The Bound Wolf
The hot water drained away the dirt, the dried blood, and the lingering scent of the auction house. But it couldn't wash away the bone-deep exhaustion.
As Kade gently rinsed the last of the lavender soap from my hair, my eyelids began to droop. The sheer adrenaline that had kept me alive for the past forty-eight hours was completely crashing.
"I have you," Kade murmured, his massive hands gripping my waist to keep me from slipping beneath the water.
He stood up, grabbing a massive, incredibly soft heated towel from the rack.
He lifted me out of the stone tub as if I weighed nothing at all, wrapping the warm fabric entirely around me.
He dried my hair with astonishing gentleness, completely ignoring the fact that the ends of his dark shirt were soaked.
Once I was dry, Kade didn't offer me another dress. Instead, he pulled a thick, dark grey thermal henley from his own dresser and carefully slipped it over my head.
The sleeves hung completely past my fingertips, and the hem dropped down to my mid-thigh. I was entirely swallowed up by his clothing, wrapped in the intoxicating, heavy scent of cedarwood and winter musk.
Kade scooped me up again and carried me into the main bedroom.
The massive, four-poster bed looked like a cloud of dark furs and silk pillows. He gently laid me down in the center, pulling a heavy, weighted fur blanket up to my chin.
I sank into the mattress, my muscles finally going completely slack. I expected Kade to walk over to the heavy leather couch by the fireplace. He was the Supreme Alpha; he didn't share a bed with a half-breed runt.
But Kade didn't walk to the couch.
He reached over and clicked off the main lights, plunging the room into a warm, fire-lit glow. Then, the massive, terrifying warlord climbed directly into the bed beside me.
I stiffened, my breath hitching as his heavy weight shifted the mattress.
"Shh," Kade whispered in the dark. He didn't hover over me or try to cage me. Instead, he lay on his back and gently reached out, pulling me flush against his solid, muscular side. He tucked my head right over his heart and wrapped his massive arm securely around my waist.
"You don't have to... I can sleep on the floor," I stammered, my cheeks burning with a terrifying mix of fear and an intense, desperate need to stay exactly where I was.
"My inner wolf is tearing my mind apart, Nia," Kade confessed softly, his chest vibrating beneath my cheek. "You were hurt today. The only way my beast will calm down and let us both rest is if he knows exactly where you are, and that you are safe in our territory. Let me hold you. Please."
He wasn't demanding. The Butcher of the North was practically begging me for permission to protect me.
I let out a shaky exhale and slowly relaxed against him, my small hand resting tentatively on his broad chest. "Okay."
Kade let out a deep, shuddering sigh of absolute relief. He rested his chin on the top of my damp hair, and within seconds, the steady, powerful rhythm of his heartbeat lulled me into the first dreamless sleep I had ever known.
Sunlight. It was blindingly bright, reflecting off the snow outside the tall windows.
I blinked, slowly waking up. The heavy arm around my waist was gone, but the bed still smelled strongly of Kade.
"Don't try to sit up too fast, child."
I gasped, scrambling backward against the headboard.
An older woman with kind, silver eyes and a long white braid was standing near the edge of the bed. She wore the grey robes of a Pack Healer. Standing right behind her, his arms crossed tightly over his chest and his jaw completely locked in tension, was Kade.
"It's alright, little one," Kade spoke immediately, stepping forward to sit on the edge of the mattress.
He reached out, gently wrapping his large hand around my ankle over the blankets to ground me.
"This is Elara, my Chief Healer. She just wants to look at the bruises on your arms to make sure there is no internal damage. "
I swallowed hard, looking between the gentle Healer and the massive King. "I... I heal slowly. Because of my human blood."
Elara offered a warm, maternal smile. "May I?"
I nodded hesitantly, rolling up the oversized sleeves of Kade's shirt.
The dark, hand-shaped bruises from my uncle's grip were still stark purple against my pale skin. Elara gently pressed her fingertips to the edges of the bruises. Her hands glowed with a faint, warm golden light—healing magic.
But the moment her magical glow touched my skin, the Healer violently yanked her hands back, letting out a sharp gasp.
Kade was on his feet in a microsecond, his golden eyes flaring. "What is it? Is she bleeding internally?"
"No, Alpha," Elara breathed, staring at me with wide, completely shocked silver eyes. She looked at Kade, her hands trembling. "Alpha... she isn't a half-breed."
The room went completely silent.
"What do you mean?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper. "My uncle told me my mother was human. I can't shift. I don't have a wolf."
"You do have a wolf, child," Elara stepped closer, her voice thick with absolute sorrow. She reached out, hovering her glowing hand over the center of my chest. "And she is massive. But she has been locked away in the dark."
Kade stepped closer, the temperature in the room plummeting as his Alpha aura began to leak into the air. "Explain, Elara."
"It's dark magic, Alpha," the Healer said, turning to her King.
"Someone placed a heavy, malicious binding curse on her spirit when she was just a child.
They intentionally suppressed her werewolf genetics to keep her weak, to keep her human.
If I had to guess... her wolf was too powerful.
Whoever did this wanted to control her, not raise her. "
My uncle.
Marcus had kept me weak on purpose. All the beatings, all the taunts about being a useless half-breed... it was all a lie to keep me trapped as his servant.
A choked sob tore from my throat as the magnitude of the betrayal hit me. I brought my hands up to my face, crying for the little girl who thought she was broken.
Kade didn't hesitate.
He sat down heavily on the bed, pulling me directly into his massive chest. He wrapped his arms around me, burying his face in my hair as I cried into his shoulder.
"I broke his neck," Kade growled against my ear, his voice vibrating with an apocalyptic, devastating fury that made the glass in the windows rattle. "It was too fast. I should have kept him alive. I should have flayed him for what he stole from you."
"Alpha," Elara spoke softly, knowing better than to step too close to the furious King. "The curse is old, but it is beginning to crack. The Mate Bond is fighting it. If we can break the binding completely, her wolf will finally wake up."
Kade pulled back just enough to look at me. His glowing golden eyes were burning with a fierce, absolute promise.
"Then we break it," the Shadow King vowed, his thumbs gently wiping the tears from my cheeks. "You are going to meet your wolf, Nia. And when you do, we are going to make sure the whole world hears you howl."