ELARA'S POINT OF VIEW
I didn't go back to my room.
Instead, I found myself in the compound's archives. A sterile room filled with filing cabinets and digital records dating back decades. Father's life's work, meticulously documented.
My hands shook as I pulled up the search interface.
Sierra Moonridge.
The name felt foreign and familiar all at once on my tongue. My mother. The woman I barely remembered. Father said she'd been killed by werewolves when I was three. A random attack. Wrong place, wrong time.
But Kael said she was a werewolf. And that Father had killed her.
The search returned zero results.
I tried again. Sierra Ashford. Nothing. Sierra with no last name. Still nothing.
Every file about my mother had been scrubbed from the system.
Why would Father erase her if she was just a victim?
My heart pounded as I navigated to the secure files... the ones requiring Father's authorization code. I shouldn't know it. But I'd watched him type it enough times over the years, had memorized the pattern without meaning to.
8-7-3-9-2-1.
Access granted.
The secure archives opened before me, and I started searching. Medical records. Interrogation logs. Autopsy reports on werewolves killed over the past two decades.
Then I found it.
A folder labeled simply: E.A. - Medical Monitoring.
E.A. Elara Ashford.
I clicked it open.
Page after page of blood work. Genetic testing. Chemical analysis. All dated from when I was seven years old to present day. And at the top of every report, the same notation in Father's handwriting: Wolfsbane dosage holding. No transformation signs.
My vision blurred.
Wolfsbane dosage.
Those weren't pheromone blockers. They never had been.
I kept scrolling, my hands numb. Another file: Subject Background. I opened it.
A photograph stared back at me... a woman with dark auburn hair and pale green eyes. My eyes. She was beautiful, smiling at the camera with a warmth that made my chest ache.
Beneath the photo: Sierra Moonridge. Omega. Moonridge Pack. Deceased.
Date of death: Twenty years ago. Three years after my birth.
Cause of death: Silver bullet to the heart. Administered by M.A.
M.A. Marcus Ashford.
My father.
I couldn't breathe. The room spun. Every word Kael had said crashed over me with devastating clarity.
Your father murdered her.
The evidence was right here. In his own files. Documented like it was just another hunt.
I don't know how long I sat there, staring at that photograph. At my mother's face. At the clinical notation of her death at my father's hands.
Eventually, I moved to the next file.
Genetic Analysis - E.A.
The report was dense with medical terminology, but certain phrases jumped out:
Hybrid genetics confirmed.
Lupine markers present in 47% of samples.
Transformation capability: High probability.
Recommendation: Maintain wolfsbane suppressant protocol indefinitely.
I was half werewolf.
Everything I'd been taught, everything I'd believed about myself... it was a lie.
My phone buzzed. A text from Father: Status report. Now.
I stared at the message, then at my mother's photo on the screen.
What was I supposed to say? That I'd found the truth? That I knew what he'd done?
My fingers moved on autopilot: He's still not talking. Continuing interrogation tomorrow.
The response came immediately: Good. Remember... use the connection. Make him need you.
Make him need me.
While my father planned to exploit that need to destroy Kael's pack. The same way he'd exploited my mother's love to get close enough to kill her.
I closed the files and erased my access history. But I couldn't erase what I now knew.
My mother was a werewolf and my father killed her, and I was the monster he'd spent twenty years trying to suppress.
I returned to the cells without being summoned.
It was late... past midnight. The compound was quiet except for the hum of ventilation systems and the distant echo of security patrols. Father would be asleep by now. The cameras would still be recording, but he wouldn't be watching. Not at this hour.
The elevator descended into the darkness. My hand hovered over the button for basement three, trembling.
I could still turn back. Pretend I'd never seen those files. Keep taking the pills. Keep being Father's obedient daughter. Keep being the lie.
I pressed the button.
The corridor was dimmer at night, emergency lighting casting everything in shades of gray. My footsteps echoed too loud as I approached Kael's cell.
I swiped my keycard and the door opened.
Kael's head snapped up immediately, eyes finding me in the darkness. They reflected the dim light like an animal's.
