Chapter three: The chase
1583 Words
The tunnels smelled like damp stone and blood.
Marcus dragged Elena through darkness, her bare feet slipping on wet rock. Shouting echoed behind them. Metal on metal. Kael’s men were in the estate.
“Keep moving,” Marcus hissed. “Don’t look back.”
“I can’t—” Elena stumbled. Her glowing palm left silver streaks on the wall. “Damien—”
“He told you to run,” Marcus snapped. “So run.”
Her heart was a wild thing in her chest. Not from fear. From him. The way he’d looked at her in the circle. Black eyes. Claiming. Possessive. Like she was his and he’d burn the world to keep her.
She hated it. She wanted it.
They burst out into the estate gardens. Moonlight. Cold air. Trees like black knives.
“To the east wall,” Marcus said. “There’s a gate—”
An arrow hit the tree beside his head.
“Down!”
Elena hit the grass as two wolves in Kael’s colors dropped from the branches. Big. Armed. Smirking.
Marcus was on them in a second. Wolf form. Claws. Blood. He didn’t make a sound.
Elena scrambled back, hands up. “I’m human! I don’t want—”
One of them grabbed her wrist. “The Alpha wants the human alive. For leverage.”
His grip was iron. Her glow made him curse. “What the hell—”
“Let go of her.”
The voice was quiet. Deadly.
Damien.
He stepped out of the trees like he’d been waiting. No suit. Black shirt torn at the shoulder. Blood on his knuckles. His eyes were full wolf.
The wolf holding her froze. “Alpha Blackwood—”
“Let. Go.”
The wolf let go.
Elena stumbled into Damien’s chest before she could stop herself. He caught her. One arm around her waist. Hard. Possessive. His scent hit her again. Cedar. Smoke. Storm.
Her knees went weak.
“You’re bleeding,” she whispered.
“You’re glowing,” he said back.
They stared at each other for half a second too long.
Then chaos.
More of Kael’s men flooded the garden. Ten. Maybe more.
Marcus shifted back to human, bleeding from his side. “We’re outnumbered, Alpha.”
Damien didn’t look away from her. “Then we don’t fight them all.”
He lifted her. Like she weighed nothing. Bridal style.
Elena gasped. “Put me down! I can run—”
“No.” He started moving. Fast. “They want you. So I’m taking you where they can’t.”
He ran.
Elena clutched his shirt, heart hammering. The world blurred. Trees. Stone. Moonlight. Behind them, Marcus was covering their retreat, snarling.
“Damien, you can’t—”
“I can,” he growled. “And I will.”
He vaulted a wall. Landed in a roll. Didn’t stop.
The estate fell away behind them. Into forest. Into darkness. Into nowhere.
---
*Twenty minutes later.*
He stopped in a cave. Hidden. Small. The air was warm.
He set her down gently, like she might break.
Elena backed away until her shoulders hit stone. “Why are you—”
“Because they’ll kill you if they catch you,” he said. “And because your blood is still glowing.”
He was right. Her palm hadn’t stopped. Soft silver light in the dark cave.
Damien crouched in front of her. Close. Too close.
“Let me see,” he said.
Elena pulled her hand back. “Don’t touch me.”
“You’re bound to me,” he said. “I can smell it. I can feel it. Every time you panic, I feel it in my chest.”
She did panic. Her breath was fast. Her skin was hot.
“That’s not real,” she said. “It’s biology. Pheromones. Wolf—”
“It’s fate,” he said.
He reached for her hand anyway. Slow. Giving her time to pull away.
She didn’t.
His fingers were warm, calloused. He turned her palm up. The cut was already closing. Silver light fading.
“You should be dead,” he said quietly. “Humans don’t survive mate marks.”
Elena swallowed. “Then why am I not dead?”
Damien’s eyes lifted to hers. Black. Hungry. “Because you’re mine.”
The air went thick.
Elena’s pulse roared in her ears. She should slap him. Run. Say something sharp.
Instead she whispered, “Don’t say that.”
“Why?” His thumb brushed her palm. “Because it’s true?”
“Because I signed a contract,” she said. “Not a vow.”
Damien’s jaw clenched. “The contract is ash now. The bond doesn’t ask.”
