Chapter 2 The Stranger in Blood
"Get him secured," Dante commands, and my father appears with heavy silver chains; the kind used only for the most dangerous prisoners.
I should feel triumph. This intruder invaded our lands, killed our people, brought fire and death. By pack law, he deserves execution. I should want him locked away forever. Instead, I feel like I'm watching someone nail shut my coffin.
The man; my body recognizes but my mind doesn't understand locks his gaze on me one more time. His ice-blue eyes find mine across the chaos, across the distance that feels impossibly vast. There’s a question in his eyes. A plea. A promise.
Then he’s dragged away into darkness, and I’m left standing in smoke and ash, feeling the first real thing I’ve felt in eighteen years.
Alive.
They keep him in the lower dungeons, three levels beneath the pack house.
I know because I’ve been there twice since the night of the attack, sneaking down stone corridors with a racing heart, certain I’d be caught but unable to stop myself. The pull toward him is maddening, physical; a constant ache in my chest like something essential is being kept in a cell below my feet.
The first time, I just stood in the shadows outside his cell, watching him sleep. Even beaten and chained, power radiated from him like heat off a fire. I could feel it; that pull, that connection humming through my bones.
The second time, I lost my nerve and ran before he could see me.
My father called him a rogue alpha from the Northern territories, a territorial threat Dante defeated through superior strength. The story spreads fast: the Nightbringer has been captured. Our alpha has proven his dominance. We are safe.
But pack gossip fills in the blanks; he’s supposedly destroyed three packs, killed without mercy, silenced seventeen settlements.
I don’t believe any of it. Monsters don’t have scars that look carefully tended. Monsters don’t whisper apologies in their sleep.
He’d been having a nightmare. His body thrashed against the silver chains that burned into his skin. He muttered in an ancient, broken language, and through it all, he kept saying one word: “Sorry.”
I’d almost touched the bars before realizing what I was doing. I ran back upstairs, heart pounding, confused and terrified by the pull I felt toward him.
Now, on my third visit, I’m out of patience for caution.
"You shouldn't be here."
I jump at the sound of his voice. He’s awake, watching me through the bars with those impossible eyes. Up close, I see exhaustion carved into every line of his face, his wrists raw from silver chains.
"You shouldn't be here, period," I snap back, angry at him for existing. Angry at the universe for tying me to someone the pack plans to execute. "Your presence is putting the entire pack at risk. My father says you have a bounty on your head from three councils."
"Your father’s not wrong," he says quietly, voice heavy with resignation. "Though I’d wager he didn’t tell you the whole truth. None of them ever do."
"I don’t know you," I lie, but my body betrays me. I can feel him, like he’s a second heartbeat in my chest. "I just want to understand why..."
"Why what?" His tone softens, making my knees weak. "Why I came here? Why every second I’ve spent in this cell feels like I’m missing part of myself?"
"Why I can’t stop thinking about you," I whisper.
Recognition flashes across his face. He stands as much as his chains allow. Every scar on his chest tells a story of survival.
"Because we’re fated," he says simply. "Your wolf knows mine before your mind can deny it. It’s why you’re here. It’s why you can’t stay away. It’s why standing this close probably feels like every part of you is on fire."
"I don’t have a wolf," I say bitterly. "I’m human. Wolfless. Powerless. A mistake."
"No." He moves closer to the bars, voice steady. "You’re the opposite of a mistake. You’re a hybrid. And there are people; my people, your people; who’d kill you the moment they knew what you really are. They’d execute you before you ever understood your power."
The world stops.
"That’s not true," I say, though my voice wavers. "Hybrids are myths. They don’t exist."
"Hybrids don’t exist in most packs," he corrects, "because they’re hunted to extinction. The old laws forbid the mating of human and wolf. The children that result are so powerful the councils made it law to eliminate them at birth."
"You’re lying. Both of my parents are wolves" I say.
"I’m not." He presses his forehead against the bars, his control cracking. "My name is Kade Thorne. I came here because I could feel you through the mate bond even before I saw your face. Ignoring it would have killed me. A rejected mate bond doesn’t just hurt, it destroys."
I’m shaking. Everything I knew is crumbling.
"I’m telling you this," he continues, voice rough, "so when they come for you; and they will; you’ll know the truth. You’re not human. You’re not fully wolf. You’re both, and that makes you something the world isn’t ready for. Something that could change everything about pack law and destiny."
"Why should I believe you?" I ask.
"Because you already do," Kade says. "You felt it the moment you saw me. Your body knows what your mind is still learning. We’re mates, Kaida. And that means I’m bound to protect you, even if you hate me for it. The bond won’t let me do anything else."
The word ,mates, echoes through the dungeon, through my bones, through every empty space I’ve carried for eighteen years.
"They won’t let us be together," I say. "Lima hates me. The alpha won’t accept a union with you. The pack…"
"I know." Kade’s smile is bitter. "But we don’t need their permission. We just need to survive long enough to claim what’s ours. We just need to be strong enough to rewrite the laws that say we shouldn’t exist."
Footsteps echo behind me; coming closer.
My heart lurches.
"Liar...I have to go... Liar," I say, backing away.
"Kaida, wait..." Kade reaches through the bars, desperation raw in his voice. "Just know this: I didn’t come here to destroy your pack. I came here because you’re mine, and I’ll burn the entire world before I let them take you from me."
But I’m already running up the stone stairs, leaving him in the darkness where they want him; where th
ey’ll keep him until they decide he’s not a threat anymore.
Which means forever.