She blinks at me before she sputters, “You want me to marry you?”
“I want to protect you. A mating bond would make you pack. It would make harming you an act of war against me personally, which at least some Thornridge wolves would refuse to participate in. It’s not perfect protection, but it’s the best option I can think of.”
“The best option.” She takes several quick steps backward, putting distance between us like I’m a venomous snake she’s just noticed coiled at her feet. “The best option is for me to permanently bind myself to an enemy wolf I’ve known for less than twenty-four hours. That’s your brilliant plan.”
“I know how it sounds—”
“Do you? Because it sounds like you’re trying to trap me. It sounds like this is just another way to use me for Thornridge’s benefit, and you’re dressed it up in pretty words about protection to make me go along with it.”
“Caelan, I swear to you—”
“You swearing means nothing to me.” Her voice cracks on the last word, and I see tears gathering in her eyes. “I trusted you. I let myself believe that last night meant something, that you saw me as something more than just a body to use. And now you’re telling me you’re Thornridge, and you want me to mate with you, and I’m supposed to just believe that you have my best interests at heart?”
My wolf howls inside me, desperate to close the distance between us and comfort our mate. But I know that touching her right now would only make things worse. She needs space. She needs time to work through things.
But unfortunately, time is the one thing we don’t have.
“You’re right,” I admit. “You have no reason to trust me. I’ve given you nothing but lies and half-truths since we met. I’ve brought you here against your will, and now I’m asking you to do something that goes against everything you’ve been taught.” I pause, gathering my courage for what I’m about to do. “So I’m going to give you something that no Thornridge wolf has ever given anyone.”
I drop to my knees in front of her.
The forest floor is damp and cold, and every instinct I have screams that this is wrong. We don’t kneel to omegas. Warriors don’t prostrate themselves before anyone, least of all a Llewelyn female they’ve known for a single night. This is the ultimate display of submission, a gesture that would get me killed if any Thornridge wolf witnessed it.
But Caelan isn’t a Thornridge wolf. And I’m not the man I used to be.
“I’m begging you,” I say, looking up at her from my knees. “I know I don’t deserve your trust. I know I’ve done nothing to earn it. But I am asking you, from the bottom of whatever’s left of my soul, to give me a chance to keep you alive. That’s all I’m asking. Give me a chance to prove that I mean what I say. If I fail, you can walk away. You can go back to Llewelyn and tell them everything you know about me. You can watch them hunt me down and kill me for what I’ve done. But please, Caelan. Please let me try to protect you first.”
She stares down at me with tears streaming down her cheeks, and I wait for her answer.
Chapter 7 - Caelan
A Thornridge wolf is kneeling at my feet, and I have no idea what to do with that.
Patrick stares up at me with those amber-gold eyes that made me feel so beautiful last night, and all I can think about is how stupid I’ve been. How completely and utterly foolish it was to fall into bed with a stranger just because he made me feel a certain way.
He’s Thornridge. The word keeps echoing through my skull like a death knell. Thornridge. The pack that infiltrated Llewelyn’s exchange program and tried to use my sister’s best friend as a weapon. The pack that’s been terrorizing Badlands for years, killing wolves and threatening everything the allied packs have built. The pack that wants to destroy us all.
And I slept with one of them. I let one of them inside my body, inside my head, and inside whatever fragile sense of self I’ve been building since the curse broke.
I want to run. I want to transform and bolt, to put as much distance between myself and this man as physically possible. I could head for Llewelyn territory. Or I could find Sera and tell her everything. Even better, I could let the allied packs hunt him down like the enemy he is, just as Patrick suggested.
But something keeps me rooted in place. Something in the way he’s looking at me, like I’m the only thing in the world that matters. Something in the desperation behind his eyes that feels too real to be an act.
Or maybe I’m just a fool who wants to believe the first man who ever made her feel wanted.
“They’re going to come for you,” Patrick says from his knees. “Bastian knows who you are. He knows you’re Sera’s sister, and he knows you’re connected to the Llewelyn leadership. Thornridge scouts are probably already tracking your car, and when they find it abandoned on that road, they’re going to start searching. We have maybe an hour before they figure out where we went.”
“Then I’ll go to my sister. I’ll tell her what’s happening, and the allied packs will protect me.”
“They can’t protect you from this. Not fast enough.” He shakes his head, still on his knees. “Thornridge has been planning their move on Llewelyn for months. They have wolves positioned throughout the valley, watching and waiting. They have suppressors that can cut you off from your wolf. By the time your sister mobilizes a response, you could already be gone.”
“And marrying you would somehow prevent that?”
“A mating bond changes everything. Pack law is absolute, even among enemies. If you’re my mate, harming you becomes an act of war against me personally. Some Thornridge wolves might still follow Mordaunt’s orders, but others would refuse. It would create division, and it would buy us time to figure out a better solution.”
“So your plan is to marry me and hope that some of your murderous packmates have enough honor not to kill their buddy’s wife. That’s what you’re offering me. That’s supposed to make me feel safe.”
“I know it’s not enough. I know I’m asking you to trust someone who’s given you every reason not to.” He reaches toward me, then stops himself and lets his hand fall back to his side. “But I don’t know what else to do, Caelan. I can’t let themtake you. I can’t let them use you the way Bastian tried to use Raegan. I would rather die than watch that happen.”
