MINE TO UNCHAIN

chapter three

POV: Wren

Nobody spoke.

The rogue's words hung between us like smoke.

Someone made sure you couldn't.

"You're lying," I whispered.

"Am I?"

His voice was soft, almost kind.

That scared me more than the chains had.

"Then explain the dreams."

My breath caught.

"What dreams?"

"The ones where you run through snow on four legs." His gold eyes held mine. "The ones where you wake up with your heart pounding and your hands shaking."

I had never told anyone.

Not Maren.

Not a single soul.

"Enough."

Cassian's voice cracked across the hall.

He stepped between us, shoulders rigid.

"The rogue goes to the east cells. Wren goes to her room. This ceremony is over."

"Alpha," a guard began, "the law says he's her mate. He can't be locked away."

"Then he'll be guarded."

The rogue chuckled.

"Careful, Cassian. Your hands are shaking too."

Cassian's jaw flexed.

He didn't look at me.

He didn't look at anyone.

That was when I knew.

Whatever the rogue knew, Cassian knew it too.

I didn't sleep.

At midnight, a knock sounded at my window.

Not the door.

The window, three floors up.

I grabbed the candlestick from my desk and pulled back the curtain.

Gold eyes stared back at me.

"You're supposed to be in a cell," I hissed through the glass.

"I'm supposed to be a lot of things."

He was perched on the stone ledge like it was a garden bench.

Silver burns still marked his wrists.

I should have screamed.

Instead I opened the window.

He slipped inside, silent as a shadow, and studied my tiny room: the stacks of records, the melted candles, the narrow bed.

"You live like a prisoner," he said.

"I live like a ghost."

His mouth tightened.

"Not for long."

"Who are you?"

He hesitated.

For the first time, the confidence cracked.

"My name is Kael."

The warmth in my chest flared at the sound of it.

"I'm not here to hurt you, Wren. I'm here because the bond woke tonight, and when it woke, so did the seal on your wolf."

"What seal?"

He stepped closer and lifted his hand toward my collarbone, stopping an inch from my skin.

"May I?"

My pulse thundered.

I nodded.

His fingers brushed the hollow of my throat.

Pain flashed, hot and sudden.

Something glowed beneath my skin, a thin silver line, like a chain wrapped around my heartbeat.

I gasped.

"That," Kael said quietly, "is what's been keeping her silent."

Tears blurred my vision.

"Who put it there?"

His eyes darkened.

"The one person in this pack you trust most."

The door handle turned.

Maren's voice drifted through the wood.

"Wren, dear? I brought you some tea."