07⁓ They've Grown Too damn Comfortable

Kael’s Point Of View

She stared at me, those wary, bruised eyes full of uncertainty, and something deeper. Something broken.

“Why do you keep calling me yours?” she asked, voice quiet but sharp, cutting through the moment like a blade. “You don’t even know me.”

I felt my breath still in my chest. Because I did. I didn’t need a name. I didn’t need a past. I felt her in my soul. “That’s because you are,” I said, voice rougher than I intended. “My mate.” Her entire body tensed. “What?” she whispered, like the word tasted like poison on her tongue.

I nodded once, slow and firm. “Mate.”

She blinked at me, disbelief and fear and something close to anger flashing across her face. “That’s impossible.”

“It’s not,” I said, more firmly this time. “I felt it the second you ran into me. I knew.”

She shook her head, voice rising. “No. No, you don’t understand. I already had a mate. He rejected me.” Her voice cracked, and she looked away as if even saying it tore open wounds she’d buried deep. “And I accepted it. I felt the bond snap. There’s no way I could have another.”

“You can,” I growled, chest tight. “It’s rare, but it happens. The Moon Goddess….”

“I don’t care about the damn Moon Goddess,” she snapped, eyes fiery now. “Don’t stand there and tell me you know me because of some invisible string!”

My jaw clenched.

Ronan, my wolf, whimpered inside me, pacing, pushing against my ribs. Her rejection wasn’t even final yet, and it was already shredding something inside us. He wanted her. Claimed her. And hearing her deny what we both knew tore into him.

Tore into me.

“I’m not your mate,” she said firmly. “You must be mistaken.”

“You don’t feel anything?” I asked quietly, staring at her like she might shatter.

She looked away.

“No,” she whispered.

Lies.

But maybe she didn’t realize it yet. Maybe the pain she’d carried—the trauma—had buried the bond so deep she couldn’t feel it yet.

I stepped forward, slow and careful, afraid even my presence would break her.

“But I do,” I said. “Every time I look at you, it’s like my chest can’t hold the weight of it. My wolf, Ronan, he hasn’t stopped whimpering since you opened your mouth and told me you feel nothing.”

She flinched, just slightly.

“I look at you and my entire world shifts,” I continued, unable to stop now. “I don’t care what you’ve been through, or who rejected you. I don’t even care if it takes you days, weeks, years to feel it. I’ll wait. But don’t look me in the eye and say I’m mistaken. I know what my soul’s telling me. And it’s screaming your name.”

“I don’t even know you,” she whispered. “I’m not ready for this. I don’t even know if I can feel anything again.”

My heart cracked.

I nodded once, the ache clawing at my throat. “Then I’ll wait until you can.”

Her eyes widened. She wasn’t expecting that. Maybe she was used to men taking what they wanted. Demanding. Breaking.

But I didn’t want to break her.

I wanted to heal her.

Even if it killed me to stand this close and not touch her the way I craved to. Ronan whimpered again, low and pitiful, and I had to swallow hard just to keep from collapsing under the weight of it all.

She stared at me, confusion written in every line of her face.

I turned slightly away, needing a breath I couldn’t find.

“I won’t force anything on you,” I said, softer now, almost to myself. “But don’t ever say I’m mistaken. Because even if you don’t feel the bond now, I do. And I’ll never stop feeling it.” Then I walked out of the room, giving her the space she requested for.

The wind smelled like rot and blood.

I exhaled slowly, jaw clenched so tight I tasted blood in the back of my throat.I was about to turn back toward the house when the sound of urgent footsteps rushed toward me through the brush.

“Alpha!” a voice shouted.

I turned swiftly. Riven came into view first, tense and on edge, but it was the boy stumbling behind him, barely older than sixteen, wild-eyed, blood-splattered, who made my gut twist.

“What is it?” I snapped, already bracing for the worst.

The boy looked up at me, lips trembling, dirt and blood crusting his face. Behind him, two of my guards carried a body… limp, cold, wrapped in a ripped cloak.

No.

No.

The moment they laid him at my feet, I knew.

Torin.

My youngest scout. Fast, clever, loyal. I’d trained him myself. I dropped to my knees beside him. His eyes were open, glassy and vacant, lips parted like he died trying to scream something. “What happened?” My voice was like steel, controlled, sharp, but my fingers curled into fists against my thighs.

The boy swallowed, shaking hard. “He… he was captured, Alpha. While on watch. They… they tortured him. Tried to make him reveal your location.”

I looked up, eyes narrowing. “And?”

“He didn’t say a word.” His voice broke. “He died protecting you.” I bowed my head for a second, my wolf, Ronan, howling deep inside my chest with fury and grief.

The rage simmering in me turned to fire.

‘This is what they’ve been doing. Hunting us. Picking us off like shadows. Like cowards.’ The boy fell to his knees beside the body, sobbing. I reached out and touched Torin’s cold shoulder, something in me cracking open.

And then I stood.

“Those fools,” I growled, eyes burning, voice low and dark. “They’ve grown too damn comfortable thinking we’re weakened. That we’ll keep hiding.”

Riven stepped closer, silent but brimming with the same fury. I looked at him and then toward the darkening sky.

“They want a war,” I said, every syllable sharp. “Then by the Moon, we’ll give them one.”

But it wasn’t just the enemy that boiled my blood. It was her. My mate… my goddess-damned mate, denying me. Denying us, like it was nothing.

She hadn’t even said the words.

No formal rejection. No official severing of the bond. Just… a void. A gaping absence where something sacred should’ve bloomed. The pain of it throbbed under my ribs, angry and raw. And now, a good man was dead. Another howl rose in the distance. Close. Riven turned his head toward it.

“Another breach?” he asked.

I nodded once. “Put the guards on double patrol. Move the pack’s vulnerable into the underground.”

“And you?”

I stared down at Torin’s broken body.

“I’m going to pay a visit to the council,” I said coldly. “And remind them why they used to fear me.”