Chapter 006
1105 Words
Asher’s POV
The glass left my hand before I realized I’d thrown it.
The tumbler hit the wall and exploded, and good old expensive scotch ran down the dark wood like a slow, mocking bleed.
Three days.
Three days since she rejected me, and the bond still felt like fire in my chest.
I pressed my palm hard against my sternum, breathing through my teeth, but it was useless. The pain didn’t care, it was constant and very much alive. A reminder with every heartbeat that my mate had looked straight at me and said no.
My wolf paced inside me, teeth bared.
She’s ours. Go get her.
“She made her choice,” I muttered to the empty office.
Then make her change it.
I moved to the window instead of answering. The pack grounds stretched below, wolves training, laughing, living simple lives with normal day-to-day problems.
Problems that didn't include the council breathing down their necks.
No bond ripping them apart from the inside.
The door opened without a knock, Cain came right in.
“You look like hell,” he said, shutting it behind him.
“How insightful of you,” I replied, still staring out the glass. “Did you come to insult me, or do you actually have news?”
“The elders are assembling.”
I exhaled slowly. “Tell them I’m unavailable.”
“I did. Repeatedly.” He stepped closer. “Rothman’s threatening a council override.”
That got my attention.
“He won’t,” I said.
Cain didn’t blink. “He will. You’ve given them an opening.”
An Alpha rejected by his mate is weak, unstable and unfit to rule.
“They want you to choose a Luna as soon as possible,” Cain continued. “Someone acceptable. Someone who won’t—”
“Don’t even say it.” I cut him off.
Silence stretched.
“How long?” I asked.
“Six months. Until the next Moonlight Festival.” He met my eyes in the reflection. “No mate, no heir and they will force a vote.”
I only have six months.
Six months to solve something the Moon Goddess herself had apparently decided to turn into a sick joke.
The bond twisted violently.
“I know,” I said under my breath.
Cain shifted. “There’s more.”
Of course there was.
“We found her.”
My body went cold. “Say that again.”
“She is in the city. We tracked her and we have her address, her workplace, and everything else.”
He handed me his phone.
Six-floor apartment.
Human neighborhood.
A life built deliberately without us.
The bond flared, sharp and desperate, reacting even through distance.
“How long?” I asked quietly.
“Yesterday.”
“And you waited.”
“I waited because you needed space,” Cain said. “And because now you have to choose.”
“Choose what?”
“Let her go completely,” he said. “Or go get her.”
I laughed once, it was a bitter laugh. “She rejected me in public. In front of the pack. She humiliated me.”
“Because she thinks you murdered her father,” Cain countered.
The words hit harder than the bond ever could.
“I gave the order,” I said flatly. “I was thirteen, trying to be what my father wanted me to be. But the result’s the same.”
“She doesn’t know that part.”
“She wouldn’t care.” I turned away. “I’m the villain in her story. Maybe I deserve to be.”
Cain studied me. “Do you actually believe that?”
I didn’t answer.
“Forcing her back won’t fix this,” I said finally. “But I really don't care, she will be mine whether she likes it or not.”
“There’s no point in forcing her, why not let the elders pick another woman that will accept to be your Luna?” Cain said. “Someone who will do whatever you want?”
“I don't want that, I want her.”
Outside, laughter drifted up from the training yard. The pack had no idea how close everything was to breaking.
Go to her, my wolf urged. Explain. Fix this and claim her.
But I’d seen her face at the cemetery. The hate. The grief, the certainty.
“I just don't how?” I asked quietly.
Cain didn’t say anything right away.
“You froze that day,” he said instead. “At the cemetery.”
I nodded and immediately the wind had shifted.
That was all it took to take me back to the day Mira rejected me.
One breath, and the scent hit me, wild roses, rain, something achingly familiar. My wolf surged so hard I nearly staggered.
Mate.
I followed it without thinking.
She stood by a fresh grave, lily in hand, grief pulling her inward. She was older and stronger, but still unmistakably her.
Mira Kenwood.
The bond snapped into place the second our eyes met.
And I knew, I was either her salvation…
Or her punishment.
“You should’ve told her the truth then,” Cain said, snapping me back to the present.
“She wouldn’t have believed me.”
He didn’t argue, and that was answer enough.
I poured another drink and downed it, but I felt nothing.
“The council wants an answer by morning,” Cain said. “Mate or motion.”
“I already have a mate.”
“But Alpha, she rejected you.”
“That doesn’t erase the bond.” My voice sharpened. “I feel her. Every time she hurts. Every time she panics.”
“Then stop standing here and do something.”
“Claiming her is my only option.”
I hesitated.
My phone buzzed. It was Rothman.
“We have a meeting at dawn. Don’t be late.”
I stared at the screen.
“Get the cars ready,” I said.
Cain straightened. “We’re going to the city?”
“Yes.”
“And if she refuses again?”
I closed my eyes briefly. “Then I’ll tell her everything.”
“And if she still says no?”
“She won’t,” I said. “Not after she knows the truth.”
Cain paused at the door. “And if she hates you for this and still rejects you?”
I thought of Mira’s face. The pain I’d helped carve into it.
“She won't," I said confidently. “I just won’t let her.”
Cain nodded once and left.
- Writer
