Chapter 20 The Wolf & The Flame
Rhett POV
I’d seen blood. I’d seen battle. But I’d never seen that.
One second she’d been a corpse on my den floor, cold, gray, and fucking gone. The next, fire had torn through the stone, and a creature of legend had risen from her ashes. Wings of flame, eyes like molten gold, and the kind of power that makes even an Alpha kneel without knowing why.
And then she’d fallen, human again, or something close enough to fool the eye.
Now, I carried her.
She was light, too light, her body limp in my arms, skin hot enough to sting but not burn. Her heartbeat drummed steadily against my chest, stronger than it had any right to be. My wolf paced and snarled inside me, half mad with awe.
“Ours,” Kaen’s voice rumbled through my head, old as the Rift itself. “She rose from the pyre. The gods marked her.”
“Quiet,” I muttered. My voice sounded foreign in the stillness. “Not a damn word.”
I kicked open the heavy doors to my chamber. The guards snapped to attention, their eyes flicking to the unconscious girl in my arms, but I didn’t slow. “No one enters,” I barked. “No one.”
The weight of my command rolled through the air like thunder. They bowed instantly.
Inside, I laid her carefully on the bed of black wolf pelts and cool silk sheets. The scent of smoke clung to her skin. Faint marks curled along her arms, glowing like embers before fading back beneath the surface. The heat radiating off her filled the room, chasing away the chill of stone.
When I shouted for healers, three came running, silver-haired, trembling, and reeking of fear and curiosity. They froze when they saw her.
One whispered, “Alpha… what is she?”
“None of your concern,” I growled. “You’ll treat her, and you’ll tell no one she’s here. Not a whisper.”
The oldest tried to meet my gaze and failed. “But, my king...”
I let my dominance surge. The air thickened, my will pressing down until their knees hit the floor. “If word leaves this room,” I said softly, “I’ll tear your throats out myself.”
They believed me. They always did.
They worked fast after that, cool rags, crushed ice wrapped in linen, and whispered healing incantations. One poured water into her mouth drop by drop. Another murmured a prayer to the old moon gods. The air filled with the sharp bite of herbs and iron.
She didn’t stir. Just breathed, shallow and even, the faintest flicker of gold beneath her skin.
When I finally dismissed them, they fled like ghosts. I locked the door behind them and leaned against it, trying to breathe through the knot in my chest.
Kaen paced inside me restlessly. "She’s alive. You felt her heart. Three of them now. The gods chose her."
“I don’t care what the gods chose,” I muttered. “I don’t bow to flame.”
"You will," Kaen rumbled. "We both will."
I ignored him and pulled a chair to her bedside. The heat coming off her was unreal, like sitting beside a forge, but it didn’t hurt. I dipped a rag into the ice water and wrung it out, wiping the sweat from her face. Her skin hissed faintly where the cold touched it.
Then her lashes fluttered.
She groaned, the sound rough and human. “If this is heaven, it smells like wet wolf.”
The tension snapped in me like a bowstring. I exhaled a laugh that sounded more like relief. “You’re awake.”
“Unfortunately.” Her voice was smoke and gravel, low and defiant. She tried to sit up, failed, and glared at me. “Why are you touching my face?”
“You’re burning up.”
“Yeah, no kidding. Pretty sure I burst into flames back there.”
Kaen howled with joy. "She’s awake! Feed her. Protect her. Worship her."
“Shut up,” I hissed.
She blinked. “Excuse me?”
“Not you.” I cleared my throat. “You passed out. The healers...”
“...were terrified,” she said, cutting me off. “I heard them whispering before I blacked out. Something about me glowing like a damn forge. I think I preferred being dead.”
I stared at her. “You died.”
“Yeah,” she said flatly. “Apparently that’s becoming a bad habit.”
Kaen rumbled, practically purring. "She jokes. She burns. She lives. Perfect."
“Stop it,” I growled.
Her eyes widened. “Stop what?”
I rubbed a hand over my face. “Talking to myself.”
“Uh-huh.” She arched an eyebrow. “So either I’ve been kidnapped by a lunatic, or this is just how wolves flirt.”
“You should rest,” I said instead, handing her a cup of water.
She took it slowly, studying me. “You’re the Alpha who bit me.”
The words hit harder than claws. “You remember that.”
“I remember pain. Teeth. Heat.” Her voice sharpened. “You didn’t ask permission.”
“No,” I said quietly. “I didn’t.”
She looked like she wanted to slap me but was too tired to lift her hand. “Next time you plan on mauling someone, maybe ask first.”
A smirk tugged at my mouth. “I’ll make a note of it.”
She sank back into the furs, glaring up at the ceiling. “Good. Because I’m not your pack. And I’m definitely not your problem.”
Kaen growled low, vibrating through my bones. "She’s ours."
“She’s herself,” I muttered.
“What was that?” she asked.
“Nothing,” I said. “Sleep.”
Her eyes fluttered again. “Bossy bastard.”
She was asleep before I could come up with an answer.
The room fell into that heavy silence that only comes after storms. The smell of smoke still lingered, mixed with lavender, faint but stubborn. I could hear her heartbeat, the rhythm uneven, not one but four, tangled like a song trying to find its melody. One of them was mine.
I sat there for a long time, my elbows on my knees, watching her breathe. The rise and fall of her chest was hypnotic. The marks on her arms glowed faintly in the dark, like dying embers refusing to fade.
Kaen finally settled, his presence curling around my mind. "When she wakes again, everything changes."
I didn’t disagree.
Because somewhere under all the anger, under the scars and arrogance, something new had taken root. Her heartbeat thrummed in my veins, echoing mine, like it had been there all along, waiting.
And the gods help me, I couldn’t tell if it terrified me… or if it felt like coming home.