Chapter 2

The next morning I picked up my suitcase and tried to slip out quietly.

I made it as far as the entryway. Kael was sitting at the dining table.

He had on a black shirt, the collar open enough to show his collarbone. There was a cup of black coffee in his hand, and his eyes were fixed on my suitcase.

"Where are you going."

"To the Temple, to file for dissolution. Then I'll find a cheap hotel." I kept my voice as businesslike as I could manage.

"You can't." Kael set the cup down. The porcelain hit the table with a dull knock.

I frowned at him.

"The report was perfectly clear. My match rating is zero, and I have thirty days to file. It doesn't go through you."

"I put a hold on it with the Temple last night." He was looking into his coffee instead of at me. "The Council of Elders needs time to verify the report. Until they're done, nobody will process anything for you."

I actually laughed.

"Alpha Kael. You've spent three years hating it when I cling to you. Now I'm walking out on my own and suddenly that's a problem?"

He looked at me without answering. His amber eyes narrowed a fraction.

"This is my territory," he said, one word at a time. "You don't leave without my permission."

The man had lost his mind.

I wasn't going to waste my breath. I walked around him and pushed the front door open.

He didn't stop me. He just stood there and watched me go, and the look on his face frightened me more than anything he'd said.

I dragged my suitcase all the way to the Temple.

The main hall was busy, full of wolves and mages lined up for one thing or another. I found the dissolution window and handed over my ID crystal.

A line of red text popped up on the screen.

This mate bond has been placed on hold by the Alpha of record. No filings accepted.

I stared at it until my vision blurred.

He'd filed it in the middle of the night. Then he'd sat at that table this morning and watched me wheel my suitcase past him.

A voice came from somewhere to my left, dripping with sweetness.

"Well, if it isn't Alpha Kael's human fiancée. What happened, did they finally throw you out?"

I turned around. It was a handful of highborn wolves from the pack, the ones famous for looking down on humans. The one in front was Selena, who'd wanted Kael since they were children.

"I hear the match rating came back at zero." Selena covered her mouth and laughed, and there was nothing nice in her eyes. "Well, of course it did. What business does a human have with the strongest Alpha alive?"

I rolled my eyes.

"You're right. The two of you would be perfect together. Now move, you're blocking the window."

Her face changed. She reached for my ID crystal.

"You're a castoff. Don't you dare talk to me like that."

Her nails shot out long and sharp, the way only a wolf's can, and came straight at my face.

There was no time to move. I shut my eyes and braced for it.

The pain never came.

A hand caught Selena's wrist out of nowhere and held it there.

I opened my eyes. Kael was standing beside me. I hadn't heard him come in at all.

His face was terrifying, and the air around him had gone cold.

"Alpha... Alpha Kael..." Selena had gone white. Her voice shook.

He didn't look at her. He just tightened his fingers.

Something in her wrist cracked, and in that quiet hall everyone heard it. Selena screamed. The wolves around us backed away without a sound.

"Who gave you permission to touch what's mine." Kael didn't raise his voice. He didn't have to.

"She... she isn't your mate anymore..." Selena was crying from the pain, still trying to argue her way out of it.

He threw her hand aside. His eyes were flat and cold.

"As long as she's inside my territory, she's under my protection. Next time I won't stop at your wrist."

Nobody in the hall moved.

I looked up at him, and my heart skipped. I had no idea why.

Had he hit his head?

Any other day, if someone gave me trouble out in the city, he watched it happen and told me humans had to learn to look after themselves. So what was this?

Kael turned to me and saw the ID crystal clenched in my hand.

"Did you file it?"

"You put the hold on it." I swallowed. "You tell me."

"Good." He took the crystal out of my hand, slid it into his pocket, and closed his fingers around my wrist before I could argue.

"We're going home."

"I'm not going anywhere with you! There's nothing left between us!" I pulled against him as hard as I could.

Kael stopped walking and looked back at me.

There was something in his eyes I had never seen before.

"Lia. Don't test my patience. You have two choices right now. You walk back on your own, or I carry you."