POV: Kai, The Hybrid
She frowned; the word mate hung in the air between us like a knife. She did not say it, but neither did she refute it. The hunger in my chest was an amoral thing, but a part of me recoiled. I would not make her choose my bond because my blood made a mark.
The moss at the mouth of the cavern quivered. Footsteps, many and close, moved in rhythm. Steel whispered. Voices—but muffled. The pack hadn't yet decided whether to come in with teeth or to talk with knots in their throats.
Hunter's scent thickened and rode the front of the others, like a flag. He smelled like regret and steel and the old arrogance of alphas, who think they can fix everything by blade.
My hand clenched into a fist. I could step out and face him, show him what his choice had birthed, tear the ide
