Chapter 6 : Forced Proximity Burns
861 Words
==Elara Voss==
The words hung in the air like smoke after a fire. My whisper about the Goddess trying to kill me through him seemed to echo off the walls. Kai stood frozen, his face a storm of emotions I could not read.
The pack kept muttering behind him, some voices rising again in anger, others falling into uneasy silence. His mother watched us both with sharp, worried eyes.
Kai finally moved. He scooped me up without asking, cradling me against his chest like I might break. “Enough,” he said to the room, voice low but carrying that Alpha power. “She needs rest. Clear out.”
They listened, but not happily. The beta shot me one last dark look before the door closed. Kai carried me down the hall to a different part of the house, a quieter wing with heavier doors and fewer windows. The Alpha’s wing. My new prison.
He pushed open a large door at the end and set me on a wide bed covered in soft furs. The room smelled strongly of him. Pine and smoke and that wild edge that made my stupid body react even when my mind screamed to fight.
“You are staying here now,” he said. He crossed his arms and looked down at me. “No more running back to your shop.
I have already sent word. Your hours are canceled until I say otherwise. Guards will be posted outside the door and at every entrance. You will be safe.”
Safe. The word tasted bitter. I pushed myself up on my elbows, ignoring the fresh ache in my ribs. “You cannot do that.
Those people need me. My remedies keep fevers down and wounds clean. You think your pack will just accept me sitting here like some fragile doll?”
Kai’s jaw tightened. “I can and I did. The rival pack is still out there hunting you. My own wolves are not fully convinced either. Until I sort this mess, you stay where I can protect you.”
We argued for what felt like hours. I threw every reason at him. My independence. My work. The fact that locking me up made me feel like a prisoner instead of a mate.
He met every point with that stubborn Alpha logic, his protectiveness wrapping around me like chains made of concern. The more I pushed back, the closer he got, until we were nearly nose to nose.
By evening my energy ran out. Another pain attack crept in slow at first, then slammed into me full force. I gasped and doubled over, clutching my chest.
The silver veins under my skin flickered to life again, not as bright as before but enough to make me whimper.
Kai was there instantly. He climbed onto the bed behind me and pulled my back against his chest.
His arms wrapped around me carefully, one hand resting over my heart like he could hold the pain back by sheer will.
“Breathe with me,” he murmured against my hair. His voice was softer than I had ever heard it. “In slow. Out slow. I have got you.”
I wanted to hate how good it felt. His warmth seeped into my cold bones. His scent surrounded me, easing the sharp edges of the curse just enough to let me draw a full breath.
He kept murmuring low words while the worst of it passed. Things about strength and fate and how he would burn the world before he let it take me.
Simple promises spoken in that rough voice that cracked something deep inside my chest.
My heart cracked open a little more with every word. I hated it. I wanted more of it. The mate bond hummed between us, subtle but growing stronger.
Every time his fingers brushed my arm or his breath ghosted over my neck, a warm spark traveled through me. Not just comfort. Something hotter. Deeper. Dangerous.
Hours slipped by in the dark. He never let go. When the pain finally eased to a dull throb, I lay limp against him, exhausted but strangely safe for the first time in years.
His hand stroked slow circles on my back. Neither of us spoke much after that. The tension between us shifted from anger to something quieter and heavier.
Scent-bond tension that made my skin tingle and my pulse quicken whenever he shifted closer.
I fell asleep like that, wrapped in the Alpha who had upended my entire world.
Dawn light crept through the curtains when the door banged open hard enough to rattle the hinges.
Kai’s beta stormed in, face tight with urgency. He did not even glance at how we were tangled together on the bed.
“Alpha,” he said, voice clipped. “The healer just checked her. She is pregnant. And the pup’s heartbeat is already too strong for a human.”
The words hit like cold water. My eyes flew open. Kai’s body went rigid behind me.
His hand instinctively moved to rest over my stomach as the news sank in, changing everything once again in a single breath.
- Writer
