CHAPTER 5

ETHAN'S POV

The quarterly security report is spread across my desk in neat columns that are supposed to make sense but currently look like gibberish because I cannot focus. Lucas is explaining patrol rotation adjustments, his voice steady and professional the way it always is, and normally I would be paying attention because border security is not something to take lightly. But right now all I can think about is the constant hum of the mate bond at the back of my mind, that awareness of Kaye somewhere in my packhouse that I cannot shut off no matter how hard I try.

Three days. It has been three days since they brought her here and three days of fighting every instinct my wolf has. He wants to go to her, wants to check on her, wants to make sure she is okay even though I know exactly what is happening to her because I am allowing it to happen. The pack needs to see that I will not show favoritism. They need to know that being my mate does not protect her from justice.

Except it is not justice, is it? It is revenge dressed up as consequences, and some part of me knows that but I cannot seem to make myself care enough to stop it.

"Ethan?" Lucas's voice cuts through my thoughts. "You listening?"

"Yeah," I lie. "Continue."

He gives me a look that says he knows I am lying but he does not call me out on it. That is Lucas. Always watching, always reading people, always knowing when to push and when to let things go. He has been my best friend since we were eight years old, survived the fire with me, helped me rebuild when I had no idea what I was doing. If there is anyone in this world I trust completely, it is him.

"As I was saying, the northern border needs reinforcement. We have had three rogue sightings in the past week and—"

The mate bond screams.

There is no other word for it. One second it is the usual low-level awareness I have learned to tolerate, and the next it is a klaxon blaring in my skull, panic and terror and cold so intense it feels like ice water in my veins. My wolf surges forward with such force that I actually feel my bones start to shift before I wrestle him back down.

Something is wrong. Something is very wrong.

"Ethan?" Lucas stands, his expression shifting to concern. "What is it?"

I am already moving, shoving back from my desk so hard my chair hits the wall. The mate bond is pulling me like a fishhook lodged in my chest, dragging me toward wherever Kaye is with an urgency that overrides everything else. My wolf is howling, clawing at my control, demanding I shift and run because our mate is in danger and we need to protect her NOW.

"Ethan, talk to me." Lucas follows me to the door. "What's happening?"

I do not answer because I do not know how to explain that I can feel Kaye dying. That is what this is, I realize with horrible clarity. The cold flooding through the bond, her heartbeat slowing, her terror fading into something worse than fear. Resignation. She thinks she is going to die.

I take the stairs three at a time, moving faster than is safe, my wolf pushing at my skin and making my vision sharpen until I can see every detail in perfect clarity. Wolves scatter as I pass, pressing themselves against walls, sensing their Alpha is barely in control. Someone asks if everything is okay and I ignore them because nothing is okay, nothing has been okay since I felt the mate bond snap into place and tied myself to the daughter of a monster.

The kitchen. The bond is pulling me toward the kitchen. I burst through the doors and Miriam jumps, dropping the knife she was using to chop vegetables. Two other kitchen workers freeze and stare at me with wide eyes.

"Where is she?" My voice comes out rougher than I intend, my wolf bleeding through. "Where is Kaye?"

Miriam's face does something complicated, surprise and guilt and defiance all mixed together. "The Muani girl? I sent her to clean the walk-in freezer hours ago. She should still be working."

Hours. She has been in the freezer for hours and no one thought to check on her.

I cross the kitchen in four strides and Miriam steps back, suddenly looking nervous. Good. She should be nervous. The freezer is on the far wall, a massive industrial door with a handle designed to be opened from both sides. I grab it and pull.

Locked.

The handle does not budge. I pull harder and feel the mechanism catch, stuck in place like something is jamming it. This door should not lock from the outside. These doors are designed with safety mechanisms specifically to prevent people from being trapped inside.

"Open it," I say to Miriam.

"I, I did not lock it, Alpha, I swear—"

"OPEN IT."

She rushes forward with a key that should not exist because again, these doors should not lock. Her hands shake as she fumbles with the mechanism and it takes her three tries before the lock finally clicks. I shove her aside and wrench the door open and the cold air that rushes out is like a physical slap.

Kaye is on the floor in the far corner, curled into herself, not moving.

My wolf goes completely insane. I barely register crossing the freezer, barely feel the cold even though it is brutal enough to make my breath fog. All I can see is Kaye lying there with her lips blue and her skin gray-white and frost forming in her hair. I drop to my knees beside her and press my fingers to her neck searching for a pulse.

It is there but faint, so faint I almost miss it. Her heartbeat through the bond is the same, a weak flutter that is fading even as I listen for it. Her skin is ice cold, her body temperature dropped to dangerous levels. She is not shivering, which means her body has given up trying to warm itself.

She is dying. Right here in my packhouse, in a freezer she was sent to as punishment, the daughter of Kieran Muani is dying and it is my fault because I allowed this. I knew what the pack was doing to her, felt it through the bond, and I did nothing because I was too angry and too stubborn and too determined to prove that being my mate meant nothing.

