Page 6

Dark blond hair, thick and heavy, catching the streetlight like spun gold. It fell loose down her back, soft-looking, the kind of hair a man’s hands would remember. Her face was calm but alert, eyes sharp, mouth set like she wasn’t impressed by the world around her. There was intelligence there, a fire burning but held in check.

She wore a short black dress, simple, nothing flashy with thin straps. Bare shoulders despite the cold. It hugged her curves without screaming for attention, like she dressed for herself, not the crowd. Boots instead of heels, she looked practical…Grounded.

The second my gaze locked on her, heat tore through me so fast it stole my breath. My skin went tight, like it was too small to hold what was waking up underneath it. Every instinct I had surged forward with a single demand. Take her away from the line, away from the eyes, away from the world.

I wanted to cross the distance between us in three strides, wrap a hand around her wrist, pull her into my chest, and disappear before anyone could get close enough to breathe the same air she did. The urge was violent in its clarity. I felt protective with an overwhelming sense of immediate possessiveness.

Mine. The word wasn’t a thought. It was a fact, branded straight into my bones. My feet didn’t move, they couldn’t.

We were exposed out here, too visible. There were too many people watching. Too many enemies who had started paying attention the second the Dragic name resurfaced in the city. We had been making waves, asking the wrong questions, hunting an uncle who didn’t want to be found. That meant eyes, which meant danger.

And now there was her, standing in the open, unprotected. I forced my body to stay still, jaw locking so hard it ached. Draugr was beside me, solid and silent, and I knew he felt it too, not the bond, not the pull, but the shift. The moment everything tilted. If I went to her now, every watcher would clock it. They’d see the weakness. They’d see exactly where to strike. So, I did the only thing I could. I dragged myself away.

Turning my back on her felt like ripping muscle from bone. Every step toward the club doors was wrong, my instincts screaming at me to stop, to turn, to take her and fuck the rest of the night.

My skin felt like it was on fire. The doors closed behind us, bass crashing into my skull, but all I could think about was the cold outside and the woman standing in it. I took position upstairs where I could see the entrance, forcing my breathing steady, my posture relaxed.

Waiting, because I knew she would come inside, and when she did, I would be ready. Holding still was torture. But losing her before I ever touched her would have been worse. I was so fucked, my mate. The word struck like lightning. Draugr spoke to me in a low voice. I nodded without hearing a single word.

I couldn’t take my eyes away from the main entrance. Didn’t trust myself to. If I did, I might’ve walked right out of here and through that line of people and taken her home without a second thought, and that wasn’t who I was anymore. That wasn’t who I could afford to be.

So, I waited in the club, pretending my pulse wasn’t crashing out of rhythm. Pretending my skin wasn’t burning. Pretending I wasn’t vibrating with a need I had spent my whole life assuming I’d never feel. Because Dragic men didn’t get mates. We got war and violence. But the minute her gaze had touched mine, something ancient unfurled inside me and made its decision for me.

My breath hissed when she finally walked into the club, and I lost whatever was left of my composure, because the second she stepped through the doors, the noise cut out. The bodies blurred, the lights dimmed and my focus went to shit so fast I had to grab the railing to steady myself.

Her scent hit me first. It was warm, soft with a hint of something sweet under clean skin. It wound around my lungs and refused to let go. My control slipped, instincts sharpening like knives.

She moved through the crowd with her friends, unaware of the way she pulled me to her like gravity itself had changed direction. Her hair brushed her shoulders as she danced, loose and natural, not performing, not trying, just existing.

And it unmade me. I’d seen beautiful women, countless women who chased attention, women who chased us. But she wasn’t like them, she wasn’t forcing anything. Her smile came easy, her body moved like she belonged to the music. And when she laughed, light caught her face in a way that punched heat straight down my spine.

Mine.

The word thundered through me, sharp and absolute. My jaw clenched hard enough to ache as a man brushed past her, laughing too loud, standing too close. I tracked the angle of his shoulders, the careless swing of his arm. One wrong move and I would have put him through the floor without hesitation.

Draugr shifted beside me. “What’s wrong with you,” he asks quietly. Not a question but an assessment.

I didn’t look away from her because I didn’t trust myself to. “Nothing.” Bullshit.

Draugr followed my line of sight, eyes narrowing as they landed on her. I felt the second he understood. Not the bond, after all that was mine alone, but the volatility of it. The way my entire presence had changed.

“You’re vibrating,” he muttered. “If someone touches her, you’ll kill them.”

“Yes,” I said without hesitation. I turned my head just enough to meet his gaze. Draugr’s expression was flat, but his body had gone still, alert. Calculating consequences, exit routes, damage control.

“This is a problem,” he said.

“I know.”

“She’s in the open,” he continued. “Crowded floor with too many unknowns and too many hands.”

My fists tightened, my skin felt stretched thin, like it couldn’t contain the burn crawling underneath it. Every instinct screamed to move, to take her away from the press of bodies, to put myself between her and the world.

Draugr exhaled through his nose. “You want her name.” It wasn’t a question either.

“Yes.”

He glanced over his shoulder and caught the eye of one of our men posted near the bar. A subtle nod, a single finger lifted, then pointed toward her.