CHAPTER THREE COLLISION
1301 Words
Rachel didn’t remember moving.
One moment she was staring out the window, heart pounding, breath frozen, mind unraveling.
And the very next, she was locking the door, bolting it, dragging the small table in front of it with shaking hands.
Kylian clung to her shirt, frightened by her sudden panic.
“Mummy, who is that man?”
His voice was tiny. Too tiny. It punctured something inside her.
She knelt beside him, brushing his curls back from his forehead even though her hands trembled uncontrollably.
“No one, he's nobody. Ok?” she lied softly.
But her mark burned under her skin, hot, alive, undeniable, screaming the truth
Mate.
Kael.
He found you.
She pressed her forehead against Kylian's, swallowing her rising sob.
She had imagined this moment.
Begged for it.
Dreaded it.
Prepared for it.
And yet nothing could’ve readied her for seeing him like that, bigger, stronger, impossibly powerful, radiating Alpha energy so thick it felt like the air around him bent. He was nothing like the doe eyed boy she’d loved at seventeen.
He was something carved from storms and survival. And she was terrified of him.
Terrified of what he wanted.
Terrified of what the pack wanted.
Terrified of losing Kylian.
Terrified of losing herself once more. She had only just gotten it back on track.
A knock sounded at the door. It sounded gentle and careful as though the person was being considerate of the door. But still a knock, Rachel froze. It was too soon and she wasn't ready. Her hands shook violently.
“Mummy?” Kylian whispered. “Is it bad people again?”
“No baby,” she whispered, even though every cell in her body screamed yes. “No, sweetheart. Just… hold onto me.”
The knock came again, louder this time, but not threatening. More like a question than a demand.
“Rachel.”
Her entire spine turned to ice.
His voice. It was freezing yet scalding. It was unfair for him to have such an effect over her even after all these years. It was the mark, definitely.
His voice was deep, rough, low, smoothed by years but still painfully familiar. It raked across her heart like claws.
Kael.
The name echoed inside her like thunder.
She stood up slowly, her legs barely holding her. She walked toward the door, but only close enough to rest her palm flat against the wood between them.
“Please open,” Kael murmured.
She shut her eyes.
How many nights had she dreamed of him saying those words? How many nights had she begged the moon to let her hear his voice again even if it was one more time? Too many. Far too many.
This wasn’t a dream come true. This was a threat to the life she was building for herself and Kylian.
“I won’t,” she said, surprised her voice didn’t break. “You shouldn’t be here.”
A low exhale. The kind that sounded like someone had punched the air out of his chest.
“I’ve been looking for you for six years.”
“Go away.” Her voice cracked under the weight of it. “Don’t say things like that.”
“It’s the truth.”
She shook her head fiercely. “You’re an Alpha now. You shouldn’t want anything to do with me.”
He was silent for a moment. She imagined him on the other side, head lowered, jaw tight, fists clenched the way he used to when he was overwhelmed.
Then he spoke up,
“You smell scared.”
Her breath hitched.
“I won’t hurt you,” he said softly, voice steady and sure. “I could never bring you harm.”
But he had. Not by choice, but he had.
“You should leave, Kael.”
“I can’t.”
Her pulse stumbled in her throat, stopping her from speaking.
“My wolf won’t move,” he continued in a low voice. “Not until I know you and the child are safe.”
Rachel's stomach twisted violently.
The child.
Her grip on the door tightened.
He had seen Kylian.
She knew the exact moment he’d recognized the truth, the way he froze, the way the bond sparked like an electric wire between them. She had no idea what he would do about it.
Rachel swallowed hard. “You have no right to him, please go.”
Another exhale. This one much rougher.
“Rachel… you know he’s mine.”
“No!” Tears burned behind her eyes. “Don’t you dare say that. Don’t you dare come here and claim him like you didn’t abandon us even without meeting him.”
Silence.
Then she heard it, the sound of knuckles brushing lightly against the wood.
Like he was touching her through it.
“I didn’t abandon you.”
“Kael...”
“They would’ve killed you,” he said quietly, voice breaking. “And him. They made me choose between your death and my exile.”
Her breath crumpled inside her chest.
He continued, each word trembling with buried agony,
“I left to survive long enough to come back for you. To become strong enough to protect you.”
Rachel's tears spilled silently.
She hated how much she wanted to believe him. Hated how her soul leaned toward his voice like a starving thing. Hated how her mark pulsed in painful recognition.
“I know you’re afraid,” Kael murmured. “I feel it.”
Her hand dropped from the door like it had burned her.
“Don’t say that,” she whispered.
“I can’t turn the bond off,” he said. “Not anymore.”
“Stop!”
“Rachel… open the door.”
She squeezed her eyes shut, trembling.
She couldn’t.
If she saw him, really saw him, she wouldn’t have the strength to resist whatever came next.
“I want to talk,” Kael said softly. “Just talk.”
“Talking is what got us into this,” she whispered.
Silence stretched, heavy and aching.
Then the worst possible thing happened, Kylian toddled to the door, tiny fingers reaching for the lock.
She reacted fast, scooping him up, but she was not fast enough and Kael had heard it.
His breath hitched on the other side of the door.
“Rachel…”
She held Kylian's head against her shoulder, tears falling silently onto his curls.
“Please,” she whispered. “Please go.”
“I can’t leave you again.”
“Kael please...”
“I won’t survive it,” he said plainly.
Her heart broke clean in half.
His voice dropped to a whisper that sank through the cracks in the wood, through the cracks in her armor, through the cracks in everything she had spent years building.
“I love you.”
Her knees buckled. Her back slid down the door until she was sitting on the floor, holding her son, breathing in ragged gasps.
“I love you,” he repeated. “I never stopped.”
Rachel pressed her forehead against the door and let herself break for a single heartbeat.
Just one.
Then she inhaled sharply, wiped her face, and forced steel into her voice.
“You can’t come in,” she whispered.
Kael’s voice was rough, but it was steady
“Then I’ll wait outside. Till you're ready”
Her breath caught.
“Hours. Days. Weeks. I don’t care.”
He paused.
“You and my child are here. I’m never leaving you again.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
Outside, the Alpha of one of the most powerful packs in the continent sat down on the concrete beside her door, silent, unmoving, determined.
And she felt every heartbeat of his through the bond she thought had been killed.
- Writer
