A Place to Return

Meanwhile, Into the Deep Cave

Thane's hand warmed the nape of her neck as they stood breathlessly close, lips almost touching. Elira could feel his eyes tracing her mouth, hear the nervous gulp he tried to hide. His scent - citrus and fresh-cut pine - wrapped around her just as her lavender perfume filled his lungs, each intoxicating the other.

They hovered there, caught in that charged space between desire and restraint. Elira kept her gaze down, afraid to meet his eyes - afraid of the raw hunger she knew she'd find there.

Their wolves called silently to each other, drawing them closer. Elira's claws bit deeper into her own palm, the sharp pain anchoring her. At the last second, she turned her face away - just enough for him to understand.

Thane caressed her cheek. Then, he cupped both sides of her jaw, lifted her face to meet his gaze, and smiled—softly—before pulling back.

There was an urge within him, a deep instinct to go further. But he chose to retreat, because he knew the consequence. If he claimed her lips, he wasn't sure he could stop when he needed to.

Only when Thane stepped back and widened the distance between them did she finally exhale. She wasn't sure what she felt about it. Relief? Disappointment? She couldn't decide. But she took a step back, pressing her spine gently against the cave wall.

They didn't speak.But the heartbeat between them was loud—synchronized in silence. A silence neither of them wanted to break.

When dawn finally broke, Elira and Thane escaped from the cave. The assassins were nowhere in sight. They moved carefully, slipping into the nearest village hidden by the woods. Elira secured a horse for herself, but as she prepared to mount, Thane's grip tightened around her wrist, stopping her.

"Are you sure you're going back to his mansion?" His voice trembled with uncertainty.

The urge to steal her away—to run with her—burned through him, yet Elira had chosen to return to the home of their sworn enemy.

"I have to. If I don't come back, Kael will tear the world apart looking for me—and you. I won't let him find you, Thane." Her resolve was steel.

Thane forced his fingers to uncurl, releasing her despite his wolf's snarls, its demand to cling tighter. Elira watched as his gaze dropped. She knew his worry, knew how badly he wanted her to stay—just as badly as she wanted to be with him. But she also knew what she had to do before claiming her freedom.

"You won't disappear again, will you?" she asked instead. "Where do I find you?"

Thane lifted his eyes to hers. His expression softened, a quiet smile touching his lips.

"I'll be at the western outskirts. Some of our kind live there in secret." His thumb brushed her knuckles. "I won't leave you again."

The promise eased the weight in her chest—just a little. She reached for him, and he took her hand, pressing a kiss to her palm. His lips lingered, warm and insistent, before he finally let go. Elira mounted the horse and turned toward Rennar's mansion, the ghost of his touch still searing her skin.

As her phantom disappeared into the distance, Thane's gaze lingered on the empty path. Something dark flickered in his eyes. The warmth in them slowly shifted—turning into something entirely different.

The moment Elira's horse passed through Rennar's gate, Kael had just returned to the front door. Not because he had given up searching for her—but because a small hope whispered that she might already be home. But as his head servant informed him that Elira was still nowhere to be found, his gaze dropped.

"My lord, the lady has returned," one of the guards reported—igniting a spark in Kael's eyes.

Kael stormed forward as he caught sight of a woman on horseback drawing closer—her figure. As Elira dismounted, Kael immediately noticed her appearance. Her gown torn, splashes of blood marked her from battle—but her eyes burned with bravery and resolve.

He didn't wait a second longer. Kael rushed to her side, pulling off his mantle and wrapping it around her carefully, his hands trembling with the weight of the night's worry.

"Are you hurt?" His concern was palpable, a sharp contrast to her icy composure.

His warm, unguarded gesture made her frown—caught in the awkward tension between them.

But Kael didn't care about her coldness. All that mattered now was that she had returned safely. His eyes scanned her from head to toe, searching for any remaining wounds. And when he found none, he exhaled in relief—deep, bone-deep relief. The nature of her as a hybrid both awed and unsettled him.

And as the pair reunited under the dawning sky, a shadowed figure stood silently behind a shaded tree—watching them from afar.

"What happened, Elira?" Kael asked as she walked ahead of him, stopping abruptly at his question when they reached the inner hall.

"Why ask me?" Her voice was ice. "Go talk to your perfect little princess."

Kael didn’t get it—not until she pulled something from her pocket. A metal pendant. She dropped it into his hand, her fingers trembling slightly.

That’s when he saw them—deep, half-moon cuts in her palm. Not from a fight. She’d done this to herself.

Before he could ask why, his eyes locked onto the pendant now sitting in his hand.

The Rennar family symbol.

His stomach dropped.

"Found on an assassin's body." She paused, watching his face.

Kael's memory flashed—the princess's fingers brushing his chest in her chambers last night, the swift movement as she'd dropped something onto her servant's tray. His hand flew to his chest. The crescent he'd worn was gone, now lying cold in his hand.

"Give your precious princess a message for me," she said, each word dripping with scorn. "She's wasting her time. The moment our contract ends, you're all hers."

With a sharp twist of her shoulders, she let his cloak slide to the ground in a heap at her feet. The heavy thud of fabric hitting stone echoed through the hall, louder than any shout. The message was clear - she wanted nothing from him, not even his protection.

Kael felt the rejection like a physical blow, heavy and suffocating in his chest.

Then his voice cut through the silence, low and dangerous: "Is he back?"

She froze halfway up the stairs, her shoulders tensing. When she turned, her eyes gave her away before her words could.

"What are you—"

Kael moved like lightning. One moment he stood frozen, the next his hand clamped around her wrist like a manacle. He wrenched her palm upward, exposing the brutal truth - four deep crescent gashes torn into her own flesh by her claws.

Not wounds from battle. Not marks of fear.

These were the kind of scars left when every instinct screamed to attack, to claim, to lose control completely - and she'd fought against it with everything she had.

The realization hit him like a punch to the gut. There was only one thing - one person - who could make her restrain herself like this.

"Thane." His voice dropped to a growl, the air around them thickening with barely-leashed fury. "You were with him. All night."

It wasn't a question.