ELARA'S POINT OF VIEW
I made it to the bathroom before I threw up.
My hands gripped the edges of the sink, knuckles white, as my stomach emptied itself. When nothing else came up, I stood there gasping, staring at my reflection in the mirror.
My eyes looked too bright. Feverish. My skin was flushed, pulse still racing even though I'd left the cells ten minutes ago.
What we are to each other.
"Stop," I whispered to my reflection. "Stop thinking about it."
But I couldn't. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw his. Amber and ancient and full of something that terrified me more than any threat could.
My phone buzzed. A text from Father: My office. Now.
Shit.
I rinsed my mouth, splashed cold water on my face, and forced my breathing to steady. Professional. Controlled. I could do this. I'd just... had a moment. First time seeing a werewolf in person. It was natural to be overwhelmed.
The elevator ride up felt too short.
Father's office was on the top floor, all dark wood and leather and weapons mounted on the walls like trophies. He sat behind his massive desk, reviewing footage on multiple monitors.
Footage of me in the cell.
"Sit," he said without looking up.
I sat.
For three excruciating minutes, Father watched the footage in silence. My stomach twisted tighter with each passing second. He'd seen everything. Heard everything. Including the parts where I'd stood there frozen like an idiot instead of doing my job.
Finally, Father paused the video... frozen on the moment our eyes had met. My face on screen looked... I didn't know. Stunned. Terrified. Something else I couldn't name.
"Interesting," Father said.
"Sir, I..."
"You lasted twelve minutes before retreating."
He leaned back in his chair. "Three of my veteran interrogators couldn't manage ten. So in that sense, you exceeded expectations."
Relief flickered through me. "Thank you."
"However." His eyes moved from the screen to my face. "You didn't extract any information. You didn't use any of the tools provided. You didn't establish dominance. What you did do was stand there and let him talk."
"He was trying to manipulate me. I was assessing..."
"You were affected." Father's voice cut like a blade. "I saw it. The physiological response. The hesitation. The way you looked at him."
Heat crept up my neck. "I've never seen a werewolf before. It was... overwhelming."
"It was more than that." Father pulled up another angle of the footage. Closer on Kael's face. "See that? The way his eyes changed? The way his entire body language shifted the moment you entered?"
"He was... surprised?"
"Aroused."
My breath caught. "What?"
"Werewolves are animals, Elara. Primal. And you triggered something in him." Father smiled thinly. "Which means we can use it."
"Use what?"
"His weakness." Father tapped a few keys. The next video showed Kael after I'd left... thrashing against the chains hard enough that blood ran down his arms, his face contorted in obvious pain. "He's been calm since we captured him. Resigned. Then you walk in, and suddenly he's fighting like a caged animal. Why?"
My mouth went dry. "I don't know."
"Yes, you do. You felt it too. That pull. That connection." Father stood, moving around the desk. "Werewolves have this thing called a mate bond. Very rare. Very powerful. It makes them irrational. Protective. Vulnerable."
"You think he... that I'm..." I couldn't finish the sentence. It was too insane.
"I don't think. I know." Father pulled a file from his drawer. "I've been tracking mate bonds for twenty years. The physiological markers are distinct. Elevated heart rate. Pupil dilation. Pheromone spikes." He opened the file. "You exhibited all of them. So did he."
I stared at the documents... graphs and charts and data that might as well have been in a foreign language. "That's impossible. I'm human."
"Are you?"
The question hung in the air like a blade.
"What's that supposed to mean?" My voice came out smaller than I wanted.
"It means," Father said slowly, "that your mother had secrets. Secrets I discovered too late." His expression hardened. "Secrets that made it necessary to take certain... precautions with your upbringing."
The pills. The supplements I'd been taking since I was seven.
"What are they really?" I whispered.
"Insurance." Father closed the file. "But that's not important right now. What's important is that the connection between you and the prisoner is real. And it makes him vulnerable in ways torture never could."
"I don't understand."
"You will." Father moved to the window, looking out over the compound. "Go back down there. Today. Spend more time with him. Let that bond develop."
"You want me to..."
"I want you to become his weakness." Father turned back to me. "Mate bonds work both ways. The more he cares about you, the more control we have. Eventually, he'll tell us everything just to keep you safe. From us."
