KANE POV
Kane's wolf explodes out of him.
The transformation happens in seconds. Bones crack and reform. Skin becomes fur. His human consciousness merges with something ancient and primal and completely consumed with need. His wolf has waited three hundred and sixty-seven years for this moment. Has clawed at the cage Kane built around it for centuries. And now the woman it recognizes as mate is standing in front of him and everything inside him is screaming to claim her.
He circles her slowly.
Every instinct is telling him to mark her. To leave his scent on her skin so the entire world knows she belongs to him. To bare his teeth and tell any other creature that if they touch her, he'll tear them apart. His wolf is almost violent in its need to do these things.
Iris should run.
Everything in her body should be sending her into survival mode. A massive predator circling her. Ancient and powerful and completely alien. She should be terrified. She should be begging for her life.
Instead she stands perfectly still.
She watches him circle her with those brown eyes that see straight through to his soul. Her heart is racing but not from fear. He can smell it on her. Can taste it in the air. She's not afraid of him. She's afraid of losing him.
That breaks something inside his chest.
Kane forces control back into the transformation. It's harder than it's ever been. His wolf doesn't want to obey. Wants to do whatever it takes to bind her to him permanently. But the human part of Kane, the part that loves her, knows that this isn't the time.
He transforms back to human form.
The change is painful in reverse. His bones crack back into human shape. His fur recedes back into skin. His consciousness separates from the animal side and becomes singular again. When it's over, Kane is standing in front of Iris completely naked and completely exposed and he doesn't even care.
She's looking at his body like she's seeing him for the first time.
The scars are everywhere. Deep gouges across his chest where claws found him. Bullet wounds from when he was younger and didn't know how to heal himself. Burn marks covering his left side and his back. A map of violence written in his skin. A history of pain that he's been carrying for so long he almost forgot it was there.
"What happened to you?" Iris asks softly.
Kane looks down at his body like he's seeing the scars for the first time too. He's gotten so used to carrying them that they feel like just another part of who he is.
"My family burned," he says.
The words come out flat. Empty. Like they're coming from someone else entirely. He doesn't explain more. Doesn't tell her about the night he was twenty-three years old and his entire world went up in flames. Doesn't tell her about the screams or the way his father tried to shield him. Doesn't tell her about the massacre that followed when he had to kill the rogues who killed his family. Doesn't tell her about the twelve years of cold leadership that came after because he was too broken to feel anything else.
He's done enough talking for one night.
Iris reaches for him.
Her hands find the scar tissue on his chest. She traces the deepest wound carefully like she's trying to understand what could have hurt him this badly. Kane flinches at first. He's spent so long keeping people away from his body, from his pain, that being touched like this feels like drowning.
But he doesn't pull away this time.
He lets her touch him. Lets her hands move across his scars. Lets her understand that underneath all the coldness and control, he's just a broken man who's been alone for too long. This is vulnerability in a way he hasn't experienced since before his family died. This is letting someone see all the pieces of him that don't fit together right anymore.
Iris moves her hands to his shoulder. To his neck. To the scar that runs from his jaw to his collarbone. Each touch is gentle. Like she's not horrified by what she's seeing. Like she understands that these scars tell the story of someone who survived impossible things.
Kane closes his eyes and lets himself feel it.
For three hundred and sixty-seven years he's been locked away from genuine connection. From the kind of touch that says you matter. From the kind of acceptance that doesn't require him to be strong or cold or perfect. Iris is touching him like he's worth saving. Like his scars are beautiful instead of broken.
Her hands move up to his face.
"You're my mate," she whispers.
Kane's entire body goes rigid.
The word hangs in the air between them. Mate. The most sacred bond in the shifter world. The one connection that's supposed to be permanent and unbreakable and destiny written into the fabric of his soul. He's known it since she arrived. His wolf has screamed it at him since that first moment. But hearing her say it out loud makes it real in a way he's been terrified of.
Because mates die. Mates leave. Mates become the reason you do reckless things that destroy everything you've built.
His parents taught him that.
Kane pulls away from her.
"No," he says. But it comes out like he's trying to convince himself instead of her.
Iris reaches for him again but Kane steps back. His breathing is ragged. His control is shattering like glass. Everything he's been fighting against for days is flooding through him at once. The pull. The recognition. The absolute certainty that she's the other half of something broken inside him.
"You don't understand what you're saying," Kane tells her. His voice is rough. Dangerous. "A mate bond is permanent. Eternal. It doesn't break even after death. If you claim me as your mate, you're tying yourself to someone who's already lost everything. You're promising yourself to a man who doesn't know how to love without destroying."
Iris steps toward him anyway.
"Then teach me," she says simply. "Teach me what it means. Teach me what you are. But stop running away from what we both know is true."
Kane wants to argue. Wants to tell her to leave and never come back. Wants to push her away hard enough that she'll finally understand he's not worth saving.
But her hand finds his again and his wolf howls inside his chest and he realizes with absolute certainty that he's lost the ability to say no to her.