Claiming What Was Mine

Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

Kael’s POV

She's walks away without looking back. I can't move so I stand in the hallway like a f*****g statue, staring at the empty space where she was.

Her scent still lingers in the air...vanilla and something floral, underneath that cold professionalism she's wrapped herself in. It's the same scent that haunted my dreams for four years.

My wolf is tearing at my chest, howling to chase her. To drag her back. To pin her against the wall and...

Fucking stop.

I dig my nails into my palms until the pain grounds me.

Jax appears at my side, his scarred face twisted with disbelief. "What the hell is she doing here?"

"I don't know." The words come out rough. Broken.

"You don't know?"Jax barks, grabbing my shoulder, forcing me to face him. "Kael, that's your fated mate. The one you..."

"I know who she is." I snap. "I haven't forgotten."

He lets go, stepping back. "Does your father know?"

The question hits like a puck to the ribs. Aldric. Of course he doesn't know. If he did, he'd already be here, poisoning everything the way he always does.

"Not yet," I say. "And it's staying that way."

Jax studies me, his pale blue eyes seeing too much. "You look like shit."

I feel like s**t. My knee aches, my head pounds, and there's a hollow cavity in my chest where my heart used to be.

I walk into the locker room on autopilot. The team is loud, chaotic, steam rising from the showers. Leo is telling some stupid joke, his sandy hair dripping water everywhere.

"Captain!" He grins at me. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

I don't answer.

"Come on, it's just the new PT." Leo towels off his neck. "She's hot. Did you see her?"

My wolf growls. Hot? I want to rip Leo's throat out for even looking at her.

Leo's grin falters. "Uh, Kael? You good?"

"No." I grab my bag and head for the door. "I'm not."

The shower beats down on me. I lean my forehead against the tile, letting the water wash away the sweat and the blood and the memory of her cold eyes.

She called me Alpha Blackthorn. Like I was a stranger. Like we never...

I slam my fist against the wall. The impact cracks the tile, and the pain is the only thing keeping me from shifting.

Four years.

Four years I've carried this guilt. This weight. Every night I close my eyes and see her face...soft then, breaking as I said the words my father forced out of me.

"You're too weak for my world. I need a luna who can survive."

She crumbled. Like a flower crushed under my boot. And I let her.

I let her.

I slide down the wall, landing hard on the shower floor. The water keeps falling, but I don't feel it anymore.

I only feel her.

The memory comes without warning. I'm twenty-four again, standing in my father's hall. She's across the room, wearing a pale blue dress, her hair loose and flowing. She's laughing at something Leo said.

And then she saw me.

The mate bond snapped into place. I felt it in my bones, in my blood. She was mine. My fated mate. The one the moon goddess chose for me.

I was the happiest I'd ever been.

Then my father's hand clamped down on my shoulder. He was cold. "She's weak, Kael. Look at her. She'll drag you down. You need a luna who can survive our world...not some fragile girl who'll break the first time things get hard."

I try to argue but he wore me down. He always does and so I walked to her. I looked into her eyes...those beautiful, trusting eyes and I broke her.

"I reject you," I said. Her face fell. She reached for me, and I stepped back. I couldn't look into her face so I turned away.

I haven't slept well since.

I drag myself off the shower floor, dress in silence, and walk back into the facility. I don't know what I'm looking for. Maybe just a glimpse of her. A sign that she's real, that she didn't disappear into the ether of my nightmares.

I find her in the treatment room, talking to Leo.

She's smiling at him...warm, genuine, her walls down. He makes some stupid joke, and she laughs. Actually laughs. The sound hits me in the chest like a blade.

My wolf goes feral.

I'm moving before I can stop myself, storming into the room. Leo sees me first, his eyes going wide.

"Captain..."

"Get out."

He doesn't argue. He scrambles past me, leaving me alone with her.

Elara's smile vanishes. Her face goes cold, back to the mask she always wears.

"Alpha Blackthorn. Can I help you?"

"I need to see you." I said, desperate.

"You'll see me tomorrow," She turns away, arranging papers on her desk. "Eight AM. I already told you."

"Elara..."

"It's Dr. Voss." She finally looks at me, and her eyes are hard, without emotion. "You don't get to say my name. You lost that right."

She walks past me, close enough that I can smell her...that scent that makes my wolf howl. I reach for her wrist.

"Don't." She wrenches away like my touch had burned her. "Don't touch me."

"You were smiling at him," I argue, curling my hands into fists. "You were..."

"So?" She raise her brows. "I'm allowed to have friends and I don't get how it is any of your business."

"He's not your friend. He's my teammate. My pack. And you..."

"I what?" She steps closer, and I feel the heat of her fury. "I'm nothing to you, Kael. That's what you wanted, remember? Weak. Fragile. Not worth keeping."

"I was wrong." My voice breaks. I step closer toward her and I move to hold her waist but she stops me with a glare. "I was so wrong, and I've regretted it every single..."

"I don't care." She shakes her head. "I don't care about your regret. I don't care about your guilt. I came here to do a job. That's it."

She tucks a strand of her hair behind her ears. I remember when I usually do that for her but now even getting close to her is enough for her to want to send ne away.

But how can I ignore her, when my wolf wants to claim her? When I know she isn't far from me? How do I control myself?

"Then why?" I catch her before she leaves. "Why come here? You could have worked anywhere. Why my team? Why…”