Eira POV
Eira sits in her apartment waiting for something she doesn't understand.
Two days. She's been locked inside her apartment for two days. She called in sick to work. Nova has texted her seventeen times. She hasn't answered any of them. She can't explain what's happening. She doesn't understand it herself.
The men outside her building watch and wait.
Eira stands at her window looking down at them. The black sedan. The men in expensive suits. The coordination. The predatory way they move.
They're hunting her.
She knows it. She can feel it. Something inside her recognizes them as threats. Something ancient inside her knows how to be hunted.
That terrifies her.
Her mother left her a journal she can't open. Her mother sent her a message from beyond the grave. Her mother warned her about this and now it's happening and Eira has nowhere to go.
She's trapped between the paranormal world and the human world and she doesn't belong in either.
The sun sets on the second day.
Eira sits on her couch with the kitchen knife on the coffee table. It's useless against men who move like predators. It's useless against whatever Kael Steele is. But it's something.
Around 10 PM, she hears footsteps in her hallway.
Heavy footsteps.
Deliberate.
Coming toward her apartment.
Eira's heart starts pounding.
She stands up and grabs the knife even though she knows it won't help.
The footsteps stop directly in front of her door.
There's a moment of silence.
Then the door opens.
He walks in like he owns the place. Like he has every right to be here. Like the locked door meant nothing to him.
Kael Steele.
He's more real than she remembered. More dangerous. More powerful. Everything about him screams that he's not human. His eyes are golden. His presence fills the entire apartment like he's the only real thing in it.
Eira stands frozen holding the knife.
"Drop it," he says.
His voice is a command. An order. Something her body responds to before her mind can object.
She drops the knife.
It clatters onto the wooden floor between them.
"What do you want," Eira says. Her voice is steady but she's shaking inside.
"You," he says simply. "I want you. My wolf recognized you at that gala. I've spent ten days searching for you. And now I've found you and I'm not leaving without you."
Eira takes a step back.
"I don't know you. You can't just show up and take someone. This is insane. You're insane."
Kael walks closer.
"Maybe I am insane. Maybe I've lost my mind. But my wolf knows the truth and my wolf doesn't lie. You're my mate, Eira. And everything in me is demanding I claim you."
The way he says her name. Like he's been saying it his whole life. Like he knows her on a level she doesn't know herself.
"My mother warned me about this," Eira says. "She said when the right wolf found me, everything would change. But I didn't believe her. I thought she was confused. I thought she was having some kind of breakdown."
"Your mother wasn't confused," Kael says. "She was protecting you. She was preparing you. And now I'm here and the protection is over."
He reaches out and touches her face.
His fingers are warm. Gentle. But his touch sends electricity through her entire body.
Everything inside her responds to him.
Something ancient. Something that's been sleeping her whole life.
"I don't understand what's happening to me," Eira whispers.
"Your power is waking up," Kael says. "Your bloodline is awakening. Your body is remembering what it's supposed to be. And I'm the trigger for all of it."
Eira looks into his golden eyes.
She sees her own reflection there.
She sees herself as he sees her. Not invisible. Not forgotten. Not broken.
Powerful.
"If I go with you, there's no going back is there," Eira says.
"No," Kael says. "Everything changes. Your life ends and something new begins. But I'll be there. I'll protect you. I'll help you understand what you are."
Eira thinks about her mother.
She thinks about the journal she can't open.
She thinks about the messages from a dead woman trying to warn her.
She thinks about being invisible her whole life.
"Okay," she says finally. "Okay, I'll come with you."
Kael's expression changes.
His eyes go from demanding to possessive.
He reaches out and pulls her close.
"You won't regret this," he says.
But he's wrong.
She already does.
Not because she's afraid of him.
But because she's afraid of what comes next.
His hand finds the back of her neck.
His other hand wraps around her waist.
He pulls her against him and she can feel the power radiating from him.
Can feel his wolf recognizing her.
Can feel something inside her recognizing him right back.
"Come on," he says. "It's time you saw what the paranormal world really looks like."
He leads her toward her apartment door.
Eira takes one last look at her home.
At her small life.
At the invisible existence she's built over twenty-three years.
Then she walks out into the hallway with the man who's about to change everything.
And she realizes in that moment that her mother was right.
The right wolf found her.
And nothing will ever be invisible again.