LOGINHis eyes flickered, the gold brightening until it seemed to glow with its own light, feral illumination blazing in their depths. “You think I don’t feel it? That my wolf isn’t clawing me apart inside because of you? That I don’t lie awake at night fighting the urge to come to you, to claim you, to mark you despite every reason I have to resist?”My knees wobbled, threatening to give out entirely. The air between us grew suffocating, charged with a dangerous heat that had nothing to do with temperature and everything to do with the tension crackling between us like lightning waiting to strike.He leaned closer, lowering his voice until it was barely above a whisper, but somehow that made it more menacing, not less. Every syllable dripped with dark promise. “Sooner or later, I’ll find out what makes you different. What secret you’re hiding beneath that innocent face.”His hand shot forward, catching mine before I could pull away, his grip firm but not quite
“Where are you going?”The words were low, dangerous, threaded with a warning I didn’t dare ignore. Not a question, really, though phrased as one. A command disguised in the grammar of inquiry.My body locked at the sound, every muscle freezing in place as though his voice carried physical force. My foot hovered above the floor, caught mid-step, and I had to force myself to set it down slowly, carefully, rather than jerking back in startlement.It wasn’t loud, wasn’t shouted—but it was the kind of tone that froze blood in veins, the kind that brooked no defiance or discussion. A growl restrained into syllables, compressed into human speech but carrying all the weight of his wolf’s authority beneath the words.I turned slowly, so slowly, as though sudden movement might trigger some predatory instinct in him. My fingers tightened around the edge of the sheet draped across my arm, twisting the silk until it bunched in my fist. His hand was still on t
The door creaked open.The sound cut through the silence like a blade through silk, sudden and sharp and completely unexpected.My breath froze in my chest, trapped there as though my lungs had forgotten their function. The heavy wood swung wide on well-oiled hinges that nonetheless groaned with the weight, and Kael stepped through.My heart stopped. Actually stopped, missing several beats before resuming with painful force, hammering against my ribs like it was trying to escape.The door swung open with a force that made the hinges groan despite their careful maintenance, the sudden intrusion slicing through the silence like a blade through exposed flesh. My body went rigid, every muscle locking into place. My feet were still planted on the floor where I’d been about to take my first step toward escape, the sheet pooled loosely around my hips from where I’d pushed it aside.Kael filled the doorway.Not just occupied it—filled it
Mira had been gone for hours.The moment she slipped from the room with the folded message hidden carefully against her skirts, tucked beneath layers of fabric where prying eyes couldn’t reach, silence fell around me like a noose tightening by the minute. Each passing second seemed to draw the rope tighter around my throat, making it harder to breathe, harder to think, harder to do anything but spiral into scenarios of disaster.I hadn’t moved from the bed since then. My knees were drawn to my chest in a defensive curl, the heavy silk sheet wrapped tightly around my legs and waist as if its weight could anchor me to reality, could keep me from unraveling completely into the panic that clawed at the edges of my consciousness.Every tick of time scraped against my nerves like nails on stone, each second an eternity of waiting and wondering and imagining all the ways this could go wrong. I kept seeing Mira’s face when she bowed and promised to return—her chin lifted with quiet determinat
I let my shoulders sink back into the bed, exhaling a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. The tension that had coiled through my muscles began to loosen, just slightly, just enough to let me breathe properly for the first time in what felt like hours.For the first time since waking up in Kael’s room, since being trapped in this impossible situation, I felt the faintest sliver of control slide back into my hands.And God, I clung to it with everything I had.“Bring me paper,” I whispered, my voice emerging raspy like brittle parchment itself, worn thin by emotion and exhaustion. “And ink. A pen.”Mira tilted her head ever so slightly, studying me as though trying to read the hidden meanings beneath my calm exterior, searching for the plan forming behind my eyes. Then, without a word of question or protest, she stood. Her steps were noiseless across the floor, soft soles brushing against the expensive rug with practiced silence.When she returned, her hands carried a simple tray
Vale. My blood. My curse. My prison and my origin all tangled into one impossible knot.Why would Kael’s precious Elira, the woman he’d loved enough to break every rule for, have been tied so closely to the place that had produced me? To the pack that had tortured her, if the stories were true? To the people who had ultimately killed her?The coincidence was too great to be coincidence. The universe didn’t work that way—not in my experience.I frowned, suspicion etching itself deeper into my thoughts, twisting like a knife I couldn’t shake free. “Friends…” I muttered, tasting the word like ash on my tongue, rolling it around to test its truth. “What kind of friends?”Mira hesitated, and I caught the subtle movement as she chewed faintly at her lip—a rare crack in her perfect composure, a tell that said she was uncertain, uncomfortable, venturing into territory she’d rather avoid.“She never said,” Mira admitted finally, her voice dropping lower. “She was private with her letters, neve
The room suddenly felt too small, too stifling, the walls closing in like the bars of a cage. I moved restlessly from hearth to bookshelf to window and back again, my bare feet making no sound on the stone but my presence filling every corner with barely contained energy.My gaze snagg
Something inside me cracked. Not just my voice, not just my composure—something deeper. Something fundamental. A fracture in the foundation of who I thought I was, letting light bleed through the darkness I'd lived in for so long.
My knees hit the rug before I even realized I was falling. The impact sent a shockwave up my spine, but it was nothing compared to the fire coursing through my veins. The room tilted sideways, the flames in the hearth blurring into streaks of molten gold and orange that painted everything in wild
But before I could gather my scattered thoughts enough to answer, the door opened slightly. Mira stepped through the gap, a tray balanced carefully in her hands. Steam rose from a ceramic cup—the chamomile tea she'd promised, probably laced with honey the way she knew I preferred.







