Chapter 3
1615 Words
Haliya
"I told you to be patient," he said, his voice as sharp and cold as a blade.
I froze.
My breath caught in my throat as Kieran stepped out from the shadows of the stone hallway. The torchlight flickered against his face, casting hard angles and making his eyes burn gold in the dim glow. He looked just like he did the first night—cold, uptight… dangerous.
But this time, there was no moonlight between us. No crowd. No chaos.
Just me… and him.
His footsteps echoed with quiet authority as he moved closer, slow and deliberate like a predator approaching prey. My body screamed to run. To bolt back into the darkness and disappear into the trees, where his voice couldn’t find me.
But I couldn’t move.
There was something unnatural about it.
The bond.
It pulled at me like an invisible chain wrapped around my ankles. Not with pain, but with weight, something heavy and forbidden. I wanted to escape. I wanted to scream. And yet… my body wouldn’t listen.
“Are you planning to escape?” he asked, stopping just a few feet in front of me.
His voice didn’t rise. It didn’t shake. It didn’t even sound angry.
It was worse.
It was calm.
Like he’d already expected this.
My heart thundered in my chest. I could feel every beat echoing in my ears. His presence suffocated the air between us, thickening the tension like a storm before lightning.
“I…” I swallowed hard. “What do you think?”
His gaze darkened, unreadable.
“I think,” he said, “you still don’t understand what’s at stake.”
“What’s at stake?” I snapped, finally finding my voice. “You kidnapped me. You locked me in a room. You refused to answer anything, and now you expect me to wait around like I’m some clueless pup?”
His jaw tightened.
I didn’t care.
“You say you’re protecting me, but from what? You talk in riddles, Kieran. You expect obedience, but I don’t even know who the hell you are.”
Something flickered in his expression. Guilt? Regret?
No—he masked it too fast.
“Is that why you ran?” he asked quietly. “Because you think I’m the enemy?”
“I don’t think,” I growled. “I know.”
He stepped closer.
I didn’t move.
If he wasn’t the enemy like he claimed… then why had he hurt Cain?
Cain—my Beta, my protector, had always been there. Loyal, dependable. He would’ve fought the world for me. He could have protected me.
But Kieran didn’t give him the chance.
He didn’t reason. He didn’t ask. He just smashed Cain to the ground like he was nothing. Like someone in the way.
And now he dared to say he was my savior?
My protector?
What a twisted joke.
“Do I look that evil to be your enemy?” he asked, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.
“Yes.”
The word came sharp, like the edge of a blade I wasn’t afraid to press between us.
He blinked, mock-offended, but not surprised. “Brutal, little flame. How can you say that to your mate?”
He pressed a hand to his chest, pretending to be wounded. “Right here. That hurt.”
I rolled my eyes, but inside, the word mate coiled tightly in my chest. He said it so casually. So lightly. Like it was a game.
“You throw that word around like it means nothing,” I muttered.
“It means everything,” he said, suddenly serious. The humor in his eyes faded, replaced by something… raw.
I looked at him again, really looked. He was handsome, sure—tall, strong, carved like someone made for battle—but none of that mattered.
I didn’t know him.
Not his past. Not his truth. Not his heart.
And just because the moon tied some invisible string between us didn’t mean I’d blindly follow it.
“Where am I, Kieran?” I asked, forcing my voice to steady, dragging the conversation away from the mate bond. I didn’t want to think about it anymore.
I didn’t want to feel that pull. That weight.
I’d reject him. I will reject this bond. I don’t care how sacred it’s supposed to be.
He glanced around lazily, like we were just strolling through a garden and not trapped in some stone corridor while the walls groaned from whatever threat was lurking nearby.
“Where do you think?” he said with that irritating calmness. “Take a guess.”
I grit my teeth.
I was so close to punching him.
Sure, he was strong. Sure, he looked like he could knock out a rogue bear in one swing. But I wasn’t weak. I may not have shifted long ago, but my father trained me with fists and instinct long before my wolf ever stirred.
