Nora POV
Nora's hand drops from his shoulder and she steps back.
She doesn't run yet but she's already planning to. Every muscle in her body is screaming at her to move, to put distance between them, to remember why she should be afraid. His touch just now felt like a trap closing.
"Don't," she says, her voice barely a whisper.
Kade doesn't move. He just watches her with those silver eyes that see everything.
"Don't what?" he asks softly.
Don't make me care. Don't make me feel things I can't control. Don't make me forget that you destroyed everything I loved.
"I need to go," she says instead.
She turns and walks away from the training grounds. Behind her, she can feel his gaze tracking her movement. She walks faster. Almost jogging now. Her heart is hammering against her ribs like something trying to escape.
His voice catches her in the darkness before she reaches the building.
"Run if you want," he calls out. Not loud. Just loud enough that she hears it clearly. "I'll find you. Again and again."
Nora stops walking.
The words hang in the air between them like a promise and a threat twisted into one. She knows he means it. She's learned enough about Kade to know that he doesn't say things he doesn't intend to do. He's tracked enemies across territories. He's broken packs that thought they could hide from him.
If she runs, he'll find her.
The terrifying part is that she's not sure she wants him not to.
That realization makes her sick.
She doesn't answer him. She just keeps walking until she reaches her borrowed room and closes the door behind her. The space feels smaller than it did this morning. The walls are closing in.
She sits on the bed and tries to breathe.
What's happening to her? A month ago she had escape plans. She had routes memorized and guard rotations tracked. She had a plan to get out of this territory and disappear into the wilderness where Kade couldn't find her.
Now she's getting weak.
Nora stands up and starts moving with desperate purpose. She needs to rebuild her plans. She needs to remember why she should hate him. She needs to do this before whatever is happening between them becomes permanent.
Before she forgets why she should want to leave.
She finds a small bag hidden under the floorboards where she stashed it weeks ago. Old instinct. Pack light. Be ready. She'd forgotten about it until now but her hands remember what to do.
A change of clothes first. One set that's practical for traveling. She rolls it tightly and tucks it into the bag. Food next. She can steal from the kitchens. Bread and dried meat that won't spoil quickly. Water she can find anywhere.
She moves through the room methodically, packing the essentials. Just in case. Just so she knows she still has a choice. Just so she can remind herself that she's not actually his prisoner. She's choosing to stay. For now.
But what if one day she stops choosing?
What if one day she wakes up and realizes that she actually wants to be here? That she wants to be near him more than she wants to be free?
The thought makes her hands shake.
A knock on her door stops her mid-motion.
Nora shoves the bag under the bed and stands up, trying to look casual. But her heart is racing because what if he knows? What if he somehow knows about the bag and the escape plans and the way she's been calculating routes and timing?
The door opens.
It's Iris. The warrior looks at her carefully, taking in Nora's flushed face and rapid breathing.
"You okay?" Iris asks. She's not the kind of person who asks questions she doesn't actually want answers to.
"I'm fine," Nora says too quickly.
Iris moves into the room and closes the door behind her. She's tall and scarred and completely comfortable with silence. She sits on the chair near the window and just watches Nora.
"You're falling for him," Iris says finally.
It's not a question. It's a statement of fact delivered with the kind of certainty that makes Nora's stomach drop.
"I'm not," Nora says.
Iris actually smiles. "I watched you on the training grounds today. I watched the way you looked at him when you were cleaning his wounds. I watched the way the entire compound suddenly understands that you're his."
"I'm not his," Nora says but the words feel hollow.
Iris leans forward. "You're going to break his heart."
Nora stares at her. "What?"
"The Alpha," Iris continues like Nora said nothing. "He's been broken for five years. Some girl rejected him. It made him cold. Made him hard. Made him into someone who doesn't believe in bonds anymore. Then you came and he started believing again."
Nora doesn't know what to say to that.
"I've known Kade since we were young," Iris says. "I've never seen him obsess over anything that wasn't a war strategy or expanding territory. But he obsesses over you. And it terrifies him because the last time he let himself obsess over someone, it destroyed him."
"That's not my problem," Nora says but she doesn't believe the words.
Iris stands up. "It is. Because he's going to put everything into you. His heart, his trust, his pack. And if you run, he's going to shatter. And not in a quiet way."
Iris walks to the door and pauses.
"Whatever you're planning," she says without turning around, "make sure it's worth it. Because you're about to destroy the best man I know."
Then she's gone.
Nora stands alone in her room with the bag hidden under the bed and her heart completely torn apart. She didn't ask for this. She didn't ask to fall for her captor. She didn't ask to become someone's obsession.
But Iris is right. She can see it now. The way Kade looks at her like she's his entire world. The way he touches her like she might vanish. The way he's been slowly opening himself up to her in ways he probably promised himself he'd never do again.
And if she leaves, she's going to break something in him that might never repair.
The realization doesn't make her want to stay though. It makes her want to run harder.
Because loving him is a trap. Staying is a trap. And the only way out is to leave before she's too tangled up in him to break free.
Nora gets into bed fully clothed and lies in the darkness.
Tomorrow she'll finalize her escape plan. Tomorrow she'll figure out the exact timing and route. Tomorrow she'll be ready to leave.
But then the door to her room opens in the darkness and Kade's voice comes out of the shadows.
"I know you have a bag packed," he says quietly. "I found it three weeks ago when I came in here at night."
Nora's blood turns to ice.
"I've been waiting to see what you'd do," he continues. He steps closer and she can see him now in the moonlight from the window. His expression is calm but his eyes are burning. "But I want you to know something. You're not leaving. Not now. Not ever."
He reaches down and pulls her up from the bed.
"Because you're mine," he says simply. "And I don't let go of what's mine."