The cruelty of it stole my breath. "You want me to pretend to..."
"I want you to do your job." His voice sharpened. "This is what hunters do, Elara. We find weaknesses and exploit them. His weakness is you. Use it."
Every instinct screamed at me to refuse. But Father's eyes held that cold calculation that meant disobedience would have consequences.
"Yes, sir," I heard myself say.
"Good." Father returned to his desk. "One more thing. Moss reported that during yesterday's training, you exhibited unusual strength. Specifically at the moment you broke his hold."
My stomach dropped. "I was just..."
"Your pupils flashed gold. For less than a second, but the security footage caught it." He pulled up another screen. There I was, mid-fight, and yes... my eyes definitely looked wrong in that frame. "It seems the suppressants are losing effectiveness. We'll need to increase the dosage."
"Suppressants for what?"
Father looked at me for a long moment. "For keeping you human," he said finally. "Or as close to it as possible."
The words settled over me like a shroud.
"Dismissed," Father said. "Return to the cells in two hours. And this time, make him talk. Use whatever methods work. Including yourself."
I left the office on numb legs.
Two hours later
The elevator descended again.
I'd spent the time in my room, pacing, trying to process what Father had implied. That I wasn't entirely human. That the pills I'd been taking were suppressing something. That the pull I felt toward the prisoner wasn't manipulation or insanity but some kind of biological imperative.
Mate bond.
The words felt absurd. Like something from a bad romance novel, not real life.
But real life didn't usually include werewolves and hunter compounds and fathers who talked about exploitation like it was a virtue.
The elevator doors opened.
I stepped into the corridor, my heart already picking up speed. Anticipation or dread... I couldn't tell which.
The cell door beeped as my keycard granted access.
Kael was exactly where I'd left him, still hanging from those silver chains. But his head was already up, eyes locked on the door before I'd fully entered.
"Back so soon," he said. His voice was rougher than before. "Couldn't stay away?"
"My father wants me to establish rapport."
"Rapport." He laughed darkly. "Is that what we're calling it?"
I closed the door behind me. The lock engaged with a heavy click. Alone again. Just me and him and the thick tension that made the air feel too heavy to breathe.
"I have questions," I said.
"Of course you do."
"Are you going to answer them?"
"No."
Frustration flared hot in my chest. "Then what's the point of this?"
"You tell me." Kael's eyes tracked me as I moved closer to the bars. "You're the one who came back."
"Because it's my job."
"Right. Your job." Something bitter crossed his expression. "Tell me, little hunter, do you always follow orders so obediently? Even when they make your skin crawl?"
"You don't know anything about me."
"I know more than you think." He shifted, and even that small movement made the chains rattle and fresh blood well from the silver burns. "I know you're twenty-three years old. I know you've trained your whole life to kill my kind. I know your father is Marcus Ashford, the Hunt Master himself. And I know..." He stopped, jaw clenching.
"Know what?"
"Nothing." But his eyes said otherwise.
I pulled out my tablet again, pulling up the list of questions. "How many werewolves are in the Silverpine Pack?"
"Irrelevant."
"Where does your Alpha live?"
"Somewhere you'll never find."
"Who are your allies?"
"Everyone who isn't you."
I set down the tablet. "Fine. Let's try something else. Tell me about mate bonds."
That got a reaction. Kael's expression shuttered completely. "Why?"
"Because my father thinks..." I couldn't finish. Saying it out loud made it too real.
"Thinks we're mates?" Kael finished for me. "We are."
The casual confirmation hit like a punch.
"That's impossible."
"And yet." He nodded toward me. "Feel your pulse. It's racing again. Your skin is flushed. And that thing in your chest that feels like it's pulling you toward me? That's the bond."
"I'm human."
"No." His voice was gentle. Too gentle. "You're not."
"Stop saying that."
"Stop lying to yourself." Kael's eyes held mine, and god, I wanted to look away but couldn't.
"You've felt different your whole life, haven't you? Like something was missing. Like you didn't quite fit in your own skin."
I had. Every day since I could remember.
"That's normal," I said. "Everyone feels like that sometimes."
