My Fated Mate, My Enemy, My Second Chance

Chapter Five

Mira POV

"Get down!" My mother shoved me toward the floor of the car, but it was too late. The doors were already being wrenched open, metal groaning under the force, and rough hands closed around my arm, dragging me out into the cold night air before I could brace myself.

I didn't think. My body moved on instinct, ten years of secret training taking over before fear even had a chance to catch up with me. I twisted out of the grip, drove my elbow back into a solid chest, heard a grunt of pain, and spun free, putting distance between myself and whoever had grabbed me.

There were three of them. Big, ranked warriors, none of them from Blackwood, their build and bearing all wrong for our territory. Their scent was wrong too, unfamiliar, sharp with the tang of a pack I had never smelled before in my life. Hallow Ridge, some instinct in me whispered, cold with certainty I couldn't explain but didn't doubt for a second.

"Mom, run!" I planted myself between her and the largest of the three men, dropping into the stance my mother had drilled into me a thousand mornings in the woods behind our house, back when I thought it was just exercise, just a hobby, just something we did together.

"Look at that," the big one sneered, circling me slowly, sizing me up like I was nothing more than an obstacle. "The little heir's got teeth. Didn't expect that."

"You knew," I breathed, understanding hitting me all at once. "You've been watching us. For how long?"

"Waiting," he corrected, a cruel smile spreading across his face. "Took you long enough to find out what you are. We've known for years. We were just waiting for the Ceremony to confirm it."

He lunged. I didn't hesitate. A decade of holding back, of pretending to be slower and weaker than I was, finally broke loose all at once, and I moved faster than I had ever let myself move in public, faster than Bree or Coach Reyes or anyone at that school had ever seen. I ducked his strike, drove a knee into his ribs, heard something crack beneath the blow.

But there were two more of them closing in from either side, and my mother was unarmed behind me, pressed against the car with nowhere to run, and even with everything I had, even with years of secret training finally set free, I didn't know if it would be enough to save us both.

A snarl ripped through the night air, not from me, not from my mother, but from somewhere in the trees, low and furious and terrifyingly close, growing louder by the second.

A huge black wolf exploded out of the tree line, slamming into the second attacker before he could even turn around to see what hit him. Golden eyes flashed in the dark, and even shifted, wild with rage, I recognized them instantly, the same eyes that had found mine across a crowded cafeteria months ago.

Ryder.

He followed us, my wolf breathed, stunned into stillness for the first time all night.

There was no time to process it. The third man grabbed my mother, his fingers closing around her wrist, and I moved without thinking, throwing myself between them, taking the hit meant for her hard across the shoulder. Pain exploded down my arm, white hot and blinding, but I didn't go down. I couldn't go down, not now, not with everything on the line, not with my mother still standing behind me.

Ryder's wolf tore into the man in front of me half a second later, a blur of teeth and fury, and within moments the fight was over, all three attackers either fleeing into the dark on foot or lying unmoving on the cold asphalt where they'd fallen.

The black wolf shifted back, bones and muscle rearranging themselves in a way I'd seen a hundred times but never quite gotten used to, and Ryder stood there in the moonlight, breathing hard, blood on his knuckles that wasn't his own, staring at me like he was seeing me, really seeing me, for the first time in his entire life.

"You followed us," I said, still shaking, still gripping my throbbing shoulder where the blow had landed.

"I felt the bond rip when I rejected it." His voice was hoarse, wrecked, nothing like the flat, controlled tone he'd used in the parking lot weeks ago. "I've never felt anything hurt like that in my life. I got in my car before I even decided to, before I even knew what I was doing. I don't know what's happening to me right now, Mira, but I know I couldn't let you get hurt. I couldn't just sit there and do nothing while something was wrong." He stopped himself, jaw tight, eyes full of something raw and furious and afraid, all tangled together at once.

Behind me, my mother let out a broken, disbelieving laugh, the sound scraping out of her like it hurt. "Of course," she murmured, shaking her head slowly. "Of course fate would send Hallow Ridge's daughter a Blackwood, of all people."

Ryder's head snapped toward her, confusion flickering across his face. "What did you say? Hallow Ridge?"

I opened my mouth to explain, to tell him everything, the coup, my real name, the heir he had just rejected in front of his entire pack only hours earlier, when headlights swept across the road again, more cars this time, more unfamiliar scents, closing in fast from both directions at once.

My mother grabbed my good arm, terror flooding her face all over again. "They're not alone. Mira, we have to move now, before the others get here."

And Ryder, blood streaked and shaking with a bond he had tried to throw away only hours ago, stepped in front of both of us without a second of hesitation and said the last thing I ever expected to hear from him.

"Not without me."