Kael’s POV
Lilia clearly had no intention of doing as I said.
I watched her turn to leave.
My Beta read my mind and stepped in front of her before she could take three paces.
She barely had time to struggle before he caught her arm.
“The Alpha is asking you to get in.”
The door swung open and a gust of night chill rushed in.
She climbed into the back seat, pressed a hand to her shoulder once, and pulled the door shut.
“I can give you a ride,” I said.
“Where do you live?”
She gave the address, thanked me in a small voice, then scooted toward the door until her back pressed flat against it, curled into the corner between the seat and the panel.
An Omega, living in the Pack House?
As if she’d heard the question, she spoke.
“I work there. As a maid.”
Her voice was still trembling.
I knew she was afraid of me.
An hour ago, I had nearly killed her.
An awkward silence settled between us.
“Say something,” Fenrir’s voice cut in.
I paused.
“Say what?”
”Anything.
You made her get in the car, and now you just sit there?”
”I don’t know what to say to her.”
”Then ask about her and Jace.” In the depths of my mind, Fenrir flicked his tail, impatient.
“Just ask. And stop staring at her.”
Was I staring at her?
“Was tonight the first time you met Jace?”
”We’d met a few times before.” She pressed her lips together, playing shy.
“I like Jace a lot.
He should…
like me too, I think.”
”Likes you,and calls you ugly?”
The words landed and her face stiffened for half a breath, but she kept the act going.
“It’s a pet name. It’s our little thing.”
Our little thing.
The phrase nearly made me choke.
“Idiot,” I said flatly.
She turned her face to the window and murmured at the night, going on and on about how rich Jace was, how generous, what lavish gifts he gave,every word the picture of a money-hungry little thing.
But my eyes never left her face.
Lilia’s behavior toward me was nothing like a Fated Mate’s.
“Fenrir.” I spoke low inside my own skull.
“I think you got it wrong.”
”Stop doubting me.”
”You saw it yourself.
Lilia doesn’t respond to us at all.” I held down the irritation climbing my throat.
“You’ve been dormant too long. Your judgment is off.”
Fenrir paced, restless.
“This time is different from last time. I’m certain she’s our mate. Kael, stop lying to yourself. Why won’t you face it?”
I said nothing.
The origin of that curse,I would remember it until the day I died.
Years ago, my father killed his own Fated Mate with his own hands to seize power,my mother.
And not just her.
He used a purge of dissidents as pretext and slaughtered nearly the entire Pack she came from.
A sin that deep could not be ignored, not even by the Moon Goddess.
The curse she laid on the Veyron bloodline was this: any woman formally marked by the Alpha would die horribly on the first full moon after the marking.
Years later, I killed my father myself,a late justice for the dead of that Pack.
People believed the curse had begun with him, so it should have ended with his death.
For one moment, I was naive enough to believe I had finally stepped out of his shadow.
I was wrong.
His death changed nothing.
The curse had simply moved on to the next one to bear it,me.
I kept busy after that, quelling unrest and clearing bandits from our borders.
There was no time to breathe, and my search for a mate was pushed aside year after year.
Until the Elders watched me age and kept bringing it up in the council hall: Nightfall needed a Luna to manage the Pack’s internal affairs, and I needed an heir.
Bent by the pressure of a full hall, I finally agreed.
They chose a Chosen Mate beyond reproach in breeding and character.
Her name was Elena.
That night, by the old rite, I set the mark at her throat.
Ten days later, on the full moon, she died without explanation.
She died exactly the way my mother had.
I killed Elena.
The regret still sits across my chest like a wound that never closes.
Since then I have not once looked for a mate, and I have not let a single woman come near me.
Fenrir seemed to realize where my mind had gone, and for once he shed some of his restlessness.
“The one who died last time was a Chosen Mate. Lilia is different. Maybe… maybe this time there’s a chance. Kael,ask her about her wolf.”
I pressed the surge back down.
“How old are you?”
”Eighteen.” The answer came fast.
as if she suspected a trap behind the question, she added carefully, “Why do you ask?”
I didn’t answer right away.
My attention was on the scent clinging to her,fir, so faint it barely registered.
An awakened Omega standing this close should carry it far stronger.
On her it drifted, now there, now gone.
“How old were you when your wolf awakened?”
Something flickered through her eyes, gone too fast to name.
She shook her head, voice dropping.
“I… don’t have a wolf. It never awakened.”
Fenrir let out a thin whine inside me.
She had never even met her own wolf.
How was she supposed to survive a marking that was fated,and very possibly fatal?
Telling her the truth now would only add fear to fear.
It would fix nothing.
“I’m not telling her yet,” I said to Fenrir, leaving no room for argument.
“We know far too little about this woman.”
”Why not?” His voice sharpened, openly defiant.
“Even without a wolf, she’s still ours.
You agreed this could be a chance,what are you waiting for?”
”I said we wait until we know who she is.”
Fenrir said nothing more.
The car went on through the dark, and then, without warning, took a sharp turn.
Lilia lost her balance and fell sideways,straight into my arms.
That thread of scent rose up between us all at once, close enough to burn away my last shred of reason.
She stayed where she’d landed, looking up at me, lost.
I should have pushed her away.
Instead, the thing I’d been holding down in my chest broke loose entirely.
I caught the back of her neck and kissed her.