Chapter 14
345 Words
It felt like fire in her veins.
Around them, the pack began murmuring quietly. They could sense something had changed. Wolves were sensitive to bonds. To scent shifts.
Ryder’s hand slid from her shoulder to her arm as if to steady her.
The contact burned.
Her skin felt too tight. Her senses are too sharp. She could smell him everywhere now. Could feel where he stood even without looking.
The bond had locked.
This cannot be happening.
Her mission flashed through her mind like lightning.
Infiltrate.
Gain trust.
Kill the Alpha.
Ryder Blackwood must die.
And now fate had tied her to him.
Ryder’s thumb brushed slightly against her wrist. His jaw was tight. He looked just as shaken as she felt.
“You feel it,” he said quietly.
It was not a question.
Nova stepped back abruptly.
The distance did nothing. The pull remained. A thin burning thread stretching between them.
“I need air,” she said quickly.
Her voice did not sound like her own.
Ryder took a step forward. “Nova.”
That protective edge in his tone made her panic worse.
The pack was watching closely now.
She could not let them see fear.
“I need air,” she repeated more firmly.
Without waiting for permission, she turned and pushed through the circle. No one stopped her. The wolves parted automatically.
The moment she left the courtyard, she broke into a run.
The forest swallowed her quickly.
Her heart raced so hard it hurt. The bond pulsed with every beat. Warm and painful and alive.
Mate.
The word echoed again and again.
She stumbled to a stop near the river and gripped a tree trunk to steady herself.
Her wolf was no longer restless. It was alert. Focused. Connected.
It wanted him.
It recognized him.
It did not care about revenge.
“No,” she breathed.
She pressed her palm against her chest as if she could rip the feeling out.
Fifteen years of training.
Fifteen years of hate.
All of it threatened by a single word.
Mate.
- Writer
