Chained to the Beast

Chapter 4: The Bond

Kade didn't come back to her room for three days. But Aria could feel him everywhere. She could sense his presence throughout the compound. He was angry, furious and underneath that, she could feel something else. Confusion and need.

During training on the fourth day, something shifted.

One of the older wolves made a comment about Aria getting stronger. It wasn't mean, just observational. But his tone suggested that maybe she was worth noticing. Maybe she wasn't completely beneath them.

Aria didn't think anything of it. But Raina did.

She stopped the training immediately and sent everyone away. Then she went to get Kade.

Aria didn't see what happened next. But she heard it. She heard the sounds of violence. The screaming, and the cracking of bones. She heard Kade's voice, cold and deadly, explaining to a wolf what happened when you disrespected what belonged to him.

By the time it was over, the wolf was barely alive.

That night, Kade came to her room.

He didn't ask permission. He just opened the door and stepped inside. He was wearing all black, and there was blood on his knuckles. His eyes were black with his wolf just barely contained beneath his skin.

"What are you doing to me?" he demanded.

"I don't know what you mean," Aria said, but her heart was pounding so hard she thought it might break through her ribs.

"The bond," Kade said, stepping closer. "I can't control it. I can't control myself. Every time someone looks at you, my wolf wants to kill them. Every time you're hurt, I feel it like it's happening to me. I don't want this. I don't do connections and I don't do relationships."

"I didn't ask for this," Aria said, standing up from her bed. "I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't ask to be sold to you. I didn't ask for my wolf to wake up. And I certainly didn't ask for a mate bond with the man who owns me."

"That's not how mate bonds work," Kade said. "Your wolf recognizes mine. Mine recognizes yours. We don't have a choice and the more you fight it, the stronger it becomes."

"So what do we do?" Aria asked. "How do we stop it?"

"We can't." Kade moved closer, and Aria could smell him now. He smelled like danger and power and something uniquely his. "Mates can't fight the bond. It's a supernatural connection. It's stronger than either of us."

Aria felt her wolf pushing against her skin, wanting to get closer to him and wanting to touch him. It was a feeling she had never experienced before, and it terrified her.

"This is a nightmare," she whispered.

"For me too," Kade said. His voice had lost some of its hardness. "I built my pack on control,on discipline, on making sure nothing and no one could ever hurt me again. And now my wolf is bonded to a girl I just met, and I can't do anything about it."

He reached out and touched her face. The moment his fingers made contact with her skin, the world exploded. Aria gasped, and her eyes went silver. She could feel everything, his pain, his anger and his fear. His desperate need to keep everyone at a distance so they could never hurt him like they had been hurt before.

She could feel his past. The loss and the violence. The way he had built his empire on blood and fury and sheer determination.

And underneath it all, she could feel something else. A loneliness so profound it made her own heart break.

Kade pulled his hand away, and the connection severed. But Aria could still feel the echo of it.

"What was that?" she asked, breathing heavily.

"The bond," Kade said. "When mates touch, they can feel each other. Eventually, you won't need the touch. You'll feel each other constantly. You'll know what the other is thinking. What the other is feeling. There's no privacy anymore. There's no escape."

"How long?" Aria asked.

"A few weeks usually. But..." Kade paused, and she could see the confusion in his face. "With us, I don't know. This feels different. This feels like something that's already been there, just waiting to wake up."

Kade walked to the door and stopped. He didn't turn around when he spoke.

"From tomorrow onward, you train alone with Raina. No other wolves touch you. No other wolves even look at you. If anyone else has a problem with that, they answer to me. Understand?"

"Yes," Aria whispered.

"And you don't leave the compound. You stay here. You stay where..." He cut himself off. "You stay here."

He left, and Aria was alone with her racing thoughts and her newly awakened wolf. She touched her face where he had touched it, and she could still feel the echo of his presence. The echo of his pain.

She didn't sleep that night. She sat on her bed and tried to understand what was happening to her. She had been sold to a man who owned her completely. She was bonded to him through a supernatural connection that she didn't understand and couldn't control.

And somehow, impossibly, she was starting to care about him.

By morning, word had spread through the compound. Aria Thornwood, the weak payment, the pathetic Beta's daughter, was off limits. She was the Alpha's responsibility. She was his.

Other wolves started treating her differently. They didn't respect her, exactly, but they stopped actively trying to hurt her. She was no longer a target for abuse. She was property. She was Kade's.

During training, Raina worked with her alone now. The older woman was harder on her, pushing her further and faster than she had before.

"Your wolf is finally waking up," Raina said during one of their sessions. "That's good. You'll need to be strong for what's coming."

"What do you mean?" Aria asked. "What's coming?"

"I don't know," Raina said. "But I've been around long enough to know when something is off. There's a storm coming, and I think you're going to be at the center of it."

That night, Aria felt Kade at the edge of her consciousness. He was in his office somewhere in the compound, going through paperwork. She could feel his frustration. His tension. His need to keep everything under control.

She tried to pull away from the connection, but she couldn't. It was already too strong.

So instead, she just sat with it. She sat with his presence in her mind and tried not to think about how impossible this all was.