...Shadows and Fire...
Elena didn't stop trembling even after she slipped out of the crowded hall.
The echoes of the Alphas' voices still clung to her skin, but one word one claimed word, rang louder than the rest.
Mine.
Lorenzo had thrown it across the room like a blade, sharp enough to silence a table of Alphas… and sharp enough to carve panic into her chest.
She pressed her back against the corridor wall, her breath shaking out of her in broken, uneven bursts. Her throat ached the way it always did when fear rose too fast and tight, locked. No sound escaped her. No words. It was always like this.
Trauma had stolen her voice years ago.
But right now, she wasn't sure she could speak even if she'd been able.
The hallway was dim, lit only by moonlight spilling through tall windows. And in that stolen quiet, her pulse fluttered wildly.
She had to get away, distance herself before the bond, before the emotions, before he finds her.
"Elena."
His voice rolled through the shadows like thunder.
She stiffened instantly. Slowly, she turned.
Lorenzo stepped out of the dim corridor as though it parted for him. His presence filled the space, his golden eyes simmering with something she couldn't name,ferocity, frustration, and something dangerously close to longing.
He had been bleeding just hours ago.
Now he looked carved from stone, untouched, unshaken.
"You shouldn't have been in that room," he said quietly, not angry, just… intense. "Those men are predators dressed as royalty. I don't like you being exposed to that."
Elena swallowed hard. Her fingers fluttered at her sides, forming shapes automatically like signs, but her hands trembled too much to finish a sentence. The muscles in her throat tightened painfully as she tried to force even a whisper out.
Nothing came.
As always.
Lorenzo's gaze softened for a fleeting heartbeat. He had learned her silence, her inability to speak. He never mocked it. Never pushed. But he always noticed.
"You're shaking." He stepped closer, startling her. "Elena… look at me."
She did. Slowly. Reluctantly. And instantly regretted it.
Because standing this close, she could see everything.
the heat in his eyes,
the tension in his jaw,
the way he held himself too tightly, like he was fighting something inside.
"Every Alpha in that hall turned when I said you were mine," he murmured. "Some because they were curious. Some because they were threatened." His voice dropped lower. "And one because he was interested. Too interested."
Her breath hitched. Fear flickered in her eyes.
His jaw tightened. "Exactly why I said what I did."
Her heart stuttered painfully.
Lorenzo lifted a hand very slowly, giving her every chance to flinch, but she didn't. His thumb brushed the corner of her jaw, feather-light. Heat unfurled through her chest like a violent tide.
"You're angry," he murmured, reading the tension in her shoulders. "I can feel it."
Her hands moved again, signing, frantic.
You had no right.
He gently caught her wrist, halting the movement.
"No right?" he whispered, stepping closer until his body caged her against the wall, but without touching her, letting her breathe. "Elena, you walked into a den of wolves who would tear each other apart for the smallest weakness. I will not let you be their target. I'll burn their packs to the ground first."
Her breath trembled. She shook her head, trying to sign again, That doesn't mean I'm yours.
Lorenzo leaned in, so close she could feel the warmth of his breath against her lips.
"Then tell me you don't feel this."
His forehead brushed hers. Her body went rigid. The bond pulsed wildly, ripping through her silence, through her defenses, through every wall she built.
"Tell me," he whispered, voice cracking with something raw, "that you feel nothing."
She tried.
She really did.
Her mouth opened. Her throat tightened.
No sound came.
Her eyes burned with frustrated tears because she couldn't speak, because even if she could, she wasn't sure she'd be able to lie.
Lorenzo exhaled shakily, pulling back only an inch.
"That's what I thought."
The air between them vibrated. He held her gaze a moment longer—long enough to let the truth settle like fire in her veins.
Then, slowly, painfully, he released her wrist.
"You can run from me, Elena," he murmured, stepping back into the shadows. "But don't ever think silence can hide what your eyes scream at me."
He turned and walked away, disappearing down the corridor without another word.
Elena slid down the wall, knees weak, heart racing so violently she could feel it in her fingertips.
Her voice was gone.
Her breath was unsteady.
Her world felt upended.
And no matter how fiercely she tried to deny it…
One truth echoed louder than the silence she lived in.
She felt it.