ETHAN'S POV

I could feel every second of her suffering.

It was driving me insane.

I sat in my office trying to focus on reports from the border patrol. Rogue sightings. Territory markers that needed reinforcing. Normal Alpha business. But I could not concentrate on any of it.

Because the bond would not let me forget about her.

Kaye. Three floors above me most of the morning. Then in the kitchen. Then in the dining hall where someone tripped her and the entire pack laughed while she bled on the floor.

My wolf was losing his mind. He clawed at my control, snarling and snapping. Mate is hurt. Mate needs us. GO TO HER.

I shoved him down and stared at the papers in front of me. The words blurred together. I could not focus. All I could feel was her pain. Her exhaustion. Her hunger.

She had not eaten breakfast. Margaret was punishing her for a plate Sara broke on purpose. Everyone knew it. But no one said anything because Kaye was Moonstone and Moonstone did not deserve mercy.

That was what I told myself. That was what I needed to believe.

But my wolf did not care about pack names or old grudges. He only cared that our mate was starving.

A knock on my door made me look up. Lucas walked in without waiting for permission.

"We need to talk," he said.

"Not now."

"Yes, now." Lucas closed the door and sat down across from me. "The pack is treating her like garbage."

"She is Moonstone," I said flatly. "What did you expect?"

"I expected you to stop them." Lucas leaned forward. "You are the Alpha. If you tell them to back off, they will."

"Why would I do that?"

Lucas stared at me like I was speaking another language. "Because she is your mate."

"She is the daughter of my enemy."

"She is a twenty-three-year-old woman who has been running for six years," Lucas said. His voice was rising. "She did not kill your parents, Ethan. She was seventeen when it happened. She was a victim just like we were."

"She is alive," I said through gritted teeth. "My parents are not."

"So you are going to punish her for surviving?" Lucas shook his head. "That is not justice. That is just cruelty."

I slammed my hand on the desk. "Do not tell me what is just. You did not watch your parents burn. You did not spend six years hunting the people responsible only to have fate bind you to one of them."

"No, I did not," Lucas said quietly. "But I did watch you destroy yourself trying to get revenge. And now I am watching you destroy your mate because you are too stubborn to see the truth."

"What truth?"

"That she is innocent." Lucas pulled a folder out of his jacket and dropped it on my desk. "I have been digging into the attacks. Quietly. And nothing about them makes sense. The Moonstone Alpha had no reason to attack us. No motive. No history of aggression. But there were reports that night of an organized rogue group. Military-level coordination. That does not happen by accident."

I opened the folder. Inside were reports from other territories. Witness statements. Timelines. Lucas had been busy.

"What are you saying?" I asked.

"I am saying someone set us up," Lucas said. "Both packs. They wanted us to destroy each other. And it worked."

"Who?"

"I do not know yet. But I am hearing rumors about a group called the Council. Extremists who believe weak packs should be eliminated. They have been connected to attacks in at least four other territories over the last decade."

I stared at the papers in front of me. "Why did you not tell me this before?"

"Because I did not have proof. And because you were so sure it was the Moonstone Pack that you would not have listened." Lucas stood up. "But now she is here. And maybe she knows something. Maybe her father told her something before he died. But you are too busy punishing her to ask."

I closed the folder. "Even if the Council exists, that does not change what she is."

"It changes everything," Lucas said. "If she is telling the truth, then you are torturing an innocent woman for something she did not do. Is that the kind of Alpha you want to be?"

Before I could answer, a wave of pain hit me through the bond. Sharp and sudden. Kaye had hurt herself. Or someone had hurt her.

My wolf surged forward with a roar. I was on my feet before I realized I was moving.

"Ethan," Lucas said.

I did not answer. I was already out the door, following the bond. It pulled me through the packhouse like a rope around my chest. Down the hallway. Toward the kitchen.

I stopped just outside the door. I could hear voices inside. Margaret giving orders. Other women laughing about something. And underneath it all, I heard Kaye. Her breathing was uneven. She was in pain.

My hand was on the door handle when I stopped myself.

What was I doing? I was the Alpha. I could not show weakness. I could not let the pack see that the bond was affecting me.

But my wolf did not care about any of that. He just wanted to get to our mate.

I stood there for a long moment, frozen. Torn between what I knew I should do and what every instinct in my body was screaming at me to do.

Finally, I turned and walked away.

But not back to my office. I went to the storage room next to the kitchen. Found a basket. Filled it with food. Bread, cheese, meat, fruit. More than one person could eat in a day.

Then I carried it up to the third floor and left it outside her door.

I did not knock. I did not wait. I just left it there and walked away.

My wolf was still snarling at me. That is not enough. She needs more. She needs US.

But I could not give her that. Because if I did, if I let myself care about her, then everything I had built over the last six years would crumble.

And I could not survive that.

**************************************

I made it back to my office and tried to work. But an hour later, I felt it again. She found the basket. She was eating. And through the bond, I felt her confusion. Her gratitude. Her tears.

She was crying because I left her food.

That should not have mattered. I should not have cared.

But it did matter. And I hated that it did.

Lucas came back an hour before dinner. He looked at me and shook his head. "You left her food."

"How did you know?"

"Because I can feel the bond from here," Lucas said. "It is that strong. And because you look slightly less miserable than you did this morning."

I did not answer.

"You care about her," Lucas said. It was not a question.

"I do not."

"Then why did you bring her food? Why are you sitting here feeling everything she feels instead of working? Why can you not stop thinking about her?"

"Because of the bond," I snapped. "It is just the bond. It does not mean anything."

"Keep telling yourself that," Lucas said. "But eventually you are going to have to make a choice, Ethan. Either accept the bond and claim her. Or reject it and let her go. Because keeping her prisoner while the bond tears you both apart is not sustainable."

"I will decide when I am ready."

"And what if she dies before then?" Lucas asked quietly. "What if the pack goes too far one day and you lose her? What then?"

I did not have an answer for that.

Lucas sighed and headed for the door. "Just think about it. Because whether you like it or not, she is your mate. And mates are not something you can just ignore."

He left. And I sat alone in my office, feeling Kaye through the bond. She was eating the food I left. Slowly. Savoring every bite.

And despite everything, despite my anger and my hate and my need for revenge, I was glad she was not hungry anymore.

My wolf settled slightly. Not happy. But less frantic.

I hated this. Hated feeling torn between what I wanted and what the bond was forcing me to feel. Hated that I could not just reject her and be done with it.

But I also knew Lucas was right. I could not keep doing this. Something had to change.

I just did not know what.