It was day three, and Ashina felt like she was losing her mind.
She stared at her phone screen, reading the same three-word response for the tenth time. Can't talk now.
That was it. That was all Darren had said in response to her paragraph-long message about needing to see him, about being confused and scared, about the mate bond that wouldn't stop pulling at her chest like a hook embedded in her ribs.
Can't talk now. Not "I love you." Not "We'll figure this out." Not even "I'm thinking about you." Just... can't talk now.
Ashina set the phone face-down on her desk and pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes. She wouldn't cry. She'd done enough crying over the past three days to last a lifetime. Her eyes were perpetually swollen, her throat raw, her chest aching with a pain that had nothing to do with the mate bond and everything to do with Darren's silence.
He'd texted her exactly four times since the gathering. Four times in three days.
Sorry, busy with work.
Can't talk now.
Will call you later. (He hadn't.)
Give me some space, okay?
Space. He wanted space. While she was falling apart, while her entire world had been turned upside down, while she was fighting a mate bond that grew stronger with every passing hour he wanted space.
A knock on her bedroom door made her jump.
"Ashina?" Her mother's voice, careful and gentle. "Sweetheart, you need to eat something."
"I'm not hungry." Her voice came out hoarse from disuse. She'd barely left her room in three days, emerging only when absolutely necessary.
"You haven't eaten since yesterday morning." The doorknob turned slowly, and Elena slipped inside, carrying a tray with soup and bread. "Your father and I are worried about you."
"I'm fine."
"You're not fine." Her mother set the tray on the desk and sat on the edge of the bed. "You've barely slept. You won't eat. You jump at every sound and you keep touching your neck like it hurts."
Ashina's hand dropped from where it had been unconsciously rubbing the unmarked skin. She did that now, constantly touched the place where a mate mark should be, where the bond kept insisting one needed to be. Her skin felt too sensitive there, almost burning like her body was rejecting its unmarked state.
"Mom, I can't" Her voice cracked. "I can't do this right now."
Elena moved closer, pulling Ashina into her arms. "Talk to me. Please. Let me help." And suddenly the words were spilling out, everything she'd been holding in for three days.
"He won't talk to me. Darren, he's barely responding to my messages. It's like he doesn't care that I rejected my mate for him. Like it doesn't matter that I chose him over everything." The tears came again, hot and bitter. "And the bond, Mom, the bond won't stop. I can feel him. All the time. Even now, I know exactly where he is."
"Where?" Elena asked softly.
Ashina pointed northeast without thinking, her arm moving on instinct. "There. Maybe fifteen miles away. In Moonlit territory. I can feel him like he's tethered to me and it hurts. Being apart from him hurts."
"Because he's your mate, sweetheart."
"I don't want him to be!" The words burst out, anguished. "I want Darren. I chose Darren. Why won't the bond just leave me alone?"
Elena was quiet for a long moment, stroking her daughter's hair. "The mate bond doesn't work that way. You can reject it, but you can't break it. Not completely. Not without...." She stopped.
"Without what?" Ashina pulled back to look at her mother's face.
Elena's expression was troubled. "Without one of you dying or without accepting it and then breaking it through extreme betrayal. Those are the only ways a mate bond truly severs."
The words landed like stones in Ashina's stomach. "So I'm stuck like this? Forever? Feeling him, knowing where he is, being pulled toward him every second of every day?"
"Unless you accept it. Accept him."
"I can't." But even as she said it, doubt crept in. Could she really live like this indefinitely? Could she function with this constant ache, this persistent pull, this sense of wrongness in her very bones?
"What did Darren say?" Elena asked. "When you told him about Kendrick?"
Fresh pain lanced through Ashina's chest. "He said I should probably accept him. That he couldn't fight an Alpha for me."
Elena's face hardened. "He said what?"
"He said it was probably for the best. That I'd be Luna of a powerful pack. That maybe the universe was telling me something." The words tasted like poison. "Then he walked away. And he's barely talked to me since."
