Chapter 8
843 Words
Aurelia’s POV
I’d just finished picking at the food Riven brought when the door creaked open again.
I looked up, expecting him or maybe that Beta with the permanent scowl.
But no.
My breath caught.
It was him.
Khyron filled the doorway like a shadow, tall, broad-shouldered, and impossible to ignore. The air in the room shifted, heavy and suffocating, and I suddenly couldn’t seem to breathe right. His eyes locked on me immediately, pinning me in place like I was prey.
The guard at the door straightened. “Alpha.”
“Leave us,” Khyron said, his voice low, commanding.
The guard obeyed instantly, shutting the door behind him.
My fingers tightened around the blanket like it was armor. “You. You can’t just keep me here.”
He stepped closer, slow and measured, every movement controlled. “You were found on my land. That makes you my responsibility.”
“I told your people everything!” My voice wavered, but I forced it louder. “I don’t know why I was out there or what those… those things were. I’m not lying!”
His gaze raked over me, sharp and assessing, and my cheeks burned under the weight of it.
“Do you have any idea what would’ve happened if Riven and Tomas hadn’t reached you in time?” His voice was quiet, dangerous. “You’d be dead. Or worse.”
My heart thudded painfully. “I didn’t ask to be rescued.” The words slipped out sharp, defensive, but even as I said them, guilt burned my chest. I was grateful. I just couldn’t let him see that.
Something flickered in his eyes, anger, yes, but something else too. Something darker.
“You ran faster than any human I’ve ever seen,” he said softly. “How do you explain that?”
“I—I don’t know.” My throat tightened. “Adrenaline?”
He tilted his head, unconvinced.
“You smell human,” he murmured.
I blinked at him. “Okay, that’s officially creepy. Could you not talk about how I smell?”
He ignored me and stepped closer, closing the space between us. “No trace of wolfsbane. No masking spells. Nothing about you makes sense.”
“I make perfect sense!” My voice snapped, anger sparking through the fear. “I’m just a girl. I don’t even know what half those words mean.”
His jaw tightened at that.
He leaned in, close enough that his heat wrapped around me. My chest rose and fell too fast, my pulse hammering in my ears.
“You’ll stay here,” he said, voice low but steady. “Until I know for certain you’re not a danger to this pack… or to yourself.”
My throat tightened. “You can’t keep me here forever.”
His lips curved into something that wasn’t quite a smile. “I don’t need forever. Just long enough to get the truth out of you.”
My fists clenched. “You’re a tyrant.”
He bent down slightly, his voice a velvet blade. “I’m an Alpha.”
And for some reason, that was so much more terrifying.
My breath came shallow, my whole body buzzing with tension—fear, adrenaline, something I couldn’t name.
And then he turned away.
“Stay put,” he ordered, before disappearing out the door.
The room felt colder, emptier, and yet somehow more dangerous without him in it.
I sat down hard on the bed, burying my face in my hands.
I hated him. I hated the way he ordered me around like I was some object he owned.
But the worst part?
My body still hummed from the nearness of him.
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Khyron’s POV
The door clicked shut behind me, and I forced my legs to keep moving. Jarek was waiting in the hall.
“How did she take it?” he asked.
“Like a cornered animal,” I muttered, my jaw tight.
“She is a cornered animal,” Jarek replied calmly. “We dragged her into a world she didn’t know existed.”
“She ran like one of us.” My voice came out harsher than I intended.
“Humans can run when they’re terrified,” he said, though his eyes narrowed, studying me too closely.
I didn’t give him the chance to press further. I stalked past him, down the corridor, into my office. The door slammed behind me with a satisfying crack.
Kael was already there, pacing, his growl reverberating in my chest. Stop pretending. You felt the bond.
I gritted my teeth. “No. The Moon Goddess wouldn’t do this to me. Not again.”
She’s ours, Kael snarled.
“Never again,” I bit out. My fists curled tight on the desk, the wood creaking under the pressure. “I’d rather remain unmated for the rest of my life than go through that pain twice.”
My chest burned, but I shoved the feeling down, burying it where it couldn’t reach me.
Where it couldn’t break me.
- Writer
