Chapter 4 AWAKENING IN DARKNESS

The first thing Samantha felt was softness, thick blankets, warm sheets, a mattress that seemed to cradle her body like a cloud. For a moment, a blissful, quiet moment, she thought she was floating.

Then she remembered.

The chase.

The forest.

The blood.

The cold.

And Morris.

Her lungs tightened. Darkness pressed in from every side, heavy, suffocating. She sat up abruptly, fingers clawing at the sheets, her heartbeat exploding into frantic rhythm.

"Where am I?" she whispered, breath trembling. "No. No. no, he found me. He brought me back. Morris..."

Her panic spiraled.

She ripped at the sheets, stumbled out of bed, and crashed painfully to the floor. Blind fingers scrambled across the stone ground, searching for a wall, a door, anything.

Anything but him.

Footsteps burst through the room.

"Lady... please, slow down..."

A woman's voice. Gentle but nervous.

Samantha flinched backward violently. "Don't touch me! Don't let him near me, he'll kill me for running!"

The scent of lavender, unfamiliar and soothing, drifted toward her.

"You're safe," another voice whispered, soft, female, yet tight with fear. "You're not with him. You're in Shadow Palace. Please, calm"

But Samantha's terror drowned every word.

She scrambled blindly across the floor, hitting a wooden cabinet. Glass clattered. Bottles rolled.

Her panic became a storm.

"Where is he? Where is Morris?!"

The room froze.

A new presence filled the doorway.

Heavy.

Powerful.

Cold.

Samantha didn't hear him at first. She felt him.

The air shifted, like the atmosphere itself bowed. Even the two attendants sank instinctively, their breaths small and afraid.

His voice rolled through the room, deep, resonant, impossible to disobey.

"He is not here."

Samantha stopped breathing.

Something in that voice... pulled at her. A strange, dark magnetism.

Footsteps approached, measured and slow, the walk of a king who feared nothing.

"Samantha."

Her heart lurched. She backed up until her shoulders hit the bed frame.

"Who... who are you?" she whispered.

There was a pause.

Then...

"Zoro."

Her breath caught.

The Alpha King.

The voice that found her at the border. The man whose presence had felt like thunder and shadow woven together.

The scent of midnight pine and cold wind drifted toward her. Strong. Dangerous. Comforting in a way she didn't understand.

"You collapsed outside my territory," Zoro said. "My warriors brought you to my palace. Morris did not reach you."

Samantha's trembling eased, but only slightly.

Zoro sensed it. His voice dropped lower, softer... and unexpectedly gentle.

"You are safe here. Morris will not touch you again."

Those words, simple, firm and radiating hit something deep inside her.

A tear slipped down her cheek.

Zoro's steps halted.

He hadn't expected that reaction.

Or the twist of emotion in his own chest.

"Stand back," he told his attendants.

The room shifted as the women stepped away quickly.

Zoro moved closer, each step slow, controlled... careful.

As if she were something fragile he didn't want to break.

Samantha's breath hitched. "Why... why did you save me? You don't know me."

Zoro kneeled beside her. She could feel the warmth of him now, the quiet strength radiating from his spine.

"I could have left you at the border," he said. "But I didn't."

"Yes," she whispered, "but why?"

Zoro hesitated, something he rarely did.

He could not tell her the truth.

Not yet. Not that her scent awakened a wolf inside him he thought long dead.

So he said the only thing he could.

"Because Morris wants you. And anything he wants..." His voice darkened dangerously. "...I take."

The words should have frightened her.

But they didn't.

Because beneath the darkness... she heard something else.

Something almost protective.

A tremor ran through her as she asked, "Is he... coming?"

Zoro leaned closer. She felt the whisper of his breath near her ear.

"Yes."

Her fingers tightened around the sheets.

"And you'll let him take me?"

Zoro's hand closed around the edge of the bed frame, his knuckles cracking.

"No," he said softly.

A promise.

A threat.

A vow.

"He crossed my border once," Zoro continued. "He will not do so again."

Samantha's fear slowly melted into something else...something warmer, something confusing.

Trust.

But before she could speak, she swayed. Her knees buckled. Zoro lunged, catching her before she collapsed.

Her body collided with his chest.

Heat. Strength. The thrum of his heartbeat under her palms.

Samantha gasped.

Zoro stiffened.

He hadn't touched a woman in years. Not like this. Not with his wolf clawing at his ribs.

"Forgive me," Zoro said quietly, as if it physically pained him. "I should have warned you I was reaching for you."

"It's okay," she whispered.

It wasn't. Nothing about this was okay.

Her hands rested against him, trembling, feeling the ridges of muscle beneath his shirt. He was solid. Real. A fortress made of flesh and bone.

"Lean on me," he whispered.

She did.

Not because she had no choice, but because she felt safe.

Zoro lifted her carefully, carrying her back onto the bed. His hands lingered a moment too long... as if part of him resisted letting go.

She sensed the hesitation.

"Why do you sound... angry?" she whispered.

Zoro's sharp inhale gave him away.

"I'm not angry at you."

He took a slow breath, forcing control back into his voice.

"I'm angry because someone hurt you."

Silence hung thick and trembling.

Samantha swallowed. "He took everything from me."

Zoro's jaw tightened. "Then you will take everything from him."

"What?"

"Vengeance," Zoro said simply. "His terror ends here."

"But I'm not a wolf," she whispered. "I'm not strong."

"You survived Morris," Zoro countered. "Strength doesn't always roar. Sometimes it crawls. Bleeds. Breaks..."

His voice dipped low.

"and still moves forward."

A tear slid down Samantha's cheek.

Zoro exhaled, fighting an urge to wipe it again.

His hands curled into fists.

Her fragility pulled at him in ways he didn't allow.

Ways he had buried.

Ways he feared.

"You rest now," he said. "I will stand guard."

"You?" Samantha whispered in disbelief. "But... you're the Alpha King."

"Yes."

"You'll stay? In here?"

For a moment, he did not answer.

Then...

"Yes."

"But why?"

Zoro leaned close, his voice dropping into a deep, velvety whisper.

"Because the moment you cried out for help... I heard you."

Samantha's heart tripped.

"And because," he added, darker now, "if Morris steps one foot near this palace, I want to be the one who rips him apart."

Her breath hitched.

Not from fear.

From the way his words wrapped around her like protection.

She lay back slowly, her fingers brushing his hand.

He went still. Very still.

"Zoro?" she whispered. "Are you really staying?"

His voice was barely a rasp.

"I'm not going anywhere."

And in the shadows of the room, his wolf finally whispered a truth he dared not say aloud:

She is ours.

But outside the palace walls..

A howl cut through the night.

Morris had found the border.

The war for Samantha had truly begun.