Claiming What Was Mine

Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Elara’s POV

The treatment room is too small. I've arranged everything twice, linen, instruments, the exam table, but nothing makes the space feel less like a cage. My hands won't stop trembling, so I press them flat against the counter and breathe.

Eight AM. He'll be here any minute.

I review his file again. The knee injury is worse than the team let on. Ligament damage, cartilage wear, chronic inflammation. He's been playing on borrowed time, hiding the pain behind that iron will.

Stubborn bastard.

My wolf stirs. She's been restless all night, pacing and whining, yearning for something I refuse to name.

He's just a patient, I tell her. Nothing more.

The door opens.

Kael Blackthorn fills the frame like he was carved from the mountain itself. Broad shoulders straining against his dark t-shirt. Powerful thighs in athletic shorts. His black hair is still damp from the shower, and his silver eyes lock onto mine with an intensity that steals my breath.

The bond flares to life again as my nostrils flare, inhaling his scent.

My knees weaken. I grip the counter.

"Alpha Blackthorn," I say, my voice coming out steadier than I feel. "Undress to your waist and lie on the table."

His eyes narrow and remain stiff as he watches me.

"What did you just say?" He asks, jaw tightening.

"Kael," I snap. I am not ready for this. "The table. Now."

Something flickers across his face...surprise, maybe, or hope that I used his name.

He groans quietly. I pretend like I don't hear him and with that he pulls his shirt over his head, and my traitorous eyes trace the landscape of his chest. Scarred. Muscular. A roadmap of battles won and lost.

My mouth goes dry.

He lies on the table, and I force myself to walk closer ignoring my racing heart.

"Which knee?" I ask.

"Right," he replies.

My hands hover over his leg. I can feel the heat radiating from his skin. The bond hums beneath the surface, waiting.

Just touch him. Get it over with.

I press my fingers to his knee. It feels like the world explodes as a pull so powerful surges up...it nearly knocks me off my feet. The bond...the bond I've been suppressing for four years roars to life like a starving beast.

I hate this. I hate this. I feel him stiffen under my hands. His eyes go dark, pupils blown wide.

"Elara..." he calls my name softly, voice rough, desperate.

"I need you to hold still."

I focus on the injury, forcing my hands to move. Palpating the joint. Testing range of motion. The cartilage grinds under my fingers, and I catalogue each damage point.

But I feel everything. His heartbeat, fast and uneven. The way his muscles tense under my touch. The overwhelming need radiating from him like heat from a fire.

"Elara." He says my name like a prayer.

"Dr. Voss."

"Please." His hand shoots out, grabbing my wrist. "Please, just... look at me."

Despite myself, I do.

And I'm lost.

His silver eyes are swimming with everything I've tried to forget. Regret. Longing. A desperate, aching need that mirrors my own.

"I'm sorry," he begs. "Every single day, I'm sorry."

Like being sorry is enough to take away the pain that I endured for four years.

"No." I wrench my hand away, stumbling backward. "You don't get to say that. You don't get to touch me. You made your choice."

The pain on his face is visceral. I've seen it before...in my own reflection, in the dark hours of the night when I couldn't stop replaying his rejection.

"I know." He sits up, reaching for me. "I know I don't deserve..."

"You don't." I cut him off, voice shaking. "You don't deserve anything from me. Four years, Kael. Four years I spent putting myself back together. And you waltz in here like..."

"Like I've been dying without you?"

I freeze.

He's on his feet now, towering over me, and I can't back away because the table is right there and he's so close I can feel the heat of his body.

"I haven't slept," he says, and his voice breaks on the words. "I haven't been able to look at another woman. Every night I close my eyes and I see your face...the way you looked when I..."

I close my eyes and take in a breath. "Stop."

"I can't. I've tried. I've tried so hard, Elara. But you're everywhere. You're in my blood, in my bones. You're my mate."

"No." I shake my head, backing into the table. "No, you don't get to claim me now. You don't get to..."

"I'm claiming you." His hands cage me in, palms flat on the table on either side of me. "I'm claiming you, and I'm not letting you go. Not again."

"And what about your father?" I ask, not like I care. I am done with him. "What happens when he tells you I'm too weak? When he threatens my family? What happens then, Kael?"

He flinches. I see the moment he remembers the memory as his jaw clenches.

He doesn't defend himself and I roll my eyes.

What am I expecting?

"That's what I thought." I duck under his arm, putting distance between us. "You haven't changed. You're still the same boy who let his father choose his life."

His head snaps up. "That's not...I'm not him anymore."

"Prove it."

The challenge hangs in the air between us.

"Show me you've changed," I say. "Show me you're willing to fight for something that matters. Until then, you're just another patient."

I walk to the door, my hand on the handle.

"Eight AM tomorrow. Same time. Don't be late."

I leave him standing there, chest bare, silver eyes blazing with something I refuse to name.

I walk down the hall, my heart pounding, my wolf howling.

Prove it, I told him.

God help me, a part of me hopes he does.