**Thalia’s POV**
He meant every word when he said he didn’t care.
He was proving a point, and he was making sure I felt every single second of it.
On the fifth day, I was unable to handle it anymore.
I yelled at the top of my voice, begging to be let out.
Eventually someone, a guard I think, walked into the hut and unchained me.
I was too weak to even think about fighting my way out, so I followed him, keeping my guard up.
When we stepped out of the hut, my bare feet touched wet grass for the first time in days.
As we walked deeper into the settlement, I saw actual people laughing and dancing around.
Nobody paid me any mind; they just went about their lives like I was invisible.
“Where are we going?” My cracked voice seemed foreign to me from days of screaming.
He didn’t respond; he just kept leading the way like I was blind.
We eventually got to what I was going to take as the pack square.
The place was small compared to Blackfang pack, but it was filled with so much life.
After walking into the biggest building, I saw the bastard who had chained my legs and trapped me, sitting on top of his throne.
He was definitely the Alpha.
“Leave us.” He barked, and immediately the whole throne room cleared.
He stood from his throne, still as intimidating as ever.
How can someone so tall and breathtakingly handsome have such a dirty character?
xxx
**Dion’s POV**
I watched as she cowered in the corner like a sacrificial deer.
Why was she so small?
So fragile and so damn meek?
It would be so easy for me to take advantage of her if I chose to.
I had genuinely wanted us to start on the right foot, but she wasn’t being reasonable.
I couldn’t let her know that I still recognized her scent from two years ago, or that I had tracked her down the second I caught a whiff of her in the Borderlands.
I certainly couldn’t tell her that since that night on the battlefield, I hadn’t stopped dreaming about her.
She’d think I was fucking insane.
So, I lied.
I pretended she was nothing to me and locked her up for days.
Quite harsh, but it did the trick.
Yet those days were pure torture for me, knowing the woman I had spent two years searching for was right under my nose, while my pride and her stubbornness kept me from holding her.
I stepped down from the dais and stopped a few feet away from her.
I am the Alpha of the ClawFang pack.”
Looking her over, she didn’t look like she’d be able to contribute much to the pack, and from the look of her energy, she was wolfless.
Keeping her here would only result in more shortage of resources.
We’re already struggling as it is.
I wanted to order her to leave.
I should have told her I don’t harbor strays.
But the words died in my throat.
I felt drawn to her in a way I hadn’t experienced in years.
Reaching out, I tried to check her wounds, but she stepped back just as she had the day she first woke.
And for some reason that pissed off my wolf, Dex.
Without thinking, I lunged forward and grabbed her arm.
The exact moment our skin touched, I felt a familiar electric pull between us and instantly let her go.
She looked up, her wide eyes locked onto mine, and I knew instantly that she had felt it too.
“What did you just do?” she demanded, her voice trembling.
I forced myself to step back.
No.
This can’t be happening.
I had convinced myself that the obsessive pull I felt toward her was just raw lust.
But this…
this was a mate bond.
I could feel Dex clawing at my chest, wanting to break free, as if he wanted to tear through my ribs to get to her.
She opened her mouth to speak again, but I cut her off immediately.
“No…” I held my hand out.
“Don’t say another word and leave my presence.”
”Can I at least get an explanation for what just happened?” She actually took a step toward me, but this time, I was the one who stepped back.
“I said leave!” I growled.
She flinched, gave a quick nod, and bolted out the door.
Once I was finally alone, I lost it.
I tore through the room like a hurricane, throwing chairs and smashing tables against the stone walls.
No.
I won’t go through this again.
I couldn’t survive the pain of another mate.
After that day, I refused to speak to her.
She remained in the pack because I couldn’t bring myself to throw her out, but whether she escaped or stayed wasn’t my problem.
I had built this hidden territory specifically to avoid political nightmares, and whoever, or whatever, she was, she reeked of trouble.
Ignoring her would have been easy if not for Dex, who kept whining like a fucking bitch.
Anytime she walked past, or her name was mentioned around me, Dex would go crazy.
What drove me completely insane was how quickly she made herself at home with my people.
I had fully expected her to run the day I yelled at her, but she stayed.
In fact, she became best friends with half the pack.
Every damn day, it was the same nauseating chant: Thalia is so kind, Thalia is so clever, Thalia’s so this, Thalia’s so that…’
If I looked right, she was laughing with the guards on the training grounds.
If I looked left, she was playing with the kids or helping the women.
It made my blood boil.
What did she possess that made them worship the ground she walked on?
She didn’t even have a wolf.
So what was so special about her?
Eventually, I locked myself in my chambers, sick of it all.
I emptied three bottles of whiskey, desperate to get her scent and face out of my mind.
I was about to pour another shot when a knock on my door interrupted me.
“Who is it?” I barked.
When no one answered, I figured it was the refill I’d ordered a few minutes ago.
“Get in here.”
The moment the door opened and her scent hit me, I rose from my chair within seconds, the glass nearly slipping from my fingers.
“What…
What are you doing in my chambers?”
She didn’t answer.
She just walked over and set a fresh jug of liquor on my desk before turning to leave.
“Where do you think you’re going?” I grabbed her arm, ignoring the electric shocks that buzzed on my palm.
“You can’t just come into my pack, steal my heart, and think you can walk out.”
”You’re drunk,” she gasped, pulling against my grip.
“Let go!”
I pulled her closer, my vision blurring as old memories bled into the present.
“You can’t say you love me and abandon me…”
I grabbed her waist and flung her onto my bed.
“I can’t let you leave me, Damien…
not again.”