My father…
The thought hit me like a blow to the chest.
I inhaled shakily, my arms falling to my sides. I hadn’t heard his voice, hadn’t smelled his familiar scent since the night of the attack. I remembered his eyes through the flames—how he pushed my mother behind him and shifted mid-run.
Kieran said they’re alive but not okay.
How would he know that?
Unless—
Unless he was connected to the wolves who attacked us.
I turned on him, eyes narrowing. “You never answered me.”
He said nothing.
The silence stretched thin, almost snapping.
“Fine,” I said through clenched teeth. “Don’t tell me where I am. Keep your secrets. But at least tell me where my family is? What happened to my father, my mother… Cain?”
Still, he didn’t speak.
But his eyes shifted.
Not with guilt.
With something colder.
Something caged.
“How do you know they’re barely living?” I asked again, this time slower, sharper. “What exactly did you see, Kieran? Or was it your doing?”
That made him flinch.
It was barely noticeable but I caught it. I stepped back, my heart pounding.
“You are connected to them, aren’t you?” I whispered. “To the ones who destroyed everything that night.”
His jaw clenched.
I saw it, the struggle in his posture, the tension in his shoulders.
“Kieran,” I said, voice rising, “what did you do?”
His lips parted, hesitation flickering in his eyes just long enough for me to see it.
“I wasn’t part of the attack,” he said flatly. “I didn’t touch your pack. I swear it.”
The words fell out too fast. Too clean.
And I didn’t buy it.
“Oh, really?” I scoffed, stepping closer. “Then how do you know they’re alive but barely surviving? How did you find me in the middle of chaos? Why were you able to walk through it like you knew where I’d be?”
He didn’t answer.
Instead, his jaw tightened, his body going rigid like stone.
“You’re lying,” I hissed. “You may not have raised claws against them, but you know who did. You’re hiding something and I swear to the Moon, if you’re part of whatever storm destroyed my family—”
“Enough.”
His voice snapped, sharp and sudden, slicing the space between us like a whip. His golden eyes darkened, no longer amused, no longer dancing with that dangerous flirt of a smirk.
They were hard.
Unreadable.
The change in him was instant. His entire mood turned cold, the air tightening with pressure I couldn’t explain. My wolf whimpered inside me, sensing the shift.
“We’re done talking,” he muttered.
Before I could speak, his hand shot out and grabbed my wrist, not rough, but firm enough to steal my breath.
“Let go of me!” I snapped, trying to jerk away, but he was already dragging me down the corridor.
“No more questions.”
“You expect me to just shut up and follow like some broken thing?” I spat.
He didn’t reply.
He moved fast, forcing me to stumble to keep up as we weaved through a maze of turns, torchlight blurring past the stone walls. Unlike the quiet wooden halls I’d been trapped in before, this part of the structure felt colder. Sterile. Unforgiving.
Finally, we stopped in front of a large metal-reinforced door.
Kieran pushed it open, dragging me inside without warning.
The room was… different.
Gone were the warm, rustic wooden walls of the room I woke up in yesterday. This place was made entirely of thick brick and gray cement. The walls stretched high, nearly to a vaulted ceiling, and the single window was nothing but a slitted rectangle near the top, too small to squeeze through.
It felt like a bunker.
A fortress.
Or worse… a cell.
“You’re locking me up again?” I asked bitterly, trying to yank my wrist free.
“No,” he said, finally letting go. “This room doesn’t lock from the outside.”
I rubbed at my wrist, glaring.
“So what, I’m just supposed to sit here until you feel like telling me the truth?”
He didn’t answer.
He turned to the doorway.
“I’ll send food,” he said without looking back. “Don’t try to run again.”
“Kieran—!”
But he was already gone.
And this time, he didn’t even bother to slam the door.
He just walked away.
And left me in the cold silence once more.
- Writer
