The air crackled around me.
Kael's massive wolf form loomed over where I lay sprawled on the cold stone floor, my breath coming in broken, shallow gasps. His fur, a deep black threaded with silver, bristled as he hovered over me, muscles twitching violently under his skin with my mere touch.
The room around us seemed to shrink, the stone walls closing in until there was nothing but this moment, this creature, this unbearable tension. Moonlight spilled through the narrow window, casting his enormous shadow across my prone form. I could taste copper in my mouth from where I'd bitten my lip when I fell.
And then— With a guttural snarl that wasn't quite human— The shift began.
I watched, frozen, as the wolf's form contorted.
Bones cracked. Fur receded. The terrifying snarl twisted into something almost human as his body collapsed inward, reshaping with agonizing, shuddering force.
I could hear every wet, awful snap of muscle and bone re-knitting itself. Could see the tremors wracking his frame. Could feel the bond screaming between us, tighter than it had ever been.
The pale moonlight caught each terrible moment of transformation—the way his spine arched unnaturally, the way his muzzle shortened and reformed, the way his massive paws stretched into human hands, claws receding with painful slowness. Steam rose from his skin as if the very air couldn't bear the heat of such primal magic.
This wasn't the first time I had witnessed the shift. But never before had it happened so close. Never before had I been beneath anyone when it began. Never before had I felt the resonance of it vibrating through my own bones, as if the bond between us was forcing me to experience every moment of his agony.
I flinched instinctively as the wolf disappeared—
And Kael, Kael, replaced it.
Naked. Raw. Breathing hard, muscles trembling with the aftermath of the shift.
And still, he hovered over me.
His human form was no less imposing than the wolf had been. Six feet and three inches of solid muscle and barely contained power. Shoulders broad enough to block out the moonlight streaming through the window. Skin marked with the silvery scars of battles.
My chest heaved.
The torn fabric of my nightdress clung to me, the ripped sleeve sliding further off my shoulder with every desperate breath, exposing the delicate line of my collarbone, the soft curve of my upper arm. The thin material had shredded when I'd pushed onto the other side of the room.
Kael's gaze dropped— And a low, broken growl rumbled from his throat.
Not in anger.
In hunger.
In something far older, far wilder, than words.
The bond lashed between us like a living thing, an electric pulse that burned hotter with every heartbeat. I had spent months learning to shield myself from its intensity, to build walls between my consciousness and his. But now, with him so close, with the scent of his skin enveloping me and the heat of his body warming the cold stone beneath me, those walls crumbled like sand.
His hand twitched at his side, as if battling the urge to touch.
"Kael," I whispered, and my voice sounded foreign to my own ears—rough and needy.
His eyes, still caught between human and wolf—amber irises ringed with midnight black—locked onto mine. I could read the battle raging within him: the man fighting against the beast, reason against instinct.
And I—
God, I should have been afraid. I should have pushed him away, should have screamed, should have run.
But I didn't.
I couldn't.
Something wild and ancient stirred inside me, something that had awoken the moment the Choosing Stones had flared to life between us, marking me as his and him as mine. Something that recognized the man above me as more than just the Alpha.
Kael's body trembled with restraint as he slowly lowered himself further, until the heat of his skin seared the few inches of air separating us.
I felt him everywhere.
The scent of him—earth and pine and something darker, something uniquely him—wrapped around me like a second skin. The heavy weight of his presence crushed down on my lungs, stole the air from my chest.
His eyes traced the curve of my face as if memorizing it, lingering on my parted lips, the flush spreading across my cheeks. I could feel him in my mind, his consciousness brushing against mine through the bond—not invasive, not controlling, just... there. Present. Overwhelmed with need and fighting it with every fiber of his being.
I tilted my chin up, heart hammering.
Kael's hand lifted—slow, so painfully slow—and hovered just above my exposed shoulder.
His fingers trembled.
He didn't touch.
But the nearness of it, the almost— It was enough to ignite every nerve ending in my body.
A soft whimper escaped me before I could stop it, and his nostrils flared. The scent of my arousal would be obvious to him, impossible to hide from his enhanced senses. I had never felt so exposed, so vulnerable, so utterly at the mercy of another being.
And yet, strangely, I had never felt stronger.
Because I knew—with absolute certainty—that as much as I was affected by him, he was equally affected by me. For all his strength, all his power, all his control, Kael was as helpless against this pull as I was.