"That son of a....." Elena cut herself off, visibly controlling her anger. "Ashina, sweetheart, you need to hear this. That is not how someone who loves you responds. That is not..."
"Don't." Ashina pulled away, wrapping her arms around herself. "Please don't say it."
"Say what? That Darren doesn't deserve you? That maybe Kendrick was right about him?" Elena's voice was gentle but firm. "Because it's true. And I think part of you knows it."
"He's just scared." But the excuse sounded weak even to her own ears. "Once things calm down, once the initial shock wears off"
"It's been three days. He's had time to process. And instead of fighting for you, instead of being there for you when you need him most, he's asking for space." Elena cupped Ashina's face, forcing eye contact. "Is that really the man you want to spend your life with?"
Ashina's phone buzzed. Both of them looked at it.
Darren "We should probably talk. But not now. Maybe next week?"
Next week. Five more days of silence, of uncertainty, of this gnawing doubt that grew with every non-response, every dismissal, every moment he chose not to fight for her.
"I need to get out of here," Ashina said suddenly, standing. "I need air. I need to think."
"Ashina, it's getting dark...."
"I'll stay on our territory. I just need to move. To breathe. To not feel like these walls are closing in."
Elena looked like she wanted to argue, but something in Ashina's expression must have convinced her. "Stay within the residential area and take your phone."
"I will." Ashina was already grabbing her jacket, desperate to escape the suffocating confines of her room, her thoughts, her mistakes.
The forest welcomed her like an old friend.
Ashina had always loved the woods surrounding Silverpaw territory. As a child, she'd spent hours exploring them with Torin, building forts and chasing rabbits in their wolf forms. The trees here were old, thick with moss and memory, and usually their presence calmed her but not tonight. Tonight, the forest felt different. Charged. Like the air before a lightning strike.
Her wolf was on edge, pacing beneath her skin in a way it never had before. Usually, her wolf was docile, content. But for the past three days, it had been agitated, restless, almost angry. It kept pushing toward the surface, kept trying to take control, kept pulling her northeast toward him.
Ashina shoved her hands in her jacket pockets and walked faster, as if she could outrun the bond. As if physical distance could ease the constant ache in her chest.
It couldn't, of course. She'd tried. But moving felt better than sitting still, and the cool evening air cleared some of the fog from her mind.
Next week. He wants to talk next week.
Five more days of this limbo. Five more days of wondering if she'd made the right choice. Five more days of Kendrick's presence at the edge of her consciousness, patient and waiting and there.
She'd felt him watching her. Not just through the bond, but actually watching. Twice, she'd looked out her bedroom window and caught a glimpse of something in the trees. A shadow that was too large, too deliberate. Once, she'd sworn she'd seen glowing eyes in the darkness before they disappeared.
Her parents thought she was being paranoid. "Rejection can make you imagine things," her father had said gently. "The bond playing tricks on your mind." But Ashina didn't think she was imagining it. She felt watched. Studied. Stalked. And part of her, a part she refused to acknowledge found it almost comforting. Knowing he was close. Knowing he cared enough to check on her even after she'd rejected him.
No. She shook her head violently. Stop thinking like that.
Kendrick Ridge was not comforting. He was dangerous, powerful, controlling. He'd investigated her without permission. He'd approached her publicly, forcing the mate reveal, backing her into a corner. He was everything she should fear. So why did her wolf whine every time she pushed thoughts of him away?
Ashina realized she'd walked farther than intended. The houses were behind her now, and she stood in the deeper part of the forest where the residential area gave way to wild territory. The sun had set fully, leaving only the pale light of the rising moon to guide her.
She should turn back. Her mother would worry if she was gone too long but her feet didn't move. Her wolf had gone suddenly, unnaturally still. The forest was too quiet. No birds. No insects. No rustling of small creatures in the underbrush. Just... silence. Heavy and expectant.
The hair on the back of Ashina's neck rose.
"Hello?" Her voice sounded too loud in the stillness. "Is someone there?"
