KAI
The Dead Lands are silent and that's exactly how I like them.
I patrol the borders in wolf form, massive black paws silent on volcanic rock. Seven years I've kept this territory empty. Seven years since I became the monster everyone thinks I am.
Good. Fear keeps wolves away. Away is safe.
My territory stretches for miles. Black sand beaches. Volcanic cliffs. Ancient ruins that predate the pack system. The Council calls it cursed land where pack magic doesn't work. They exiled me here thinking I'd go mad from isolation.
Joke's on them. I was already broken.
I'm checking the southern border when I smell it. Blood. Fresh. Female.
My wolf goes on alert instantly. Nothing bleeds in my territory unless I allow it. I follow the scent down to the black sand beach where the river empties out.
There's a body in the shallows.
Small. Dark hair spread around her like a halo. Face down in the water.
Dead probably. The cliff above this beach is three hundred feet straight down. Nobody survives that fall.
I shift to human form. The change ripples through me in seconds. I approach carefully. Even dead bodies can be traps. The Council has tried to kill me six times in seven years.
I grab her shoulder and turn her over.
She's breathing. Barely. Cuts and bruises cover every inch of exposed skin. Her dress is shredded. She looks half dead.
She should be all the way dead. That fall would have killed any normal wolf instantly.
My wolf stirs with interest. Strange. I haven't cared about another living thing since Mira died.
The girl's eyes flutter open.
Violet.
Not amber like wolves should be. Not even the pale blue some northern packs have. Bright glowing violet that makes my breath catch.
Then the bond hits.
It slams into my chest like a physical blow. A chain wrapping around my soul. Heat exploding through every nerve. My wolf roars MINE so loud inside my head I actually stagger backward.
No. This isn't possible.
Rogues don't have fated mates. When the pack bond breaks the ability to feel the mate connection breaks with it. Every wolf knows this. I've been rogue for seven years. I shouldn't feel anything.
But my entire body screams that this broken bloody woman on my beach is mine. My mate. My other half. The piece I didn't know was missing.
Her violet eyes focus on my face. Recognition flickers there even though we've never met. She feels it too.
"Who..." Her voice is barely a whisper.
I should kill her right now. Quick. Merciful. Before this bond gets any stronger. Before I make the mistake of caring about someone who will inevitably die because of me.
Everyone I love dies. That's my curse.
Instead I crouch beside her. My wolf won't let me do anything else. "You're in the Dead Lands. How did you get here."
She tries to sit up. Falls back immediately. "Fell. Running. They were hunting me."
Hunting. That explains the terror in her eyes. The way she flinches when I move too fast.
"Who was hunting you."
"Everyone." A bitter laugh that turns into a cough. "Five packs. Bounty on my head. One million dollars."
One million. That's serious money. What did this small woman do to earn that kind of reward.
The bond pulls at me. Demanding I help her. Protect her. Keep her safe.
I ignore it. Bonds are lies that get people killed.
"You need to leave." My voice comes out harsher than intended. "This is my territory. I don't allow visitors."
Her eyes narrow despite her obvious pain. "You think I chose to fall off a cliff into your precious territory."
Attitude. From someone who can barely breathe. My wolf likes her spirit.
I don't. Spirit means complications.
"The river runs east. Follow it out of the Dead Lands. Keep going until you hit pack territory. Not my problem after that."
I stand to leave. The bond screams in protest. My wolf claws at my control wanting to stay with her.
She tries to stand too. Gets about halfway up before her legs give out completely.
I catch her before she hits the sand. Instinct. Muscle memory. The second my skin touches hers the bond explodes a thousand times stronger.
Heat pours through me. Not painful. Warm. Like coming home after being lost in the cold for years. The connection snaps fully into place and I feel her. Actually feel her emotions. Terror. Exhaustion. Desperation. And underneath it all a tiny spark of hope that I just showed up.
She gasps. Feels it too. Her hand grabs my arm and the touch sends electricity racing across my skin.
"What is this," she breathes.
"Mate bond." The words taste like poison. "Shouldn't exist but apparently it does."
Her eyes go wide. "You're my mate."
"No. I'm the rogue Alpha who killed his entire pack seven years ago. You're the girl who's leaving my territory as soon as you can walk." I try to set her down. My arms won't cooperate. The bond won't let me put her in danger even if that danger is just cold sand.
"I can't walk." She's shaking. From cold or shock or both. "I can barely stand. If you throw me out there I'll die within an hour."
Good. That's safer for both of us.
