I couldn't sleep.
At three in the morning, I finally gave up, wrapped myself in a silk robe, and padded barefoot down to the pack house kitchen.
The marble floors were cool against my feet, the house silent except for the distant sound of night patrol shifting outside.
The mate bond ached. A phantom pain where Dominic used to exist in my chest, like a limb I'd lost but could still feel. My wolf paced restlessly, confused by the conflicting signals mourning one mate while being inexplicably drawn to another man.
This is insane. I just left Dominic. I can't already be feeling something for someone else.
But my traitorous body didn't seem to care about the timeline. It remembered Kael's hand on my back, the way his eyes had tracked my every movement during dinner, the electric jolt when our fingers brushed.
I pulled open the industrial-sized refrigerator, searching for anything that might quiet the chaos in my head. Leftover lasagna, fruit, yogurt, half a chocolate cake.
"Couldn't sleep either?"
I spun around, my heart leaping into my throat.
Kael stood in the doorway, wearing nothing but low-slung gray sweatpants and shadows. The dim kitchen light caught on the planes of his chest, the defined muscles of his abdomen, the dark ink of tattoos that wrapped around his ribs and disappeared beneath the waistband of those dangerous sweatpants.
Oh, Moon Goddess help me.
"I sorry, I didn't mean to raid your kitchen," I stammered, suddenly very aware that my silk robe was short and probably transparent in the light from the fridge. "I'll just"
"Stay." He moved into the kitchen with that predatory grace, and I caught his scent cedar and pine and something wild that made my wolf sit up and beg. "You're not raiding anything. You're a guest. This is your home now, for as long as you need it."
Your home. The words hit differently than they should have. The Steele mansion had never felt like home, even after three years. It had always been Dominic's house, Dominic's pack, Dominic's territory that I was allowed to occupy.
"Chocolate cake?" Kael asked, reaching around me to pull out the very dessert I'd been eyeing. His arm brushed against mine, and I swore I felt actual sparks.
This was wrong. This had to be wrong.
"I shouldn't," I said weakly. "It's three in the morning."
"Since when do we follow rules at three in the morning?" He grabbed two forks from a drawer, set the entire cake on the counter, and patted the marble surface. "Sit. Tell me why you're really awake."
I hesitated, then hoisted myself onto the counter, letting my legs dangle. Kael handed me a fork and leaned against the island across from me, close enough to touch but maintaining a careful distance.
"The mate bond," I admitted quietly, stabbing at the chocolate cake without eating it. "It's… it hurts. Like something vital is being ripped out of my chest."
His jaw tightened. "It'll get worse before it gets better. The further you get from your mate, the more painful the bond becomes until it's fully severed."
"You sound like you know from experience."
"I don't." His blue eyes met mine, and something dark flickered in their depths. "But I've watched it happen. My father, when my mother died. The mate bond breaking nearly killed him."
"I'm sorry," I whispered. "Maya told me about your mother. Cancer, right?"
"Five years ago." He took a bite of cake, and I tried not to watch his lips. "She fought for three years. My father never left her side. When she passed, the bond snapping… he said it felt like his soul was being torn in half."
The pain in his voice made my chest ache for an entirely different reason. "How did he survive it?"
"He didn't. Not really." Kael's expression went distant, haunted. "He died six months later. Heart attack, the doctors said. But we all knew the truth. He died of a broken heart. He couldn't exist in a world without her."
"That's…" I swallowed hard. "That's beautiful. Tragic, but beautiful."
"That's true mate bonds," Kael said quietly. "The real ones. The ones built on actual love and partnership, not just biology and destiny." His eyes found mine again, and the intensity in them made my breath catch. "What you had with Dominic Steele? That wasn't a true mate bond. That was just chemistry and obligation."
"How would you know?" The question came out sharper than I intended, defensive.
"Because a true mate would never let you feel invisible." He pushed off the counter and moved closer, so close I could feel the heat radiating from his bare skin. "A true mate would worship the ground you walk on. Would consider every moment with you a gift. Would rather die than watch you hurt the way you've been hurting."
My pulse was thundering now, my wolf practically purring at his proximity. "You barely know me anymore, Kael. We haven't seen each other in seven years."
"I know you." His voice dropped to something low and rough that made heat pool in my stomach. "I know you used to sneak out at midnight to swim in the lake. I know you hate mint chocolate chip ice cream but pretend to like it because it was your mother's favorite. I know you have a birthmark on your left shoulder blade shaped like a crescent moon."
His hand came up slowly, giving me time to pull away, and brushed a strand of hair behind my ear. "I know that when you laugh really laugh, not that fake Luna laugh you learned your nose crinkles. I know you bite your bottom lip when you're nervous. Like you're doing right now."
I released my lip immediately, and he smiled.
"I know," he continued, his hand lingering near my face, "that you deserve someone who sees all of that. Who memorizes every detail because they can't imagine anything more important than knowing you."
"Kael…" I didn't even know what I was trying to say. Stop? Don't stop? Kiss me? This is too fast?
His phone buzzed, shattering the moment.
He stepped back with a muttered curse, pulling it from his pocket. His expression went dark as he read whatever message had come through.
"What is it?"
"Your husband." The word came out like a curse. "He's requesting an audience with me. Wants to discuss 'retrieving his property.'"
White-hot rage flooded through me. "His property?"
"His words, not mine." Kael's eyes flashed amber his wolf rising to the surface. "He's demanding I send you back under pack law. Claiming you're emotionally unstable and need to be returned to your mate for your own safety."