CHAPTER 4 – Gravity

"Kira." Lena's hand on my shoulder, her voice sounding far away. "Who is that?"

"I don't – " My voice came out rough. "Who is he?"

"That's Rowan. Alpha of the Black River Pack. He arrived last night for alliance talks with your dad." She paused, studying my face. "Why do you look like you're about to pass out?"

Rowan. Black River Pack.

I'd never heard of him. Never met him in my first timeline. But my wolf knew him, had been searching for him, screaming about the wrong mate because this was the right one.

"I need to go," I said suddenly.

"Go where?"

"Down there. Training grounds. I need to – " I didn't have a good excuse. My brain had short-circuited the moment our eyes met. "I need to move. Clear my head."

"Kira – "

"Please." I looked at her. "I know I'm not making sense. But I need to do this."

She studied me for a long moment, then sighed. "Fine. But I'm coming with you. And you're going to explain what just happened."

I changed quickly, pulling on training clothes with shaking hands. Every moment felt like an eternity. That pull toward Rowan was getting stronger, more insistent.

Go to him, my wolf urged. Now. He's ours. We're his. The way it should be.

"What if this is part of it?" I asked her. "What if feeling this bond now is just another way the witch is messing with me?"

Does this feel false? She was practically growling. Does this feel ANYTHING like Asher?

It didn't. It felt like every romance novel I'd ever read. Like coming home. Like breathing for the first time.

But I was scared. Terrified, actually. Because finding my real mate the day before I was supposed to bind myself to a false one felt like the universe playing the cruelest joke possible.

Or maybe it was a gift. A chance to do this right.

I followed Lena down the stairs and out toward the training grounds. Each step brought me closer to him. The bond pulled tighter, until I felt like I might snap.

He was still there. Still watching.

As we stepped onto the grounds, as that final distance closed, I felt the bond fully settle into place. Real and right and utterly undeniable.

He turned to face me fully now. We were maybe thirty feet apart. Close enough that I could see the exact shade of his eyes – pine green with flecks of gold. Close enough to see his chest rising and falling, like he was fighting for air just as much as I was.

Close enough to see the exact moment recognition and longing and grief all crossed his face at once.

Because he could smell it on me. His chest was rising and falling rapidly, like he was fighting 

his wolf for control. His eyes flashed gold – human to wolf and back – before he locked it down. Asher's scent, faint but there. The preparations for tomorrow's ceremony.

I watched his jaw clench. Watched his hands flex, like he wanted to reach for me but was stopping himself.

"Kira?" Lena whispered beside me. "What's happening? You're both just... staring."

I couldn't answer. Couldn't look away.

Rowan took one step forward. Then stopped, like he'd hit an invisible wall.

The air between us felt electric. Charged. Like one more step would either save us both or destroy everything.

My wolf was screaming: Go to him. He's ours. OURS.

But my human mind was screaming something else: You can't. Tomorrow you marry Asher. Your father will die if you don't. This – whatever this is – you can't have it.

Rowan's eyes hadn't left mine. And in them, I saw the same war I was fighting. Want versus reality. Fate versus timing.

The bond versus everything that was trying to keep us apart.

He took another step.

Then another.

I should stop this. Should turn around, go back inside, pretend I never saw him.

But my feet were moving. Closing the distance. Each step feeling inevitable, like gravity pulling me home.

We met in the middle of the training grounds.

Up close, the bond was overwhelming. I could smell him properly now – pine and earth and rain, clean and wild. Could see the exact green of his eyes, the scar through his eyebrow, the way his jaw was clenched like he was fighting for control.

"You," he said, and his voice was rough. Wrecked. "It's you."