Winslet’s blood turned to ice water. Every survival instinct screamed that the past had finally caught up to her. The safety she’d found here, the protection she’d taken for granted—all of it cracked open in that moment like an egg hitting pavement.
She’d been foolish to leave Korrak’s protection today. Foolish to think she should process the fated mate bond on her own. Foolish to believe she had the luxury of time.
The banging stopped and the outpost door swung open. Viktor stood there in the doorway, looking deceptively calm, a syringe in his gloved hand.
“Hello, Winslet. You’ve certainly outdone yourself here. But now it’s time to go back home to Bracken.”
TWELVE
KORRAK
The Jeep’s engine ticked in the Arctic silence, cooling metal contracting against the brutal cold. Korrak sat motionless behind the wheel, hands gripping the steering wheel until his knuckles went white beneath his gloves. He’d managed exactly half a mile from the research outpost before his body rebelled against the distance, the mate bond stretching taut between his ribs.
She needs space.
The words echoed in his mind like a death knell, each repetition carving deeper into the wound she’d opened when fear had flooded her green eyes again. Not fear of him—never that—but fear of forever. Fear of belonging to someone again after Bracken had twisted love into chains.
His polar bear raged beneath his skin, a restless fury that made his bones ache. The beast snarled at the separation, insisting that mates didn’t walk away from each other in moments of vulnerability. They drew closer.
Respect her choice.Give her time to understand.
But time felt like a luxury he couldn’t afford when every fiber of his being demanded he return to her side. The restraint required to honor her request—to let her process the mate bondwithout his presence anchoring her in truth—felt unnatural and punishing.
He’d held himself so carefully when she’d pulled away, had watched her face crumble with panic and done nothing to reach for her. Every instinct had roared at him to explain better, to make her understand that what existed between them wasn’t Bracken’s version of possession. The mate bond wasn’t ownership—it was partnership.
Instead, he’d driven her back to the outpost in suffocating silence, his jaw locked against the words that wanted to spill out.
You matter to me. You’re not a burden or a liability. I just want to make you happy, make you safe, make you feel stable again.
The irony burned. He’d spent eighteen years believing that attachment was weakness, that love made leaders vulnerable. Now, when he’d finally found someone worth risking everything for, she was the one running from connection.
Korrak closed his eyes, letting his head fall back against the headrest. Giving her space would only allow her fears to deepen without him there to counter them.
Suddenly, pain exploded through the mate bond without warning.
Sharp. Violent. Unmistakably wrong.
Korrak’s eyes snapped open as Winslet’s panic detonated across their connection like a bomb going off in his chest. This wasn’t emotional overwhelm or fear of commitment—this was survival terror, raw and immediate and desperate.
His polar bear surged toward the surface with predatory fury, rage and protective instinct slamming together until his vision went white at the edges.
“No.”
Korrak abandoned the Jeep, his boots hitting frozen ground as he launched himself toward the outpost. His speed pushedbeyond human limits, his polar bear bleeding closer to the surface with each stride. The Arctic landscape blurred around him—white snow, gray sky, the dark silhouette of the research station growing larger with terrifying urgency.
Guilt ate at him like acid. He’d prioritized restraint over protection again, had given her space when he should have stayed close enough to shield her. His thoughts fractured between panic for Winslet, fury at himself, and the cold certainty that someone had violated his territory and crossed a line that couldn’t be uncrossed.
Viktor.
If that mercenary bastard had touched his mate, there would be consequences. Permanent ones.
Korrak reached the outpost to find the door hanging open, wood splintered around the lock where someone had forced entry. The acrid scent of male aggression hung in the air—oil, metal, and something chemical that made his polar bear roar with territorial rage.
Ellie stood in the main room, her face pale and her hands shaking as she turned toward him. Relief flooded her features when she saw him, followed immediately by fresh panic.
“Korrak, thank God. He took her—a tall man, military bearing. He had a syringe. Winslet tried to fight him off, but—“ Ellie’s voice cracked. “He injected her with something and carried her out. It happened so fast.”
The mate bond dulled abruptly, Winslet’s consciousness slipping out of reach like a candle being snuffed. The sudden quiet where her presence should have been felt like losing a limb—phantom pain where something vital used to exist.
