CHAPTER 5: Recognition

Tristan’s POV

My wolf slammed against my ribs the second her face lifted into the light. Same sharp hazel eyes. Same defiant chin. The woman from the Elysian Moor gala, the one who had emptied my wallet and slipped out of my bed before dawn—was standing right there, three feet away, still trembling from the street thugs I had just put down. My chest tightened so hard it hurt. She was real, not some fevered memory my cursed mind had cooked up during one of the long nights when the fracture in my soul refused to let me sleep.

I moved before I could think. My hand closed around her elbow to steady her. The contact hit me like a live wire. A violent tremor shot up my forearm, straight into my blood. It had nothing to do with concern. My body knew her before my mind finished catching up. Her skin was warm under my fingers, soft despite the lean muscle I could feel there. My wolf surged forward with a growl that vibrated through my chest. Mine. He marked her as territory in the same breath he marked her as found.

She twisted free instantly, backing up hard against the rusty chain-link fence. Her knuckles went white around the strap of her purse. Those hazel eyes went wide as she really looked at me. Recognition slammed into her. I saw the exact moment it happened…the way her lips parted, the way her breath caught. She knew me. Not as Tristan Winthrop, the Alpha she hadn’t met yet. She knew me as Glenn. The man whose bed she had shared. The man whose money she had stolen.

“I… I’m fine,” she said quickly, voice shaky but trying to sound steady. “Thank you. You didn’t have to do that.”

I stayed where I was, studying her. She looked exactly like I remembered. Long dark brown hair a little messy now from the scuffle. Soft caramel-toned skin. That guarded expression that made her look both beautiful and ready to bolt. She was wearing simple clothes again, nothing like the black dress from the gala, but they still hugged her athletic frame in a way that made my wolf pay attention.

She swallowed hard. “My name is Sarah. I don’t know you, okay? I appreciate the help with those guys, but I really need to go.”

The lie came out smooth and automatic. Of course it did. A woman surviving the streets of Cresthaven wouldn’t hand her real name to a stranger in a dark alley. I already knew her real name anyway. Jasmine Trivett. It had been written on the identification inside the wallet she stole from me. I had recovered it days ago through my contacts, along with a trail that had taken far too long to follow. She didn’t know I had it. She didn’t know I had been hunting for her since the morning I woke up alone in that suite with empty pockets and her scent still on the sheets.

I let her keep the lie. I didn’t move from her exit path. My shoulders stayed relaxed, but my body blocked the easiest way out of the alley. Let her feel it. Let her understand that I wasn’t some random good Samaritan.

“You look like you’ve had a rough night,” I said, keeping my voice low and even. The same tone I had used on her at the gala when I caught her wrist. “Those three weren’t playing around.”

She rubbed her elbow where I had grabbed her, eyes flicking past me toward the mouth of the alley. “I said I’m fine. Just… bad luck. Happens sometimes around here.”

Bad luck. Right. I could smell the fear still clinging to her, even if her omega scent was strangely muted. That suppression amulet she wore, I had felt its cold presence against her chest that night when my hands had explored her body. It dulled her, caged her wolf. The thought made my own wolf snarl. She shouldn’t have to hide like that.

I remembered every second of that night. The way she had bumped into me on purpose. The practiced movement of her fingers slipping toward my pocket. The shock in her eyes when I caught her. Then the heat. The way she had followed me to the suite even though fear rolled off her in waves. The strip tease I had demanded. The way she had submitted, stubborn defiance in her glare even as she peeled off that black dress. The way she had come apart under me, gasping and trembling, her body gripping mine like she had never felt anything so good. And then the empty bed in the morning. The missing cash.

My jaw tightened. I had spent weeks tracking her. Interrogating fences. Following the magical trace on that pocket watch she hadn’t even known was important. All because she had looked me in the eye, taken what she wanted, and disappeared. No one did that to me. No one made my wolf obsess like this.

“You’re shaking,” I told her.

“I’m cold,” she shot back. Another lie.

I took one slow step closer. Not enough to trap her completely, but enough that she had to tilt her head to keep looking at me. She was shorter than me by a good amount. Probably a 5’6” to my 6’4”. The difference felt right. “You don’t have to lie to me, Sarah.”

Her eyes narrowed at the name. She remembered saying it that night too. “I don’t know you,” she repeated. “And I don’t owe you anything. Thanks for the help, but I’m leaving now.”

She tried to move around me. I shifted my weight just enough to stay in her way without grabbing her again. The power sat there between us. My alpha aura pressed lightly against her, not commanding, but reminding. Her breath hitched. She felt it. Even with that amulet dulling her senses, she felt me.

For a second, something else flickered across her face. Not just fear. Recognition of the pull. The same chemistry that had dragged us into that hotel bed. Her cheeks warmed slightly. She remembered how good it had been too. How many times she had come. How she had lost control and soaked the sheets. I could see the memory in the way her gaze dropped to my mouth for half a second before she caught herself.

My wolf pushed harder. The curse flared in response, sending a spike of pain through my temples. I ignored it. I had lived with worse. The fracture in my soul made bonding impossible, made my wolf unstable, but right now it wanted her. It wanted to claim the woman who had robbed me and then disappeared with my scent on her skin.

“You ran out on me that night,” I said quietly. There was no point pretending anymore. “Took my wallet, and left before I could even ask your real name.”

Her face paled. “I don’t—”

“Don’t,” I cut her off. “We both know what happened in that suite. You can keep calling yourself Sarah if it makes you feel safer. But I know what I felt. I know what you felt too.”

She backed up again until the fence dug into her back. Her purse strap was still clenched tight in her fingers. “It was a mistake. One night. That’s it. I needed the money and you… you let me leave. So we’re even.”

Even? The word almost made me laugh. Nothing about this felt even. She had no idea who I really was. No idea that the man she had robbed was the Alpha of the Winthrop pack. No idea that I had been searching for her ever since. No idea that her little theft had woken something in me that the curse had tried to kill years ago.

I let the silence stretch again, let her feel the weight of it. She was tough, and stubborn. I could see that in every line of her body. Years of surviving Cresthaven had made her that way. But she was also exhausted. I could see it in the shadows under her eyes, the way her shoulders carried too much weight.

“I’m not here to hurt you,” I said finally. It was true, because I only wanted answers. I wanted her. But not like this. Not shaking in an alley after nearly getting robbed by humans.

“Then move,” she said. “Let me go home.”

I held her gaze for a long moment. Then I stepped aside. Not all the way, just enough. She slipped past me quickly, brushing close enough that her arm grazed mine again. The contact sent another tremor through me. My wolf growled low in satisfaction.

She didn’t look back as she hurried out of the alley. But I stayed back and watched her. The way she glanced over her shoulder once before disappearing around the corner. She knew I was still there. She knew this wasn’t over.

I stayed in the alley long after she was gone. My hand flexed at my side, remembering the feel of her elbow. The curse pulsed angrily, but for the first time in a long time, the loneliness inside my chest felt a little less sharp.

She was mine. She just didn’t know it yet.

I pulled out my phone and made the call. “Find her address. The woman from the gala. Jasmine Trivett. And prepare the proxy. Tonight.”