Chapter 3 - Raine's POV

"Leaving so soon?"

The voice was a low, gravelly vibration that settled right at the base of my spine. I froze, my hand hovering inches from the edge of the silk sheets. Xavier Wright didn’t sound like a man who had just woken up. He sounded like a predator who had been watching me from the moment I opened my eyes.

I didn't turn around immediately. My body was a map of dull aches and lingering heat, every muscle protesting the workout it had received during the night. The memories were too vivid, flashing behind my eyelids like a fever dream - Xavier’s hands, his mouth, the way he had dismantled every bit of my self-control until I was nothing but a mess of tangled sheets and breathless gasps.

"I thought that’s how one-night stands worked," I said, finally looking over my shoulder.

The morning light hit him squarely, highlighting the sharp, dangerous angles of his face. He was a devastating upgrade from the man I thought I loved. Looking at Xavier was like looking at the sun after years of staring at a flickering candle. Torin had been my world for five years, a world built on a foundation of lies and a virginity I’d guarded like a sacred treasure.

Now, that treasure was gone, traded for a night of reckless abandon with Torin's half-brother. I waited for the shame to hit me. I waited for the regret to hollow out my chest.

It never came.

"I was hoping you might want an encore," Xavier said, his lips curving into a lazy, knowing smirk. He reached out, his fingers tracing slow, hypnotic patterns over the bare skin of my back.

I tried to keep my breathing steady, but my pulse was already racing. "It was just a distraction, Xavier. I needed to forget, and you provided the service. We’re even."

"Are we?" His eyes darkened, the temperature in the room seemingly dropping as his gaze grew heavy. He moved with a sudden, predatory grace, his hand sliding down to the curve of my hip, pulling me firmly against the heat of his chest. "After five years with my brother, I find myself curious. Was he truly that useless, or were you just waiting for someone who actually knew what to do with you?"

Heat flooded my face. "I wanted to wait until we were mated. I thought he was worth the wait."

"His loss," Xavier whispered, his teeth grazing the shell of my ear. "My absolute gain."

He didn't give me a chance to argue. His mouth crashed against mine, not with a request, but with an absolute claim. It wasn't the gentle, hesitant kiss of a boyfriend; it was the dominant force of a man who took what he wanted. My inner wolf, Tyra, didn't growl in protest. She purred, her energy humming under my skin as it searched for his.

In one fluid motion, he hauled me out of the bed and pressed me back against the cold tile of the bathroom wall. The contrast of the freezing stone and his burning skin made me gasp. He pinned my wrists above my head with a single hand, his body caging me in.

"Do you like it when I take charge, Raine?" he growled against my throat.

I couldn't find the words to say no. I couldn't find the will to want to. I simply arched my back, my fingers curling into his hair as he reclaimed my mouth. Every touch felt like a brand. He moved with a terrifying precision, as if he had memorized the blueprint of my desires before we ever met.

The world narrowed down to the sound of our ragged breathing and the friction of skin on skin. I lost count of the waves that crashed over me, leaving me trembling and weak in his arms. By the time he finally let me go, my legs were like water.

"You can take more," he murmured, his voice thick with a cruel sort of confidence. "Show me how much you can handle."

I wanted to tell him I was done, that I was exhausted, but my body wouldn't listen to my mind. It climbed again, reaching for the peak he held just out of reach, until the world finally went black at the edges.

When I woke for the second time, the room was silent. The space beside me was cold, the only evidence of Xavier’s presence being a folded piece of paper on the pillow and a sleek plastic card.

I picked up the note. Had to handle business. Until next time.

I looked at the credit card and felt a sudden, sharp spike of ice in my veins. He thought he could pay me? Like I was a professional distraction? I snapped the gold plastic in half, the sharp crack echoing in the empty room, and tossed the pieces into the trash.

I found a shopping bag on the chair with fresh clothes. Everything was my exact size, down to the lace of the underwear. The accuracy was unnerving, but I didn't have time to dwell on it. I dressed quickly, my hands shaking as I finally reached for my phone.

The screen lit up with headlines that felt like a physical punch to the gut.

STERLING AND SUTTON POWER MATCH: ETHAN AND SCARLETT ANNOUNCE ENGAGEMENT.

I stared at the photos. They were glowing, smiling as if they hadn't just spent years stabbing me in the back. The article described a "whirlwind three-year romance."

Three years. Twyla had been my best friend for three years. Every secret I’d shared, every doubt I’d confessed about Torin, she’d probably laughed about in his bed.

The phone vibrated in my hand. It was my grandfather.

"Raine," he said, his voice heavy with a protective warmth that almost broke me. "Are you coming home for dinner tonight?"

"I'll be there, Grandpa," I replied, my voice harder than I expected.

His estate was a fortress of luxury on the outskirts of the city, the heart of the Polar Claws Pack’s influence. When I arrived, the old man didn't say a word. He just pulled me into a hug that smelled of cedar and home.

Later, in his private study, he poured two glasses of amber liquid. "About the Wright boy..."

"It’s over," I interrupted. The pain was still there, but it was being rapidly eclipsed by a cold, simmering rage. "He made his choice."

"The boy is a fool," Grandpa said, his eyes flashing with the lethal intensity of a true Alpha. "I will break him for this. No one treats a Winslow like a second-class citizen and keeps their dignity."

The Nexus Pack, where Torin held power, was a small pond. My grandfather’s Polar Claws Pack was the ocean. Only the Red Lake Pack in the far north could even hope to stand against us. As the sole heir to the Winslow legacy, I held more power in my pinky finger than Twyla Whitaker would ever see in her lifetime.

I shook my head, a slow smile spreading across my face. "No, Grandpa. Don't touch him. I want to handle this myself."

He looked at me, his bushy eyebrows rising. "You spent years hiding who you are to be 'normal' for him, Raine. If you had just told him you were the Winslow heir, that girl wouldn't have stood a chance."

"I know," I said, taking a sip of the drink. "But this way, I got to see exactly what he was worth. I didn't lose a mate, Grandpa. I lost a parasite."

"Then it’s time to stop playing small," he suggested, leaning forward. "There is a gala next week. Every pack leader in the territory will be there, including the Wrights. Come with me. Let me introduce the world to the future Alpha of Polar Claws."

I thought about the look on Torin's face when he realized the woman he threw away was the woman who could buy and sell his entire pack. I thought about Xavier, and the way he looked at me in the dark.

"I'll be there," I said. "It's time they learned who they're really dealing with."