The silence I had lived in for twenty years was gone. It had been replaced by a cacophony of instincts I didn't understand and a voice that lived in the very marrow of my bones.
I sat on the edge of the velvet chaise in my new quarters, clutching my stomach. It wasn't pain—it was everything. I could hear the heartbeat of a bird in the eaves outside. I could smell the rain-soaked cedar of the forest miles away. Most of all, I could feel the presence of the man in the next room like a physical weight pressing against my skin.
"He is pacing," my wolf murmured. I could feel her pacing, too, a restless shadow-creature circling the cage of my ribs. "He wants to come in. He wants to know we're awake."
Stop it, I thought, pressing my palms to my ears. He doesn't want us. He told us to stay back.
"He lied," she snapped, her voice sharper now, edged with a primal certainty that made my own heart race. "Lies are for humans. The scent doesn't lie. He smells like a storm trapped in a bottle, and he is shaking, Seraphina. He is shaking for us."
A sharp knock at the door made me jump. My senses spiked—my vision sharpened until I could see the individual threads of the silk wallpaper, and my skin prickled with a sudden, searing heat.
"Seraphina."
It was him. His voice through the heavy wood sounded like a low vibration that settled right in the pit of my stomach.
I stumbled toward the door and pulled it open. Silas was standing there, his head tilted slightly away, his jaw so tight I thought his teeth might shatter. He was dressed for the evening in a black dress shirt, the top two buttons undone, and the raw Alpha power rolling off him was nearly enough to make me faint.
"Dinner is served," he said. His words were clipped, forced. "You will eat with me."
"I... I'm not really hungry," I whispered. It was a lie. My body was actually screaming for protein, a primal hunger I'd never felt before, but the thought of sitting across from him while my wolf was howling was too much.
Silas finally turned his gaze to me. His eyes were dark, the gold iris bleeding into the black of his pupils. He looked at my throat, then my mouth, then finally my eyes. I felt a jolt of pure electricity snap between us, a tether tightening so hard it pulled me half a step toward him.
My wolf let out a satisfied purr that vibrated in my own throat. I clapped a hand over my mouth, my face heating to a frantic crimson.
Silas's nostrils flared. He took a half-step forward, his hand twitching at his side. "Your wolf is loud, Seraphina."
"I can't... I can't make her stop," I admitted, my voice trembling as a desperate tear escaped and rolled down my cheek. "Everything is too much. The lights, the smells... the way I can feel your heart beating from here."
Silas reached out then. His thumb brushed my cheek, catching the tear.
The contact was like a lightning strike. My knees actually gave way, and I had to grab his forearm to stay upright. His skin was burning hot, and the moment I touched him, the "noise" in my head went silent. The bird in the eaves, the cedar in the wind—it all vanished, replaced entirely by the sensation of his pulse under my palm.
"More," my wolf demanded, her spirit pressing against the front of my mind, trying to force me to lean into his chest. "Anchor here. Anchor."
I gasped, pulling my hand back as if I'd been electrocuted. The "noise" of the world rushed back in, deafening and cruel.
Silas looked down at his own hand, his fingers curling into a fist as if he were trying to trap the sensation of my skin. He looked shaken, his composed Alpha mask fracturing for a split second.
"By practicing," he said, his voice a jagged rasp, answering the question I hadn't even realized I'd asked. "You will sit at my table. You will endure my presence. You will learn to control the wolf before she controls you."
He turned on his heel, leaving me standing in the doorway, trembling from the loss of his heat.
"He's struggling," my wolf whispered, her voice sounding almost smug. "The big, scary Alpha is terrified of a little girl and her waking wolf."
I wasn't smug. I was terrified. Because for the first time in my life, I had an instinct that wasn't just run or hide. My instinct was telling me to belong to a man who had won me in a game of cards.