Keira's POV
Keira threw her clothes into a bag with more force than necessary.
Three days. It had been three days since she'd agreed to move into Mooncrest territory, and her hands still wouldn't stop shaking. She kept telling herself it was anger. Anger at Marcus. Anger at the council. Anger at the entire werewolf world for having laws that made her forbidden to the one person her soul recognized as home.
But it wasn't anger. It was terror.
Sage knocked and entered without waiting for permission. Her younger sister looked smaller than usual, her green eyes puffy from crying. She'd been crying since the regional gathering, watching Keira's life fall apart and being powerless to stop it.
"You don't have to do this," Sage said for the hundredth time. "We could fight. We could challenge the decision. We could—"
"We could do nothing," Keira cut her off gently. "Leaving buys us time. It gives the council a chance to forget about the bond. It proves we're cooperating with the alliance."
It was a lie wrapped in truth. The real reason she was leaving was because staying in Shadowpine territory with Cade three hours away was slowly destroying her. The mate bond was a physical ache. It pulled at her bones. Made her skin feel too tight. Made her wolf pace in circles, desperate and hungry and impossible to control.
Three months in the same territory with him. Three months to figure out how to survive this.
Or three months to surrender completely.
Sage threw her arms around Keira's neck, holding tight. "Don't let him break you."
Keira held her sister close, breathing in the familiar scent of home. Of safety. Of the place she'd fought so hard to protect. "I won't."
Another lie.
By evening, Keira was driving toward Mooncrest territory with five of her most loyal warriors. Her hands gripped the steering wheel so hard her knuckles turned white. The road stretched ahead of them, leading away from everything familiar and into enemy territory.
Into his territory.
The pack house loomed into view like something from a nightmare. It was massive. Stone and dark wood rising against the twilight sky. Beautiful in a way that made her chest ache. Made her wolf whimper with longing.
She could smell him on the air. Forest and snow and danger. The mate bond responded instantly, pulling her toward him like a fish on a hook.
Cade stood at the entrance as they pulled up. He wore black, his silver-blond hair catching the last light of day. His ice-blue eyes were controlled and distant and absolutely burning underneath when they locked on hers.
For one second, the bond flared between them so violently that Keira had to grip the car door to stay upright.
Then Cade's expression went stone-cold.
"Welcome to Mooncrest," he said, his voice clipped and professional. "East wing is yours. My wing is west. We maintain distance at all times. Pack business only."
His tone was ice.
But his eyes were screaming something completely different.
Keira forced herself to nod, to accept the conditions, to pretend this didn't feel like dying slowly. "Understood."
River appeared with a polite smile that didn't reach his eyes. Cade's Beta looked like he hadn't slept in three days. Probably because watching two fated mates torture themselves with distance was exhausting.
"Your rooms are ready," River said, gesturing toward the pack house. "We've set up the east wing entirely for you and your warriors. Everything should be comfortable."
Comfortable felt like a cruel joke.
The rooms were beautiful. Too beautiful. Soft lighting. A massive bed that smelled like nothing and everything at once. Windows that looked out over Mooncrest territory. Keira stood in the center of the space and felt the walls closing in.
This was going to be her prison for three months.
Her warriors settled into the adjoining rooms. Keira sent them away and locked the door. She couldn't face anyone right now. Couldn't pretend she was fine. Couldn't hide the way her body was vibrating with the need to be near Cade.
Midnight came. Then one in the morning. Keira lay in the massive bed, staring at the ceiling, and counted every second that separated her from three doors away. East wing. West wing. They'd been given clear boundaries.
The mate bond didn't care about boundaries.
It pulled at her like a leash. Made her skin feel electric. Made her wolf howl in her bones, desperate and primal and completely uncontrolled. She could feel Cade's presence in the pack house like a compass needle pointing toward true north. He was awake. She knew it the same way she knew her own heartbeat.
He was as unable to sleep as she was.
Keira got out of bed. She needed water. Or air. Or to do something besides lie there thinking about him three doors away, probably pacing his own room, fighting the same battle she was losing.
She cracked the door open and peered into the hallway. The corridor was empty and dim, lit by soft wall sconces. She stepped out and turned toward the kitchen, moving quietly so her warriors wouldn't hear.
The mate bond pulled harder.
Keira froze.
Footsteps echoed down the hallway from the other direction. Slow. Deliberate. Like someone was forcing themselves to walk instead of run.
Her heart stopped.
A figure emerged from the shadows. Tall. Silver-blond. Moving with the controlled grace of an Alpha trying very hard not to lose control.
Cade.
He wore only sleep pants, his chest bare and scarred and absolutely perfect. His ice-blue eyes locked on hers, and the mate bond roared to life so violently that Keira had to grip the wall to stay upright.
"I couldn't sleep," he said quietly.
Keira's voice wouldn't work. Her body was screaming at her to cross the distance between them. To claim him. To mark him. To complete what the universe had already decided.
"Neither could I," she managed.
Cade took one step closer.
Then another.
The air between them crackled with electricity. The mate bond was a physical thing now, visible in the space between their bodies. Keira could feel her claws pushing out of her fingertips. Could feel her wolf trying to claw its way to the surface.
"This was a mistake," Cade said, but he was still moving closer.
"Completely," Keira agreed, but she didn't step back.
One more step and they'd be touching. One more step and Keira didn't know if she'd be able to control what came next. If she'd be able to remember that they were in the hallway with his pack around them. That Marcus was probably already plotting their destruction. That completion of the bond would broadcast everything to everyone.
Cade's hand lifted. His fingers were inches from her face.
A door opened down the hallway.
One of his warriors emerged, looking confused to find his Alpha and the Shadowpine Alpha standing in the middle of the hallway at two in the morning, staring at each other like the world was about to end.
The warrior's eyes widened as he scented the bond flaring between them.
Cade dropped his hand like he'd been burned.
"Alpha Keira," he said coldly, stepping back. "I hope your rooms are satisfactory."
It was perfect. Professional. Like they'd just bumped into each other by accident.
The warrior looked between them, confusion and understanding warring across his face. He knew. Everyone was going to know.
Keira forced herself to straighten, to put distance between them, to pretend her heart wasn't shattering in her chest. "They're fine. Thank you."
She turned and walked back toward her room before she did something catastrophic. Before she reached for him. Before she completed the bond right there in the hallway in front of his entire pack.
She locked herself in her room and pressed her back against the door.
Three months. She just had to survive three months of living in the same territory as the man who was destroying her from the inside out. Three months of seeing him. Smelling him. Being near him.
Three months of this.
Keira slid down the door and pulled her knees to her chest.
Outside her window, the moon was rising full and silver and absolutely merciless.