Chapter Four: A Bond Unraveling

He did not break eye contact as he continued, "A wolf is changed when it meets someone who soul-recognizes them—someone it can't live without. It unites them."

A strange pressure built in Sophie’s chest. "What are you saying?"

Elias hesitated.

Then, barely above a whisper, he said, "You’re my mate."

The words slammed into her, stealing her breath.

She felt them, as though they were heavy. As if they settled in her bones.

Sophie stepped back, shaky. "No… that’s—no, that’s not possible."

Elias flinched like she’d struck him.

"Of course, you feel it!" His voice was harsh with urgency. "Tell me you don't."

Sophie parted her lips—ready to deny it, to argue—but the words wouldn’t come.

Because she did feel it.

The pull. The connection.

The way her body responded to him even when she tried to suppress it.

Her silence was all the answer he needed.

Elias inhaled deeply, trying to steady his breath. "I told you to leave because I knew this was going to happen."

"How long?" she whispered.

His eyes darkened. "Since the moment I saw you."

Sophie’s heart lurched. "And you were going to let me walk away like that?"

Elias exhaled harshly. "I had to do it," he said. "If you stay, you’ll be pulled into my world. Into my war." He shook his head and looked away. "I can’t allow that to happen to you."

Sophie searched his face, her feelings twisting into a sheer chaotic mass of emotions.

Anger. Longing. Fear.

And something that felt dangerously close to wanting.

"You don’t get the right to decide that for me," she finally said.

Elias's gaze shot back to hers, sharp and intense. "This isn't a choice, Sophie. The bond-it's not kind. It doesn't care what we want."

"Then what does it care about?"

His throat bobbed. "Keeping us together."

A heavy silence stretched between them.

Sophie's hands curled at her sides. "What if I don't want your binding?"

Elias's expression cracked for the first time-just a little. A flicker of pain passed across his features before he locked them again.

“Then you’ll have to be the one to fight it,” he said quietly. “For I will not make you do anything— I cannot do it.”

Sophie’s breath caught.

He was giving her a choice.

Even if it hurt him.

Even if it killed him.

She was aware that Elias Blackwood was the most dangerous man she had ever met, yet she knew he would let her go.

But could she walk away now?

At what point had the gravitational pull between them been strong enough to cause her physical pain?

When her heart was already betraying her?

She didn’t know.

And that terrified her most of all.

The night had its heavy air between them, full of things neither dared to say. Sophie still heard the trees rustling, the far-off howl of wolves retreating deeper into the forest. But all she could focus on was him.

Elias.

His presence filled the space between them, tense, raw, unbearably close.

His confession still echoed in her mind.

"You’re my mate."

It should have been impossible. A fantasy. A mistake.

But deep down, Sophie knew the truth.

She felt it.

The thread was invisible, but it had been pulling her toward him even when her mind screamed at her to run the other way.

But she wasn’t the type to blindly accept fate.

Sophie lifted her chin and breathed in deeply. "I need to know this," she said, somehow quieter than she meant to be. "All of it."

Elias's golden eyes flickered with an unreadable something. "It's not something you get like that, Sophie."

"Then explain it to me!" she snapped, her frustration breaking through the surface. "All I know is that my life was normal before you showed up, and now I can't even think straight without—" She bit her tongue, jaw muscles clenching.

Without feeling you.

She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of saying it aloud.

Elias stepped forward, slow and careful. "One thing before I say anything else." His tone dropped lower now, more menacing. "Do you fear me?"

The question hit her like a punch to the chest. She should be. She knew she should be, but she wasn’t. Not really, not in the way he expected.

Sophie held his gaze, unwavering. "No."

Elias gasped as if she had knocked the breath out of his lungs. His hands flexed at his sides. "Then you don't understand the risk you're taking."

"Then make me understand," she said, challenging him. "You keep saying how dangerous this is, but you won't explain. You expect me to just walk away from this on your word?"

His jaw tightened. "Yes."

"Well, that’s not happening."

A muscle in his jaw twitched. "Damn it, Sophie."

"Tell me." She stepped closer. "Tell me why we're bound. Tell me why it matters."

Elias ran a hand through his hair as if he were about to lose it. "Because once the bond is formed, it just won't break," he said tightly. "It'll keep pulling at you, sinking its claws into you until you can't ignore it. Until the thought of being apart feels like—" He stopped himself and turned away.

But Sophie stepped around him. She wasn't about to let him shut her out. "Like what?" she asked.

He turned back sharply, his golden eyes burning. "Like dying."

The word hit her like ice.

Elias bond with his head, but the expression was haunted. "You don’t get what a wolf bond makes, Sophie. It's not attraction. It's not even an egological connection. It's everything." His voice lowered even more. "I feel you. When you're nearby, when you're hurting, when you're scared—I feel it all."

Sophie swallowed, her heart slamming against her ribs.

That wasn’t just desire.

That was need.

“So you’re telling me… if I leave, it’ll hurt you?” she asked with her voice lowering.

Elias let out a short, bitter laugh. "I already do."

Her stomach twisted. "That’s not fair."

"This is so unfair." He fisted his hands. "But I won't let this bond a to control you. If you don't want it--if you don' t want me--then fight it, Sophie. Because I won 't force you to stay."