Chapter 3 Chapter 3

MALAKAI.

I froze, my jaw clenching as my pulse spiked.

Having her in my territory for seven straight days was a nightmare scenario. But looking into my best friend's desperate, trusting eyes, I knew I had no fucking choice.

"She’ll be safe here, Stefan," I said, my voice smooth and measured despite the storm raging inside me. "My guards are on high alert. No one touches her while she's under my roof."

"Dad, no!" Mercedes protested, rushing forward, her nose piercing glinting under the terrace lights. "I’m coming with you! I’m not staying here!"

"You're not going into a border skirmish, Mercedes," Stefan barked, using his stern father tone. "You’ve complained for six months about being cooped up in our territory. Here’s your change of scenery. Enjoy the lake, enjoy the estate, and stay out of trouble."

"Dad—"

"I don't want to hear another word," Stefan cut her off gently, taking her face in his hands and kissing her forehead. "I’ll be back next Friday to pick you up. Malakai will make sure you have everything you need."

"Yeah," she muttered, throwing a deadly, razor-sharp glare over Stefan’s shoulder straight at me. "I'm sure he will."

Five minutes later, Stefan's heavy armored SUV roared down the driveway, its red taillights vanishing into the dense, dark woods.

The silence that settled over the estate terrace was heavy, suffocating, and instantly charged with static electricity.

I looked down at Mercedes.

She looked tiny standing on the sweeping stone patio, but the wild, defiant fire blazing in her eyes made her seem six feet tall.

Seven days, Idris purred inside my mind, flexing his claws. We have a whole week with our, how exciting!

I silenced my wolf with a ruthless mental crush. Seven days wasn't a curse, it was a deadline.

If Mercedes stayed here under my protection, I didn't have to wait months to deal with this.

I could find a clean way to sever the bond quietly before Stefan returned next Friday.

By the time my best friend came back to pick up his daughter, the mate bond would be neutralised, the agony of severance would be fading, and Mercedes could go back home without her life or her father's trust being ruined.

"Follow me inside," I said coldly, turning toward the heavy oak doors of the mansion. "We need to talk."

"Oh, goody," Mercedes sneered, stomping behind me, her heels clicking loudly against the marble floors as we crossed the massive, high-ceilinged foyer. "More lectures from the Alpha."

I led her into my private study, shutting the heavy double doors behind us to lock out the ambient noise of the remaining party guests outside.

The room smelled of old leather, rich tobacco, and silver-oak bourbon.

It was a purely masculine sanctuary that was now completely invaded by her sweet, intoxicating rain-and-mahogany scent.

I walked behind my desk, resting my hands flat against the polished wood and looking at her across the divide.

"Your father will be back on Friday," I began, keeping my voice clipped and professional. "That gives us exactly seven days."

Mercedes crossed her arms over her chest, raising a dark, sarcastic eyebrow. "Seven days for what? A crash course in how to be a obedient little pack girl?"

"Seven days to sever this bond," I said bluntly.

Mercedes blinked, her playful demeanor vanishing in an instant, replaced by sheer, unadulterated disbelief.

"What?"

"I’m not going to let this draw out, Mercedes," I explained, leaning forward slightly. "Having you here gives us a private, controlled environment. I’ll have my pack healer prepare the necessary binding suppressants. By the time Stefan returns next Friday, the bond will be severed, and we can both move on with our lives."

She stared at me like I had just spoken in ancient Greek.

A dark, furious flush crept up her tan neck, her jaw tightening until a muscle twitched near her ear.

"Are you fucking insane?" she breathed, her voice dropping into a lethal, quiet tone. "You're sitting there talking about rejecting me like it's some shit on your afternoon to-do list?!"

"It is the only logical solution."

"Fuck your logic, Malakai!" she shouted, taking three rapid strides toward my desk, slamming her hands down onto the wood.

The raw, electric charge of her scent made my wolf claw furiously at my chest.

"You don't just get to schedule my rejection like a fucking dentist appointment! I am half of this bond!"

"Mercedes, listen to reason—"

"No! You listen to me, you arrogant bastard!" she snapped, her eyes flashing a fierce, dangerous brown. "You think because you're forty-six and an Alpha that you get to play God with my life? You think you can just decide what hurts me and what doesn't?!"

"I am trying to spare you the worst of the pain!" I growled, my Alpha presence leaking out into the room, making the heavy crystal decanters on my bar rattle.

Most wolves in the state would have dropped to their knees under that weight.

Mercedes didn't even flinch.

She reached into her small clutch purse, pulled out a pair of sleek, wireless over-ear headphones, and slapped them over her head.

I stared at her in utter astonishment. "What the hell are you doing?"

Mercedes reached up, paused the audio on her phone, and tapped one ear cup, looking at me with a cold, infuriating smirk.

"I'm tuning you out," she said smoothly. "Because if you think I'm going to stand here on my twenty-first birthday and let my father's old, stubborn-ass best friend reject me before I've even decided if I want to be rejected, you're out of your goddamn mind."

"Mercedes, take those off right now," I commanded, my Alpha tone vibrating through the floorboards.

"Make me," she shot back, echoing her words from the lake with a wicked, provocative tilt of her head. "Oh wait, you can't. Because if you lay a finger on me right now, your wolf is going to lose his fucking mind and bite my neck."

My throat locked up.

She was right.

The sheer temptation of touching her again was a trap I couldn't afford to spring.

"I am not a child, Malakai," Mercedes added, her voice dropping into a low, uncompromising rasp as she unpaused her music. "You want to reject me? You're going to have to make me agree to it. And until I say I'm ready... you can take your seven-day deadline and shove it straight up your tight Alpha ass."

She gave me a sweet, patronizing little wave, turned on her heel, and walked straight toward the study doors.

"Where do you think you're going?" I barked, taking a step around my desk.

Mercedes paused at the doorway, slipping one headphone down around her neck. "It's midnight, and I'm exhausted. Show me to my guest room, Alpha Hadid. Or do I have to go sleep on your couch?"

I stood there in the middle of my study, my hands clenched into tight fists, staring at a twenty-one-year-old girl who had just completely dismantled my authority in my own house.

I like her already, Idris chuckled darkly in my mind, practically purring with wicked delight.

"Third floor," I gritted out through clenched teeth, forcing the words past my tight throat. "End of the east hall. The master guest suite."

"Thanks for the hospitality," she purred, slipping the headphone back over her ear, flashing me one last, devastatingly mischievous smile before stepping out into the hallway and shutting the door behind her.

I stood alone in the quiet study, the scent of rain, and raw defiance lingering thick in the air.

I leaned back against my desk, dragging both hands heavily down my face as a long, exhausted groan tore from my chest.

Seven days.

I had given myself seven days to break the bond.

But as I listened to the faint, retreating sound of her heels echoing down the corridor, a dark, terrifying realization washed over me.

I wasn't managing a rejection deadline.

I was trapped in a room with a fire I had no idea how to put out.