Chapter 5: Drawn into the Shadows

Clara's POV

The ceiling above me is made of rough-hewn stone, not the familiar white plaster of my bedroom. Panic flutters in my chest as I sit up, taking in my surroundings. This isn't my apartment. I don't recognize this place.

The room is elegant in a way that speaks of old money and older traditions. Heavy wooden furniture, Persian rugs, a fireplace that could fit a small car. Everything is expensive, tasteful, and completely foreign to my world of IKEA furniture and student loan payments.

Then the memories crash back.

The wolves in the alley. Their amber eyes and impossible voices. The blood, so much blood. And Kael… God, Kael transforming into something that shouldn't exist, moving like death incarnate as he tore those creatures apart.

"You're awake."

I spin toward the voice and there he is, sitting in a leather armchair like it's a throne. He's cleaned up since the alley… no blood or torn clothes. Just dark jeans and a gray sweater that does nothing to hide the power in his frame. But those silver eyes are the same, watching me with an intensity that makes my skin heat.

"Where am I?" My voice comes out hoarse, and I realize my throat is raw from screaming.

"Somewhere safe." He doesn't move from the chair, but I feel the weight of his attention like a physical touch. "How do you feel?"

"Confused. Scared." I swing my legs over the side of what I now realize is a massive four-poster bed. "What were those things? What are you?"

For a long moment, he doesn't answer. Just studies my face like he's trying to memorize it.

"My name is Kael Arden," he says finally. "And I'm what you might call a werewolf, though we prefer the term shapeshifter."

The words should sound ridiculous. Should make me laugh or call for help or run screaming. Instead, they settle into place like missing puzzle pieces, making sense of things that couldn't be explained any other way.

"Those wolves in the alley..."

"Bloodfang pack. My enemies." His jaw tightens. "They were hunting you because of me. Because you helped me, and now you carry my scent."

"Your scent?" I touch my skin unconsciously, remembering what the gray wolf said about being claimed.

"The bond between us." He stands abruptly, pacing to the fireplace. "It marked you as mine whether we wanted it or not."

Mine. The word sends heat spiraling through my belly, which is completely inappropriate given the circumstances.

"I don't understand any of this."

"You don't need to understand it." He turns to face me, and there's something desperate in his silver eyes. "You need to leave. Go back to your life, forget what you saw, forget about me."

"Just like that?" Anger flares, surprising me with its intensity. "After everything that's happened, you want me to pretend none of it was real?"

"Yes."

The flat certainty in his voice makes me stand up, facing him across the room. "What if I don't want to forget?"

"What you want doesn't matter." But his voice lacks conviction. "This world will destroy you, Clara. I've seen it happen before."

"To who?"

Pain flashes across his face. "To women who thought they could love a monster."

The words hit me like a slap. "Is that what you think you are? A monster?"

"I killed three wolves tonight with my bare hands. Tore them apart while you watched." He steps closer, and I can see the self-loathing in his eyes. "If that doesn't make me a monster, what does?"

"You saved my life."

"I put your life in danger by touching you in the first place."

We're closer now, close enough that I can feel the heat radiating from his body. The bond between us hums like a live wire, making it hard to think about anything except how right this feels, I don't understand what's going on.

"Maybe I don't care about the danger."

His eyes go wide. "You don't know what you're saying."

"Don't I?" I step closer, close enough to touch. "You feel it too. This pull between us. It's not going away just because you want it to."

"Clara..." My name sounds like a warning.

I reach up and press my palm against his chest, right over his heart. The same place I touched him in the clinic, where the bond first flared to life. His sharp intake of breath tells me he feels it too, that electric connection that defies explanation.

"Tell me you don't want this," I whisper. "You don't feel anything when I touch you, and I'll walk away right now."

What the hell am I doing, I feel so intoxicated. For a moment, I think he'll do it, he'll lie and push me away like he's been trying to do. But then his control snaps.

His hands frame my face, and his mouth crashes down on mine with desperate hunger. The kiss is nothing like the gentle romance novels promised, it's fierce, claiming, desperate. Like he's drowning and I'm his only salvation.

The bond explodes between us, sending pleasure racing through every nerve. I can feel his heartbeat as if it's my own, taste his desire on my tongue. This is more than physical attraction, it's recognition on a cellular level, like coming home after a lifetime of wandering.

"This is insane," he breathes against my lips, but he doesn't pull away.

"I know." I slide my hands under his sweater, needing to feel skin against skin. "I don't care."

What happens next feels inevitable, like the tide or sunrise. His careful control crumbles completely, and mine goes with it. We move together toward the bed, shedding clothes and inhibitions with equal desperation.

When he touches me, really touches me, the bond sings. Every caress sends waves of sensation through both of us, creating a feedback loop of pleasure that builds until I'm sure I'll shatter from the intensity. This isn't just physical, it's spiritual, magical, a claiming that goes deeper than flesh.

He whispers my name like a prayer as we move together, and I understand finally what it means to be his. Not owned, but completed. Two halves of something that was always meant to be whole.

Later, as we lie tangled in sheets that smell like him, I trace patterns on his chest and try to make sense of what just happened.

"The bond," I whisper. "Is it always like this?"

His arm tightens around me. "I don't know. It's never happened before."

"What do you mean?"

"You're the first woman who hasn't been destroyed by touching me." His voice carries centuries of loneliness. "The first who's made the bond feel like a gift instead of a curse."

I lift my head to look at him. "Then why do you still want me to leave?"

Pain shadows his features. "Because want and should are different things. Because loving me could cost you everything."

"What if I'm willing to pay that price?"

"You don't know what it is yet."

Probably not, I must be insane. But as I settle back against his chest, listening to the steady rhythm of his heart, I know one thing for certain, I'm already lost to him. The scared, rational part of me that should be running is drowned out by something deeper.

The bond between us pulses like a second heartbeat, and for the first time since David's betrayal, I feel complete.

Even if it's painful, I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.