Chapter Three: Then Reject Me 

Thiago’s POV

Celeste looked at Amara, then back at me, waiting for an explanation that would put everything where it belonged.

I could not give her one.

“You’re certain?” she asked.

Nero answered with a growl before I opened my mouth. I held him back.

“Yes.”

Sabine sat down beside her daughter. Idris stayed on his feet, watching me closely enough that I knew what he would do if I approached Amara without her permission.

Under other circumstances, I might have respected it without difficulty. This morning, every part of me resented the distance between us.

“Then why didn’t you say so?” Celeste demanded.

Amara looked at her. “I only found out this morning myself.”

“That is very convenient.”

“Celeste.”

She turned towards me. “You cannot expect me to accept this without asking questions.”

“Accuse her when you have proof.”

Amara glanced up at me. I noticed the surprise in her blue-grey eyes and disliked how much I wanted her to keep looking. Fuck, the bond is fucking with me.

Her hair was brushed now, falling in golden waves over a green dress. She kept one hand around the bracelet at her wrist. The other rested in her mother’s lap. It was easy to hear her temper and forget that she was frightened. I could smell that fear whenever my wolf stopped filling my head with demands.

“Tell her she is safe,” Nero said.

“I will not promise what I have not decided.”

“Then decide.” That came as a growl. But I ignored him.

He never spoke to me about Celeste that way. I chose her after years of waiting for a mate who did not seem to exist. I liked her confidence, her discipline and the way she could sit through a difficult council dinner without letting anyone think they unsettled her.

I remembered asking her to marry me. I remembered her laughing before she said yes, then telling me I sounded like I was negotiating another agreement.

But now, she wasn't laughing, and I hated the fact that I couldn't do anything for her.

A knock came before she could speak again. Dario entered with Soren and closed the door behind them.

“The initial results are ready,” Soren said.

I reached for the papers, but he held them until Amara looked up.

“The same sedating substance is present in both of your samples. It affects memory and a wolf’s awareness. I am sending portions for confirmation.”

Amara let out a breath. Sabine’s arm tightened around her.

“Does it explain why she cannot conceal her wolf?” Idris asked.

“It would disrupt that level of control. Her strength should recover gradually. She must not keep forcing it.”

Celeste turned towards Amara. “Conceal her wolf?”

No one answered immediately. I looked at Idris. He understood that there was no useful way to explain half of what she just heard.

“Amara is Unbound,” I said.

Celeste stepped away from the sofa. Her eyes widened, and I saw alarm before anger returned.

“Thiago.”

“I know.”

“Then this bond could be something she caused.”

“It is not,” Soren said. “The substance I detected does not create a mate bond.”

“And her abilities?”

“I am reporting what I examined.”

I took the results and read them. They confirmed the part of Amara’s account she struggled to make me believe. They could not identify who put the drug in either drink or who arranged access to my bedroom.

I faced her. “You were right to ask for an examination.”

“I was right when I said someone did this to me.”

“Yes.”

She held my gaze, then reached for the papers. “May I see?”

I handed them over. Her fingers brushed my palm, and she pulled back so quickly that one sheet slipped. I caught it before it reached the floor.

“Careful.”

“I was being careful.” She took it from me without touching my hand again. And that hurt.

I watched her read. A faint flush spread up her neck, and I knew she felt it too. That should not have pleased me with Celeste standing beside my chair. But it did.

Nero made a low, satisfied sound and that made me shut him out.

Dario laid a message on Idris’s desk. “This sent the staircase guard to the ballroom for twenty-three minutes. It came through your household office.”

Idris read it. “I gave no such order.”

Amara lowered the results. “Someone knew the staircase would be empty.”

“And which room was mine,” I said.

She looked at her mother. I could almost see her going through the familiar faces from her celebration.

“I want the sender,” I told Dario. “And whoever served that drink.”

“Ivara is checking with Idris’s officers. Kellan is preparing a fresh escort.”

My Delta was good at finding the detail people wished she would overlook. As Gamma, Kellan would have the warriors ready whenever I called. For now, I wanted answers from the people who slept under this roof.

Soren turned to Amara. “Have something to eat. I will come back before any further decisions about travel.”

She nodded, still looking at the false instruction on the desk.

When the healer left, Celeste moved beside me.

“We need to speak privately.”

“We will.”

“When?”

I understood the anger in that question. I also had a frightened young woman in front of me and evidence that someone moved my guards using an Alpha’s name.

“After I speak to Dario. Give me a few minutes.”

I took him into the adjoining archive. He shut the door and waited until I faced him.