"Not like you do. Not with the intensity that wakes you up at night, that makes you want to run into the forest and never stop, that makes you feel most alive under the full moon even though you can't explain why."
How did he know? How could he possibly...
"Your father's been drugging you," Kael continued. "Suppressing what you are. But it's getting stronger. The wolf inside you is waking up, and he can't stop it anymore."
"I don't have a wolf."
"Yes, you do. I can smell it on you. Buried deep, sedated, but there." His expression softened. "And she recognizes me. That's why you couldn't leave. That's why you came back."
My hands trembled. "This is insane."
"I know it sounds that way."
"You're trying to manipulate me. To make me doubt my father, doubt myself..."
"When did you last shift, Elara?"
The question came soft but cut through my spiral like a knife.
"I'm human," I said. "I don't shift."
Kael smiled, but it was the saddest smile I'd ever seen. "Is that what he told you?"
The implications crashed over me like a wave. My mother. The supplements. The way Father watched me sometimes, like I was a bomb that might detonate at any moment.
"This is ridiculous," I said. But my voice shook.
"Then prove me wrong." Kael leaned forward as far as the chains allowed. "Stop taking whatever pills he's giving you. Just for three days. See what happens."
"They're pheromone blockers. To protect against werewolf manipulation."
"They're wolfsbane. Diluted enough not to kill you, but strong enough to keep your wolf sedated." His eyes flashed gold. "Stop taking them, and you'll see the truth."
"And what truth is that?"
"That you're my mate." His voice dropped to barely a whisper. "That your mother was a wolf. That your father murdered her when he found out. And that he's been poisoning you ever since to make sure you never became what you were meant to be."
The words hit like bullets.
I stumbled back, my breathing ragged. "No. That's not... he wouldn't..."
"Wouldn't he?" Kael's expression was almost pitying. "Look around you, Elara. Look at what he does. The torture. The killing. The experiments. You think a man capable of all that would hesitate to lie to his own daughter?"
"Stop it."
"You're asking me questions," Kael said. "But you're terrified of the answers. Why? What are you afraid of learning?"
"I'm not afraid."
"You're shaking."
I was. My whole body trembled with a combination of adrenaline and denial and that terrible, growing certainty that he was right.
"My mother died when I was three," I said. "Killed by werewolves. My father told me..."
"Your father lied." Kael's voice was flat. "Sierra Moonridge didn't die in an attack. She died running from the man she married when she realized what he really was. What he'd do to you if he knew the truth."
The name hit me like a physical blow. Sierra Moonridge. My mother's name had been Sierra.
"How do you know that name?" I whispered.
"Because Sierra was my Alpha's sister." Kael's eyes held mine, steady and sure. "Because I knew her. Because when she disappeared twenty-three years ago with her infant daughter, we all searched for her. We never found her body. Never knew for sure what happened." His expression cracked. "Until now. Until I saw you. You have her eyes. Her scent, buried under the wolfsbane. You're her daughter. And god, Elara, I'm so sorry."
My legs gave out. I sat down hard on the concrete floor, my back against the far wall, my world crumbling.
"You're lying," I said. But it sounded weak even to my own ears.
"I wish I was."
"My father wouldn't..."
"Your father knows exactly what he did. That's why he locked us in here together." Kael's voice turned bitter. "He knows about the mate bond. Probably engineered this whole thing. He's going to use our connection against us. Against me."
"That doesn't make sense."
"Doesn't it? The longer you're near me, the stronger the bond gets. Eventually, it'll be undeniable. And when that happens, I'll do anything to protect you. Including talk. Including betray my pack." His chains rattled as his hands clenched into fists. "That's what he's counting on. You're not here to interrogate me. You're here to be the weapon he uses to break me."
The logic was sound. Horrifyingly sound.
I looked at him... really looked. At the burns on his wrists. The blood. The exhaustion. At the eyes that held too much knowledge and too much pain.
"When did you last shift, Elara?" he asked again.
I met his gaze. "I'm human."
Kael laughed, the sound dark and broken. "Is that what he told you?"
And despite everything... despite all my training, all my certainty, all my loyalty... I wasn't sure anymore.
I wasn't sure of anything.