Chapter 5: Mate Worth Protecting

CHLOE’S POV

It all felt like a sick dream.

One moment I was walking through the staff entrance of the Velvet Siren, and the next, I woke in an unfamiliar room with voices arguing outside the half-open door.

“That isn’t what the girl agreed to,” the manager said. “Her mother told her she was covering one performance.”

“Her mother already accepted the terms,” a strange man answered coldly. “Twenty-five percent of her debt in exchange for the girl. Whether her daughter knows is not our problem.”

I lay still, unable to believe my ears.

The girl? They were talking about me.

I looked down. I was still wearing the silver-studded bra and matching underwear the manager had given me for the performance, but someone had added a thin silk robe over them.

My hands were tied tightly behind my back with a piece of fabric.

My heart hammered as everything clicked into place. After I finished dancing, the manager had given me a drink and said my mother had sent it to help me calm down.

My mother had promised me one performance. No private clients. No touching.

She had lied. She had used me to settle her debt.

Just how much did she owe Alpha Malcolm for this to seem acceptable?

Hot tears spilled down my face before I could stop them. I couldn't breathe, couldn't fully process the nightmare closing in around me.

‘We need to leave’. My wolf snapped inside my head, voice fierce and terrified. ‘You cannot let them touch you. Escape now. Do it, Chloe.’

I didn't argue. She was right. I couldn't spend my life trapped by my selfish mother.

I twisted my wrists against the bindings, the fabric burning my skin, until I finally wrenched it free.

The voices outside were still locked in an argument, and neither person was watching the room.

I slipped off the bed, dropped to my hands and knees, and crawled toward the door. Once past the threshold, I scrambled up and ran.

I sprinted down the hallway, searching for a staircase, but the corridor kept stretching out, lined with identical doors.

My wolf senses picked up footsteps behind me. Shouting cut through the air. They'd realized I was gone.

"What the fuck?! Who let the girl go?"

My heart thudded as I pounded desperately on the nearest doors, begging for anyone inside to hide me.

Door after door remained locked, their footsteps getting closer.

When I reached the last door at the end of the hall, my pursuers breathing down my neck, I hammered on the wood. It took a minute, but the door swung open.

I stumbled forward, looking up to find the last person I expected to meet here.

Drake Dawson.

His dark hair was tussled, as if he'd run his hands through it a hundred times in frustration. He wore a gold silk robe hanging open, chest bare, his striking blue eyes burning into mine.

My first instinct was to back into the hallway. But a split second later, footsteps and shouts echoed around the corner.

"Check the doors! She couldn't have gone far!"

I turned back to Drake, without much of a choice now.

"Please," I choked out, my voice breaking. "Please, let me in."

Drake stared at me, brows knitted in confusion. The shouting down the hall grew so deafening that without thinking, I lunged forward and grabbed his arm. "Please! I'm begging you, Drake."

He stood there, still shocked.

When it sounded like I could be caught any second, he grabbed me, yanked me into the room, and slammed the door shut behind us. My back hit the door as he pressed me against it.

I stood frozen, inches from him, hyper-aware of the heat coming off his body, an overwhelming pull blooming in my chest.

Without thinking, I pressed my forehead to his chest, relief flooding through me.

"Thank you," I whispered, my voice trembling.

The words felt strange, meant for the boy who’d spent months tormenting me. But no matter how much I hated him, he’d just saved me.

Drake looked down at me, his expression twisting into annoyance, like he wanted to demand how I'd ended up here and why I'd dared touch him.

But before he could, heavy fists struck the door behind me.

"Open the door! The girl belongs to Alpha Malcolm!"

Something in Drake's face changed. His eyes darkened, and a low growl rolled out of his chest.

He pulled me away from the door and placed me behind him before opening it to face them.

"She is under my protection," he said.

One of the men tried to argue. "Master Drake, this has nothing to do with you. Her mother already accepted the terms."

The air turned heavy under Drake's Alpha power.

"I said leave."

The men glanced at me but didn't dare move. They turned and disappeared down the hall.

Drake shut the door and locked it. When he turned around, his gaze dropped to the red marks around my wrists.

"Who tied you up?"

I pulled the robe tighter around myself. "It doesn't matter."

"I asked you a question, Chloe."

“My mother arranged it,” I snapped. My voice cracked despite my effort to control it. “She told me I was covering one dance. The manager gave me a drink, and I woke up tied to a bed. She sold me to settle part of her debt. Are you satisfied now?”

His body went still. “She sold you?”

The disgust on his face made me look away. “I already told you once why I had to do this. Laugh about it tomorrow. Just let me stay until those men leave.”

"I'm not laughing."

I looked back at him. His hands clenched into fists, his wolf flashing behind darkened eyes, angrier than I'd ever seen it.

"No one touches my mate," he growled.

My heart stumbled, but his expression hardened almost immediately.

"Not before we complete the rejection," he added.

Of course.

I hated myself for reacting at all.

“You don’t get to call me your mate, not after what you said about Prisca,” I said stubbornly.

"I don't want this bond any more than you do."

"Good. Then reject me now."

"Not while you're drugged and my wolf is trying to tear its way out of me."

He stepped back, but his gaze dragged over the robe and the scraps of clothing beneath it. My skin burned wherever he looked.

The fog in my head had cleared, but another heat spread through me, sharper than the drug, alive with his scent and the bond.

Drake must have felt it too. His breathing grew heavier, and he turned away, gripping the edge of the table until his knuckles whitened.

"Stay on that side of the room," he ordered.

"Stop ordering me around."

I took one step toward him to prove I could. The bond snapped tight between us.

Drake crossed the space before I could take another breath. His hand caught my waist and pulled me against him. His mouth crashed against mine, angry and hungry.

For one terrifying second, I kissed him back. Then he tore himself away.

"You're drugged," he said roughly. "I'm not touching you. You don't know what you're doing."

"No." I shook my head. "My mind is clear."

His gaze searched my face, like he was looking for any sign I wasn't myself, before he swallowed hard. "Then tell me who I am."

I held his stare. "Drake Dawson. My mate. The boy I hate more than anyone in this pack."

His jaw flexed.

"And you still want this?"

Want was the wrong word. I wanted free of the heat in my blood, and of the bond that made me need the person who'd hurt me for months.

"Only tonight," I said. "Tomorrow, you reject me and I leave Sterlink. This changes nothing."

"No mark," he said firmly. "No claim."

"Then at sunrise, we end the bond."

"Agreed." He nodded and neither of us moved.

Drake held my gaze, as if giving me one last chance to change my mind.

I didn't. Instead, I reached for him, grabbed the front of his robe, and pulled him to me.

Drake caught my mouth in a hard kiss that tasted of whiskey, his hands gripping my hips with rough possession as he pulled me toward the bed.

His fingers closed around the silk belt of my robe.

“Last chance, Chloe,” he said against my lips.

I tightened my grip on the front of his robe. “Don’t stop.”

Drake pulled the knot loose.