“Tell me what you think,” I said.

“Someone relied on familiar faces and a crowded household. Our men checked outsiders. They trusted instructions from inside.”

“They should have confirmed the change with you.”

“Yes. I should have made certain they knew that.”

I nodded. Dario never wasted time blaming a junior warrior for something he could correct.

“Fix it for the return journey.”

“I will.” He glanced at the door. “And Amara?”

“Still under investigation.”

“That answers the report. I was asking you.”

I looked at him. “You chose an inconvenient morning to become interested in my feelings.”

“I have been interested for years. You usually tell me to inspect the patrols.”

Under other circumstances, I would have laughed. This time, I rested a hand against the shelf and let myself take one full breath.

“I cannot decide this because Nero wants her.”

“Nero doesn’t have to be wrong every time he opens his mouth.”

“You’re taking his side now?”

“I’m waiting for you to tell me which side you’re on.”

I stared at him. Dario waited. He knew when to stop talking, although he usually reached that point one sentence later than I preferred.

My phone rang before I replied. Evren’s name appeared on the screen.

“The visiting Alphas are still waiting,” Dario said. “Lucio Serrat asked whether you intend to renegotiate the freight rates by keeping him hungry.”

“Feed him. Move the discussion to tomorrow and circulate the existing terms.”

“And if he objects?”

“He can call me when I am available.”

Dario left, and I answered Evren.

“I hear the meeting is delayed,” he said.

“There was a security breach. It is being handled.”

“Do you need men?”

“No.”

“Hadrian can keep the southern deliveries moving if you need to close a route.”

Evren knew what a disrupted transport agreement could cost the smaller packs. He always seemed to know which person to call before a difficulty became a public dispute. After my parents died, I relied on that more than I liked remembering.

“I will let you know,” I said.

“Speak to me before you make a decision that affects the four regions. Your name will carry further than theirs.”

“I know what my name carries.”

He was silent for a moment. Then his voice softened. “Your father said the same thing once. Take care of yourself, Thiago.”

The call ended. I stayed where I was, looking at the phone.

My father’s last journey ended at the woodland guest house. I was fifteen when they brought his body home beside my mother’s. The surviving groundskeeper identified Unbound attackers. The testimony passed through elders, investigators and a priest before it reached me as a child who wanted someone to blame.

Later reports described wolves attacking their own packmates and claiming they could not stop. Witnesses placed Unbound wolves nearby. I believed the connection. I paid for searches, sent warriors and signed orders that never reached my desk without someone calling them necessary.

Now one of those wolves waited in the next room, wearing a birthday bracelet and asking her mother to stay close.

I returned to Idris’s study. Celeste was standing beside the window, her phone in her hand. She put it away when she saw me.

“You know what the four regions require,” she said.

“They also require an investigation when someone targets an Alpha under a host’s protection.”

“That does not make her less dangerous.”

Amara lifted her head. “What have I done that makes me dangerous?”

Celeste looked at her. “What can you do?”

“You want me to give you a reason?”

“Amara,” I said. “Have you ever forced another wolf to hurt someone?”

“No.”

“Have you used a gift against anyone in this household?”

Her shoulders tightened. “I have spent years making certain no one knew I had a wolf. Does that sound like someone looking for a fight?”

“It sounds like someone is keeping secrets.”

“Because men like you hunt us.”

The room fell silent.

She stood, and Sabine rose with her. “You can ask about last night. I want answers too. But you don’t get to use what someone did to me as proof that I deserved it.”

Nero moved beneath my skin. I forced my claws back before they reached my palms.

“I did not say you deserved it.”

“Then stop looking at me like you’re waiting for evidence that I did.”

Idris stepped beside her. “She needs rest. We have the samples, the guard’s statement and the records. Let the inquiry work.”

“Her identity stays in this room,” I said. “No calls. No gossip.”

Celeste stared at me. “You are asking us to conceal an Unbound.”

“Someone used this house to get to me. I’ll find them before anyone here gives them another advantage.”

Idris nodded. Sabine did too. Celeste took longer before giving a stiff nod of her own.

Amara watched me. “And when you find out who did it?”

“Then I decide what comes next.”

“For me?”

“For everyone involved.”

She swallowed. For a moment, I thought she might sit down again. Instead, she looked at Celeste’s ring and then directly at me.

“You have a woman you promised to marry. I have a wolf you think should not exist. There is one decision we can make ourselves.”

Nero went still.

I knew what she meant before she said it. The certainty in her face made something tighten beneath my ribs.

“If you want your life back, Thiago, then reject me.”