“You’re my mate.”

The words didn’t sound romantic. They sounded like a sentence. Final. Heavy.

I stared at him, chest rising and falling in quick bursts. My legs wanted to fold, but I wouldn’t let them. I’d already dropped to my knees once tonight—bleeding, confused, hunted.

Never again.

“I’m not yours,” I snapped, the shake in my voice betraying the fire behind the words. “I don’t even know who you are.”

He stepped closer, slow and deliberate, his presence pressing down on the air like gravity. “You will.”

I flinched, my back brushing the tree behind me. “Stay back.”

His jaw ticked. “If I wanted to hurt you, you’d already be on the ground.”

“Wow,” I said bitterly. “That’s comforting.”

The rogue wolves had vanished. I didn’t even see them leave. His presence had cleared them like smoke, and I wasn’t sure if it was fear or respect—or something worse.

“You marked me,” I said through clenched teeth. “Why? What does it mean?”

“I did it to protect you.”

“Protect me?” My voice rose. “You sent me through nineteen years of hell, and now you show up like some self-appointed savior?”

He didn’t flinch. “I did it so no one else could claim you. You were a child. Weak. Alone. You don’t understand how dangerous this world is.”

“No,” I said, voice trembling. “But I understand that I never asked for this.”

We stared at each other in silence, the trees still, the air charged.

Then his eyes lowered to the mark glowing faintly beneath the torn collar of my shirt.

“You feel it,” he said quietly. “Don’t you?”

I wanted to lie. I wanted to say no, scream it.

But the fire in my chest betrayed me. The way my skin heated just being near him—the way something inside me reached for him even as my mind screamed to run.

“Whatever this is,” I whispered, “I want it gone.”

He stepped so close I had to tilt my chin to hold his gaze. “You think I don’t?”

The answer stunned me into silence.

His voice was low. Strained. “I never wanted a mate. I swore I wouldn’t take one.”

“Then why not reject me?”

His jaw clenched.

I waited.

“You don’t know what that would do to you,” he said finally. “You’re not ready. You’ve just awakened, Aura. If I reject you now, the bond could destroy you.”

My breath caught. “How do you know my name?”

He looked away. “Because I’ve been watching you since the day you were born.”

I stepped back like he’d struck me. “You’ve what?”

“There were people who wanted you dead before you even shifted,” he said coldly. “You think your life was hard? You don’t know the half of it.”

I stared at him, the cold bite of truth hitting harder than the forest air.

“Who are you?” I whispered.

He met my gaze again. “Kale Blackthorn. Alpha of the Blackthorn Pack. And whether you like it or not, Aura… you belong to me.”

The words settled between us like a brand. My body burned and recoiled at the same time.

“No,” I said. “You don’t get to say that.”

His expression hardened. “You’re not in control of your wolf. That makes you unstable. You could shift without warning. You could be tracked. And I can’t protect you if you’re running wild through the woods acting like prey.”

“I’m not prey.”

“Then prove it,” he said, his voice turning to a growl. “Come with me willingly. Or I’ll carry you.”

“You wouldn’t—”

He moved so fast I barely saw him. One second he was standing five feet away—the next his hand was braced against the tree beside my head, his face inches from mine, breath hot and furious.

“I would.”

My heart pounded so loud I could barely hear him.

The bond pulled tight between us, snapping like a live wire.

“You feel it,” he said again, this time softer.

I hated how right he was.

“I don’t trust you.”

“You don’t have to. But you will come with me.”

I swallowed hard, the anger slowly bleeding into something heavier—resignation, maybe. Or the terrifying knowledge that if I stayed here, I wouldn’t last another night.

Not with rogues hunting me. Not with my body changing and no answers in sight.

And not with a mark on my back that made me a target for something I didn’t even understand.

“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me everything,” I said quietly.

His eyes narrowed.

“I want answers. I want to know what I am. Why I was left. What this bond means. Everything.”

“You’ll get them,” he said.

“Promise?”

He didn’t blink. “You’ll get what I choose to give.”

That should’ve terrified me.

But somehow, it made me feel something worse.

Drawn.

⸻

The ride to Blackthorn territory was silent.

He drove a black SUV that looked more like a tank, and the moment I climbed in, I realized the doors locked from the inside with a sound that made me feel like I’d entered a cage.

The woods thinned. The trees gave way to a high ridge, stone towers, and distant firelight flickering from guarded outposts.

The moment we crossed into his land, I felt it in my bones—a shift in pressure. Like the air itself bent toward him.

Territory. Power. Pack.

I wasn’t just stepping into another place.

I was stepping into his world.