Kade POV
Kade is counting the hours until she comes back.
This is the problem and he knows it. He's been watching the sun move across the sky since midday, aware of exactly how much time has passed since she left to do the laundry. Three hours. Two minutes. He knows because some part of his brain won't stop tracking it.
His wolf won't stop tracking her.
He sits at his desk reviewing reports from his Second-in-Command, Cole, but the words don't make sense. Something about border patrols and resource management. Important things. Things that should matter to him.
None of it matters right now.
What matters is that she's been gone for three hours and two minutes and she should be back soon because the sun is setting and he told her to bring his meal at sunset.
Kade puts down his pen and stands up, pacing the length of his chamber. The space feels smaller than it did before. Like the walls moved closer the moment she walked out.
Five years. He went five years without needing anything he couldn't live without. After Elena rejected him, after his fated mate chose a human man over the bond the moon goddess created, he rebuilt himself into someone who doesn't need. Someone who doesn't break. Someone who controls everything around him through sheer force of will.
He was supposed to stay that way forever.
Then this girl walked into his territory covered in her father's blood and everything he rebuilt started cracking.
His wolf writhes beneath his skin, restless and hungry. It wants her here. Wants her close. Wants things that Kade's mind understands are dangerous and irrational. Obsession is what destroyed him last time. Obsession is the chain that binds an Alpha to something that can be taken away.
He should move her to the servant quarters. She'd be safer there. Away from him. Away from what he's starting to become around her.
But he won't do that.
Because he's broken the most important rule he made five years ago. He's stopped running from obsession. He's running toward it instead.
The door opens.
She's there with his meal on a tray and her dark eyes are carefully blank. She's learned already how to make herself neutral. How to hide everything underneath a wall of silence.
He doesn't like it.
He wants to see the fear. The anger. The way her body responds when he's close.
"Set it on the table," he says.
She moves past him and he catches the scent of her. Something like rain and the soap from the laundry house mixed with something underneath that's just her. His wolf goes completely still and then wild all at once.
She sets the tray down and turns to leave.
"Wait," he says.
She pauses. He can see her hands tense slightly. That's good. That means she's affected by him. That means whatever is happening between them isn't just in his head.
He walks to the table slowly, deliberately. He picks up the cup of water she brought and takes a drink. Then he sets it down and reaches for the bread.
But what he's really doing is watching her watch him.
Her eyes track his movements. Her breathing changes. And when he looks up and catches her staring, she looks away quickly like she got burned.
Satisfaction floods through him.
"Come here," he says.
It's not a command. It's just quiet words. But it's enough that she moves toward him like something invisible is pulling her. Like she doesn't have a choice in the matter.
She stops a few feet away from him. Safe distance. The distance of someone who remembers what he did to her in this room before.
He reaches for her hand.
The moment his fingers touch hers, her entire body goes rigid. He can feel her pulse racing underneath her skin. Can smell the sudden spike in her fear and something else underneath it. Something that smells like need.
He holds her hand for just a moment longer than necessary. Long enough for her to register the touch. Long enough for her skin to burn under his fingers.
Then he releases her.
"You can go," he says, turning back to his meal.
She leaves quickly but not before he catches the way she looks at her hand. Like it might still be burning where he touched it.
Because it is.
He can smell it on her. The way her body is reacting to him even though her mind knows she should hate him. Even though she lost everything because of him.
It's not love. Not yet. But it's the beginning of something. The beginning of the obsession that's going to consume them both.
The night settles dark and heavy over the territory.
Kade tries to sleep but his wolf won't rest. It's agitated and hungry and completely fixed on one thing. Finally, around midnight, he gives up pretending and leaves his chamber.
He tells himself he's just walking. Just clearing his head. That it's coincidence he ends up in the corridor where the spare rooms are. Where she's sleeping tonight.
It's a lie.
He stands outside her door and listens to her breathe.
She's inside, probably asleep by now. Her breathing is steady and deep with the rhythm of someone who's completely unconscious. He knows because he stands there listening to it for long enough that he counts the pattern. In and out. In and out. The simple sound of her existing.
This is sick. This is the behavior of someone broken and obsessed and completely willing to destroy anyone who gets in his way.
He should walk away.
He doesn't.
Instead, he reaches toward the door handle, not to open it but just to touch the wood that separates them. Just to be as close as he can get to her without actually crossing into her space.
His hand is shaking.
Kade Blackthorne, Alpha of the strongest pack in the northern territories, Master of strategy and control, Breaker of rivals and Destroyer of weak bonds, is standing outside a door at midnight shaking because a girl from a defeated pack is sleeping on the other side.
He whispers something into the darkness.
"I'm not going to let you leave."
The words come out rough and honest. Not a threat. Not a promise. Just the truth of what's happening inside his chest.
He hears her breathing change on the other side of the door.
For a moment, he thinks maybe she's awake. Maybe she heard him. His hand is already moving to the door handle when he stops himself.
If he goes in there now, if he sees her face and her dark eyes looking at him from that bed, he won't be able to control what happens next. His wolf is too close to the surface. His obsession is too complete.
He steps away from the door.
But as he walks back to his chamber, he already knows something. He knows that tomorrow he'll find another reason to keep her close. He knows he'll touch her again and watch her respond. He knows he's going to keep pushing until she stops trying to hide what she feels.
Because he broke his rule.
He broke it the moment he saw her fighting on that battlefield and he's never going to put it back together again.
When he reaches his chamber, he stands at the window and looks out toward the servant quarters where her door is. Somewhere in the darkness, she's sleeping. Probably thinking about escape. Probably planning how to get away from him.
He smiles and the expression is not kind.
Let her plan.
Because no matter what she does, no matter where she thinks she can go, he's going to find her. He's going to bring her back. And eventually, she's going to stop running.
Eventually, she's going to realize that staying is so much easier than fighting.
And by then, it'll be too late for both of them.
His wolf howls and for the first time in five years, Kade doesn't try to silence it.
He lets it sing.