Ss’s POV


    s


    When Freya stepped out of the old Thorne estate’s packing room, Kade and I were left alone amidst the scattered boxes and the smell of aged wood. I could feel the tension crackle between us, as sharp as the scent of blood on the wind. Our eyes locked, wolf to wolf, instinctively assessing dominance and threat.


    “She’s still the same,” Kade finally muttered, voice low but taunting. “Even when she’s hurting, she won’t let anyone see it. Didn’t you notice? She was staring at that family photo. Can’t you sense it?”


    I pressed my lips together, saying nothing. He wasn’t wrong, but his familiarity with her-years of shared battles and mornings in the Iron Fang Recon Unit-gave him insight I could never im. I had only met Freya months ago. My connection with her was strong, yes, but surface-deeppared to Kade’s history.


    Kade’s smirk waszy, mocking. “You’ve barely scratched the surface of her. You don’t know what she likes, what she tolerates, what she despises. I’ve known her long enough to see through all that. And soon… you might find yourself cast aside, Ss. She’ll tire of you if you don’t understand her.”


    The words burned through me. My wolf growled low in my chest, the animal side recognizing the challenge. I hated that he had the history I didn’t. Hated that he had seen her vulnerabilities, walked beside her while I was still learning to read her auras, her moods, the subtle shifts in her scent when she was uneasy. Jealousy coiled around me like a steel trap.


    I let the silence stretch, feeling the pulse of Kade’s wolf in the room, daring me to respond. And I did, sharp, cold, cutting:


    “Then tell me, do you know how much she enjoys my body?”


    Kade froze mid-breath. His eyes narrowed, a snarl threatening at the edges of his calm facade. “What did you just say?”


    I leaned back slightly, letting the words hang in the air like the scent of blood on a fresh kill. “She likes me. And she likes my body. Our bond isn’t superficial-it’s primal, deep. She trusts me, and I trust her. When the time is right, I’ll ask her to be mine in every sense. Not just as a mate, but as my partner, my packmate for life.”


    Kade’s jaw clenched. His wolf’s aura red in response, hot, wild, furious. He stepped forward and grabbed my cor with an iron grip, pushing me back just enough to assert dominance. “What did you do to her?” His voice was a growl, human words barely containing his wolf’s anger.


    I met his eyes evenly. “She chooses what she wants, Kade. Any closeness, any intimacy-we share it because she wants it. Not because I demand it, not because you or anyone else could dictate it. My body, my bond, my care… they’re hers as much as mine. And you… you’ll never understand what it’s like to be loved by her like this.”


    His eyes burned into me, raw fire, and I felt the surge of his wolf, the heat, the untamed instincts ready to strike. But even as his anger red, I stood firm. I wasn’t intimidated. Not by him, not by anyone.


    “You-” he spat, voice cracking. I could hear the restraint in him, the effort it took not tosh out further. Just the thought of what Freya and I had shared-it ignited something uncontroble in him. Even though I knew our bond was mine, that he had no im, his instincts, his wolf, reacted the same way any wolf would to a rival staking im to a mate.


    1:16 pm P P P s


    s


    “Let me make one thing clear,” I said, cutting through the tension. “Freya and I will not be separated. Not by circumstance, not by your anger, not by anything. So don’t waste your strength thinking you cane


    between us.”


    Without warning, Kade’s fist shot forward. Reflexes honed from decades of hunting and fighting had me ready-but in that moment, Freya appeared in the doorway.


    Her voice rang like a bell through the tension, sharp andmanding: “Stop!”


    Kade froze, instinctively loosening his grip and stepping back. My check throbbed where his fist had grazed it, but I let it slide. Freya’s wolf aura surged around her, protective, bounding, and somehow bothforting and scolding. Her eyes, steel-blue and unyielding, met mine.


    “What happened?” she demanded. She nced between us, reading the heat, the aggression, the primal challenge that had just unfolded.


    Kade hesitated. He couldn’t bring himself to admit the truth-that he had been stirred by jealousy, by the words I had spoken, by the recognition that Freya had chosen me. It was humiliating, and yet… inevitable.


    I raised a hand, brushing off the pain from my cheek. “Nothing. Just… Kade had a moment. Let’s leave it at that.” My wolf sniffed him cautiously, noting his simmering frustration. He was sharp, quick, intelligent, dangerous—but he would learn, eventually, that Freya’s choice wasn’t negotiable.


    She knelt beside me, pressing a cold bottle of water against my cheek. The relief was instant, the sting of heat and swelling softened by the chill. I allowed myself a small, wolfish exhale of gratitude.


    Kade’s eyes didn’t leave me. His wolf simmered, restrained but barely. “You’re really going to be with him?” he said, voice quieter now, almost defeated, almost human.


    “Yes,” Freya answered inly, unwavering. “I like him. That’s enough.”


    I could see it in Kade’s posture-his jealousy, his anger, his longing-all coiling into something that would take time to unwind. But Freya’s voice, her aura, her certainty… it had calmed the storm, at least for now.


    She handed him a bottle of water too, her attempt to smooth over the tension tangible in the air. He took it silently, his jaw tight, wolf simmering beneath restraint.


    Together, the three of us-Freya, Kade, and I-continued the work of packing her ancestral estate. Hours passed with wood scraping, papers rustling, memories packed and stacked carefully. The air held the faint musk of old wood, of dust, of the lingering scent of her family, and my wolf was constantly alert, protective.


    Finally, when thest box was sealed, the arrangements made with the movingpany, Freya led us out. The city beyond the estate awaited, but for a few hours, the remnants of her past had been respected, contained, and prepared for the future.


    And I, Ss Whitmor, Alpha of Silverfang Pack, felt the steady pulse of my wolf’s satisfaction-not only for protecting her, but for iming my ce at her side, recognized and chosen, against any rival, against any


    stormm


    1:16 pm P pp.