"Little hunter," he said, voice rough. "It's the middle of the night."
"I know." I stepped inside, letting the door close behind me. "I... I needed to see you."
His expression shifted. Wariness mixing with something that looked like hope. "Why?"
"I found files. In my father's archives." The words spilled out before I could stop them.
"About my mother. About me. About what I am."
Kael went very still. "What did you find?"
"Everything you said was true." My voice cracked. "She was a werewolf. He killed her. And I'm... I'm..."
"Hey." His voice turned gentle. "Breathe, Elara. Just breathe."
I realized I was hyperventilating, my chest heaving. I pressed my back against the cold concrete wall and slid down until I was sitting, knees pulled to my chest.
"I don't know what I am," I whispered.
"You're you. That's all that matters."
"I'm half wolf. Half monster."
"You're not a monster." Kael's chains rattled as he shifted, trying to get closer to the bars despite the silver burning him. "Elara, look at me."
I forced myself to meet his eyes.
"Being a werewolf doesn't make you a monster," he said. "Being half-human doesn't make you weak. You're something rare and beautiful and strong. Your father tried to suppress that because he feared it. Because he couldn't control it."
"He killed my mother."
"I know." Pain flickered across Kael's face. "Sierra was kind. Gentle. She believed humans and wolves could coexist. That's probably what drew her to your father... before she knew what he really was."
"Did you know her well?"
"Well enough. She was the Alpha's younger sister. Soft-hearted. Always trying to see the best in people." His jaw clenched. "When she disappeared with you, we searched for months. The Alpha blamed himself. Thought he should have protected her better."
"She was running from my father."
"And she almost made it." Kael's eyes held mine. "She kept you safe for three years. That's three years she gave you before he found you both. Three years where you were loved and protected and free."
I had no memory of those years. Father said I'd been found after the "attack" with no recollection of anything before. Trauma, he'd claimed. A mercy, really.
Another lie.
"I'm taking wolfsbane," I said. "Have been since I was seven. That's what the pills are."
"I know. I can smell it in your blood."
"If I stop..." I trailed off, afraid to finish the thought.
"If you stop, your wolf will wake up." Kael's voice was careful. "It'll be overwhelming at first. Confusing. Possibly painful as your body adjusts. But you'll finally be whole."
"What if I can't control it?"
"You will. Especially with..." He stopped himself.
"With what?"
"With a mate bond to anchor you." He said it quietly, like he was afraid the words would spook me. "That's what mate bonds do. They ground us. Give us something to hold onto when the wolf threatens to take over."
The mate bond. Between us.
I looked at him... really looked. At the burns on his wrists where silver bit into flesh. At the exhaustion in his eyes. At the way he watched me like I was something precious even though I was the daughter of the man who'd captured and tortured him.
"Why aren't you angry with me?" I asked.
"Angry?"
"I'm an Ashford. My father did this to you. To my mother. To god knows how many other wolves. You should hate me."
"I could never hate you." The conviction in his voice was absolute. "You're not responsible for your father's sins. You're a victim of them, just like I am."
"I've trained my whole life to kill werewolves."
"But you haven't killed any, have you?" When I didn't answer, he continued, "You hesitate. You question. That's why your father thinks you're soft. But you're not soft. You're sane. You're compassionate. You're everything he tried to beat out of you and failed."
Tears burned my eyes. "I don't know what to do."
"Stop taking the pills," Kael said. "Let your wolf wake up. Meet the part of yourself your father tried to kill."
"And then what? Even if I do that, even if you're right about everything... I'm still trapped here. You're still trapped here. My father will never let either of us go."
"Then we escape." His eyes flashed gold. "Together."
"How? You're chained in silver. The compound is a fortress. And even if we somehow got out, where would we go? Your pack doesn't know me. They'd kill me on sight for being an Ashford."
"They won't. Not if you're with me. Not if they understand you're my mate." He leaned forward as far as the chains allowed. "Elara, I know this is overwhelming. I know you're scared. But you have to trust me."
"I don't even know you."
