Chapter Two: Caged Wolf

Liana pov

The room they locked me in was a gilded cage.

Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked the city, plush carpet soft beneath my still-bare feet, a king-sized bed draped in silk. 

It would have been beautiful if not for the iron reinforcements on the door and the guards stationed outside.

I paced the perimeter like the wolf I could never become, counting steps, measuring distances, cataloging potential weapons. The lamp was too heavy to throw effectively. The curtain rods were bolted down. 

Even the bathroom mirror was shatterproof.

Dominic Voss had prepared this prison well.

The mate bond hummed beneath my skin, a constant awareness of him somewhere in this massive compound. It pulled at me, demanding I seek him out, submit to the connection neither of us wanted.

 I pressed my palm against the cold window glass, trying to ground myself against the sensation.

"Fighting it only makes it worse."

I spun around. Dominic stood in the doorway, having entered without a sound. He had changed into dark jeans and a fitted black shirt, looking less like a mafia Alpha and more like sin wrapped in expensive fabric.

 His ice-blue eyes tracked my every movement.

"The bond," he continued, stepping inside and closing the door behind him. The click of the lock sounded too loud in the silence. "The more you resist, the more it demands."

"Then reject me." The words came out sharper than intended. "Break the bond. Kill me. Whatever it takes to end this."

Something dangerous flashed across his face. In three strides, he crossed the room and backed me against the window. He did not touch me, but his presence surrounded me, overwhelming every sense. 

This close, I could see flecks of amber in those blue eyes, smell cedar and smoke on his skin.

"Do not tempt me, little wolf." His voice dropped to a lethal whisper. "My wolf wants to protect you. But the man? The man wants to watch you bleed for every wolf your father killed."

My heart hammered against my ribs, but I refused to look away. "Then do it. I am not afraid of you."

"Liar." His gaze dropped to my throat where my pulse beat traitorously fast. "Your body knows what you refuse to admit. You are terrified."

He was right. I was terrified. Not just of him, but of this bond that made me want to lean into his warmth even as every survival instinct screamed to run.

"Why am I still alive?" I forced the question past the tightness in my throat. "You could have killed me in that war room. Pack law would have been satisfied."

Dominic's jaw clenched. For a long moment, he said nothing, the internal war playing out behind his eyes. When he finally spoke, the words sounded like they cost him something. "I cannot kill my mate. 

The wolf will not allow it."

"So I am your prisoner instead."

"Yes." He stepped back, putting distance between us that did nothing to ease the bond's pull. "Until Vincent surfaces. Then I will make him watch while I decide your fate."

"He will not come for me." The truth tasted bitter. "My father does not love me, Alpha Voss. I am a tool to him, nothing more. You are wasting your time."

Dominic's eyes narrowed, studying me with unnerving intensity. "You really believe that."

"I know that." I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly cold despite the heated room. "He kept me isolated my entire life. No friends, no pack connections, barely allowed to leave the estate. I was useful for managing his businesses, presentable enough for his respectable facade. But loved? No."

Something shifted in Dominic's expression, a crack in his ruthless mask. "How long have you been unable to shift?"

The question threw me. "Since I was twelve. An accident, my father said. I do not remember it."

"You do not remember." He repeated the words slowly, as if testing their weight. "What else do not you remember from before you were twelve?"

My stomach twisted. "Why does that matter?"

"Answer the question."

"Nothing." The admission made me feel exposed, vulnerable. "I remember nothing before waking up in a hospital at twelve years old. Father said the accident caused trauma, that the memories might never return."

Dominic went very still, a predator catching an unexpected scent. "And the medication? The pills Vincent made you take daily?"

How did he know about those? "For my condition. To help with." I stopped, realizing I did not actually know what they were for. Father had simply told me to take them, and I had. Every day for eleven years.

"When did you last take them?"

"Three days ago." The same day Father disappeared. The same day the nightmares started.

Dominic cursed in Italian, vicious and low. He pulled out his phone, typing rapidly. "Marco. Get Dr. Volkov to the north tower. Now. 

And bring me every file we have on Project Sanguis."

"What is Project Sanguis?" Dread pooled in my stomach.

He looked at me, and for the first time, I saw something other than anger in his eyes. Something that might have been a pity.

"The reason your father kept you caged, little wolf." He moved toward the door, then paused. "And the reason you were never supposed to meet me."

"Wait, what does that mean?"

But he was already gone, leaving me alone with questions that made my skin crawl and the ghost of nightmares I could not quite remember.

Behind my eyes, a fragment surfaced: a young boy with ice-blue eyes, laughing as he taught me to track in gardens that looked exactly like the ones below my window.

I have been here before.