Kairo had learned long ago not to feel.
Love was weakness.
Hope was a trick.
And fate? A curse dressed up like destiny.
He wasn't born cold.
He was made that way.
---
He stood in silence now, watching Lyra sleep on the worn-out couch in the guest cabin deep in Eclipse Pack territory. Her breathing was slow. Calm. Too calm for someone who had wandered into a wolf's den.
She didn't even know what he was.
And yet… she didn't run.
She didn't scream.
She just looked at him, wide-eyed and shaken, but with a strange kind of light in her gaze. A hope he hadn't seen in years.
And it terrified him.
---
She reminded him of Aelira.
The girl who had destroyed him.
---
Years ago, Kairo believed in the bond.
He believed in the ancient pull — the one that tied wolves together, heart to heart, soul to soul.
And Aelira? She was supposed to be his forever.
Beautiful. Fierce. Clever.
And a spy.
---
She had infiltrated the Eclipse Pack pretending to be a rogue in need.
She wept in his arms.
She shared his bed.
She whispered dreams of building a future together…
And the night she drugged him,
The night she burned the southern watchtower and betrayed the names of five of his most loyal soldiers to a rival pack…
That was the night Kairo stopped believing in mates.
He'd buried the idea of love next to their bodies.
---
And now Lyra was here.
Soft. Scared. Glowing in moonlight like she was made of it.
Her scent was chaos to his senses — familiar and foreign at once.
And his wolf?
His wolf had been silent for years.
But now… it was growling. Restless. Watching her.
---
She's not Aelira.
She's not the past.
She's just a lost girl… isn't she?
He turned to leave the cabin.
The moon was high.
And he needed air.
Because if he stayed in that room a second longer, he might do something dangerous.
Like care.