Nothing. But the feeling of being watched intensified until her skin prickled with awareness.
She turned in a slow circle, scanning the trees. Shadows upon shadows, moonlight filtering through branches, the familiar forest suddenly alien and threatening.
You're being paranoid, she told herself. There's nothing
A branch snapped behind her.
Ashina spun around, her heart leaping into her throat.
The shadows shifted. Moved. Resolved into a figure stepping out from between two ancient oaks.
Tall. Broad-shouldered. Moving with a predator's fluid grace. Ice-blue eyes caught the moonlight, glowing slightly in the darkness.
No. No, no, no.
"Hello, mate."
Kendrick's voice was low, rough, and the sound of it sent electricity racing down Ashina's spine. He stood fifteen feet away, blocking the path back toward the houses, and even in the dim light she could see the intensity in his gaze.
He looked different than he had at the gathering. Less controlled. His dark hair was slightly disheveled, his jaw shadowed with several days' worth of stubble. He wore simple dark clothes, jeans and a black shirt but they did nothing to diminish his presence. If anything, he seemed larger somehow, more dangerous, like a wild thing barely contained in human skin.
"You're on my territory." Ashina was proud that her voice didn't shake. "You have no right to be here."
"I know." He took a step closer, and she took a step back. "I couldn't stay away."
"You need to leave. Now." Another step back. He matched it with one forward.
"I've tried. For three days, I've tried to give you space. To let you figure things out on your own." Another step. "But I can feel you, Ashina. I feel your pain, your confusion, your doubt. And I can't" His voice roughened. "I can't stay away while you suffer."
"I'm not suffering." But they both knew it was a lie.
"You are." He kept advancing slowly, and she kept retreating, until her back hit a tree trunk. "The bond is tearing you apart. I can feel it. And he's not there for you, is he? Your Darren."
The way he said the name dripping with contempt made her bristle. "That's none of your business."
"Everything about you is my business. You're my mate."
"I rejected you."
"The bond doesn't care." He stopped just out of reach, and his eyes glowed brighter in the darkness. "You can reject me all you want, little wolf. But the bond remains and it's killing us both."
"Then break it." The words came out desperate, pleading. "If it's hurting you too, just break it somehow. Let me go."
Something painful flashed across his face. "I can't. There's only one way to ease the pain of the bond."
"What way?"
He took one final step, closing the distance between them. His hand came up slowly, giving her time to flinch away, and cupped her face with a gentleness that seemed impossible from someone so large, so dangerous.
"Acceptance," he said softly. "Completion. Marking."
His thumb traced her jawline and despite everything. Her fear, her resistance, her loyalty to Darren, her body responded. Heat bloomed where he touched her. Her wolf surged forward with a pleased rumble.
"I can't," Ashina whispered, but she didn't pull away.
"Why not?" His other hand came up, framing her face, and she was trapped between him and the tree with nowhere to run. "What is he giving you that's worth this agony? What promises has he made that he's actually keeping?"
"He loves me."
"Does he?" Kendrick leaned down, bringing his face level with hers, and his scent, pine, winter and wild things surrounded her completely. "Then where is he, Ashina? Where is he while you're falling apart? While you can't eat or sleep? While the bond tears you in two?"
"He needs space."
"He's a coward." The words were flat, absolute. "And you deserve better."
"You don't know me well enough to know what I deserve."
"I know enough." His eyes searched hers, and the intensity there stole her breath. "I know you're brave enough to reject an Alpha in front of hundreds of witnesses. I know you're loyal enough to keep fighting for someone who doesn't fight back. I know you're strong enough to resist a mate bond that's driving you insane."
His thumb traced her lower lip, and she gasped.
"And I know," he continued, voice dropping to barely above a whisper, "that you feel this. Feel us. Feel how right this is, even as you fight it."
She did. God help her, she did.
The bond sang between them now, close enough to touch, close enough that his emotions bled through the connection. Desire. Longing. Fierce protectiveness. And underneath it all, a devotion so absolute it terrified her.