Except my wolf is howling at the thought of our mate dying. The bond twists in my chest like a knife. I can actually feel her pain. Her fear. Her fading strength.
This is exactly why I don't do bonds. They make you weak. Make you care. Caring gets people killed.
I look down at her. Really look. She's young. Early twenties maybe. Starving. Covered in wounds. Running from five packs with a million dollar bounty. Whatever she did must have been catastrophic.
"What's your name."
"Ivy Sterling."
Sterling. That's a small pack name. Nobody important. How did a nobody omega get five packs hunting her.
Then I notice her eyes are still glowing violet. Even half dead the light pulses under her skin. Power. Raw and barely controlled.
Understanding hits. "You're bloodline."
She nods weakly.
That changes everything. Bloodline wolves are rare. Dangerous. The Council has been trying to eliminate them for centuries. If she's strong enough to earn a million dollar bounty she's strong enough to threaten the entire pack system.
I should definitely kill her. One less problem for everyone.
The bond won't let me. Just the thought of hurting her makes me physically ill.
"One night." The words come out before I can stop them. "You can stay one night. Heal. Then you leave and we never see each other again."
Relief floods her face. Through the bond I feel it like my own emotion. Gratitude so strong it almost breaks me.
"Thank you."
"Don't thank me. I'm not doing this because I'm nice." I lift her easily. She weighs almost nothing. Starvation will do that. "I'm doing this because the bond won't let me watch you die. But bonds break. People leave. Everyone I've ever cared about ended up dead. You're not going to be next on that list."
"You don't even know me."
"Exactly. And I'm keeping it that way."
I carry her toward the temple ruins. My home for seven years. Cold stone and memories and isolation. Bringing her here is a mistake. I know it in my bones.
But leaving her to die on that beach would kill something inside me I didn't know still existed.
She rests her head against my chest. Through the bond I feel her consciousness fading. Her body shutting down from trauma and exhaustion.
"Stay awake." I shake her slightly. "Don't you dare die on me."
"Bossy." But her eyes stay open.
The temple appears ahead. Ancient stone covered in moss and vines. I kick the door open and carry her inside to the room I use for storage. There's a cot in the corner. I set her down as gently as my shaking hands allow.
The bond hums satisfaction. Mate safe. Mate protected.
I ignore it and step back. Put distance between us before I do something stupid like promise to keep her forever.
"Sleep. Heal. In the morning you leave."
Her violet eyes find mine. "And if I can't walk by morning."
"Then I'll carry you to the border and drop you on the other side." Harsh. Cold. Exactly what she needs to hear so she doesn't get attached.
"You feel it too." Not a question. A statement. "The bond. You're fighting it but you feel it."
I turn away so she can't see my face. "Feeling it doesn't mean I have to accept it. I've survived seven years alone. I'll survive the rest of my life the same way."
"Why."
"Because everyone I love dies." My voice breaks on the last word. "My sister. My pack. My father. Everyone. I won't add you to that list."
Silence behind me. Then her soft voice. "What if I'm willing to risk it."
"You don't get a choice." I head for the door. "Rest. Morning comes fast."
I make it to the hallway before my wolf forces me to stop. Won't let me go farther than twenty feet from our mate. The bond pulls like a leash keeping me close.
I lean against the cold stone wall and slide down until I'm sitting. This is insane. One night and she's already destroying my carefully built isolation.
Through the bond I feel when she finally falls asleep. The fear fades. The pain dulls. Just peaceful rest.
I should smother her while she sleeps. Quick. Painless. Save us both the agony of what comes next.
My body won't move. Just sits in this hallway like a guard dog protecting something precious.
Seven years I've been alone. Seven years of silence and solitude. It took one dying girl with violet eyes less than an hour to shatter everything.
Inside the room Ivy stirs in her sleep. Through the bond I feel her dreaming. Nightmares about cells and chains and someone named Derek who betrayed her.
My hands clench into fists. The urge to find this Derek and rip his throat out surprises me with its intensity.
This is bad. This is exactly what I was afraid of.
I'm already falling for a woman I met an hour ago. A woman who will leave in the morning if I have any self control left.
A woman who is definitely going to destroy me if I let her stay.
Dawn is still hours away but I can already feel the choice forming. Let her go and live with the bond tearing at me forever. Or keep her and watch her die like everyone else I've loved.
Either way I lose.
The bond hums warm in my chest and I hate it. Hate that after seven years of numbness I can suddenly feel again.
Hate that it feels so right.