Chapter 3

Kellan’s POV

The doors pushed open in the distance, and their shuffled feet filled the air. My eyes took her in, the girl whose fame had already spread through the Ashveil pack, the only stranger in a century who walked through the veil without dying.

And immediately, I felt the shift in the air.

“Alpha Kellan,” Tobias, my beta, started. “She…”

“She didn’t say anything, I know.” I stared as her eyes filtered through the room, trying to place her surroundings. There was no look of recognition in her eyes.

But in that moment, she looked at me, her deep hazel eyes shimmering with curiosity and a tinge of defiance. I felt her stare in every part of my being, and for some reason, I felt rattled.

Human.

My wolf stirred inside, just as a familiar warmth overtook my senses. My eyes fluttered closed on their own accord, and I took a long whiff in.

That scent. Like honey.

“Mate.”

My eyes flew wide open at once, a scowl on my face. That was impossible. I already had a mate, and she was dead. I held her limp body in my arms and prayed to the moon goddess to bring her back.

She died because of me.

I had no plans of taking a second chance mate.

"Who are you?" My voice echoed through the space, bouncing off the walls. Everyone flinched at the dominance of my Alpha presence.

Everyone except her.

She didn't stop looking at me, almost like time had stopped in that moment. I hated how my body reacted. I hated the way the lingering scent of honey dug its claws into my body, refusing to let go.

A scowl found its way to my face. “I never repeat myself, little girl.”

“I am not a little girl!”

“One more smart-tongue and it would be the last time you have a tongue.”

She opened her mouth again, but a low growl rumbled from my chest.

I watched her freeze in place.

Good.

It was the best decision she could make for herself right now.

“Who the hell are you?” My voice was smooth and low. I took a step closer, easily towering over her, just as my eyes darkened. The veil was supposed to kill her the minute she attempted to step through it. “Answer me. Now.”

The silence in the room was deafening, enough to get the warriors taking huge steps back. They knew what happened to anyone who disobeyed me.

But something else was happening to her. I saw the flames in her eyes, licking up from the inside. She tried to hold it in for as long as she could, the other warriors flinching as they let go of her.

She fell to the floor, folding herself into a ball. And then, she whimpered. A slight sound that made the hairs on my back stand, one that filled me with the strange urge to protect her.

“What is wrong with her?”

The leader of the warriors stepped forward, his head bowing so low that he almost reached the stone floor.

"She was that way in the woods, too, when we found her. She was screaming and… her skin. We couldn't hold on to her."

“Leave.”

My beta looked up. “Alpha Kellan…”

“Now, Tobias.”

I waited till I couldn't hear them anymore before looking back at her. The fire in her eyes had burned out, and now, she was getting on her feet.

“Your name.”

“Kaida.”

“Look at me.”

Her eyes found mine again. Every other person would have lowered them immediately, but not Kaida. Even humans felt my power, despite the fact that they couldn’t place its source.

There was something about her. It was the reason she was able to walk through the veil unscathed.

But what was it?

“Does that happen to you often?”

She nodded.

“I prefer you use your voice.”

“I was born that way,” she breathed. Her voice sounded like the birds of the skies nestled by the trees beside my window.

“I need more than that, Kaida.”

“It isn’t far.”

“What isn’t?”

“I don’t know your name.”

“I ask the questions here, Kaida.”

“That wasn’t a question.”

My upper lip raised in a smirk that didn’t reach my eyes. “What is that fire?”

Her eyes fell wide open instantly as she took a step closer to me. "How do you know that?" she asked with more amazement than curiosity. "Even my grandmother doesn't know that. She knows I am always restless, and it feels like my body is bending in two each time it happens, but she…"

“You feel your body bend in two?”

“The doctor said it is a genetic problem, and that I would be on drugs my whole life. I hate the drug. It is so purple and it gets stuck in my throat…”

“Stop talking.”

“Are you always this dominant?”

“Kaida!”

Her lips slammed shut. In all my life, I had never encountered anyone who spoke back at me. No one dared to.

This was new. Everything about her was new, from the damn veil to her chatter.

“And the fact that a human is your second-chance mate,” my wolf added.

“She is not my mate!”

“What?” Kaida angled her head.

I stared at her with a plain expression.

“I heard you! You said something about me not being your mate. What is that?”

“You heard wrong.” I pushed away from her, heading back to the huge chair in the centre of the room, more to keep myself from touching her than anything else. I was certain I had said that to my wolf.

How did she hear me?

“Selene,” I called through the mind link. “Come to the grand hall.”

She appeared in a few seconds, her long dress billowing behind her as she sauntered in.

“This is Kaida. She is to stay in the room right next to mine. Allow no other person access to her other than you, me, and Tobias."

“I don’t need your room,” Kaida shot frantically. “I want to go home. I need to see my grandmother. She will be so worried about me.”

“You will go home,” I growled from where I sat. “But only after I find out how you passed through the veil without dropping dead.”