Iwantto be near him because Iwanthim, in the most primal way a woman can want a man.
What's frightening right now is that beyond this feeling, the dread remains of watching Heinrich leave the cabin to go after the demons.
I pull my hand away from the handle and stare at both my palms, trying to find that center Sophie has been teaching me about—that quiet center that will allow me to control my power and wield my magic at will.
If I can find it now, I can safely go outside, follow him into the fight, and help him take down the demons. But no matter how hard I try, no matter how much I try to strain my mind, I just can't seem to find that center.
“Deep breaths, Anni…”I remember Sophie's words and close my eyes, trying to pick up on the same control I found this afternoon, the one that allowed me to control fire magic and blend it with Anastasia's earth power.
But a few deep breaths in, I still can’t find it, leading me to feel defeated, my shoulders drooping, and my head hanging with a sinking feeling in my chest. Maybe I didn't open my heart to Heinrich in time, maybe I didn't give him a chance.
No.
If tonight, when I couldn't fall asleep and found him in the hallway, proved anything, it's that I'm finally beginning to understand what this fated mate bond is all about. It’s a pull that I can’t ignore—perhaps one that I felt from the moment I saw him in that office when I walked in for an interview, oblivious to the fated mate bond, to werewolves, witches, and demons, unaware that an entire world existed beyond the one I knew.
I felt it then—that undeniable attraction toward him, despite how cold he appeared; there was a certain warmth in his eyes that I caught before he turned his gaze away, and perhaps he felt it too, and that’s why he kept his eyes glued to his computer screen that day. Maybe that’s why he hired me despite my very unattractive resume—
Shit!
The realization hits me suddenly, eyes widening as the pieces of the puzzle begin to make sense, painting a clear picture in my head.
Heinrich and I were always destined to find each other, and we did, the moment I walked into his office for that meeting. I didn’t need to know back then about his double life, because it wasn’t the time. It was divinely orchestrated for me to be here now, for my magic to awaken in time to help the valley packs defeat the demons that have been devastating and haunting them for the past three years.
I close my eyes as a wave of recognition flows through me, covering my bones with a steady hum of warmth that spreads into every nerve ending my body possesses. My eyes close naturally, and I discover the center I’ve been trying to chase. It comes toward me now, flowing into my chest where I’d finally opened my heart to what it truly means to be the fated mate of an alpha werewolf.
Beyond that, and perhaps greater than just being the alpha’s mate, I find the core of who I am, blazing like a growing ember of gold and scarlet behind my eyelids. I feel it permeating from the very pores of my palms, pulsing with heat, pulsing with control, following the rhythm of my heartbeat as I finally find the core I’d been searching for.
My eyes open, burning like glowing embers that fill my chest with determination and renewed resolve to go ahead and fight alongside my fated mate. That’s when I take the door handle, feeling the metal heating beneath my touch as I open the door. I step outside onto the porch, ready to take down anything in my way, when a strip of cold, paralyzing metal wraps around my wrists.
“Wh—”
Before I can properly yell out my horror, my gasp is stolen by a strange mist in my face, while my wrists are forced together as if a chain around them is being tugged tightly. The mist in my face blurs my vision, and a cry of terror rips from my throat as I turn blind. I’m trying to cling on to any semblance of my vision, but my burning throat makes it nearly impossible to even call out for Heinrich’s help.
Defeated, I fall to my knees, feeling the mist curling around my throat like dark tendrils of horror that are about to pull me into the throes of hell.
***
Pain is the first thing I feel. It seeps into my consciousness slowly, like poison dripping into my veins, spreading from my wrists to my shoulders, down my spine, and into the very marrow of my bones.
A soft groan escapes my lips before I even open my eyes.
The air smells wrong, like damp stone and metal, and something rotten lingering beneath it all.
My lashes flutter open, but the world swims violently out of focus. For a moment, I think the mist from earlier is still blinding me. Shapes blur together in dark grays and blacks until my vision steadies just enough for me to make sense of where I am.
A cave…
Cold rock presses against my back. My wrists burn with a searing ache, and when I instinctively try to move, the sharp clink of metal echoes through the cavern.
Chains.
My breath catches in my throat as panic slams into me, and I look down.
Thick metal cuffs clamp around my wrists, linked together by a heavy chain bolted into the stone wall behind me. My ankles are bound as well, another chain keeping me pinned to the ground like an animal.
My heart begins to race.
What happened?
