Chapter 4 - Kieran
The air is still thick with the scent of her. It clings to my skin, crawls under the edges of my control, wraps itself around my instincts like a challenge.
I shouldn’t still feel it this strongly. One encounter should not have lodged itself this deep. And yet my bond won’t let it go. The second she woke, I knew. Felt it tear across the edge of my mind like a pulse.
I felt her confusion, the panic, the way she yanked at the chain and cursed under her breath. I knew the moment her body stirred, even before the guards stationed down the hall did.
The doors to the war room are already open, the scent of smoke and salt and steel drifting out like an old memory. My brothers are inside, their voices clipped with impatience, layered over the quiet shuffle of maps and reports being laid across the long table in the center.
I step into the room and the air shifts, tension rippling through the space.
Kellan straightens as I approach, arms braced on the edge of the table, his eyes scanning me with the same cold calculation I’ve come to expect from him. “You left mid-sentencing,” he says. “That’s not like you.”
Killian’s mouth curves into something close to a snarl. “We had Voss. He was ready to confess. You just walked out.”
I say nothing for a moment. I reach for the chair at the head of the table, drag it back, and sit. My body still hums with the aftermath of being near her—of hearing her voice, watching her try to act like she wasn’t terrified, even as her pulse betrayed her.
She wasn’t supposed to exist. Not like that. No trace of scent trail. No memory in the wards. No border alarms. Just…there. Dropped into the gallows like she belonged in the middle of my judgment. Like fate dragged her by the throat and threw her at my feet.
Killian slams his hand down on the table hard enough to rattle the chairs. “Who the hell is she, Kieran?”
“She’s mine,” I say, voice low but final. It lands like a blade in the center of the table. Kellan stills. Killian narrows his eyes.
“Yours?” Killian spits the word like it tastes wrong. “She’s your mate?”
I nod once.
“She doesn’t have a pack scent,” Kellan says, already dissecting it with the calm detachment of a strategist. “No border passage, no record. She didn’t cross through the west wall, the south guard saw nothing, and the eastern cameras were offline for less than three minutes. She just appeared. That doesn’t happen.”
“I know,” I reply, leaning back in the chair, fingers folding together as I stare down at the map in front of me without really seeing it. “But the bond formed. It’s there. I felt it. She felt it.”
“She’s an Omega,” Killian says, pacing again. “She smelled like one the second she hit the stone. But she didn’t cower. She didn’t submit. She spoke like she knew you.”
Kellan watches me closely. “She didn’t speak like someone from around here, either. Her cadence, her phrasing—it’s off. Too modern. Too specific. And her name, Quinn Blake? That’s not in any registry I’ve accessed.”
“She’s not from here,” I say.
Killian stops. “Then where the hell is she from?”
I look up at both of them, knowing what I’m about to say will only piss them off further, but not caring. “I don’t know.”
Kellan’s gaze darkens. Killian gives a humourless laugh. “You brought an unknown Omega into the estate, claimed her, chained her to your bed, and you don’t even know where the fuck she came from?”
“I didn’t bring her in,” I snap, finally letting the edge of my temper surface. “She was already inside. Already standing where no one should’ve been. I scented her before I saw her. And when I touched her, the bond latched.”
Killian shakes his head, eyes flashing gold at the edges. “That’s not how bonds work. You don’t just claim someone because your body reacts. That’s not instinct, that’s poison. Something’s wrong with her.”
“Everything’s wrong with her,” I admit. “And I still can’t let her go. But if you try to touch her, I’ll put you through a fucking wall.”
Killian bares his teeth. “You’re not thinking straight, big brother.”
“No,” I say, and my voice drops. “I’m not. She’s done something to my instincts. She looks at me and I feel… watched. Like she’s not seeing me, but the idea of me. Like she already knows what I’ll do before I do it.”
Kellan frowns. “That’s not a bond, that’s familiarity. Recognition. It’s possible she was planted. That this is a long con. A weapon sent into our ranks to destabilize the pack from within.”
Killian grunts. “We kill her now. Clean and easy. Burn the bond. You know it won’t last this early. You haven’t sealed it yet.”
“I can’t,” I say.
“Why not?” Killian snaps.
“Because she’s telling the truth,” I answer, and the words feel strange in my mouth even as I say them. “She’s lying about how, but she believes what she says. I heard it in her voice. She’s not here on a mission, she’s here by mistake.”
Killian growls. “And we don’t keep mistakes. Not in this house.”
Kellan drums his fingers against the map. “We question her again. Slowly. Break the layers. Someone who drops from the sky with no pack mark and a false bond doesn’t walk out without answers.”
“I already told her she’s not leaving,” I say. “And I meant it.”
“Does she know what you are?” Kellan asks quietly.
My eyes flick to his. “Not yet.”
“She will,” he says.
“I know.”
“She’ll fear you.”
“She should.”
Killian scoffs, furious and pacing again. “I don’t like it. I don’t like any of this. We’ve got Voss cornered, the eastern alliance sniffing around our borders, and now you’ve gone feral over a scent that never should’ve existed. You want to keep her? Fine. But if she steps wrong—if she even breathes wrong—I will end her myself.”
“You can try,” I say, tone flat. “But I don’t think she’ll let you.”
Killian stops pacing. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“It means,” I say slowly, “she doesn’t act like she’s afraid of us. Not even me. She’s confused, but not broken. She mouths off. She fights. She looks me in the eye like she knows something I don’t. And if she is who she says she is…”
“Which is?” Kellan presses.
“Someone out of place,” I say. “Someone who was never meant to be here.”
Kellan leans forward, voice low. “Then what happens when she decides she wants to leave?”
My jaw tightens. I meet his stare without flinching. “She won’t.”
“You sound sure,” Kellan says.
“I am,” I answer.
Killian scoffs again. “And if you’re wrong?”
I look down at my hands, still stained faintly with the scent of her skin. Then back up. My voice doesn’t shake.
“Then I’ll make sure she doesn’t remember what it feels like to try.”