Bound To The North

Chapter 4 (Alpha POV)

The girl is a storm contained in human form.

I watch her chest rise and fall, the fire behind her eyes barely dimmed, even after the chains are gone. Most would collapse after a ride like that. Broken. Afraid. Compliant. Not her. Not Lyla Vale.

Her defiance tastes like challenge on the air — sharp, sweet, dangerous. I should be annoyed. I should punish her for every word, every shove, every spark of fury that flies from her like lightning. Instead, I feel something more… careful. Calculating.

She doesn’t know yet how much the bond unsettles her. How much it unsettles me. It hums between us, restless and raw, tugging in ways I can’t entirely predict. That first shift… she’s closer than she realises. The cold has pushed her, the fear, the fight, and the snow under her feet — all of it sharpening her instincts. By the time she shifts, she might be untamable.

I clamp my thoughts down before they wander. I cannot afford to admire her. Not yet. Not while she’s still mine only in name, not in trust, not in anything that matters.

The room smells faintly of blood and metal — hers, not mine. That’s my first mistake, letting my attention linger on it. She survived the chains, the ride, the cold. That alone should terrify me, and yet… I can’t look away.

One of the guards glances at me, waiting. I wave a hand, dismissing them silently. No one touches her. Not yet. Let her feel the space, let her understand that her defiance is hers — but she will not leave it unchecked.

I take a step closer to the west wing. Heated floors, a room she can lock from the inside — small concessions. She will push, she will test me, and I will let her. Only until the shift begins. Then she will learn that survival in my domain is not a courtesy. It is claimed.

And I will claim it, whether she wants me to or not.