Chapter Two
NEW BEGINNING
*Sara's POV
I woke up naked under soft furs in a large, dark room. My body ached everywhere, but the worst pain had dulled. Moonlight streamed through the window.
Alpha Kael Draven stood at the foot of the bed, watching me with cold, stormy eyes. He wore only low black pants, his muscular chest bare and covered in scars.
"You are awake," Kael said, his voice rough.
I pulled the sheet up to cover myself. "Where am I?"
"Silvermoon territory. My packhouse," Kael replied flatly. "It seems the Goddess has cursed me with a rejected Blackthorn Omega."
His words stung, but the mate bond hummed insistently beneath my skin, pulling at me in ways I did not want to admit.
"Your wounds need cleaning," Kael said, moving closer with warm water and cloths. "Turn over."
I rolled onto my stomach and let him work. His hands moved over the gashes on my back, cleaning them with firm, careful strokes.
He did not speak again for a long moment.
"The bond is already affecting you," Kael said quietly, almost to himself, his voice tight with frustration.
Before I could answer, something shifted between us. The mate bond flared - electric and overwhelming. He leaned down, his mouth finding mine in a fierce, consuming kiss. I did not pull away. I could not. Every part of me responded to him as though I had been waiting for this without knowing it.
What followed was not gentle. It was the bond - raw and relentless - crashing through both of us like a tide neither of us had the strength to resist. He was not tender, and I did not ask him to be. There was grief in me, and rage, and the desperate need to feel something other than broken.
When it was over, I lay still, my body warm and aching in a different way than before.
Kael stood, pulling his pants back on without a word. He looked at me once - something unreadable crossing his face - before his expression shuttered closed again.
"Clean yourself up," Kael said. "I do not want a mate. This changes nothing."
He turned toward the door. I said nothing. What was there to say?
But at the threshold, he paused.
"Blackthorn is already searching for you," Kael said, his voice low. "They want you dead."
He did not look back as he left, the lock clicking firmly behind him.
I lay there in the silence, the bond pulling at me stronger than before. His words echoed in my mind, clear and cold.
He did not love me.
He did not even want me.
But the Moon Goddess had other plans.
And somewhere deep inside, I knew I would use every advantage I had - including this bond - to prove my father's innocence, whether Kael Draven liked it or not.
