Chapter 3/ mate

Chapter Three

Mate

Darling Kate’s POV

We almost made it out of the ballroom before Prince Oberon stopped us.

Almost.

Kazan’s hand remained wrapped around mine as he led me through the crowd, his massive body cutting a path toward the towering double doors.

I could feel everyone watching us.

The whispers had changed.

When I’d entered with Nolan, they’d whispered about me.

Now they whispered about Kazan.

About us.

I caught pieces as we passed.

“His mate?”

“Impossible.”

“Did you see his eyes?”

“Alpha Blackwood paid Nolan two million—”

I tightened my grip on Kazan’s hand.

He glanced down at me.

“You all right?”

“No.”

At least I didn’t have to lie.

His expression hardened.

“Do you want to leave?”

“Yes.”

One simple question.

One simple answer.

But it mattered.

He hadn’t told me what we were doing.

He’d asked.

Maybe my little explosion in the ballroom had taught him something already.

Or maybe the dangerous Alpha wasn’t quite what everyone claimed.

I wasn’t ready to decide.

The woman who had entered with him hurried behind us.

“Kazan.”

He didn’t stop.

“Kazan!”

“What?”

“You can’t storm out of a royal engagement celebration after publicly handing someone two million dollars for a woman.”

His shoulders stiffened.

“I didn’t buy her.”

“I know that.”

“Then don’t say it like that.”

The woman rolled her eyes before looking at me.

“I’m Ophelia, by the way. His sister.”

That explained why she wasn’t frightened of him.

“Darling.”

“I know.”

“Apparently everyone does,” I muttered.

Something sympathetic crossed her face.

Before she could answer, a voice drifted across the ballroom.

“Leaving already?”

My entire body froze.

Kazan stopped instantly.

I knew that voice.

Twenty years old, and I could still become that terrified sixteen-year-old girl with two words.

My fingers went numb inside Kazan’s hand.

He looked down at me.

“Darling?”

I couldn’t answer.

Oberon approached us slowly.

His blond fiancée remained on his arm.

She was beautiful in the perfect, polished way Fae nobility always seemed to be. Her pale-gold gown shimmered when she walked.

Oberon looked almost exactly as I remembered him.

That bothered me more than if he’d changed.

Fae aged differently.

Four years had changed everything about my life.

They had barely touched him.

“Alpha Blackwood,” Oberon said pleasantly. “Surely you can find better entertainment.”

Kazan’s grip tightened around my hand.

The warmth of his skin pulled me back into the present.

“Choose your next words carefully.”

Oberon’s smile widened.

He didn’t.

His gaze moved to me.

“Darling Kate Lewis.”

Hearing my full name from his mouth made my stomach twist.

“You’ve grown.”

I said nothing.

“You look remarkably like Maeve.”

Cold flashed through me.

“Don’t say her name.”

Kazan turned his head slightly toward me.

Oberon looked delighted.

“Still emotional about your mother?”

The air around me dropped several degrees.

Kazan noticed.

So did Ophelia.

Oberon’s eyes flicked toward a nearby table where frost crept across the base of a crystal glass.

Interest sharpened his expression.

That frightened me.

I forced the cold back.

“You killed her.”

A few nearby conversations stopped.

Oberon sighed.

“Your mother made unfortunate choices.”

“She chose me.”

His smile disappeared for half a heartbeat.

Then it returned.

“Yes. Maeve was always rather sentimental.”

Kazan moved.

One second he stood beside me.

The next, he was between Oberon and me.

“Enough.”

Oberon’s fiancée looked uncomfortable.

“Oberon, perhaps we should—”

“Not yet, my love.”

His gaze settled on Kazan.

“You don’t know what you’ve attached yourself to.”

Kazan’s jaw tightened.

“I know enough.”

“Do you?”

Oberon glanced toward Nolan.

My father had followed us.

Of course he had.

He wasn’t about to let two million dollars walk away without making sure he got paid.

Nolan stopped beside Oberon.

My stomach sank.

Two men who knew pieces of my life.

Two men who had used those pieces against me.

