CHAPTER TWO
1199 Words
I woke up in a cage.
Not a literal cage, but close enough. The room was small and windowless, with concrete walls and a heavy metal door. A single bulb hung from the ceiling, casting harsh yellow light. There was a cot in the corner with a thin blanket, and a bucket in the opposite corner.
My head pounded. My mouth tasted like copper and chemicals. The drugs were still working through my system, making everything feel distant and wrong.
I sat up slowly, fighting nausea. How long had I been out? Hours? Days? There was no way to tell time in this concrete box.
My wolf stirred, anxious and angry. I could feel her pacing inside me, wanting out, wanting to fight. I pressed my palm against the cold floor and took deep breaths.
The door opened.
I was on my feet before I knew I'd moved, backing into the corner. My wolf surged forward. I barely kept her contained.
Kade Wolfram stepped inside.
Five years. It had been five years since I'd seen him, and my body remembered everything. The mate bond we'd never completed still existed, buried deep but alive. It pulled at me now, trying to drag me toward him even as my mind screamed to stay away.
He looked the same. Taller than anyone had a right to be, with shoulders that blocked the doorway and dark hair that fell just past his collar. His eyes were the color of storm clouds, and they fixed on me with an intensity that made my skin prickle.
He wore black. Always black. It made him look like something carved from shadow.
"You're awake." His voice was exactly as I remembered. Deep and rough, the kind that could command armies.
I didn't answer. I just stared at him, my back pressed against the wall, trying to remember how to breathe.
He stepped fully into the room and closed the door behind him. The space suddenly felt impossibly small.
"I'm sure Pike explained the situation." No greeting. No apology for k********g me. Just straight to business. "My father is dying. I need a mate by Christmas Day."
"That's tomorrow." My voice came out steadier than I felt. "Christmas Day is tomorrow."
"Yes."
"So you waited until the last possible moment to drag me back here." I laughed, but it sounded broken. "Very efficient."
His jaw tightened. "I didn't want to involve you."
"Then don't." I pushed off the wall, forcing myself to stand straight even though my legs shook. "Let me go. Find someone else. There are plenty of she-wolves who would kill to be your Luna."
"None of them are suitable."
"And I am?" The bitterness could have poisoned the air. "I'm too weak, remember? You said that in front of everyone. You said I wasn't strong enough to stand at your side."
Something flickered in his eyes. Then it was gone.
"You have the bloodline I need," he said. "Your family line is rare. The children you produce will be strong."
The words hit me like a physical blow. Children. He wanted me for breeding. That's all this was. Not reconciliation. Not an apology. Not any acknowledgment of how he'd destroyed me.
He wanted to use me like livestock.
"No." The word came out quiet but firm. "I won't do it."
"You don't have a choice."
"Everyone has a choice." I moved toward him, anger overriding fear. "You rejected me, Kade. You stood in front of the entire pack and told me I wasn't good enough. You broke our bond. You don't get to drag me back and demand I give you children just because it's convenient."
He stared down at me. We were close now, close enough that I could smell him. Pine and smoke and something wild underneath. My wolf whined, wanting to close the distance.
I told her to shut up.
"If I don't take a mate by tomorrow morning," Kade said slowly, "the pack goes to my brother. Asher will destroy everything my father built. He'll turn us into rogues, raiders. People will die."
"That sounds like a you problem."
His hand shot out. His fingers wrapped around my jaw, forcing me to meet his eyes. The touch sent electricity through my body, the mate bond flaring to life after years of dormancy.
"Listen to me very carefully." His voice dropped to something dangerous. "Your mother is still in pack lands. She's sick. The medical care she receives depends on pack resources. If I lose control to Asher, she loses that care."
My blood turned to ice. "You wouldn't."
"I wouldn't. But Asher would." He released my jaw and stepped back. "He already suggested it. Cutting off resources to families of wolves who abandoned the pack. Your mother would be first on his list."
I wanted to hit him. I wanted to shift and tear his throat out. I wanted to do a lot of things that would get me killed.
Instead, I forced myself to think. My mother. She'd been sick for years, some kind of wasting disease that human doctors couldn't diagnose and pack healers couldn't cure. The pack provided her care, her medicine, everything she needed. Without that, she'd die. Slowly and painfully.
Kade was using her as leverage. And he knew it would work.
"You're a monster," I whispered.
"Yes." He agreed simply. "But I'm the monster who keeps this pack alive. I'm the monster who makes sure families are fed and protected. I'm the monster who stands between our people and the darkness outside our borders." He moved toward the door. "The claiming ceremony is tomorrow at dawn. You'll be prepared. You'll stand beside me. And you'll accept the mate bond in front of the pack."
"And if I refuse?"
He paused with his hand on the door, looking back over his shoulder. "Then your mother dies, and I claim whatever wolf I can find before the deadline. But at least you'll have your principles."
The door opened. Pike stood outside, waiting.
"One more thing." Kade's eyes held mine. "Don't try to escape. The enforcers have orders to stop you by any means necessary. I'd prefer you intact for the ceremony, but I'll claim you broken if I have to."
He left. The door slammed shut. The lock clicked into place.
I slid down the wall until I was sitting on the cold concrete, my whole body shaking.
This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be real.
But it was. Kade Wolfram was going to claim me in front of the entire pack. He was going to force a mate bond to save his position and breed me like an animal. And I couldn't stop him, because refusing meant my mother died.
My wolf howled inside me, furious and helpless.
I pressed my forehead against my knees.
Tomorrow. I had until tomorrow. Then everything would change.
Then I'd belong to the man who'd rejected me.
Then I'd have to stand beside him and pretend I wasn't dying inside.
And somewhere deep inside, beneath the anger and fear and humiliation, the mate bond was singing.
It had waited five years.
And now it knew its other half was close.
- Writer
