Cassian POV
Ronan grabbed his arm before Cassian could push the door open.
"Don't," his beta said quietly. "You're angry. You're in no state to be alone with her."
Cassian was angry. He was furious. He'd just had his leadership challenged in front of the entire council. Wolves who'd followed him for years were already questioning whether he was fit to lead. The pack was tearing itself apart and it was her fault.
Except it wasn't.
She hadn't asked for any of this. She hadn't asked to be hunted or trapped or brought into a situation where grown wolves were debating whether she deserved to live.
"I need to see her," Cassian said.
Ronan didn't let go. "Cass, the council called for a challenge. That means you have bigger things to worry about right now."
"I don't care."
"You have to care." Ronan's voice was sharp. "If you lose that challenge, the new alpha might execute her on day one. You need to be thinking about how to keep your position, not about—"
"Not about what?" Cassian pulled his arm free. "Not about my mate? Not about the one thing in this world that's actually mine?"
Ronan fell silent. His expression softened but he didn't try to stop Cassian again.
The holding room was cold and dark. Cassian opened the door and stepped inside before he could think better of it.
Kael moved faster than his eyes could follow.
She came at him with her whole body, no hesitation, no thought. All teeth and claws and pure animal fury. She didn't roar or make any kind of sound a normal wolf might make. She just attacked like something feral and desperate and terrified.
Cassian caught her wrists before those claws could reach his face. Her strength was incredible for someone so thin. She twisted and kicked and bit at the air between them. He pivoted, using her own momentum against her, and wrapped his arms around her from behind instead.
She threw her head back, trying to crack his skull. He turned his face just in time. Her teeth caught his shoulder instead and bit down hard enough to tear through skin. Blood ran hot down his chest.
He didn't fight back.
That was the hardest part. Every instinct screamed at him to pin her down, to show her he was stronger, to make her submit. But his wolf knew what his human mind was only starting to understand.
She wasn't attacking him because she was vicious.
She was attacking because she was terrified.
Kael thrashed against him for what felt like forever. Her breathing came in ragged, panicked gasps. She made sounds that weren't quite words, just broken animal noises that came from somewhere deep inside her. Slowly, impossibly, her movements became weaker. Her struggles turned into shivers.
Eventually she just went limp against him, her body heaving as she tried to catch her breath.
Cassian held her there for another moment, feeling her heart racing against his chest, matching the speed of his own. Then he carefully released her and moved to the far side of the room.
He sat down on the floor and waited.
Kael scrambled backward, her eyes never leaving him. She ended up in the corner, watching him like he was the most dangerous thing she'd ever seen. Which, from her perspective, he probably was.
"You're safe," Cassian said quietly. His voice felt strange after the violence. Gentle. Weak. "I won't hurt you."
She didn't respond. Just watched him with those unnatural silver eyes, her chest still heaving.
"I know you don't understand words yet," he continued. "But I'm going to say them anyway because maybe your wolf can understand even if your human doesn't."
He leaned back against the wall, making himself smaller and less threatening.
"You killed in self-defense. That's not a crime. That's survival." He paused. "The pack is angry but not because you're evil. They're angry because they lost warriors they loved. But you're not the enemy here."
Kael tilted her head to the side like a confused animal. Her tangled black and silver hair fell across her scarred face. She didn't blink.
"I'm not going to hurt you," Cassian said again. He pulled off his torn shirt and tossed it aside. If she was going to see him as a threat, at least she should see him as wounded. As less. "No one will hurt you while I'm here."
She watched the shirt fall, then looked back at him. Something flickered across her face. Recognition maybe. Of his scent. Of the bond between them.
Cassian tried moving closer. Slowly. One careful movement at a time. She snarled, showing teeth that looked too sharp to be entirely human.
He stopped.
"Okay," he said. "I'll stay here. You can stay there. We can just be in the same room together."
Hours passed. He wasn't sure how many. The light from the high window didn't change much. Kael stayed in her corner, watching him with the intensity of a predator. But she wasn't attacking anymore. She was just... watching.
Cassian felt his own exhaustion pulling at him. The council meeting had drained something fundamental. The challenge to his leadership. The weight of knowing that half his pack thought he'd made the wrong choice.
But looking at this broken girl in the corner, covered in scars and filth and blood, he knew he'd made the only choice he could make.
She was his mate.
That meant something.
Eventually, as the light started changing toward evening, Cassian pulled a piece of the leftover food toward him and took a bite. Her eyes tracked the movement with predatory focus.
"It's okay," he said, breaking off another piece. "You should eat."
She didn't move.
He set the food on the ground between them and retreated back to his spot. After a long time, so long he thought she might never move, Kael crawled forward on her hands and knees. Like an animal. Like something that had forgotten how to be human.
She grabbed the food and shoved it in her mouth, watching him the entire time like she was terrified he'd try to take it from her.
Something inside Cassian's chest cracked open.
"I would never take your food," he said softly. "Whatever you need, it's yours. I promise you that."
She didn't understand the words but something in his tone seemed to reach her. Her jaw clenched and her eyes looked almost wet. But she didn't cry. Her wolf probably didn't know how.
Night came and eventually even exhaustion was stronger than fear. Kael curled up in her corner, her eyes still tracking him but starting to close. Cassian waited until her breathing deepened before he stood up to leave.
He moved slowly toward the door, not wanting to startle her awake.
He almost made it.
At the last second, she moved. Not attacking this time. She crawled to the door and pressed her hand against the wood, right where his scent lingered on the surface. Her fingers trembled against the grain.
Then she made a sound. A low, soft whine that sounded almost human.
It was the first sound she'd made that wasn't fury or fear.
It was a sound that meant something.
Cassian pressed his hand against the door on his side, directly across from where hers was. He could almost feel the connection between them through the wood.
"I'll be back," he promised, not knowing if she could understand. "I'll be back every day until you're not afraid of me anymore."
The whine came again, softer this time.
And Cassian left the room knowing that winning the leadership challenge was nothing compared to earning the trust of the feral girl on the other side of that door.