Chapter One Mine

Liana

POV 

The pain hit like a blade driven straight up my spine.

I dropped to my knees in the dirt, a broken sound tearing out of my throat. My wolf was waking, twenty-three years too late, and she was savage. Bones snapped with wet, brutal cracks. Fur ripped through skin. My vision bled into gold and silver. When it finally ended I was on all fours, black-furred, lungs burning, then I heard it;

“A growl, not outside, inside,

“Mine”.

My voice was not human, it was wild, and was powerful, every new instinct locked onto one man like a claim I couldn’t refuse.

Kael Draven.

My father’s best friend.  

The Alpha King.  

The man I was never supposed to want.

The bond slammed into me so hard I choked. Not soft. Not gentle. A demand. My wolf howled, raw and possessive, the sound ripping across the clearing. I forced the shift back. It hurt worse the second time. When I collapsed into human form I was naked, shaking, blood running from my nose and down my chin. Power still burned under my skin, too much, too old, wrong in a way that made my heart race for a different reason.

I should have run straight to my father.

I stayed on my knees in the dirt, heart slamming, already knowing nothing would ever be the same.

Kael

POV

The howl nearly put me on the floor.

I was in Elias’s study with an untouched glass of whiskey when my wolf slammed into my control so hard the glass cracked in my hand. The bond locked into place with the finality of a door being barred from the outside.

Mate.

Liana.

Elias’s daughter. The girl I had promised her dying mother I would protect. The woman I had spent two years forcing myself not to look at for too long.

My wolf didn’t care about any of it. He only knew she was awake and calling for him.

Elias looked toward the window. “That came from the east clearing. Liana sometimes walks out there—”

“I’ll check.”

My voice came out flat. I left before he could see my face. The moment I stepped into the night air the bond yanked harder, vicious and certain. Every step toward her felt like betrayal. I had sworn to protect her. I don't want her. Not picture her under me while her father still called me brother.

I found her at the edge of the clearing.

Human again. Barely. Naked. Shaking. Gold eyes still glowing. Blood on her mouth. The scent of her wolf hit me like a fist, rare, sharp, powerful, and so perfectly matched to mine that everything else dropped away. This was no ordinary first shift. Power still clung to her like static. The kind that would get her hunted the moment word spread.

My wolf surged so hard I had to lock every muscle to keep from closing the distance. She smelled like a claim and catastrophe. One step closer and the promise I had lived by for twenty years would not survive the night.

She looked up.

“Kael…”

My name in her mouth nearly finished me.

I stayed at the tree line, hands clenched so hard my nails cut into my palms. Every muscle screamed to close the gap. My wolf was losing his mind, he wanted her in the dirt, marked, claimed, finished. He wanted to put her on her back and end the fight before either of us could think.

“Go inside,” I ordered, voice low and rough. “Now.”

Her chin lifted. Even shaking, even newly turned, there was steel in her. “You felt it.”

“Yes.”

“You’re my mate.”

“I am your father’s best friend,” I said, voice low and dangerous. “I swore to protect you the night your mother died. I have known you since you were a child. This bond is a mistake.”

Her eyes flashed pure gold. “Liar. I felt you fighting it the second it hit. I felt how much you want me. You’ve been looking at me like this for a long time. You just never let yourself say it.”

The accuracy of that hit harder than I wanted to admit.

I closed the distance before I could stop myself. My hand wrapped around her throat not tight enough to hurt, just enough to feel her pulse hammering under my palm. Her scent flooded everything. For one reckless second I almost leaned in and took her mouth the way I had imagined in the worst hours of the night. My wolf snarled for it. My body was already hard and aching with the need to claim what the bond had declared mine.

“You don’t know what you’re saying,” I growled.

“I know exactly what I’m saying.” Her voice shook, but she didn’t look away. “You’re hard right now, aren’t you? Just from smelling me. Just from having your hand on my throat.”

A darker sound ripped out of my chest. “Careful, Liana.”

“Or what?” she whispered. “You’ll finally stop pretending you don’t want to put me on my back?”

I put my lips against her ear, grip tightening a fraction.

“If I claim you, I will destroy your father. I destroy the only family you have left. I destroy the man I swore I would be. So you will go inside. You will pretend this never happened. And I will do what I have always done.”

“Which is?”

“Protect you from every threat in this world.” My voice dropped lower. “Including me.”

I released her and stepped back. The loss of contact burned like a wound. Liana stood there naked and defiant, breathing too hard, eyes still glowing. Power still flickered faintly around her. The bond between us throbbed like something alive and angry.

She didn’t look away.

“You’re already losing,” she said quietly.

In the distance, her father’s voice called her name.

I turned and walked away before I proved her right.