SOPHIE POV
The bed is softer than any bed I've ever felt.
That's the first thing my brain registers when I wake up. Not where I am. Not why I'm here. Just the fact that beneath my body is expensive fabric and pillows that feel like clouds. My eyes open slowly and everything is blurry at first, like I'm looking through water.
The ceiling above me is made of dark wood. The walls are the same. The room is massive and decorated in blacks and silvers and deep grays. It's beautiful in a cold way. Everything about it screams power and money and things I've never had.
This is not my room.
Panic crashes through me like a wave.
I sit up too fast and the room spins. My head throbs and my body aches like I've been hit by a truck. The white dress is gone. I'm wearing a black t-shirt that's way too big for me, hanging off my shoulders. It smells like him. Like pine and smoke and that wild scent that made my wolf sit up and pay attention last night.
Last night.
The mate bond forms. Ryker carrying me through the forest. The sound of pack members howling in celebration as we arrived at his territory. Him placing me on this bed and telling me to sleep. Nothing else. Just sleep.
But I didn't sleep. I lay awake in this massive bed in this enemy alpha's house, feeling the bond pulse between us like a second heartbeat. Feeling my wolf settle and calm in a way she never did with Thomas. Feeling trapped and safe at the same time, which makes no sense.
I swing my legs over the side of the bed and my feet touch cold hardwood. The motion makes me dizzy again and I realize I'm weak. My body is running on fumes. I haven't eaten since before the ceremony. I haven't slept. I've just been running and collapsing and bonding with a rival alpha.
The door to the bedroom opens without a knock.
Ryker walks in like he owns the space, which he does. He's shirtless again, his scars visible in the morning light coming through the windows. His silver eyes land on me and something in them softens just slightly before he catches himself and his expression goes cold again.
"You're awake," he says. Not a question.
I stand up too quickly and regret it immediately. The room tilts and I grab the bedpost to steady myself.
Ryker moves toward me in three long strides and I flinch backward, but there's nowhere to go. The bedpost is behind me and he's in front of me and suddenly I'm trapped between his body and the furniture.
"Don't touch me," I say, and my voice sounds small in this massive room.
"You're about to pass out," he says flatly. "Sit down before you hurt yourself."
"I'm fine," I lie, but my legs are shaking and we both know it.
Ryker ignores my protest and picks me up like I weigh nothing, settling me back on the bed. He's careful about it though. Not rough. Not possessive. Just practical. He leaves me sitting there and walks to a door on the far side of the bedroom that I didn't notice before.
He comes back carrying a tray with food and water.
"Eat," he says, setting it on the bed beside me.
There's bread and fruit and meat and cheese. Real food. Not pack rations. This is expensive food. Food that takes money and resources to keep stocked. I stare at it like it might bite me.
"I'm not hungry," I say.
"You haven't eaten since before the ceremony," Ryker says. "And you're weak from running and bonding. Eat."
The fact that he knows I haven't eaten since before the ceremony makes my skin crawl. How much does he know about me? Has he been watching the Moonstone Pack? Has he been watching me specifically?
"Why am I here?" I ask instead of eating.
Ryker sits on the edge of the bed, keeping distance between us. It's strategic. He's trying to make himself less threatening, which somehow makes him more threatening because it means he's thinking about how I react to him.
"Because the Moon Goddess bonded us," he says simply. "Because you're my mate. Because you needed to get away from your pack and my territory is safe."
"I don't want to be your mate," I say. "I don't want any of this. I just got rejected and now you're claiming me like I'm some kind of prize you won."
Something flickers in Ryker's expression. Anger, maybe. Or hurt. But it's gone so fast I might have imagined it.
"That's not what this is," he says, and his voice is hard. "I didn't plan this bond. It happened. The Moon Goddess chose you for me, which means she saw something that your previous alpha was too blind to see."
"Don't call him that," I snap. "And don't act like you're saving me. You just used the fact that I was broken to claim me. That's not different from what Thomas did. You're just faster."
