He’s still on edge,she thought.Still afraid of losing me.
The realization hit harder than the physical soreness from Viktor’s rough handling. Korrak—this powerful, controlled Alpha who commanded respect from every shifter in his territory—was afraid. Not of physical threats, but of failing to protect what mattered to him.
Her mind circled the brutal sequence that had led to this moment like a tongue probing a sore tooth. Viktor’s hands grabbing her in the outpost. Her frantic struggle, adrenaline and terror making her movements clumsy and desperate. His overwhelming force pinning her down while she fought uselessly against arms that felt like iron bands.
Then the syringe. The spreading cold that had started in her neck and raced through her bloodstream like liquid ice.Her vision blurring as consciousness slipped away despite her desperate attempts to hold on.
What didn’t happen still made tears prick at her eyes. No car ride stretching into hours. No airplane engines drowning out her screams. No waking in some sterile room to find Bracken’s calculating face hovering over her, his smile sharp with vindicated possession.
Instead, she’d opened her eyes to warmth and safety. To Korrak’s concerned voice calling her back to reality. To the knowledge that someone had fought for her when she couldn’t fight for herself.
The guilt rushed through her like a tide, sharp and unforgiving. This morning—God, had it only been this morning?—she’d pushed him away. Asked for distance after he’d revealed the truth about fated mates, about what she meant to him. The mate bond had sounded like another cage, another man claiming ownership over her choices and her future.
She’d let fear convince her that connection equaled danger. That permanence meant possession. That another man saying she belonged to him was just Bracken in different packaging, no matter how gently Korrak had tried to explain the difference.
Viktor had clearly been watching, waiting for exactly that vulnerability. The moment she’d separated herself from Korrak’s protection, he’d struck with professional efficiency. She’d played directly into his hands, driven by terror of repeating past mistakes.
But what unsettled and comforted her in equal measure was Korrak’s response. Even after she’d rejected him, pushed away his offer of forever, he hadn’t hesitated when danger found her. Hadn’t punished her uncertainty or retreated into wounded pride. He’d come for her without question, without conditions.
The foolishness of her doubt stung worse than the bruises Viktor had left on her arms.
She’d been so afraid of trusting her heart again, so terrified of making another catastrophic error in judgment, that she’d nearly lost the one person who’d proven—again and again—that his instinct was protection, not control.
Korrak finished his security check and moved toward the fireplace, adding another log to the flames with economical movements. The light played across his features, highlighting the strong line of his jaw and the controlled power in his shoulders. This wasn’t a man posturing for dominance or asserting ownership. This was someone who’d made her safety his responsibility when everything should have made him push her away.
She was the one who’d brought danger to his peaceful territory. She was the complication that had disrupted his ordered existence and put his clan at risk. From the moment Gerri had delivered her to his land, he should have seen her as a liability.
Instead, he’d chosen protection. Chosen her.
The love he offered didn’t feel imposed or manipulative. It felt unconditional through consistent action, chosen through deliberate care, and terrifyingly real.
The mate bond still frightened her—the idea of being bound to someone forever carried echoes of Bracken’s suffocating control. But the alternative, being alone when danger inevitably came, now felt infinitely worse.
Her chest tightened as the full scope of what had almost happened crashed over her. If Korrak hadn’t tracked her down, if he’d been even minutes later, if Viktor had succeeded in getting her to whatever destination awaited her...
She pushed herself upright slowly, testing her body’s response. The sedative’s effects were fading, but she still felt raw and vulnerable. Every instinct reminded her that she wasunprepared for defending herself when it truly mattered. Today was proof of that.
The embarrassment of her own fragility burned almost as much as her guilt. She was supposed to be capable, adaptable, strong enough to survive whatever life threw at her. Instead, she’d been helpless when it counted most.
Korrak turned from the fire, his ice-blue eyes finding hers with unerring accuracy. The concern there made her throat tighten with emotions she wasn’t ready to voice.
Not yet. But soon.
Soon, she would have to find the courage to tell him that she understood now. That the mate bond wasn’t a cage—it was an anchor. And she was tired of drifting alone in dangerous waters.
But even as that truth settled into her bones, another reality pressed against her chest like a weight. The memory of this morning—Kol’s hard stare, the other clan members’ skeptical expressions, the way they’d looked at her like she was an infection that might spread—refused to fade.
She pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders, using the movement to break eye contact before her courage failed entirely. “Your clan doesn’t think I belong here.”
Korrak went very still, that predatory alertness she’d come to recognize settling over his features. “What makes you say that?”
“I felt it this morning. Even before Kol said anything about...” She swallowed hard, the word still foreign on her tongue. “About me being your mate. They see me as an outsider. A liability.”
The admission tasted bitter. Her fingers twisted in the soft wool of the blanket, anchoring her to the moment when everything in her wanted to retreat back into safe silence.
“I know I brought danger here, Korrak. Viktor didn’t find this place by accident. And now Bracken knows exactly where I am.” Her voice cracked slightly on her ex-fiancé’s name. “Your people are right to be concerned. I’m a weak point that enemies canexploit. An unknown variable that could destabilize everything you’ve built here.”
The words hung between them. Winslet forced herself to meet his gaze again.