My fingers curled helplessly into the fabric of my nightdress, pulling it tighter across my hips. The torn hem rode up slightly, baring more of my thigh to the cool night air.
Kael's gaze dropped again.
Another growl. Rougher this time. More ragged. Barely restrained.
"Evelyn," he breathed, and just my name in his mouth sounded like a prayer.
A bead of sweat traced a path down his temple, along the sharp line of his jaw. His chest rose and fell rapidly, the muscles of his abdomen taut with strain.
His head lowered until his forehead nearly brushed mine.
The heat of his breath fanned across my lips, shallow and harsh.
The bond between us throbbed like a second heartbeat.
I could feel it pulling at both of us— A primal, devastating call neither of us was strong enough to ignore.
"Evelyn," Kael rasped, his voice shattered, raw.
The sound of my name on his lips ripped through me like a blade wrapped in silk.
His fingertips hovered just above the pulse point at my throat, where the mates give their mark.
I should have said something.
Anything.
But all I could do was stare up at him, helpless against the wildfire tearing through my veins.
His hand moved lower, hovering an inch above my chest, my ribs, where the torn neckline of my nightdress exposed too much skin, too much vulnerability.
Still— He didn't touch.
And somehow, that restraint undid me more than any touch could have.
I knew what they said about him. The Ice Alpha. The Untouchable One. Cold, distant, ruthless when necessary.
But I had also glimpsed beneath that exterior, in rare, unguarded moments. I had felt his mind touch mine through the bond—tentative, wary, but not cold. Never cold.
Just careful.
So very, very careful.
Because he knew his own strength. Knew what he could do to me if he lost control.
A low whine escaped him—pure anguish—and he jerked back suddenly, as if burned.
The loss of his heat made me whimper before I could stop myself.
Kael stumbled a few steps away, fists clenched so tightly at his sides that I could see the tendons standing out in his forearms.
His chest heaved. His jaw locked.
And he wouldn't look at me.
Not because he didn't want to.
Because if he did— If he gave in—
We both knew he wouldn't stop.
I lay there for a moment longer, trying to catch my breath, trying to rebuild some semblance of sanity inside the storm the bond had unleashed.
The stone floor was cold against my back, a sharp contrast to the heat still pulsing through my body. Above us, dust motes danced in the shaft of moonlight streaming through the window.
Slowly, shakily, I pushed myself upright.
The ruined nightdress slipped lower on my shoulders, but I didn't bother fixing it.
Kael stood with his back to me, his broad shoulders tense, the powerful lines of his naked body carved in silver moonlight and shadow.
"Kael..."
He still stood there, back rigid, every muscle in his body screaming restraint.
The room was filled with the scent of us—desire, pain, desperation.
I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to shield my burning skin from the memory of what almost happened.
Trying—and failing.
The bond buzzed under my skin, furious, unsatisfied.
Kael spoke without turning.
"You should leave," he said, voice hoarse and broken.
I opened my mouth to argue, to ask—to something—
But one look at the way his body shook with barely contained need, the way his claws threatened to tear through his human skin again—
And I knew he was right.
If I stayed—
There would be no turning back.
Yet something in me rebelled at the thought of leaving him like this—torn between safety and desire, wracked with pain from a too-rapid.
Something in me—maybe the wildness that the bond had awakened, maybe just the stubborn core that had made me survive my when everyone expected me to fail—refused to do the sensible thing.
I took a step toward him, and then another.
The implications hung heavy in the air between us. The bond between him and me was sacred, ancient—and once fully formed, unbreakable. If we completed what had begun here tonight, we would be bound together in ways that went beyond anyone's control.
Some would call it fate. Others would call it a prison.
I didn't know what to call it yet.
But I did know that something in me screamed at me to push him through his limits... to see what worse could happen. It wouldn't be wrong to say that I wasn't me in that moment, but someone else, because what I did next was not something a sane person would have done.
Instead of moving away, instead of giving him the space he so desperately needed, I took another step closer.
Close enough to feel the heat radiating from his skin. Close enough that his scent—wild and masculine and primal—filled my lungs with each breath.
I reached out slowly, giving him time to move away.
He didn't.
My fingers brushed his arm—just the lightest touch—and we both gasped at the contact.
The bond flared between us like a lightning strike, blinding in its intensity.
In that moment, I glimpsed what lay beneath his rigid control—the raw, untamed power of the Alpha, the depth of his hunger, the fear that he would destroy me with it.
And beneath that, something else. Something tender. Something fierce and protective and utterly, terrifyingly devoted.