Chapter 3: The Pack House
351 Words
The gates closed behind them with a sound like a prison door locking.
Maya tried not to panic. She told herself she could leave anytime. That Kade couldn’t force her. But the way her body relaxed the moment he touched her hand told her she was lying to herself.
“Don’t run,” Kade said quietly as they walked up the stone path. “You won’t make it past the gates.”
“How reassuring,” she muttered.
He didn’t smile, but the corner of his mouth twitched.
The pack house was bigger up close. Three stories of dark stone, windows glowing with warm light, the scent of woodsmoke and rain in the air. It smelled old. Powerful. Alive.
People were waiting in the entrance hall.
Dozens of them. All staring at her.
Maya froze. Some had hard expressions, some curious, some openly hostile. She felt like a rabbit thrown into a den of wolves.
Because she was.
“Silence,” Kade’s voice cut through the room like a blade. Everyone straightened instantly. “This is Maya. My mate. She is under my protection. Anyone who touches her without permission answers to me.”
A murmur ran through the crowd.
A woman at the front stepped forward. Tall, blonde, beautiful in a cruel way. Her eyes were ice cold as they raked over Maya.
“Alpha,” she said, bowing her head. Not out of respect. Out of challenge. “Are you sure about this? She’s human. Weak.”
Maya’s jaw clenched.
“I’m not human,” she said before she could stop herself.
The woman—Selene, Maya assumed—laughed softly.
“Then prove it.”
Kade stepped in front of Maya, his body a wall between her and the room.
“She doesn’t have to prove anything to you,” he said, voice dangerously low. “But if you want to test her, you’ll go through me first.”
The air in the room shifted. Heavy. Dangerous.
Maya realized something then.
This wasn’t just about her and Kade.
She’d walked into a war. And she was the prize.
- Writer
