Chapter 3 -Fire Beneath the Skin

The trees whispered behind her as Alpha Kade vanished into the woods, his anger thick and lingering in the air like smoke. Racheal didn’t call after him.

She couldn’t.

The bond between them still sizzled at the edges of her mind, but it was being drowned—overpowered—by something new. And that something was still standing in front of her.

Alpha Jaxon Vale.

Rogue. Defiant. Dangerous.

Mate.

Racheal turned toward him slowly. “Why are you here?” she asked, her voice quieter now. Not afraid—just unsure.

Jaxon gave a crooked smile. “Would you believe me if I said I didn’t know?”

She didn’t answer. Her wolf paced inside her, claws scraping the walls of her chest like she was trying to break free and get to him.

“You feel it,” he said. “Same as me.”

Racheal crossed her arms, trying to shield herself from the ache inside. “It’s not supposed to be like this.”

“No, it’s not,” he agreed. “But fate doesn’t give a damn about rules.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You’re a rogue. You’re not even supposed to be on pack land.”

“I didn’t come here for politics. I didn’t come here for a fight. I came here because…” He paused, and for the first time, something in his voice cracked. “Because I smelled you. And then I felt you. Like lightning through my spine.”

Racheal blinked, her breath hitching. It had been the same for her. The shock. The heat. The terrifying familiarity.

“How is this possible?” she whispered, not even sure if she was asking him or the Moon Goddess herself.

“I don’t know,” Jaxon said. “But I’m not walking away from it.”

She stepped back instinctively, even as her body screamed to move forward. “You think I want this? That I asked for two mates?”

Jaxon studied her. “No. I think you’re terrified. I think you’ve spent your whole life following the rules. Doing what you were told. Playing second to alphas who didn’t deserve you.”

Her heart pounded harder.

“I don’t want to own you, Racheal. I don’t want to control you. I just want to know why, of all wolves, the Moon gave you to me.”

She looked away, eyes stinging, throat tight. “You don’t even believe in the bond.”

“I didn’t,” he said softly. “Until tonight.”

Silence settled between them, heavy and sharp. Somewhere far off, another wolf howled—a long, mournful sound.

Racheal stepped forward, just once, enough to feel the air shift between them. “I’m already bound to Kade. The Moon marked him first.”

“And yet here we are,” Jaxon replied, voice low. “And you’re still standing here, talking to me. Feeling this.”

She hated that he was right. Hated how her wolf leaned toward him, how her skin itched with the urge to touch him, to close the space.

“You don’t get to just show up and make this harder,” she whispered.

“I didn’t ask for you,” he said. “But now that I’ve found you? I’m not letting you go.”

Racheal looked up at him, caught between fire and fate.

Her world had already been torn in two.

And the cracks were just beginning to spread.