I slide my arms under her and lift her against my chest. She weighs almost nothing, like she has not been eating, and the silver burns on her wrists are infected and raw. How did I not notice how bad it was? How did I let it get this far?

Because you wanted her to suffer, my wolf snarls at me. Because you blamed her for something she did not do and you were too consumed by your own pain to see hers.

I carry Kaye out of the freezer and through the kitchen. Miriam and the other workers stare with expressions ranging from shock to horror. Let them stare. Let them see their Alpha holding the Muani girl like she matters, because apparently she does whether I want her to or not.

Lucas is in the hallway looking alarmed. "Ethan, what—"

"Get Sarah," I snap at him. "Tell her to meet me in my room. Now."

He does not ask questions, just nods and runs. That is Lucas. Always reliable, always there when I need him.

I take Kaye to my private quarters instead of the medical wing because some instinct I do not understand says she needs to be close to me, that the mate bond will help her heal faster if we are together. My wolf is pacing frantically, whining, demanding I do something to fix this. I lay her on my bed and grab every blanket I can find, piling them on top of her, trying to get her body temperature up.

Her eyes are closed, her face slack. She looks so young like this, younger than twenty-four, more like the eighteen-year-old girl who came home from college to find her entire world had burned. What has she been through these past six years? What did running do to her?

The mate bond pulses weakly. I can feel her somewhere far away, retreating deeper into herself as her body shuts down. I press my hand to her chest, over her heart, and push warmth through the bond the way my wolf is screaming at me to do. I do not know if it will work but I have to try something.

"Come on," I hear myself say. "Come on, Kaye. Stay with me. You do not get to die like this. You hear me? You do not get to die in my packhouse because my pack was too cruel and I was too blind."

Sarah arrives five minutes later with her medical bag. She takes one look at Kaye and her expression goes grim. "How long was she in the freezer?"

"I do not know. Hours."

"Her core temperature is critically low. She needs IV fluids and active warming. Help me get these clothes off her, they are holding the cold against her skin."

We work quickly, Sarah directing me with professional efficiency. She starts an IV and wraps Kaye in warming blankets while I hold her against my chest, using my own body heat to help bring her temperature up. The mate bond flares stronger with the contact, my wolf settling slightly now that our mate is close and we are actively helping her.

Slowly, painfully slowly, Kaye's heartbeat strengthens. Her breathing evens out. Color starts returning to her face, the gray-white fading to pale pink. I watch the monitors Sarah set up and track every small improvement like my life depends on it.

Maybe it does. Maybe losing her would break something in me that is already fractured beyond repair.

Sarah finishes her examination and sits back. "She will live. But Ethan, another thirty minutes and we would be having a very different conversation. What happened?"

"Someone locked her in the freezer."

Sarah's eyes widen. "Locked her? Those doors do not lock from the outside."

"This one did. Someone rigged it."

"Who would—" She stops, understanding dawning. "Your pack."

"My pack," I agree bitterly. "The pack I am supposed to be protecting. The pack that just tried to commit murder in my own packhouse."

Sarah stands and packs her equipment. "I will leave supplies for when she wakes up. She needs rest and warmth and probably actual food. When was the last time she ate?"

I do not know. I have no idea because I have not been paying attention, have not cared enough to make sure my mate was being fed properly. The shame of it sits heavy in my chest.

"I will make sure she eats," I say.

Sarah nods and leaves, closing the door quietly behind her. I sit on the edge of the bed and watch Kaye breathe, her chest rising and falling under the pile of blankets. The mate bond hums between us, stronger now, almost content that we are finally in the same space and I am finally acting like her mate instead of her jailer.

My wolf is still agitated but calmer, satisfied that our mate is safe and warming and alive. He pushes at me, wanting me to lie down next to her, wrap myself around her, complete the bond properly. I ignore him because that is not happening. The bond is an accident of biology, nothing more. It does not change what her father did. It does not change the sixty-three wolves who died because of Kieran Muani.

But it also does not mean she deserves to freeze to death in my freezer.

Kaye's eyes flutter open. They are unfocused at first, confused, like she does not know where she is or what happened. Then they find my face and something shifts in her expression. Fear, I think at first, but then I realize it is something else. Relief maybe, or resignation.

"They're watching us," she whispers, her voice barely audible.

"What?"

"They're watching." Her eyes drift closed again, her body giving in to exhaustion. "They're always watching."

She passes out before I can ask what she means. I look around the room, seeing it with new eyes, and that is when I notice it. A small camera hidden in the corner where the wall meets the ceiling, so small I would never have seen it if I was not looking for it. The lens is pointed directly at my bed.

Someone has been watching my private quarters.

Someone in my pack is spying on me.

And they just tried to kill my mate.