CONAN'S POV
I stepped out of the room and shut the door behind me harder than I meant to.
The sound echoed down the hallway.
Good.
I wanted it to.
My hands clenched into fists at my sides, my chest rising and falling like I had just come back from a fight. Every muscle in my body felt tight, coiled, ready to snap.
I wanted to hit something. I wanted to slam my fist into the wall until my knuckles split open. I wanted pain,something physical, something sharp to drown out the mess raging in my head.
What the hell was that?
Who the fuck did she think she was?
An omega.
An omega had just screamed at me. Tried to attack me. Raised her hand to me like I was nothing.
And the worst part?
She didn't look afraid.
She looked like if given a chance she'd rip me apart.
The nerve of her.
I dragged a hand through my hair and let out a sharp breath through my teeth. My anger was visible. I could feel it rolling off me, thick and heavy. Any wolf who crossed my path right now would feel it in my tone, my steps, the way my presence darkened the air.
Omegas were taught to bow.
To lower their eyes.
To submit.
"Their voices weren't to be heard."
She did none of that.
Instead, she stood there, shaking with rage, rejecting me like I was the one beneath her.
Rejecting me.
Fuck her.
The thought made my jaw tighten.
Not that I wanted her.
No.
Why would I want someone so beneath me that it felt like an insult to even imagine it.
That wasn't it.
I never asked for this. I never wanted this bond. I never wanted her as my mate.
Never.
This wasn't supposed to happen.
I turned the corner and paced down the corridor, boots striking the stone floor hard. Servants and guards quickly moved out of my way, their heads lowered as they sensed my mood.
My mind dragged me back to how this all started.
The war.
I hadn't started it for land, or power.
I started it because of Fairi..
My first love.
My fiancée.
She was mine. Chosen by my late parents, betrothed to me when I was eight years old and blessed by the Moon Goddess herself. Her union with me would have strengthened my pack, secured alliances, ended old bloodshed.
And then Rhyna's Alpha took her.
Captured her.
He kept her, mated with her or so I heard.
She was mine. I had waited all my life to have her, to claim her and then he came and shattered everything.
I couldn't have her anymore but I didn't want him to have her either.
I went to him first. I demanded her return. Gave him a chance to do the smart thing.
He refused.
Mocked me.
Alongside his people.
I couldn't accept defeat, it wasn't in me to just let go. I had to fight for what rightfully belonged to me.
So I went to war.
Weeks of bloodshed, Losses on both sides. Still, he wouldn't give her up.
That was when I decided to take something from him.
Someone.
A ransom.
I hadn't planned to hurt anyone unnecessarily.
I just needed leverage. Someone important enough that he would come crawling back.
And that was when I saw her.
Rhyna.
She was moving through the battlefield, not fighting, not hiding. She knelt beside the wounded, her hands covered in blood that wasn't hers.
She looked calm, focused and brave.
She was a healer.
Healers were valuable.
They were Important or so I thought.
I assumed she must be someone the pack cared about. Someone they'd fight for.
That was why I took her.
Nothing more.
I never touched her with intent. Never planned to. I never even looked at her that way.
She was just a means to an end. So how had it turned into this?
Why the fuck didn't she just keep still?
Why did her hands end up in my blood?
How did a bond form?
Why?
I stopped walking and slammed my fist into the stone wall.
The crack echoed sharply.
Pain shot through my knuckles, but it barely registered.
Being fated to an omega.
An omega from the lowest clan.
It was a cruel joke.
The Moon Goddess had to be mocking me.
I was Conan of the Shadowbound Claw. An Alpha feared across territories. Born to rule. Raised for war and leadership.
And she binds me to a healer omega who looks at me like she'd rather spit in my face than kneel.
My lips curled in frustration.
And yet...
She felt it.
I knew she did.
Her wolf reacted. Her scent changed. Her heartbeat raced when I was close.
She could deny it all she wanted, but the bond didn't lie.
That was what scared her.
And maybe... that was what scared me too.
I straightened slowly, pulling my hand back from the wall. Blood trickled down my knuckles. I stared at it for a moment.
My blood.
This was what bound us together.
That single moment had changed everything.
I had seen the pain in her eyes when I spoke harshly.
I had meant to push her away, to remind her,and myself of reality.
That this was a mistake.
That she was beneath me.
But the words had come out crueler than intended.
You're not my type.
Nothing about you would make me choose you.
Lies.
Not because I wanted her,but because the bond wouldn't care what I wanted.
That was the truth I hated most.
She had every right to hate me.
I had taken her away from her people.
And still, she dared to reject me.
I scoffed quietly, the e nerve of her.
An omega telling an Alpha she would never be his Luna. If any other omega had done that, they'd already be punished.
But her... I exhaled slowly.
I didn't want to break her, I didn't want to force her. The bond was already forming. If I pushed too hard, it could damage us both.
And damn it, that mattered.
I hated that it did.
I turned away from the wall and headed toward my chambers, my steps slower now, heavier. She thought she was my prisoner.
If that was what she needed to believe to survive right now... fine.
I would give her distance and time.
But she was wrong about one thing.
This bond wasn't something either of us could escape.
Whether she accepted it or not. Whether I wanted it or not.
The Moon Goddess had decided.
And gods help us both when she finally realized what that meant.
Because once the bond fully awakened...
There would be no walls strong enough to keep us apart.
