Chapter 4

Mine. Mine. Mine.

My wolf screamed over and over, like she had been waiting inside me to scream that word. The Alpha king's grip tightened around my hand. I looked up at him and found that he was already looking at me, his eyes wide.

My knees buckled and I quickly caught the bar of the cage with my free hands and held on to it.

“Hey," he said, voice closer now. "Are you okay?”

My wolf.

My wolf.

I had a wolf!

I made a sound I couldn't recognize, it was something between a laugh and a sob. I refused to break in front of this man, this stranger, this King whose hand was the solid thing in the world right now.

My wolf was gold. I could feel her pressing against the inside of me. She was large and she was also angry at the years of silence but also beneath that anger was relief.

“I was always here," my wolf said. “You just couldn't hear me"

Tears welled up in my eyes. “What is your name?"

“Eliza," my wolf replied.

“Freya," The King called, snapping me out of my thoughts. I turned towards him. The weakness that I was feeling was completely ignored.

“I had my wolf! I'm twenty two." I said. I didn't know why I was talking about it to him but I was just so excited. “She never came before. They said she wasn't there. My father, the pack healers, everyone," my voice was embarrassingly unsteady.

I pressed my free hand flat against my sternum like I could feel my wolf through my own skin. “She's been there the whole time … waiting”

He brushed a strand of my hair back and smiled. “She was waiting for her mate."

I had no answer because he was right and that was the most terrifying thing to have happened that night. Without warning, he slid one arm beneath my knees and the other behind my back.

He lifted me up like I weighed nothing at all.

I pushed him back. “I can walk!"

“You couldn't stand properly minutes ago"

“And I am fine now!"

“We’ll revisit your independence when you are not gripping my collar,” he said.

I looked down. Yeah, my hand was closed around his collar without my permission.

Eliza purred at the contact. Okay, I needed to have a firm conversation with her about boundaries but I just got her. I didn't know how.

I let go of his collar immediately.

The estate materialized after some minutes of walking. This wasn't like the Ruinfang pack house with its polished modern surfaces and deliberate displays of wealth.

This was older, not built to impress and somehow that made it impressive that anything Thorne had ever owned.

He carried me through the entrance. I was so busy looking at the details of the interior, the high ceilings, the tapestrries, the low candlelight, that I almost missed the figure standing at the staircase.

She was tall and strikingly beautiful. She had the same midnight black hair as the King. She was dressed in a silk robe that suggested she must have been sleeping.

The only thing different about their resemblance was that where the king's eyes were gold, hers were dark brown.

“Ragnar." She said, descending the last three steps quickly. “What is happening? The guards said you brought someone back from the border and I…” her gaze shifted to me and her jaw tightened. “Who is she? Did you take her against her will? Because she looks…”

"Sera,” he said calmly. "Enough.”

“She looks terrified Ragnar, and if you have dragged some girl in from the border because of pack politics. I swear to the Moon Goddess. I will…”

“I wasn't kidnapped." The words came out of my mouth before I could stop it. Both of them looked at me and I cleared my throat. “He didn't take me against my will. I was caught at the border by his guards. I wouldn't call that kidnapping" I paused and met Ragnar's eyes. “I would like to be put down now"

Ragnar put me down on the floor carefully. My legs held, which I considered a personal victory.

Sera studied me with eyes that were not entirely convinced that I wasn't kidnapped. "Who are you?"

“Freya"

“My mate," Ragnar added and my chest tightened. I didn't know if I was ready to claim the bond yet.

Sera turned to look at her brother with an expression I couldn't read. Then she looked back at me. “Is it true?"

"Yes”

She exhaled. Then she looked at me. I was suddenly too aware of the clothes I was putting on, my rumpled coat, the pine needles that were still caught in my hair and her expression hardened.

“You must be cold," she said. “And you cannot stand in my brother's hallway wearing…” she gestured to my coat. “... Whatever this is. Come with me."

I followed her to her room and watched as she selected clothes for me.

"He has never brought anyone back like this" she said as she smoothed the collar of my blouse. “In case you were wondering."

I wasn't but I said nothing. Later, when I was done, she took me to Ragnar's room.

Ragnar was standing at the window, his hands clasped at his back. The moment we entered the room, he turned, my wolf responded with a warmth that I was beginning to understand I had no control over whatsoever.

“You look better," he said, blood rushing to my cheeks.

"She is all yours," Sera said in a tone that promised a conversation later. Then she left, pulling the door closed.

One moment, he was staring at me like I was his downfall and before I knew it, his mouth was on mine and I didn't focus on anything else but him. And that night, he claimed me.

When we finished, I was breathless. I hadn't felt like this in a while, like I was complete but still something was holding me back.

He tucked me between his arms as I felt the rise and fall of his solid chest. “We will announce the bond at court within the week then the mating ceremony will follow shortly after."

He said it like a promise but he didn't look like a man making one.