Chapter 11

Tristan POV

The first thing I registered as I woke up was the warmth.It wasn't from the from the fire that smoldered in the hearth, whenever I lit the damn thing, it was softer, more dangerous.

And it was burning iny but and pressed up against my side.

Isla.

My eyes snapped open and the dim glow from the moonlight streaming in from the window stretched it's shadows across the room, catching on pale skin and tousled hair.

I looked up and definitely she was there—Isla.

Half naked in my bed, well she wasn't truly half naked, it was just her clothes had been raised up to her thigh. Her lips were swollen, her hair tangled from my hands—goddess help me, I knew it had been my hands—and the faint trace of my scent clung to her skin.

I didn’t have to think to know I’d kissed her.

Hard.

My wolf surged at the sight, a savage, eager rumble echoing in my head.

Mate.

I shut it out instantly.

No. That word had no place here and no place between us. I sat up, my gaze turning hard with my resolve

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Her eyes widened like I’d just slapped her. She pushed herself up on her elbows, clutching the silk sheet to her chest.

“You were having a nightmare. I was trying to wake you.” she hissed and I let out a humorless laugh.

“And you thought climbing into my bed was the best way to do that?”

“I was already in the bed!” she snapped.

“ and I wasn’t—” she started and then stopped, swallowing hard.

"You pulled me into your arms. You kissed me, I was only trying to help.”

Her voice was quiet, almost careful. Like she knew any wrong move would set me off.

I swung my legs out of bed, planting my feet on the cool floor.

“Don’t,” I warned. “Don’t come near me. Not for any reason.”

Her brows knit, confusion flashing across her face.

“Tristan—”

“Not for any reason,” I repeated, my voice low, sharp enough to cut.

“If I’m dying, you call for someone else. If I’m bleeding out, you keep your distance. You don’t touch me. Ever again.”

She flinched but lifted her chin

“You act like I want to be near you.”

" Good keep it that way" I hissed and her lips pressed into a tight line. I didn’t wait for her to answer.

I grabbed my jacket from the chair and stalked to the door, not looking back but the mating pull clawed at me the whole way out, my wolf snarling in protest, but I slammed the door on the bond tucking it into the deepest corner of my mind and locked it there.

The corridor outside was silent,every one had gone to sleep already, the cold marble under my bare feet kept me grounded as I descended the back staircase.

I needed air and space.

By the time I hit the rear terrace, my wolf was pacing inside me like a caged predator.

Let me out, he growled.

I didn’t argue.

The shift ripped through me in seconds, my bones reshaping, skin giving way to fur. I raised my head to the moon howling deeply, the night air filled my lungs, causing my senses to snap into sharper focus as my paws hit the frost-tipped grass.

I didn’t think about where I was going—I just ran.

Pouncing through the gardens, and then across the field, and into the dark line of the forest. The earth pounded beneath me, my body stretching into the speed, the rhythm of my stride.

The scents of the night wrapped around me—pine, damp soil, the faint musk of deer somewhere ahead. But I wasn’t in the mood for hunting, I was running to get rid of the fire still simmering in my veins.

But I couldn't escape it, all I saw in my head even while running was her again.

Isla.

Her breath against my mouth, the way she’d looked up at me with that mix of fear and something else—something I couldn’t afford to name.

Mate.

My wolf snarled the word again but louder this time.

Ours.

“No,” I growled back, my voice a rumble in my own head.

“She’s not ours. She’s not Viviana."

Viviana was my future the Luna this pack needed.

Isla?

Well she was just a placeholder. A distraction.

The bond pulsed in protest, a low throb under my skin but I pushed harder, my paws tearing into the forest floor. The moon cut through the canopy in silver shards, lighting the way as if it wanted me to see exactly what I was running from.

It didn’t matter.

This wasn’t about her,or about the fact that the goddess had decided in some twisted sense of humor to give me a mate.

This was about Viviana.

Viviana, who had been by my side long before the bond meant anything to me. Viviana, who had left without a word but still owned more of me than I’d ever admit out loud.

The pack whispered amongst themselves that she’d been taken he was very sure that was just some rumor to make people not question her

disappearance but I knew her better than that. Viviana didn’t get taken—she left when she wanted to, on her own terms.

I shifted back in the clearing just beyond the ridge, my breath misting in the cold air. The night pressed in, I leaned against the trunk of a pine, tilting my head back until I could see the stars through the branches. My skin still burned from the shift, every nerve buzzing from the run. But the desire—that unrelenting pull toward Isla—was still there.

I’d thought distance would help. That if I kept her at arm’s length, the bond would dull.

It hadn’t.

If anything, it was worse.

My fingers dug into the bark at my back, splinters biting into my palms.

“Where the hell are you, Viviana?” I muttered into the night sky.

Until she came back, I was stuck with Isla.

The substitute bride to solidify my position with the elders. They didn’t care that she wasn't the one I wanted to be with—they just cared that she was an omega, desperate enough to sign whatever contract they shoved in front of her and they thought they could use her to keep me in line.

They didn’t know about the bond yet and I was going to keep it that way .I closed my eyes, trying to shut out the memory of her scent in my bed, her pulse hammering under my touch.

I had to fight it.

I didn’t know how long I could