Chapter 4 The Pull Between Us

• The sun had barely crested the horizon when Jenna awoke with a gasp.
• Her body was warm, too warm. Her skin prickled beneath the soft sheets, damp with sweat, her heartbeat quick and uneven. She blinked up at the unfamiliar ceiling, chest rising and falling as the heat curled low in her belly. Her limbs trembled beneath a thin sheen of perspiration, and the scent that surrounded her was primal.
• Pine. Smoke. Leather.
• Him.
• Remi? she whispered inwardly, panic and need twisting together.
• Her wolf stirred, stronger than she'd felt her in days. He’s close. You feel it now, don’t you? The bond… it’s not broken. It’s shifting. Stronger. Real.
• Jenna sat up too quickly, her breath catching. Her body responded before her mind could keep up. A wave of heat rolled through her stomach, tingling down her thighs. She shivered, part fever, part something else.
• It wasn’t just attraction. It was instinct. Ancient. Inescapable.
• She glanced around, recognizing the soft richness of the manor now in the early light. The wool blanket slipped from her shoulders. Her breath caught again, there it was.
• That pull.
• That magnetic thread that wound from her chest and stretched somewhere beyond the bedroom door.
• Still unsure, still aching from everything she’d been told, Jenna rose on shaky legs and slipped on a long cardigan from the bedpost. She padded barefoot across the hardwood, her steps quiet, cautious. The scent was stronger now. Hotter. Alive.
• He’s training, Remi murmured, pacing inside her. Go. Claim what’s ours.
• The command wasn’t aggressive, it was reverent.
• Jenna followed it.
• She made her way through the dim, unfamiliar corridors. They didn’t feel threatening. Only… still. Like the whole house knew not to interrupt what the Moon had begun.
• She passed under an archway and onto the cool stone that marked the manor’s side entrance. The grass kissed her feet as she crossed the lawn, the morning air clinging to her skin. Her cardigan swayed gently as she moved toward a wide clearing she hadn’t seen before.
• The training yard.
• And there, bathed in golden light, was Alexander.
• He was shirtless again, sweat gleaming on his chest and arms as he moved through sparring drills with two others. Each strike was precise, brutal, controlled. His body was a map of strength and purpose, tattoos scrawled across muscled ribs, scars tracing a history he never had to speak aloud.
• Jenna didn’t breathe. She stayed in the shadows, mesmerized.
• He wasn’t like Sean. No theatrics. No barking orders.
• Alexander commanded through silence. Through presence.
• Power rippled off him in waves, quiet, vast, undeniable.
• As if sensing her, he paused mid-swing.
• His head turned, slow, deliberate. Their eyes met.
• Her chest stopped moving.
• His lips parted slightly. His body tensed. He dismissed the others with a single gesture. Neither man questioned it. They disappeared without a sound, and Alexander crossed the yard to her, each step quiet thunder in her chest.
• “You’re awake,” he said, voice low.
• “I followed…” Jenna hesitated, her voice fraying. “Something. I don’t know what.”
• His gaze lingered at her throat, where her pulse beat visibly. “You do.”
• “I don’t understand any of this. I shouldn’t feel, like this. Not yet.”
• “You feel it,” he murmured, brushing a strand of hair from her face. “Because your wolf recognizes me. Because the pain you felt when Sean rejected you, it didn’t end the bond. It rerouted it.”
• Jenna’s breath stuttered. “Into you?”
• “Yes.”
• She reeled, her heart lurching at the implication. “You’re my… mate?”
• He nodded, slowly. “Not chosen. Not arranged. Fated. By blood. By instinct.”
• “Then why didn’t you tell me?”
• “Because I needed you to feel it,” he said, jaw tight. “Not be told. Bonds this deep aren’t accepted in words. They’re earned. And… if I had touched you last night, ” His voice broke off. “I wouldn’t have stopped.”
• A tremor ran through her. Heat pooled low in her belly.
• She stepped closer.
• “Then don’t stop.”
• He went utterly still.
• “Jenna, ”
• “I’m not whole yet,” she whispered. “But I’m not broken either. And I need to know what this is. What we are.”
• He looked at her as if she were the center of the universe, and he was about to fall into orbit.
• “You’re playing with fire,” he warned, voice like velvet dragged over gravel.
• “Then burn me,” she said.
• Her voice carried no fear.
• Only truth.
• His name on her tongue sent heat down her spine. She stepped closer again, her bare feet nearly brushing his boots.
• Her gaze trailed over his body, broad shoulders, inked ribs, the gleam of sweat tracing his chest. Lower, down the deep lines of his abdomen, to where his pants clung low on his hips.
• She flushed, heat creeping up her neck.
• You’re scenting him, Remi purred. He knows. He smells your desire. You’re fire and silk, and he wants to taste you.
• Jenna’s thighs pressed together instinctively.
• Alexander inhaled sharply, his pupils flaring. “Jenna… gods.”
• He stepped forward. Now they were only inches apart.
• “You smell like want,” he growled. “Like lightning ready to strike. You’re driving me out of control.”
• She blushed deeper, trying to hide the rush of heat blooming between her legs.
• “I don’t know if I’m ready…” she whispered.
• “I would never take,” Alexander said, his voice rough with restraint. “I only give. And you decide, always.”
• Her chest rose and fell with ragged breath. “Then stay.”
• He reached out, brushing her jaw, reverent, slow. His touch was like warmth made flesh. Her lips parted.
• “I’m here,” he whispered. “I’ve always been here.”
• And this time, Jenna believed him.