And Kazan standing between them and me.

For now.

Oberon chuckled.

“Perhaps Nolan should explain.”

“There’s nothing to explain,” I said.

Oberon ignored me.

That was another thing powerful men liked to do.

Speak about women while they were standing right there.

“You’ve always been a proud wolf, Kazan.”

Kazan’s eyes flashed.

“Get to the point.”

“Your new companion has quite a reputation.”

My chest tightened.

No.

Not here.

Not again.

A man nearby laughed softly.

I recognized him from earlier.

Oberon gestured lazily toward me.

“Ask around. Darling Kate is well known among certain circles.”

My face burned.

Kazan went very still.

Nolan said nothing.

That silence was worse than agreement.

“Stop,” I whispered.

Oberon continued.

“Men have paid handsomely for her company.”

Someone laughed again.

Kazan’s head turned toward the sound.

The laughter stopped.

But then another voice came from the crowd.

“I’ve heard the stories.”

Another answered, “Everyone has.”

My stomach rolled.

I wanted to disappear.

Instead, I forced myself to stand straighter.

They didn’t know.

None of them knew.

They knew Nolan’s version.

They knew what men bragged about afterward.

They knew money changed hands.

They didn’t know about the threats.

They didn’t know Nolan had used Oberon’s name to keep me terrified.

They didn’t know how many nights I’d locked myself in the bathroom afterward and tried to scrub away memories.

They didn’t know because nobody had ever bothered to ask.

I looked at Kazan.

His face was unreadable.

That frightened me more than his anger.

Oberon noticed too.

“You smell it, don’t you, Alpha?”

Kazan’s jaw flexed.

“Shut up.”

“Wolf senses are remarkable. Surely you noticed before agreeing to Nolan’s little transaction.”

“Kazan,” I whispered.

His eyes came to mine.

I saw it.

Uncertainty.

It was small.

But it was there.

And that tiny hesitation hurt worse than all the laughter.

“Is it true?” he asked.

My heart cracked.

“Let me explain.”

His expression hardened.

“Answer me.”

My hand slipped from his.

“Things happened.”

Oberon smiled.

“But not the way they’re saying.”

“Were there men?”

My throat tightened.

“Yes.”

Kazan’s eyes darkened.

“Did they pay?”

I looked at Nolan.

My father looked away.

“Yes.”

Kazan stepped back.

Only half a step.

It felt like a mile.

Oberon laughed.

The sound echoed through me.

“There you are, Alpha. Two million seems rather excessive now, doesn’t it?”

Something inside me snapped.

Frost shot across the marble beneath my shoes.

Gasps erupted around us.

Oberon’s eyes widened.

Kazan stared at the ice.

I didn’t care anymore.

“You know nothing about me.”

Oberon tilted his head.

“I know quite a lot.”

“No. You know what Nolan wanted everyone to believe.”

My father’s head snapped toward me.

“Darling.”

“Don’t.”

The word came out so cold that frost formed in front of my lips.

Nolan went silent.

Kazan looked between us.

For one second I thought he might finally ask the right question.

He didn’t.

Not yet.

I hated him for that.

I hated myself more for caring.

Why should his opinion matter?

I’d known him for minutes.

Because of the bond.

That horrible, beautiful, confusing pull between us.

My body recognized him even if my heart didn’t.

And some foolish part of me had hoped my mate would look at me and somehow know.

Know that I wasn’t what they called me.

Know that I’d survived rather than chosen.

But Kazan wasn’t inside my memories.

He couldn’t know what I refused to tell him.

That didn’t make his doubt hurt less.

“I’m leaving,” I said.

Nolan reached for me.

Kazan moved before I did.

His hand closed around Nolan’s wrist.

“Don’t touch her.”

Nolan’s face tightened in pain.

“She’s my daughter.”

“Then start acting like it.”

Kazan released him.

I stared at him.

He was angry with me.

He doubted me.

Yet he was still protecting me.

I didn’t know what to do with that contradiction.

Ophelia stepped closer.

“Darling, come with us.”

