The warehouse interior was cavernous and cold with industrial lights buzzing overhead that cast harsh shadows into every corner. The smell struck her almost immediately. Oil, rust, fear, and something metallic that made her stomach clench. Blood.
Armed men positioned themselves at every exit and window, their presence eliminating any hope of escape now that she’d crossed the threshold. The mate bond stretched taut as wire, carrying Korrak’s fury and desperate concern like a second heartbeat in her chest. She forced herself not to focus on his emotions, knowing they would only weaken her resolve.
Then she saw them.
Her parents sat bound to chairs near a support beam, her mother’s wide, terrified eyes finding hers instantly above the cruel gag. Tears streaked down her face, and her desperate, pleading expression nearly shattered Winslet’s composure entirely. Her father’s face bore fresh bruises around his own gag, dried blood crusting at his nostrils. Her uncle lay beaten on the concrete floor nearby, bound and gagged, barely conscious.
They looked like they’d been held captive and terrorized for days.
Winslet’s lungs locked for a heartbeat, but she didn’t run to them. Didn’t cry. Didn’t give Bracken the satisfaction of seeing her devastation at their torture. Every instinct screamed at her to rush forward, to comfort them, to rage at their suffering—but that would destroy everything.
Control yourself, Winslet.
“There’s my girl.”
The voice emerged from the shadows like silk wrapped around a blade. Bracken stepped into the harsh light with the same immaculate presence she remembered—tall, broad-shouldered, and devastatingly handsome in a way that had once made her heart race for entirely different reasons. His dark hair remained perfectly styled despite the warehouse setting, and his expensive clothes unmarred by the industrial grime around them.
But now she could see what she’d missed before. The grizzly beneath his human facade pressed close to the surface, no longer hidden behind charm and manipulation. His dark eyes held a predatory confidence that made her skin itch, and his movements carried the fluid power of something wild barely contained.
He was proud of himself. Cocky. Posturing in this moment of perceived victory.
Her body reacted before her mind could stop it—old instincts screaming submission, appeasement, and survival. The familiar terror of disappointing him, of triggering his anger, of feeling trapped again threatened to flood her system.
She hated that part of herself with every fiber of her being.
And then she crushed it.
Instead of meeting his predatory confidence with defiance, Winslet let her shoulders slope inward. Let her eyes soften with manufactured vulnerability. Let the old Winslet—the one who’d been broken down and rebuilt in his image—step forward like a carefully crafted mask.
“Baby, I’m so sorry,” she said, her voice holding just the right note of defeated exhaustion. “For everything. For breaking off our engagement, for running to Seattle, for coming here. I was just... confused. Reacting instead of thinking clearly.”
His pupils dilated at her apparent surrender, his chest lifting with satisfaction.
“I was scared,” she continued, adding a tremor to her voice that wasn’t entirely manufactured. “When I saw those documents in your office, I panicked. I should have talked to you, should have trusted you to explain. To make it all better like you always do.”
Bracken circled her with the fluid grace of a predator savoring its captured prey, his gaze raking over her body with possessive hunger.
“That’s my girl,” he murmured, approval warming his tone. “I knew you’d come to your senses eventually. You always were too smart to throw away everything we had.”
Inside, Winslet remained ice-cold and calculating. She watched his pupils dilate further, watched his chest puff with pride, watched the exact moment he believed he had won and she was willingly returning to his control.
This wasn’t submission. This was her being the predator for once.
“Once I got here, Korrak manipulated me,” she said, letting bitterness creep into her voice. “All that talk about fate and inevitability. I was so desperate and lost that I actually believed him when he said I was his. And he was so powerful and commanding that I couldn’t say no.”
She met Bracken’s gaze directly, feeding his superiority complex with practiced precision.
“Polar bears are so domineering and reckless. Not like grizzlies—you’re smart, patient, better in every way that matters.”
Bracken’s hand found her chin, tilting her face up with forced intimacy that made her stomach lurch. She didn’t pull away though.
“You never belonged in this frozen wasteland,” he said, his thumb tracing her jawline with possessive familiarity. “Humans are too fragile for this place. Korrak would have discarded you eventually, once the novelty wore off and he got bored.”
His voice dropped to a whisper that carried absolute certainty.
“I alone know how to keep you properly. How to make you the perfect wife you were meant to be. Your surrender isn’t weakness, sweetheart—it’s love.”
Winslet nodded, letting him think his words were landing. He reached into his jacket pocket and produced her engagement ring, the large diamond gleaming under the fluorescent lighting.
