, slamming my palm against the nearest wall. “You don’t get to want him,” I hissed at her. “He wants to destroy us.” She whimpered but didn’t respond. Her silence said it all—she didn’t care about right or wrong. She wanted him. Needed him. And now that we’d touched, kissed, breathed each other in… I wasn’t sure I could keep her from crawling back to him willingly. My knees gave out, and I sank onto the edge of the bed. It was soft—too soft. Another form of torture. This place wasn’t a dungeon, but that made it worse. It was a gilded cage. A beautiful prison meant to confuse me. Trap me in comfort while Matteo chipped away at my soul. And he would. He said he would make my life a living hell. But I’d seen something in his eyes when he kissed me. Not just rage. Not just pain. Longing. And that terrified me more than hatred ever could. Because if he broke down enough to want me, and I was weak enough to want him back… Then maybe I wouldn’t survive this. Maybe death wasn’t the worst fate after all. Maybe fate had already damned me.
