17. Chapter 17 #2
The words should have triggered every defense she’d built during her captivity. Instead, warmth spread through her chest.
“I don’t want to be owned.” She kept it steady despite the emotion behind it. “Don’t want to lose myself in this.”
“You won’t.” Rhys lifted her hand to his mouth, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. “Because I’m not interested in owning you. I’m interested in choosing you. Every day. In whatever form that takes.”
“Even when I’m growling at pack members who haven’t done anything wrong?”
His mouth curved. “Especially then. Because it means you’re claiming me back. Means it isn’t one-sided anymore.”
Nadia leaned against his shoulder, breathing in his scent. Pine and leather and something uniquely him that made her wolf hum with satisfaction. “I’m still scared.”
His arm came around her waist. “Being scared doesn’t mean you’re wrong. It just means you’re risking something that matters.”
They sat together while the forest settled around them. Nadia felt the possessiveness still coiled in her, but Rhys’s steady presence made it feel less overwhelming. Less like losing control and more like claiming what was already hers.
“There’s a communal dinner tonight.” Rhys kept it quiet. “Pack tradition. Everyone eats together once a week.”
Nadia’s stomach tightened. “I haven’t attended one yet.”
“I know. But I thought—” He paused, weighing his next words. “I thought maybe it was time. If you’re ready.”
She understood what he wasn’t saying. Attending the communal dinner meant being visible. Meant sitting beside him openly instead of maintaining careful distance. Meant claiming him in front of the entire pack.
“What if I can’t handle it?” The question came out small. “What if being around that many wolves makes me panic?”
“Then we leave.” His answer was immediate. “Whenever you say.”
Nadia was quiet for a long moment. The possessiveness pulsed steady and certain. Her wolf knew what it wanted. The question was whether she was brave enough to claim it openly.
“Okay.” The answer came out steadier than she felt. “Let’s go to dinner.”
The dining hall was alive with conversation and laughter, the space warm despite the snowfall outside. Long tables stretched across the room, pack members gathering in loose groups that shifted and reformed as wolves moved between conversations.
Nadia stood in the doorway, Rhys’s hand steady at her back, and fought the urge to bolt.
“We can leave.” He pitched the words for her alone. “Right now. No one will think less of you.”
But Maren had already spotted them, her face lighting with welcome. Sage waved from a table near the fire. Declan nodded acknowledgment while continuing his conversation with Jace.
This was pack. Community. The thing Nadia had spent a lifetime running from because she’d only ever known it as a trap.
“I’m okay.” She forced her shoulders to relax. “Let’s sit.”
They moved through the room together, Rhys’s presence a steady anchor beside her. Wolves glanced their way with curiosity rather than threat. No one approached too closely. Respecting her space the way Blackridge wolves had learned to do.
Conversation flowed around them. Pack business and training updates and the kind of easy banter that came from wolves who trusted each other. Nadia listened more than she talked.
Then Henry approached their table, his expression friendly and oblivious. “Rhys, Jace wants to know if you’ve finished the patrol rotation analysis—” He broke off as Nadia’s wolf pushed hard inside her.
She didn’t growl. Didn’t move. But something in her expression must have shifted because Henry took a careful step backward, his hands lifting in instinctive surrender.
“Sorry.” “I didn’t mean, ”
“It’s fine.” Rhys’s hand found Nadia’s thigh under the table, grounding. “Tell Jace I’ll have the analysis ready tomorrow.”
Henry retreated quickly, confusion clear on his face. Around their table, conversation had stilled. Sage’s mouth curved with knowing amusement. Maren looked concerned but not surprised.
“Well.” Sage played it deliberately casual. “That was subtle.”
Heat flooded Nadia’s face. “I didn’t, ”
“You absolutely did.” But Sage’s tone was approving rather than critical. “And now every unmated male in this room knows exactly where you stand.”
Rhys’s thumb traced circles on her thigh, the touch invisible beneath the table but grounding. “You okay?”
Nadia took a shaky breath. She had reacted without conscious thought, the possessive fury rising the moment another male had approached Rhys. Not because Henry was a threat. But because her wolf had decided Rhys was hers, and it was done pretending otherwise.
“I’m okay.” The words came steadier than she felt. “Just, adjusting.”
“To broadcasting mine loud enough that the entire pack can hear it?” Maren’s smile was gentle. “That’s normal. Scary, but normal.”
Across the room, attention shifted. Wolves who’d been watching now looked away, giving space.
“They’re not going to challenge you.” Rhys was certain. “Not for this. Pack law protects recognized mates and the partners they have declared.”
“Even when I’m being ridiculous?” Nadia asked. “Henry was just asking a question.”
“You weren’t being ridiculous.” Sage leaned forward, her hands loose on the table. “You were being a mated wolf whose bond is settling. There’s a difference.”
Dinner continued around them, the moment passing as pack members returned to their conversations.
Maren slid a plate toward Nadia. “Eat before Sage steals it.”
Nadia blinked. “Sage steals food?”
Across the fire, Sage raised both hands. “Only when it looks better than mine.”
Laughter rippled around the table.
Rhys’s shoulder brushed hers as he leaned closer. “Welcome to Blackridge,” he murmured.
Nadia laughed without checking who was watching.
Nadia felt the shift in how wolves regarded her. Not with pity or wariness anymore. With recognition.
She had claimed him openly. Let her wolf say what she had been too afraid to speak.
And the pack had simply accepted it.
“Still good?” Rhys pitched it low at her ear, the question carrying nothing but his readiness to follow whatever she said next.
Nadia looked around the dining hall. At Maren’s warm welcome and Sage’s knowing approval. At pack members who’d given her space to heal without demanding she prove herself worthy. At the sanctuary Blackridge had built for wolves who’d survived what she’d survived.
“No.” Her hand found Rhys’s beneath the table, threading their fingers together. “I want to stay.”
His mouth curved. Satisfaction and pride moved between them in equal measure. Around them, pack life continued, loud, chaotic, safe.
Nadia leaned against Rhys’s shoulder, feeling his arm come around her waist.
She’d spent months running from connection. From needing anyone. From the vulnerability that came with caring.
But sitting in the dining hall with Rhys’s warmth solid beside her and her wolf finally settled, Nadia understood what Sage had meant.
This wasn’t ownership. It was recognition.
And heaven help anyone who tried to take it from her.