Elara's Perspective
My sneakers pounded the marble floors, echoing like frantic heartbeats through the cavernous halls of the pack mansion. I didn't care who saw—pack members glancing from doorways, betas mid-conversation freezing with raised brows, omegas scurrying aside like shadows. I was a skittish cat bolting from the predator's gaze, tail bushed, claws retracted in pure panic. Kael's words in the SUV clawed at me: Family and fate. The pull. His voice, that gravelly tenderness wrapping around denial like velvet chains. Up the grand staircase I flew, skirt whipping against thighs slick with shameful need, breath ragged.
I slammed my bedroom door, the ocean mural rippling in the lamplight as if waves crashed in sympathy. Bag thudded to the floor, forgotten. Pacing commenced—back and f
