Chapter 4
677 Words
But I wasn’t alone.
In the reflection of the glass window, just beyond the edge of the firelight, I saw him.
Not a dream.
Not a ghost.
A man stood at the foot of my bed—shadowed, silent. Watching.
Every instinct in me screamed to run, to shift, to fight—but something deeper, something older held me frozen.
He stepped closer, and the firelight finally touched him.
Dark hair. Sharp jaw. Eyes like burning steel.
Kellan.
The Alpha.
The force I had felt earlier. The presence I could not shake.
Neither of us spoke.
We just stared—caught in some strange gravity neither of us seemed able to break.
And somewhere, buried under the fear and shock, I could feel it starting.
A tether.
A recognition.
The first stirring of a bond that had waited lifetimes to awaken.
The silence stretched, thick and thrumming.
Kellan didn’t move closer. He didn’t have to. His presence filled the room like a second fire—warmer and infinitely more dangerous than the one crackling in the hearth.
I sat up slowly, clutching the sheets around me like a shield.
“What are you doing here?” My voice came out steadier than I expected, even as my heart slammed against my ribs.
Kellan’s eyes flickered—just for a moment. Amusement? Approval? I couldn’t tell.
“You were dreaming,” he said, voice low and deep, rough like smoke. “You called out.”
I stiffened. “I didn’t.”
But even as I said it, I remembered the way I had screamed into the mist, reaching for the silver wolf.
He heard, my wolf whispered inside me, her voice fierce and awake for the first time in what felt like years. He came. He always will.
I pressed my lips into a hard line. No. I wasn’t ready to buy into whatever fantasy my instincts were selling. I barely knew this man. Alpha or not.
I shifted on the bed, trying to force some space between us even though he hadn’t moved a step.
“You shouldn’t be here,” I said more firmly.
A slow tilt of his mouth—a smile, but not a kind one.
“This is my house,” Kellan said. “You’re under my roof. My protection. My rules.”
The way he said it—there was no threat, but there was no mistaking the weight behind the words either. A reminder that while he hadn’t claimed me, I was already under his shadow.
My wolf practically preened inside me.
He’s strong. Good. We will need strength.
We? I pushed back mentally, but she only growled low and deep—a sound of frustration and hunger tangled together.
Kellan’s eyes tracked every flicker of my emotions, like he could read the battle happening inside me.
“You felt it too,” he said quietly.
I opened my mouth, desperate to deny it.
To tell him he was wrong.
That he was arrogant, presumptive.
But the words wouldn’t come.
Because they would be a lie.
My wolf huffed, a sound full of pride. Fated. Chosen. You cannot run from this.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said instead, my voice scraping raw.
Kellan’s gaze sharpened, pinning me like a blade through cloth.
“Don’t lie to me, little wolf.”
Heat flared under my skin—fury, embarrassment, fear.
“I’m not yours,” I spat before I could think better of it.
A dangerous glint flashed in his eyes, but he only stepped back into the shadows, letting distance yawn between us once more.
“Not yet,” Kellan said, voice like a promise and a threat all in one.
And then, like a ghost, he was gone. No sound of footsteps. No creak of a door.
Just silence.
Just the furious pounding of my heart and the fierce, exultant growl of my wolf singing through my blood.
We have found him.
But the question still burned hotter than any bond:
Would I accept it?
- Writer
