The Alpha's Rebel Heart

CHAPTER FOUR: Trapped

Wren's Pov

I didn't wait to see what came next.

The second his eyes flashed gold, every instinct in my body screamed at me to run, and for once, I listened without arguing. I turned and shoved through the stunned crowd, ignoring the whispers erupting behind me, ignoring Briar's shocked laugh and Elias's low whistle, ignoring everything except the desperate need to put walls between me and whatever had just happened in that ring.

I ducked into the training hall and didn't stop until I found the old locker room, empty and quiet, the door swinging shut behind me with a heavy metal clang. I pressed my back against a row of lockers and slid down until I hit the floor, dragging in ragged breath after ragged breath.

I'd actually hit him. The Alpha who'd conquered my entire pack in a single afternoon, and I'd cracked my fist across his jaw in front of everyone.

Part of me was terrified. A bigger part of me, one I barely recognized, felt something close to satisfaction.

I didn't get long to sit with either feeling.

The door burst open with enough force to rattle the lockers around me. I scrambled to my feet just as Kane Voss filled the doorway, blocking out the light behind him, his massive frame somehow making the entire room feel smaller.

"Nobody hits me," he said, voice low and rough, "and just walks away."

"You told me there were no rules," I shot back, backing up until my shoulder blades hit cold metal. "I followed your rules."

He stepped inside and let the door swing shut behind him, the click of the latch sounding unbearably loud in the sudden quiet. He moved closer, slow and deliberate, like a predator that already knew there was nowhere for me to go.

"Most wolves in this pack would rather kneel than test me," he said. "You didn't even hesitate."

"I don't kneel," I said, lifting my chin even as my heart slammed against my ribs. "Not to you. Not to anyone."

Something flickered across his face — not anger, though I'd expected anger. It looked almost like amusement, sharp and dangerous. He closed the last of the distance between us until he was standing right in front of me, close enough that I had to tilt my head back to hold his gaze.

"You're not afraid of me," he said. It wasn't a question.

"Should I be?"

"Everyone else is."

"I'm not everyone else."

His grey eyes moved over my face slowly, and then — I watched it happen, watched his nostrils flare as he leaned in a fraction closer, breathing me in like he was trying to memorize something. My whole body went rigid, every nerve suddenly hyperaware of how close he was, how his heat seemed to radiate straight through the thin space between us.

"What are you doing?" My voice came out breathless in a way I didn't like.

"You smell different," he murmured, almost to himself. "Not like the rest of them."

I didn't know what that meant, and I was too busy trying to remember how to breathe properly to ask. My back was pressed hard against the lockers, his broad shoulders blocking any path around him, and for the first time since I'd walked back onto Ashwood land, I felt something other than anger or grief or determination.

I felt trapped in a way that didn't entirely feel bad, and that terrified me more than anything else that had happened all day.

"Move," I said, but it came out softer than I meant it to.

He didn't move. Instead, he leaned down, slow enough that I could have stopped him if I'd really wanted to, until his mouth was right beside my ear, his breath warm against my skin.

"Nobody hits me and gets away with it," he whispered, low and rough, "but I think I might make an exception for you."

My pulse roared in my ears. I opened my mouth to say something — anything — but no words came out.

"Careful, little wolf," he added, pulling back just enough to look me in the eyes again, gold flickering at the edges of that cold grey. "I don't know what you are to me yet. But I intend to find out."

Before I could respond, before I could even process what he'd just said, the door banged open behind him.

"Alpha!" A guard's voice, urgent and out of breath. "There's a situation at the eastern checkpoint. They need you immediately."

Kane held my gaze one more second, something unreadable passing behind his eyes, before he finally stepped back and turned toward the door. He paused at the threshold and glanced back at me once.

"This isn't finished," he said.

Then he was gone, leaving me alone in the locker room with my heart still hammering and absolutely no idea what had just happened between us — or why some traitorous part of me didn't want it to stop.