"I can give you everything he can't," Kendrick said. "Safety. Stability. A pack that will cherish you. A mate who will never walk away, never ask for space, never make you question your worth."
"You can't give me love." The words came out choked. "You don't even know me."
"I know you better than you think." His forehead pressed against hers, and her eyes fluttered closed at the contact. "I've watched you for three months. Learned your habits, your routines, your dreams. I know you want to travel beyond pack territories. I know you help at your family's bakery every Saturday. I know you sing when you think no one's listening."
Her eyes snapped open. "You've been stalking me."
"I've been protecting you." No apology in his voice. "From him. From yourself. From the heartbreak I knew was coming."
"That's not protection, that's....."
"I don't care what you call it." His grip on her face tightened slightly, not painful but firm, demanding her attention. "I will not apologize for watching over what's mine."
"I'm not yours."
"Yes," he said, and there was absolute certainty in his voice, in his eyes, in the bond thrumming between them. "You are." Then he kissed her. It wasn't gentle. Wasn't asking permission. It was claiming, possessive, a statement of ownership that should have made her furious. Instead, it made her burn.
The mate bond exploded between them like a supernova. Every nerve ending ignited. Her wolf howled in triumph and shoved against her control, desperate to get closer, to submit, to finally accept their mate.
Ashina's hands came up to push him away, but somehow ended up fisting in his shirt, pulling him closer instead. He tasted like winter and danger and something she couldn't name but desperately needed.
One of his hands slid into her hair, angling her head for better access. The other pressed against her lower back, pulling her flush against him, and she could feel every hard line of muscle, every barely controlled tremor.
He kissed her like a man starving. Like she was air and he'd been drowning. Like three days apart had been an eternity. And God help her, she kissed him back.
When he finally pulled away, they were both breathing hard. His eyes had gone fully wolf bright gold instead of blue and his hands shook slightly where they still held her.
"Feel that?" His voice was gravelly, barely human. "That's the bond, Ashina. That's fate telling you where you belong." Reality crashed back. Ashina shoved at his chest, and this time he let her create distance between them. "No." She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, trying to erase the feeling of his lips on hers, the taste of him. "No, you can't just do that."
"I just did." No remorse. Just fact.
"I'm with Darren."
"Are you?" He tilted his head, studying her. "Because from where I'm standing, you're alone in the woods at night, and he hasn't bothered to check on you in three days."
The truth of it stung. She wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly cold without his body heat. "This doesn't change anything."
"It changes everything." He took a step toward her, and she held up a hand to stop him.
"Stay back." To her surprise, he did. But his eyes never left hers, intense and unwavering.
"I'm giving you one more chance," Kendrick said quietly. "Come with me now. Willingly. Let me mark you, claim you, make you mine before another day passes."
"And if I refuse?"
Something dark flickered across his face. "Then I'll make a decision you'll hate me for but I'll make it anyway."
The threat hung in the air between them, clear and unmistakable.
"You can't force me," Ashina said, but her voice shook.
"Can't I?" He smiled, but there was no humor in it. "There are laws, little wolf. Old laws. Laws that say an Alpha can claim his mate if she's in danger wether physical or otherwise. Laws that recognize that sometimes, fate needs help."
Horror crawled up her spine. "You wouldn't."
"I would do anything to protect you. Even from yourself." He took another step forward, and this time she couldn't make herself back away. "I'll give you until tomorrow night. One day to choose freely. After that..."
He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't need to.
"I hate you," she whispered.
"No, you don't." He reached out and traced her unmarked neck with one finger, the touch feather-light but searing. "But you will. For a while. And I'll bear that hatred if it means keeping you safe."
Then he was gone, dissolving into the shadows as silently as he'd appeared, leaving Ashina alone in the dark forest with his scent clinging to her clothes, his taste on her lips, and a choice that wasn't really a choice at all.
Because she knew with a certainty that made her want to scream that Kendrick Ridge meant every word. And tomorrow night, one way or another, everything would change.