He leaned in. Just a little. She could see the scar on his throat. Feel his heat.
Elena’s breath caught. She could kiss him. God, she wanted to. To taste him. To see if he’d break.
She shoved his chest instead. “Stop.”
He stopped. But he didn’t move back.
“Then tell me to leave,” he said. “Say you don’t want me. Say it and I’ll walk out of this cave.”
She couldn’t. The lie wouldn’t come.
Damien’s eyes darkened. “That’s what I thought.”
Outside, a howl. Close.
Marcus.
Damien was on his feet in a second, moving to the cave mouth. “Stay.”
Elena stayed. Her hands shook.
Damien’s voice came back, low. “Three of them. Kael’s scouts.”
“Can you—”
“I can kill them,” he said. Simple. Final. “The question is if you can watch.”
Elena stood. “I’m not a child. Let me help.”
Damien turned. Looked at her. Really looked. Blood on her dress. Glow on her skin. Fear in her eyes. And something else. Fire.
“Fine,” he said. “But you stay behind me.”
He moved like a shadow.
Elena followed.
---
*The fight was fast. Brutal.*
Damien didn’t shift. He didn’t need to. He moved like the beast was right under his skin. One scout went down with a broken neck. The second with a knife to the throat. The third tried to run.
Damien caught him. Threw him against a tree.
“Where is Kael?”
The scout spat blood. “He’s coming. With fifty. You can’t protect the human, Blackwood.”
Damien’s fist hit the scout’s face. Once. Twice.
“Don’t talk about her.”
He killed him.
Elena watched. She didn’t scream. She didn’t faint. She just stared at his hands. At the blood. At the way his chest rose and fell.
Damien turned to her. Blood on his face. Not his.
“Are you scared of me?” he asked.
Elena met his eyes. “Yes.”
He nodded. “Good.”
Then he crossed to her in two steps and grabbed her face.
He kissed her.
Hard. Angry. Desperate.
Elena gasped against his mouth. She should have fought. Should have pushed him away.
She didn’t.
Her hands fisted in his bloody shirt. She kissed him back. Fierce. Terrified. Wanting.
He tasted like blood and smoke and something darker. Possession.
When he pulled back, they were both breathing hard.
“That,” he said, voice rough, “is what claiming feels like.”
Elena’s lips were swollen. Her heart was racing. “That wasn’t—”
“It was,” he said. “And it will happen again. Before the moon sets.”
Marcus appeared at the tree line. “Alpha. They’re coming. We have minutes.”
Damien didn’t look away from her. “Then we move.”
He took her hand. No asking this time.
Elena let him.
---
*The moon was high now. Full. Silver. Watching.*
They ran through the forest. Three of them. Hunted.
Elena’s legs burned. Her lungs burned. But Damien didn’t slow. He held her hand like he’d never let go.
“Where are we going?” she gasped.
“To the old pack temple,” Marcus said. “Sacred ground. Kael won’t follow there. Not without bloodshed.”
“Good,” Damien said. “Because if he touches her, there will be blood.”
Elena looked at him. Sweat on his neck. Blood on his jaw. Eyes still black.
He caught her looking.
“What?” he said.
“Nothing,” she said. “Just… you’re terrifying.”
Damien’s mouth twitched. Almost a smile. “You should see me when I’m not trying to be gentle.”
Elena’s stomach flipped.
They reached the temple. Ruins. Stone columns. An altar.
Damien pulled her inside.
“Here,” he said. “We’re safe for now.”
Safe. Surrounded by ruins. With fifty wolves hunting them. With a bond burning between them.
Elena laughed. It came out shaky. “This is insane.”
Damien stepped close. Very close. “Tell me to stop.”
Elena looked up at him. Moonlight on his face. Blood on his skin. Rage and want in his eyes.
She opened her mouth.
No words came out.
Damien’s hand came up to her throat. Not choking. Claiming. His thumb on her pulse.
“The moon is setting,” he said. “Last chance, Elena.”
The wind moved through the columns.
Elena’s hand lifted. Shaking.
She touched his chest. Over his heart.
“I—”
A howl split the night. Kael had found them.
Damien’s eyes went black.
“Too late,” he said.
He pulled her in.
- Writer