I looked at her.

There was no disgust in her expression.

No judgment.

Only concern.

“Why?”

“Because whatever happened before tonight, you shouldn’t have to stand here while a room full of strangers discusses it.”

My eyes burned.

I refused to cry.

Not here.

Not for them.

Oberon took another step toward me.

“You don’t have to go with wolves, Darling. You belong among your own kind.”

My fear returned instantly.

Kazan felt it.

His head snapped toward Oberon.

A low growl vibrated through his chest.

“She said she wants to leave.”

“She hasn’t said with whom.”

Oberon looked directly at me.

“Have you?”

Kazan turned toward me.

For the first time since the rumors started, he didn’t command me.

He didn’t say get in the car.

He didn’t say you’re coming with me.

He waited.

The choice was mine.

I looked at Nolan.

No.

I looked at Oberon.

Never.

Then I looked at Kazan.

I didn’t trust him.

Not completely.

Maybe not even halfway.

But when Nolan had tried to grab me, Kazan stopped him.

When Oberon tried to humiliate me, Kazan stood between us.

And when he had the power to simply drag me away under the excuse of a mate bond, he waited for me to decide.

“I’ll go with you.”

Something in Kazan relaxed.

Barely.

Oberon’s smile vanished.

We left.

Outside, the night air struck my face.

I sucked in a desperate breath.

Kazan walked toward a black vehicle parked near the entrance.

Ophelia followed.

He opened the passenger door.

“Get in.”

I stared at him.

There it was again.

The order.

“No.”

His eyes flashed gold.

“Darling.”

“You don’t get to order me around because some magical bond decided we’re connected.”

His wolf pressed close beneath his skin.

I could feel it.

Possessive.

Protective.

Angry.

Mine, that invisible voice seemed to growl again.

Cold prickled through my fingers.

My power answered.

For a moment we stood there like two storms waiting to collide.

Then Ophelia stepped between us.

“Both of you stop.”

Kazan glared at her.

She ignored him.

“Darling, please. Whatever this is, we can figure it out somewhere that isn’t Oberon’s driveway.”

I looked back at the castle.

Oberon stood at the top of the steps.

Watching.

Smiling again.

That decided it.

I climbed into the vehicle.

Kazan shut the door.

He got behind the wheel.

Ophelia climbed into the back.

No one spoke as we drove away.

Kazan drove too fast through the mountain roads.

Trees blurred past the windows.

His hands tightened around the steering wheel until his knuckles whitened.

I watched him.

The mate bond tugged between us.

It should have felt comforting.

Instead, it felt like another chain.

“Ask,” I finally said.

Kazan glanced at me.

“What?”

“Whatever you’re thinking.”

His eyes returned to the road.

“I don’t know what to think.”

“That’s obvious.”

His jaw tightened.

“I heard what they said.”

“And?”

“You admitted some of it was true.”

“I admitted there were men.”

“And money.”

“Yes.”

Silence.

I turned toward the window.

“Forget it.”

“Darling—”

“No.”

My voice broke despite my effort to control it.

“You looked at me exactly like they did.”

His hands tightened on the wheel.

“I did not.”

“Yes, you did.”

“I took you out of there.”

“That doesn’t mean you believe me.”

He didn’t answer.

That was answer enough.

I watched darkness rush past the window.

Maybe I had escaped Nolan.

Maybe I had escaped Oberon’s castle.

But I was riding through the night with a powerful Alpha who believed fate had made me his mate while he wasn’t sure whether he respected the woman fate had chosen.

I wondered whether I had traded one cage for another.

The thought made the air around me colder.

A thin layer of frost formed on the passenger window.

Kazan noticed.

He glanced at it.

Then at me.

He didn’t ask.

Not yet.

Neither of us understood what was happening between us.

We didn’t know what my power was.

We didn’t know why Oberon wanted me.

And Kazan certainly didn’t know the truth about Nolan.

But he would.

Eventually.

And when he finally learned what my father had done to me, he would have to live with the fact that when his mate needed him to believe there was more to her story—

he had doubted her too.