The stranger crossed the room.
He did not touch me. He stopped close enough that I could feel the heat of him, his amber eyes searching my face.
"Did he hurt you?"
"Not yet."
"Is he trying to?"
"He was paid to make it look as if I cheated."
The man's expression changed. It was not shock. It was the cold concentration of a predator deciding where to bite.
He opened the door.
Jude nearly fell through it. Two Blood Moon guards stood behind him. They froze when the light from the corridor revealed the man beside me.
"Alpha Blackwood," one guard breathed.
My stomach dropped.
Rowan Blackwood. Alpha of Frost Fang. Darius had spent years calling him a savage, a land thief, and a threat to every southern pack. Rowan had defeated three challenges in six years and turned a poor mountain territory into Blood Moon's strongest trade rival.
He was also the deciding vote Darius needed for a new quarry road.
Rowan leaned against the doorframe. "Explain why you were pounding on my door."
The guards lowered their gazes.
Jude recovered first. "A private misunderstanding. Miss Vane came to meet me, then became embarrassed."
"Liar," I said.
His eyes flicked to me. "You asked me to follow you."
"She says you are lying," he said. "Leave."
"Alpha Crowe ordered us to bring her downstairs," one guard replied.
"Then Alpha Crowe can come here and ask me himself."
The door closed in their faces.
I stared at Rowan. "You just insulted your host."
"Darius is not my host." He studied my bare arms and the torn seam of my dress where Jude had grabbed me. "You are shaking."
"I am angry."
Rowan walked to a cabinet and took out a bottle of water. He broke the seal in front of me before handing it over. The careful gesture told me he had already guessed that I trusted nothing there.
I drank too quickly.
"Do you have somewhere safe to go?" he asked.
"My car is outside."
"The front gate is closed."
Of course it was.
I set the bottle down. "I need my phone. It is in my room."
Rowan picked up his own and called someone named Lyra. He asked her to locate my phone and coat, then told her not to involve Blood Moon security.
When he ended the call, silence settled between us.
The pull toward him had not faded. It had grown stronger. Every breath carried his scent deeper into me. Willow paced under my skin, excited in a way she had never been around Darius.
Darius and I had never marked each other. He always said we should wait until the five-year contract ended and we could decide whether to make the bond permanent. I had accepted that explanation.
Now she pressed against Rowan as if she had known him forever.
He noticed. His nostrils flared, and amber swallowed the gray of his eyes.
"Your wolf recognizes mine," I whispered.
"Yes."
The direct answer tightened something low in my body.
Rowan took a deliberate step back. "That does not mean you owe me anything."
"Darius told me fated mates were mostly stories."
"Darius says whatever makes his choices easier."
A bitter laugh escaped me. "You know him well."
"I know men who confuse possession with loyalty."
A soft knock sounded. A dark-haired woman entered carrying my coat, phone, and a pair of boots. A silver scar crossed her left eyebrow.
"Your room had already been searched," she said. "I found the phone beneath a maid's cart. Two men were waiting near the stairs."
"Lyra Kane, my Beta," Rowan said. "Elara Vane."
Lyra looked at the torn seam of my dress, then at Rowan. Her expression revealed nothing. "Our cars are being watched. Cassian has called an emergency gathering downstairs."
My phone held twelve missed calls from Darius and one message.
Come down now. If you make a scene, you will regret it.
A second message arrived while I read.
You have five minutes.
I showed Rowan.
"He wants you frightened," he said.
"He wants me obedient."
"Are you?"
"Not anymore."
Lyra's mouth almost curved. "I will keep the hall clear."
After she left, Rowan moved to the other side of the room. He gave me the bedroom and offered to sleep on the sitting-room sofa. The suite had no second exit, and leaving now would put me directly in Darius's hands.
I should have locked myself away and waited for morning.
But I stood by the fire wearing Rowan's spare shirt beneath my coat, listening to him speak quietly on the phone with his guards. He controlled every room without raising his voice. When he turned, the pull between us struck so sharply that my breath caught.
His gaze dropped to my mouth, then rose again.
"Elara."
No one had ever said my name as if it mattered by itself.
I walked toward him.
He stayed still. "You learned about Darius and another woman tonight."
"Yes."
"You are hurt."
"I am furious."
"Those are not the same thing as wanting me."
I stopped in front of him. "My wolf has been silent for three years. She woke up the moment I smelled you. I do not know what tomorrow looks like, but I know what I feel right now."
His hand lifted, then paused beside my face. "Tell me to stop, and I stop."
"I will."
"This cannot be punishment for Darius."
"It is not." I touched his wrist and guided his palm to my cheek. "This is the first decision tonight that belongs only to me."
His control broke.
Rowan kissed me with a restrained force that lasted less than a second before he pulled back.
“Still yes?”
“Yes.”
The next kiss was deeper, almost hungry. His arms closed around me. My hands slid into his dark hair and tugged. Heat flooded every place. My wolf surged forward, with a low, restless growl in my chest.
He carried me to the bed and laid me down. His mouth was on my throat, open and hot, as he pushed the dress up my thighs. His palm slid between my legs, finding me already slick. Two fingers stroked through the wetness, slow and deliberate.
“Look at you,” he murmured against my skin, voice rough. “So wet for me already.”
“Rowan—”
“Tell me if it’s too much.”
“It’s not. Don’t stop. Please.”
He didn’t rush. He worked me open with his fingers, curling them just right. Only when I was panting and pulling at his clothes did he free himself. The head of his cock dragged through my folds.
The stretch burned. My nails dug into his shoulders. His forehead pressed to mine, giving me time, but the low, strained noise he made told me how hard it was for him to hold back.
“Move,” I whispered. “I need you to move.”
He did. The wet sound of our bodies meeting filled the room. My wolf howled under my skin; his answered.
His teeth grazed at my neck. Both our wolves surged, desperate for the mark.
He stopped.
“I will not mark you tonight,” he said against my damp skin, voice still rough. “Not when your life has just been torn open.”
The respect in that refusal affected me more than a claim would have.
I kissed him until neither of us could speak.
I woke wrapped around him, my cheek on his chest. Dawn silvered the curtains.
For a few precious seconds, I remembered nothing except warmth and the heavy, sated ache in my body.
Then the suite door crashed open.
Darius entered with Mara, Elder Cassian, Seraphine, and half a dozen guards. Celine stood at the rear with the council ledger, her face pale.
Darius stopped.
His gaze moved over my bare shoulder, Rowan's arm around my waist, and the bite-shaped bruise that had not broken my skin.
The triumphant expression he had prepared vanished.
Rowan sat up slowly, unconcerned by his naked chest or the armed men in his room.
"You have three seconds," he said, "to remove everyone from my suite."
Darius found his voice. "She is my mate."
I pulled the sheet around myself and looked directly at him.
"No," I said. "I am the woman you tried to frame."
Darius stared at Rowan as the full cost of his plan finally reached him.
He had wanted another wolf in my bed.
He had simply chosen the wrong night to make that wish.
