Riven's POV
Riven watched her bolt for the kitchen and almost smiled.
She was fast. Faster than a normal human. He could hear her heartbeat spike, could smell the shift in her chemistry as her wolf pushed closer to the surface. Two years of searching, two years of tracking rumors of a hybrid existing somewhere in this human city, and here she was running straight away from him like that would actually work.
He let her get exactly three steps before he moved.
The distance between them closed in a blur. His hand caught her wrist as she reached for the back door, and he spun her around, pressing her hard against the brick wall of the alley outside. Not rough. He kept the pressure controlled, lethal without being violent. Her small frame fit against the wall perfectly, trapped between cold brick and his body.
She fought him anyway.
Her free hand clawed at his chest, her nails sharp enough that they actually pierced his shirt. Her legs kicked, trying for his knees, his groin, anything that might get him to loosen his grip. She was furious and desperate and so small he could have held her with one hand if he needed to.
The hybrid blood in her was strong though. He could smell it rolling off her in waves. Wolf and human mixed into something that shouldn't exist but did. Something that had been hunted to extinction centuries ago.
Something his entire pack needed.
"Don't make this difficult," he said.
His voice came out rougher than he intended. The wolf was pushing hard at his control, wanted to shift, wanted to claim what it had found. That was normal for an Alpha encountering prey worth taking. That was tactical instinct.
The mate bond hit him like a freight train.
The moment her hand pressed against his chest, the moment her body went rigid against the wall, something inside his chest cracked open. It wasn't just attraction. It wasn't just the promise of hybrid blood or pack advantage. It was deeper than that. Older than that. A bone-deep recognition that said this female was his. That his wolf had been waiting for her without knowing she existed.
His wolf roared so loud he almost shifted right there in the alley.
MINE.
The word thundered through every part of him, primal and non-negotiable. She was his mate. The one thing Alphas didn't have, didn't want, couldn't afford to want because mates meant vulnerability and vulnerability meant weakness.
He'd never wanted a mate.
He'd told himself mate bonds were for wolves who couldn't control their own instincts. Riven had built Shadowfang through strategy and brutal decision-making, not through some genetic pull toward another wolf. He didn't need a mate. He didn't need anyone.
But his body was telling him something different.
Her eyes went wide as she felt it too. He watched the recognition hit her face, watched her realize what was happening between them. The fear in her eyes was almost immediate. She tried to pull away, tried to turn her face, tried to deny it.
"You feel it too," he said.
It wasn't a question. He could feel her pulse racing against his grip, could hear the sharp intake of her breath, could smell the confusion and terror flooding her system. But underneath it all was the bond, golden and burning, tying them together whether she wanted it or not.
"I don't feel anything," she whispered.
Her voice shook. Her entire body was shaking.
Riven had been Alpha long enough to know when someone was lying. And he'd hunted long enough to know she was about to bolt again. Her muscles were tensing, her breathing shifting to prepare for another run.
He couldn't let that happen.
"Your heartbeat is racing," he said quietly, watching her face. "You're a terrible liar, Jade."
Her eyes went darker when he said her name. That was interesting. She reacted to her own name like it was a weapon being pointed at her. Like just hearing someone say it out loud meant her cover was completely blown.
Because it was.
Riven had been hunting her for two years. Two years of following rumors from pack to pack, talking to old wolves who remembered the old stories about hybrids. Two years of narrowing down territories and possibilities until he landed on this human city by the coast. And then another six months of patient tracking before his scout finally brought him a girl who smelled wrong.
She'd been impossible to get close to at first. She'd buried her wolf so deep that only another wolf could sense it. She'd lived like a human, worked like a human, tried so hard to be human that Riven had almost missed her himself.
But he'd found her.
And now his wolf was losing its mind because apparently the hybrid he'd been hunting strategically, the rare resource his pack desperately needed, was his actual mate.
"Mate bond," he said, testing the words out loud. "That's interesting."
She tried to shove him again. Her palms pressed against his chest with surprising strength, but it wasn't enough. Nothing was going to be enough. Not against him. Not against what he was.
"Let me go," she demanded. "I don't know you. I don't want this."
Riven studied her face in the dim alley light. Dark eyes that shifted between green and gold depending on her panic level. Delicate features that made her look fragile until you noticed the stubborn set of her jaw. Half-human, half-wolf, and completely terrified.
"Your mother was human," he said.
He watched her freeze.
"Your father was Bloodmoon Pack. An execution six years ago, right? And your mother ran with you." He let the information settle on her like a weight. "She's the one who died. The one you watched get hunted down."
Jade's entire body went rigid. Her eyes filled with tears she was trying desperately not to shed.
"How do you know that?" Her voice came out broken.
"Because I know everything about you," Riven said. "Every rumor. Every whisper. Every detail about the hybrid girl who disappeared into a human city and spent six years trying to be something she's not."
He released her wrist but kept her pinned against the wall with his body. His hand came up to cup her face instead, forcing her to meet his eyes.
"You're rare, Jade. You're valuable. And you're smart enough to know what that means. Every pack on the West Coast would tear you apart just for a chance at your blood." He watched her swallow hard. "But you're not going to let that happen anymore. Not now that you're mine."
"I'm not anyone's," she spat.
He almost laughed. Almost. Because she was wrong and they both knew it. The mate bond didn't work that way. Mate bonds didn't ask for permission or offer compromise.
"You can come with me willingly," Riven said, "and we handle this like civilized wolves. Or I can invoke mate claim and you won't have a choice in the matter. Either way, you're leaving this alley and coming to Shadowfang tonight."
Her whole body went tense.
"I'm not going anywhere with you."
She bucked against him, tried to use her knee, tried everything. Riven simply held her, completely unmoved. Let her exhaust herself. Let her realize the futility of it.
Then he lifted her over his shoulder like she weighed nothing.
She screamed. She actually screamed and fought, pounding on his back, kicking her legs, calling for help. But the alley was empty and the diner was closing and no one was coming to save her.
He carried her to the SUV idling at the curb where Kael was waiting. His Beta took one look at Jade's furious, terrified face and winced sympathetically.
"How's this going well?" Kael asked mildly as Riven buckled her into the back seat.
When she tried the door, it was already locked. Child safety locks. She could tear the door apart if she shifted, but not without revealing herself fully. Not in the middle of the human city.
"You can't just kidnap people," she said, voice shaking with rage.
Riven slid into the seat beside her and met her eyes.
"You're not people," he said simply. "You're pack. My pack. And you're going to Shadowfang whether you like it or not."