THORNE POV
Kael hasn't slept in two days.
Thorne can see it in the way his Alpha moves. The way his hands shake when he thinks nobody is watching. The way his eyes are unfocused during strategy meetings like he's looking at something only he can see.
The mate bond rejection is destroying him from the inside.
Thorne has known Kael since they were teenagers. He's watched his Alpha survive assassinations and wars and the weight of an entire pack depending on his strength. But he's never seen Kael like this.
This broken.
This desperate.
This desperate to fix something he deliberately destroyed.
On the second night after the ceremony, Thorne makes a decision.
He leaves Kael alone in the compound and walks toward the guest quarters where Eden is staying. The halls are quiet because it's late, and most of the pack is sleeping. Nobody stops him because he's the Beta and he has freedom to move anywhere he wants.
He knocks on the door to Eden's room softly.
Sienna answers, looking terrified and ready to fight. She relaxes when she sees him, but only slightly. Thorne is Kael's second-in-command, which technically makes him enemy territory to a Silvercrest girl.
"I need to speak with Eden," Thorne says. It's not a request.
Sienna looks back at the room, then back at Thorne. She makes a choice and steps aside.
Eden is sitting by the window, looking out at the dark landscape. She's wearing simple clothes, and her dark hair is down around her shoulders. When she turns to look at him, Thorne understands everything instantly.
The rejection is tormenting her just as much as it's tormenting Kael.
Her eyes are red from crying. Her face is pale. There's a fragility to her that wasn't there during the ceremony, like the rejection has been slowly dismantling her from the inside.
"You're here to tell me I need to go back to Silvercrest," Eden says. It's not a question.
"No," Thorne says. He closes the door behind him so Sienna can't hear. "I'm here because my Alpha is breaking apart, and you're breaking apart in the same way, and you're both too stubborn and too proud to fix what you've done."
Eden's jaw tightens. "He rejected me."
"He was terrified," Thorne says. "That's not the same thing. And I think you already know that."
She doesn't answer, but she doesn't argue either. That's enough.
Thorne sits down uninvited, and he starts talking about what he's going to do.
He's going to help her integrate into the pack. Not because Kael asked him to. Because the mate bond between them is poisoning both of them, and the only way to stop that poison is to force them into proximity while they both learn who the other person really is.
"He needs to see you as more than a threat," Thorne says. "And you need to stop thinking of yourself as the enemy bride he rejected."
"How do I do that," Eden asks, "when everyone in this pack sees me exactly that way?"
Thorne smiles slightly. "You change their minds."
The next morning, Thorne starts making arrangements.
He brings Eden fresh water and food himself, and he does it every morning like it's just something he decided to do. He introduces her to the stable master, a kind older wolf named Henrik who's been with Ironfang for decades. He takes her to the kitchen and introduces her to the cooks, and he makes sure she knows where to find anything she needs.
He's subtle about it.
He doesn't announce that the Alpha's Beta approves of the bride. He just treats her like she belongs, and slowly, other wolves start following his example.
Mira watches him with barely concealed fury, but Thorne doesn't care what Mira thinks. Mira has been nursing a crush on Kael for years, and Eden's arrival has made that impossible. Mira's rage is her own problem.
But Thorne watches Eden carefully as the days pass.
He watches the way she moves around the compound. Careful. Calculated. Like she's mapping every corridor and every guard position. Like she's planning something, but not in a way that feels like betrayal. It feels more like survival.
He watches the way she talks to the servants. She's kind to them in a way that's genuine, not performative. She remembers their names. She asks about their lives. She treats them like they matter, which is something the Ironfang wolves might not be used to from someone of Alpha bloodline.
By the third day, some of the younger wolves are talking to her without flinching.
By the fourth day, Henrik is bringing her riding lessons because she asked and he couldn't resist her.
By the fifth day, Thorne realizes something that makes him want to smile.
She's not trying to be accepted by the pack.
She's genuinely becoming part of it.
There's something about the way she observes and adapts and finds value in people that's going to make her invaluable to Kael, whether Kael realizes it yet or not. There's something about her that's exactly what his broken Alpha needs.
On the fifth afternoon, Thorne brings her to the training grounds.
"You can watch," he says simply. "But stay back and don't distract the fighters."
Eden nods, and they move to the edge of the grounds where spectators usually stand.
The sun is bright and the afternoon is warm, and most of Ironfang's warriors are working through combat drills. Thorne knows the schedule. He knows when Kael will arrive.
He also knows exactly what his Alpha has been doing for the last five days.
The moment Kael appears, Eden's entire body goes rigid.
Thorne watches her face as she sees her mate for the first time since the rejection. The pain that flashes across her features is sharp and raw, but she keeps her expression controlled. She's getting better at that.
Kael starts fighting.
There's no other word for what he's doing. It's not training. It's destruction. He moves through opponents like they're obstacles to be removed, and the violence in his movements is so intense that some of the younger wolves actually step back instead of engaging with him.
His eyes are cold and focused and completely empty of mercy.
But Thorne can see the pain underneath it.
Every punch is an attack on himself. Every brutal takedown is self-hatred. Every moment of unbridled aggression is Kael trying to destroy the part of himself that wants to claim Eden and damn the consequences.
Eden watches him with her hands clenched into fists.
Thorne can feel the mate bond between them from where he's standing. It's like an open wound. Both of them bleeding toward each other while refusing to actually connect.
Kael shifts suddenly, moving into his wolf form right there on the training grounds. The massive black wolf with silver streaking through its fur is even more violent than the human form. It's pure predator and pure pain combined.
One of the older warriors moves toward the wolf to engage properly, but Kael just stands there for a moment.
The beast's eyes scan the training grounds.
They find Eden.
And the moment those gold eyes lock onto her, the entire atmosphere changes.
The wolf goes absolutely still.
Every warrior on the grounds senses it. The air becomes electric. The bond between the Alpha and his rejected mate suddenly feels so real and so present that everyone can feel it.
The wolf takes a step toward her.