Ryker stands up and walks to the window. He looks out at the territory below, his jaw clenched. When he speaks, his voice is quieter.
"When I found you in the forest last night, you were crying alone in the dark on enemy territory," he says without turning to look at me. "I could have left you there. I could have turned you into a war prize. I could have done a lot of things. Instead, I brought you here and I put you in my bed and I told my pack you're off limits. No one touches you. No one questions you. No one hurts you."
"Except you," I say.
He finally turns to look at me and his silver eyes are cold now. Completely cold.
"I didn't reject you in front of thousands of people," he says. "I didn't call you weak. I didn't humiliate you. So no, not except me."
The words hit harder than they should. Because he's right. He's absolutely right. Everything he's said is true and that makes it worse somehow because I can't use anger to protect myself if he's being logical.
I look down at the food and realize my hands are shaking.
"Eat," Ryker says again, and this time it's not a command. It's closer to a request.
I reach for the bread because I'm starving and my body is betraying my mind. As I eat, Ryker walks back to stand by the window, giving me space. The mate bond pulses between us and I try to ignore it. But it's like trying to ignore a second heart beating in your chest. It's always there. Always present.
"How long do I have to stay here?" I ask through a mouthful of bread.
"As long as you need to," Ryker says. "You're Luna of the Ironwood Pack now. This is your home."
"I don't want to be Luna. I don't want to be here. I just want my old life back."
Ryker turns to look at me and there's something in his expression that looks almost like pity.
"Your old life rejected you," he says. "So that option isn't available anymore."
The truth of that hits like a punch. He's right. Thomas rejected me publicly. My pack watched it happen. I can't go back there even if I wanted to. I'd be a reminder of weakness and rejection and failure.
I'm trapped.
Before I can respond, there's a commotion downstairs. Voices. Shouting. Someone yelling something about an intruder at the border. Ryker's expression changes immediately. He looks at me once, then disappears out the bedroom door.
I sit alone in this massive bed in this enemy alpha's house, eating food he provided, wearing his shirt, connected to him through a bond I didn't ask for. The enormity of the situation crashes over me and I feel tears starting to form again.
I can't do this. I can't survive another dependent relationship. I can't let another alpha define my worth.
The bedroom door opens again and this time it's not Ryker.
A girl stands in the doorway with her hand on a weapon. A warrior. Her eyes are fierce and protective and the moment she sees me, she goes still.
"Sophie?"
It's Megan.
My best friend is standing in Ryker's bedroom looking at me like I've been kidnapped, and her hand is on her sword like she's about to start a war.
"Oh my god," Megan says, stepping into the room. "When you didn't come home, when nobody could find you, I thought he'd killed you. I thought the Ironwood Pack had taken you as a prisoner."
"I'm okay," I start to say, but Megan is already looking around the room, assessing, planning.
"Come on," she says, extending her hand. "We're getting you out of here. I don't care if the Moon Goddess bonded you. I don't care about pack law. You're not staying with him. You're coming back to the Moonstone Pack where you belong."
I look at her hand.
Behind her, I hear footsteps pounding up the stairs. Ryker is coming back. And if he finds Megan trying to take me, there's going to be a fight. There's going to be bloodshed. There's going to be consequences.
Megan sees the hesitation on my face and something changes in her expression.
"Sophie," she says carefully, "do you want to leave?"
The question hangs between us.
And I realize with absolute certainty that I don't know the answer.
Because part of me, the part that's connected to Ryker through the bond, doesn't want to leave. That part of me wants to stay in this room with the soft bed and the expensive food and the alpha who didn't humiliate me in front of thousands.
But the other part of me is terrified that wanting to stay makes me weak.
The footsteps get closer.
Megan's hand is still extended toward me.
And I have to choose right now whether I'm running toward safety or running away from the first person who's made me feel like maybe I'm not as worthless as Thomas made me believe.