"Yes, you do." His voice dropped to barely above a whisper. "You've known me since the moment our eyes met. The bond doesn't lie. Your wolf recognizes mine. And right now, she's screaming at you to get me out of these chains."
He was right. Something in my chest pulled toward him so strongly it hurt. Every instinct I had... ones I'd been trained to ignore my entire life... told me to free him. To run with him. To never let him out of my sight again.
"I'm scared," I admitted.
"Me too."
"Of what? You're the three-hundred-year-old wolf. What do you have to be scared of?"
"Losing you." His eyes held mine. "I've waited three centuries for my mate. Now that I've found you, the thought of anything happening to you terrifies me more than any torture your father could devise."
The words settled over me like a blanket. Warm. Safe. Real.
I stood up slowly and moved toward the bars.
Kael tracked every movement, his body tensing. "What are you doing?"
"I need to see them. The burns."
"Elara..."
"Please."
He was quiet for a moment, then nodded.
I knelt at the small opening at the bottom of the cell door. Up close, the smell of burned flesh and silver made my stomach turn. But I forced myself to look.
The burns were worse than I'd thought. The silver had eaten away at his skin, leaving angry red wounds that wept blood and clear fluid. Some looked infected.
"They're bad," I whispered.
"I've had worse."
"When?"
"Wars. Fights. The usual immortal werewolf nonsense." He tried to smile, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Silver heals slowly, but it heals."
"Not if you're wearing it constantly."
"No," he agreed. "Not then."
My hand moved without conscious thought, reaching through the opening. My fingers hovered an inch from his ankle, right above where the silver chain wrapped around it.
"Don't," Kael said sharply. "The silver..."
"Won't hurt me. I'm half human, remember?" I didn't know if that was true, but something told me to trust my instinct.
I touched his skin just above the shackle.
The reaction was instantaneous.
Heat flooded through me... not painful, but intense. My pulse skyrocketed. My breath caught. And through the point of contact, I felt him. Not just physically, but deeper. His pain. His exhaustion. His desperate, aching need to touch me properly.
"Fuck," Kael breathed. His entire body shuddered. "Elara, you need to stop."
But I couldn't. My thumb stroked his skin gently, carefully avoiding the burns. The heat intensified, spreading through my veins like liquid fire.
"I can feel you," I whispered.
"That's the bond." His voice was strained. "It amplifies every touch. Every sensation. That's why you need to stop before..."
"Before what?"
"Before I lose control." His eyes were pure gold now, pupils blown wide. "Before my wolf decides these chains aren't strong enough to keep me from you."
The growl in his voice sent shivers down my spine. Not fear. Something else. Something that made my skin flush and my thighs clench.
I pulled my hand back reluctantly.
We stared at each other across the bars, both breathing hard.
"That," Kael said roughly, "is what happens when mates touch. And that was just your hand on my ankle. Imagine what it would be like if..." He cut himself off, jaw clenching.
I didn't need him to finish. My imagination was doing plenty on its own.
"I should go," I said. "Before someone notices I'm down here."
"Yeah. You should."
But neither of us moved.
"Tomorrow," I said. "I'll stop taking the pills tomorrow. And I'll find a way to get you out of those chains."
"Elara, don't make promises you can't..."
"I'm not leaving you here." The words came out fiercer than I'd intended. "I'm not letting my father use me as a weapon against you. And I'm not spending one more day living his lies."
Kael's expression softened. "You're sure?"
"No," I admitted. "I'm not sure about anything. But I'm going to try anyway."
"That's all anyone can do."
I stood and moved to the door, my hand on the keycard reader. I looked back at him one more time.
"Kael?"
"Yeah?"
ELERA'S POINT OF VIEW
"Thank you. For telling me the truth."
"Thank you for believing me."
I swiped my card and stepped into the corridor. The door sealed behind me with a heavy thud.
But as I walked toward the elevator, I could still feel the ghost of his skin under my fingers. Could still feel that pull, that bond, drawing me back to him like gravity.
Tomorrow, everything would change.
Tomorrow, I'd stop being Marcus Ashford's obedient daughter.
Tomorrow, I'd become what I was always meant to be.
Whatever the hell that was.