**CHAPTER FOUR THE SCENT OF DESTINY**
1191 Words
Amara didn’t realize she was crying until Kael’s thumb brushed a tear from her cheek.
Not roughly.
Not possessively.
But with a gentleness so out of place on a man who had just fought monsters outside her window that it made her breath hitch.
He lowered his head slightly, studying her face with an intensity that stripped her bare.
“You’re trembling,” he murmured.
Of course she was trembling.
A creature had tried to break into her apartment.
A stranger with golden eyes had fought it—fought them—and then walked into her home like a war god wrapped in blood and shadows.
And yet she didn’t pull away from his touch.
She should have.
She knew she should have.
But something in his warmth steadied her pulse, even as thunder rolled through her chest.
“Are they gone?” she whispered.
Kael’s jaw tightened.
“Broken. Driven off. They won’t come near you tonight.”
Tonight.
The word weighed on her. Heavy. Promise and threat woven together.
“What were they?” she asked, voice shaking. “What did you fight?”
Kael stepped back slightly—not to distance himself, but to give her space. His hands dropped to his sides, but the air between them remained charged, humming like electric wire.
He took a slow breath, and when he spoke, his voice had softened into something solemn.
“Rogues.”
The word meant nothing to her.
“Rogues… what? Wolves? People?”
His eyes darkened.
“Both. And neither.”
She stared at him.
Her voice was a whisper.
“This isn’t real.”
Kael’s gaze softened—not pitying, but understanding.
“It feels unreal because you’ve lived your entire life behind a veil humans can’t see through.” His eyes glowed faintly, a reflection of some unseen moonlight. “But monsters don’t disappear just because you stop believing in them.”
Her breath trembled.
“You’re saying werewolves are real?”
He held her gaze steadily.
“I’m saying I am real.”
Her lips parted.
Her heartbeat stumbled.
Kael took a slow step toward her.
Not forceful.
Not demanding.
An invitation.
“If you want the truth,” he murmured, “I’ll show you.”
She swallowed hard.
Her voice was barely audible.
“Show me?”
Kael lifted his hand and placed it lightly on her wrist. The touch was warm—warmer than any human touch should be. A tingling sensation spread through her skin, traveling up her arm.
His voice dropped to a low vibration that made her pulse race.
“You feel that, don’t you?”
She did.
God, she did.
Like her blood recognized him.
He stepped closer—slow enough for her to stop him, certain she wouldn’t.
His breath whispered across her cheek.
“That pull between us—the reason you didn’t run from me, even when you should have…” His fingers slid gently to her pulse point, resting there. “It’s the mate bond. Ancient. Unbreakable. We find each other through scent… through fate… through soul.”
Her knees weakened.
“You can’t know that. You can’t know I’m—”
“My mate,” he finished for her.
He released her wrist only to lift his hand to her jaw, guiding her gaze up to his.
“You are. I feel it in every breath, every heartbeat.”
Amara shook her head slightly.
“This is too much.”
Kael exhaled slowly—as if struggling between restraint and instinct.
“I know.” His thumb grazed her cheekbone. “And I’m trying not to overwhelm you. But you need to understand something, Amara.”
His voice changed—deepening, vibrating with the quiet thunder of authority.
“The rogues didn’t come for you by accident.”
A pause.
“They came because I found you.”
Her blood ran cold.
“What does that mean?”
Kael’s jaw tightened.
“You don’t know it yet, but you’re the reason my world changed tonight. And the moment a mate-bond ignites for an Alpha…” His eyes flared gold. “…other wolves feel it. Some want to challenge it. Some want to claim what isn’t theirs.”
Her breath caught.
“Me?”
He nodded once.
“Yes. You.”
Silence settled like snowfall—soft but heavy, chilling her to the bone.
“Why would they want me?” she whispered.
Kael closed the distance between them again, his voice dark velvet.
“Because a mate to an Alpha is power.”
His fingers brushed her wrist. “She strengthens him.”
His palm grazed her waist. “Completes him.”
His gaze locked with hers. “And if she dies… he breaks.”
Amara’s breath shuddered.
“So they want to hurt you,” she whispered.
Kael’s expression sharpened with a lethal edge.
“They want to hurt us.”
The room felt suddenly too small, charged with something primal and frightening.
Amara stepped back—finally overwhelmed—but her back hit the hallway wall. She sucked in a shaky breath.
Kael followed slowly, keeping a respectful distance but refusing to break eye contact.
“You’re not trapped,” he murmured.
But she felt trapped—by fate, by fear, by him.
She looked away, whispering, “I don’t want any of this.”
Kael’s expression softened in a way she didn’t expect. He reached out and gently lifted her chin so she would look at him again.
“I know,” he said quietly. “But wanting or not… destiny has already chosen.”
Tears filled her eyes again.
His own gaze softened, a rare vulnerability peeking beneath the Alpha’s iron control.
“I swear to you, Amara,” he said softly, “I will never take what you don’t give.”
Her breath trembled.
“But I will protect you,” he continued, voice like iron wrapped in velvet. “Even if I have to bleed for it.”
The cut on his arm oozed darker blood. Amara’s gaze flickered to it.
“You’re hurt,” she whispered.
Kael looked down at it as though noticing for the first time.
“It’ll heal,” he murmured.
“How?” she insisted.
He lifted his glowing eyes to hers.
“Because I’m not human,” he said softly.
Her heart skipped painfully.
“Then… show me,” she whispered, surprising herself.
Kael stilled—his chest rising with a slow, controlled breath.
“Are you certain?” he asked, voice low.
“No,” she admitted.
“But show me anyway.”
For the first time, Kael smiled.
Not cocky.
Not dangerous.
Just… soft.
“Then don’t be afraid,” he whispered. “Whatever you see next—remember I would never harm you.”
And then—
slowly, deliberately—
Kael’s eyes began to shift.
The gold deepened.
Brightened.
Blazed like molten fire.
His pupils stretched into a wolf’s.
His breath thickened, rumbling with something ancient.
And Amara realized—
her world had already changed.
Forever.
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