Kael's POV
The pack house is three miles away and Kael carries her the entire distance without stopping.
His wolf wants to run faster. His wolf wants to shift and howl the news to every corner of Blackthorn territory that he has found his mate. His wolf wants to claim her right now in the forest where no one can take her away.
Kael keeps his human form and walks steady.
She is bleeding and hurt and in shock. She needs gentle. She needs safe. She needs to know that he is not the monster the world makes him out to be.
Even though right now, with her body light in his arms and her scent filling his lungs, Kael understands why the world fears him.
Because he would burn this entire forest to ash if someone tried to take her.
He looks down at her face. She is unconscious but not peacefully. Her jaw is tight. Her brow is furrowed like she is fighting something even in sleep. He wants to know what she fights. He wants to know everything about her. Every scar. Every fear. Every moment that made her believe she was unwanted.
His parents were fated mates.
That fact used to terrify him because they are dead and their bond did not save them. For fourteen years he has used that truth as a weapon against hope. Against faith. Against the idea that destiny was anything but a cruel joke.
But holding Aria, feeling the way her body seems to recognize his even in unconsciousness, Kael wonders if he was wrong about everything.
The pack house comes into view.
It is stone and glass built on the highest point of their territory. A fortress. A symbol of strength. The place where Kael has ruled alone and made every decision without consulting anyone because consulting people means trusting them and trust is how you die.
He carries Aria through the front entrance and security guards step aside without question. They can smell what he smells. They can read what his body is telling them. Their alpha has found something precious and if they value their lives, they will not interfere.
Kael takes her to his private rooms on the top floor. The only place in the house that is completely his. The only place where he has ever let anyone inside his boundaries.
He sets her gently on his bed like she is made of glass.
Her wound has reopened slightly during the journey. Blood seeps through the makeshift bandage from the forest. Kael gathers clean supplies from the bathroom and returns to her side.
He works carefully. Cleaning the blood away. Examining the injury with hands that are usually made for violence but right now are devoted entirely to healing. She will recover quickly. Wolf wounds close fast when the pack is bonded to the healer. And Kael's bond with her is already stronger than anything he has ever felt.
"You are safe now," he tells her sleeping form. His voice sounds foreign to his own ears. Soft. Vulnerable. "I do not know who hurt you or why they made you believe you were unwanted. But I am telling you this now, Aria. You will never feel that way again. I will spend every day for the rest of my life proving to you that you matter."
The promises fall out of him like they have been waiting his entire life to be spoken.
He does not understand where they come from. He has spent fourteen years perfecting his control. Perfecting the ability to feel nothing. To want nothing. To need no one.
But sitting on his bed with her blood on his hands, Kael realizes that everything he built was a lie.
Everything was just him waiting for her without knowing he was waiting.
A knock sounds at the doorway.
Vale enters and stops dead.
His second can smell her. Can smell Kael's reaction to her. Can smell the mate bond that is burning through the air like wildfire.
Vale's expression goes from confusion to understanding in seconds.
"Kael," Vale says carefully. Like he is speaking to something dangerous. Something that has finally found what it was searching for. "That is"
"My mate," Kael finishes. He does not look away from her face. "She was injured at the border. She needed help. She needs rest now."
Vale steps fully into the room and his eyes track from Aria to Kael and back again. Kael can see his second working through the implications. Kael, the alpha who swore mate bonds were weakness. Kael, the leader who built his pack on solitude. Kael, the man who said he would never need anyone.
Is now sitting vigil over a girl he just met like she is his entire world.
Vale's face shows recognition and then something else. Concern maybe. Or caution.
"She is a lone wolf," Kael continues because Vale deserves that much explanation. "She was rejected by her pack. She came to our territory and I found her. But this is not accident, Vale. You know this. You can feel what I feel."
Vale nods slowly. "The bond is strong."
"Stronger than anything I have ever experienced," Kael says. "I do not care where she came from. I do not care what her history is. She is mine now and I will protect her with everything I have."
The words are a vow.
Vale moves closer and he puts his hand on Kael's shoulder. It is what he is supposed to do. What a loyal second does when his alpha is vulnerable.
"The pack will want to know about this," Vale says carefully. "A lone wolf suddenly appearing as your mate. Some will wonder about timing. The Council has been making moves and suddenly she appears at our border."
Kael's jaw tightens because Vale is right and he hates that Vale is right. Vale is giving voice to the paranoia that kept Kael alive this long. The paranoia that says nothing good ever comes without a cost.
But looking at Aria's sleeping face, Kael cannot make himself believe that she is a threat.
"I do not care what the pack questions," he says. "She is under my absolute protection. Anyone who looks at her with suspicion will answer to me. Anyone who questions her loyalty will be exiled. She is my mate. That is all anyone needs to know."
Vale nods and removes his hand. He understands. A second always understands when his alpha has found his person.
"I will make sure no one disturbs her rest," Vale says. "You should take time with her when she wakes. Bond with her. Let her feel that she is safe."
He leaves quietly.
The moment Vale is gone, Kael moves to the bed. He lies down beside Aria, careful not to jostle her injury. His wolf settles instantly just from her proximity. For fourteen years his wolf has been restless. Angry. Hungry for something it could not name.
Now it knows.
Aria shifts in her sleep and her hand finds his chest. Right over his heart.
Kael closes his eyes and for the first time in years, something inside him feels at peace.
He does not know that her eyes open for just a moment in the darkness.
He does not see her whisper so quietly into the communication device hidden against her skin that he cannot possibly hear her.
He does not notice because he is too busy falling.
And some part of him, the part that has spent fourteen years learning to trust no one, wonders if falling this hard will be the thing that finally destroys him.