Chains of Silence
Silent, but His: Alpha Lorenzo's Mate
The lock on her door clicked at dawn.
A sharp, familiar sound the kind that had started to haunt her dreams.
Her body stiffened, but her face stayed calm. She sat by the window, the early light spilling across her skin, her gaze locked on the woods just beyond the high stone walls of the packhouse. Freedom looked so close. Close enough to touch. Yet so far it may as well have been another world.
To anyone watching, she looked obedient. Quiet. Broken, even.
But inside her chest, fire burned.
Last night had taught her two things.
One ,Alpha Lorenzo was far more dangerous than she'd ever imagined.
And two,running blindly was a mistake she would never make again.
If she wanted to escape him, she'd have to be smarter. Patient. Calculated.
Silent didn't mean powerless.
Silent could mean unseen.
And unseen could mean free.
When the guards entered with her breakfast tray, she didn't fight. Didn't flinch. She smiled softly ,small, fragile, harmless. She even bowed her head a little, like the perfect submissive wolf she was pretending to be.
The guards exchanged glances. Relaxed. One even gave her a faint, almost pitying smile before leaving.
Perfect.
Elena turned back to the window, her lips pressed together in a faint smirk.
Already, she was mapping everything the timing of the locks, the footsteps in the hallway, the scent trails of each guard who rotated shifts. Every small detail was a piece of a plan.
If Lorenzo thought she'd given up, good.
Let him think she'd surrendered.
Let him think silence meant weakness.
Because when she moved again…
She wouldn't run.
She would disappear.
She traced a finger along the fogged windowpane, drawing the faint outline of a crescent moon the mark of the Moon Goddess.
You cursed me with this bond, she thought, staring into the morning mist. Now let it be the weapon that frees me.
Her chest rose and fell slowly.
The fire inside her didn't fade. It only grew hotter.
Soon.
She would try again.
And this time… she wouldn't fail.
---
From his study on the upper floor, Alpha Lorenzo watched her through the tall window that overlooked the courtyard.
She had no idea. She never did.
But he saw everything.
The way she sat perfectly still by the window, her delicate hands folded in her lap. The way her eyes those silver-gray eyes searched the treeline, always searching. Always dreaming of escape.
He didn't need to watch her to know where she was.
He could feel her.
Her heartbeat thrummed softly against the edge of his own.
Her scent ,wild lilac and rain lingered in his lungs long after he left her room. It was maddening.
And it terrified him.
Because for the first time in his life, Lorenzo was not in control.
He had fought battles, conquered packs, stared down death without blinking. He had never faltered. Never hesitated. Never feared.
Until her.
Elena.
The girl who met his power with silence.
Who looked at him like he was both her captor and her curse.
Who ran from him even when every instinct in her should've drawn her closer.
She shouldn't have mattered this much.
She shouldn't have been able to break through the walls he'd built long before she was born.
And yet she did without saying a word.
Lorenzo leaned back in his chair, his hands gripping the carved edges of the armrest until the wood cracked under his fingers.
He'd told himself he only wanted her near because of the bond. That it was nature. Fate. Biology. But deep down, he knew it was more.
When she looked at him with that defiance burning in her eyes, something inside him shifted. He wanted to tear down every guard between them and also lock her away from the world forever. He wanted to hear her voice just once and feared what it would do to him if he did.
Because she wasn't supposed to make him feel this way.
She wasn't supposed to make him human.
He closed his eyes, letting the bond pull at the edges of his mind. He could almost sense her emotions her stubbornness, her fire, her silent hatred. It burned him and fascinated him all at once.
What if she succeeded one day?
What if she really ran and never came back?
The thought made his chest tighten with something violent and unfamiliar.
Panic.
He could lose everything his land, his power, his throne and survive.
But losing her?
Unthinkable.
He rose abruptly, crossing the room to the window. His reflection stared back at him golden eyes dark with obsession.
"If you hate me, so be it," he muttered under his breath. "If you fear me, I can live with that. But you will not leave me, Elena."
He pressed his palm flat against the cold glass, as if reaching for the girl on the other side.
"You're mine," he whispered, voice raw. "Even if I have to chain you to me until you finally understand it."
The words hung in the air like a vow.
Outside, the morning light broke through the clouds, painting the forest in gold.
Elena sat quietly by her window, unaware of the eyes watching her or the storm building just behind them.
She thought she was planning her escape.
But Lorenzo was planning something too.
And when their wills collided again,
the chains between them wouldn't just hold.
They'd burn.
---