6
939 Words
KAYE'S POV
Warmth reached me first.
Not comfort. Just enough heat to make my body notice the absence of cold. My eyes opened slowly, blinking against pale morning light. The ceiling above me was smooth, faintly yellow, unfamiliar. Not stone. Not the basement. Not the freezer.
My wolf snapped awake in the same instant.
Fear slammed through me so fast I almost bolted upright. She pressed tight against my ribs, trembling, warning me that this place was worse than where I had been. Above ground. Higher in the packhouse. Surrounded by wolves. No shadows. No escape routes she could scent.
I forced myself to sit up carefully. A blanket slid down my shoulders. My muscles screamed as warmth crawled painfully back into my hands and feet. Pins and needles burned through my fingers.
The room was small and clean. A narrow bed. A dresser. A window cracked open just enough to let in cold air and pine scent. Second floor. I knew the difference instinctively.
And I was not alone.
Ethan sat near the window in a straight-backed chair. One hand rested on the armrest. The other tapped his knee once before going still again. His posture was rigid, controlled, like he was holding something back with force alone.
My breath caught.
He looked at me the moment I moved. The mate bond stirred, a faint, unwelcome hum under my skin, tight and sharp like pulled wire.
“You’re awake,” he said.
His voice was calm, but the room seemed to shrink around it. My wolf flinched anyway. Being near him made her bristle and curl at the same time. The bond was there, unavoidable, tugging whether either of us wanted it or not.
I swallowed. “Why am I here?”
He studied me for a long moment. Measuring. Deciding. “Because someone tried to kill you.”
The words settled cold in my chest.
I pulled my knees closer, fighting the tremor that followed. His eyes tracked it. Of course they did.
“You were locked in the freezer,” he continued. “From the outside. Long enough to push your wolf into shutdown.”
Images flashed. Ice. Darkness. The way my body had curled without asking permission.
I shoved the memory down.
Ethan’s gaze sharpened. “Do you have enemies beyond the obvious?”
A hollow sound slipped out of me before I could stop it. “Beyond the obvious? You mean beyond the pack that already wants me dead?”
His jaw tightened, but he let me speak.
“No,” I said, forcing steadiness into my voice. “I’ve been running for six years. I don’t have allies. I don’t stay anywhere long enough for anyone to care. No one knows me well enough to plan something like that.”
“Someone did.”
The words were flat. Unforgiving.
“If it was a pack wolf,” he went on, “we would smell it. Rage. History. Guilt. Something. But what I found wasn’t pack behavior.”
I looked at him despite myself. “What did you find?”
He leaned forward and held something up between his fingers.
Small. Black. No bigger than my fingertip.
A camera lens.
“This was hidden in the ceiling,” he said. “Military-grade surveillance. Not something a kitchen worker installs.”
My breath stilled.
Someone had watched.
“How long was it there?” I asked quietly.
“Long enough that we should have noticed,” he said. “Whoever placed it knows how to disappear.”
My wolf whimpered. She hated this. Hated knowing danger had been present even in daylight.
Ethan didn’t take his eyes off me. “If this is tied to you, I need to know why.”
“It’s not,” I said too fast. “I don’t have anyone. I swear.”
He leaned back, but his focus never softened. “Your father might have.”
My stomach twisted. “What are you saying?”
“You were away when the fires happened,” he said. “Kieran Muani wasn’t. Men like him don’t act without ripples. Ripples leave shadows.”
I stayed quiet.
“Think,” he said. “Did he ever mention anyone? A threat. A name. Anything strange.”
I shook my head. “He didn’t talk about his work. He kept things quiet.”
“But you heard something,” Ethan said softly.
I froze.
“You reacted,” he continued. “Your heart skipped.”
His senses were too sharp. My body had betrayed me.
He stood. Not aggressive. Just close enough that the air changed.
“Kaye,” he said. “If your father had enemies beyond this pack, then what happened to you wasn’t random.”
My chest tightened. Memories surfaced that I had buried deep.
Not the fire.
The night before.
My father’s voice, low and urgent. Another voice on the phone, one I never saw.
And a name.
“I…” My throat closed. “There was a word. I never understood it.”
Ethan’s eyes locked onto mine. “Say it.”
I closed my eyes.
“ Tulip.”
The sound felt wrong in my mouth. My wolf recoiled like it carried teeth.
“I don’t know what it means,” I whispered. “I never did.”
Ethan went completely still.
No anger. No interruption. Just silence so heavy it felt like the floor had shifted beneath us.
He stared at me as if the shape of something enormous had finally come into focus.
And in that silence, I knew whatever Tulip was, it had just changed everything.
- Writer
