Kaelen POV
I was in my chambers when the bond suddenly ached. The bond didn't just ache. It burned.
It started as a slow pulse beneath my ribs — faint, distant — and then it tore open, flooding me with heat that wasn't mine. A breath that wasn't mine. A tremor that felt too human, too intimate.
I froze.
The sound in the camp faded. The world narrowed to that single thread tying me to her. The one I'd promised myself not to pull again.
Then it hit — sharp, clean, unstoppable. A wave of pain that bled into pleasure, and something inside me snapped.
I staggered against the table, my hands digging into the wood hard enough to leave marks. Gregor spun toward me, his face pale.
"Alpha!"
"Don't," I rasped. "Don't touch me."
He froze.
The pain built until my vision blurred. I could feel her heartbeat stuttering through the bond — uneven, wild, tangled with someone else's pulse. And under it, his voice. Theron's. Calm. Focused. Too close.
