BOUND BY FLAMES - The Alpha Twin's Obsession

Chapter 4- The Wrong Brother

Laura's POV

Of course, he had found me.

Ethan had warned me he would, and still I hadn't expected it this fast.

My legs ached, my lungs burned, and I didn't dare slow down. He wasn't chasing me — not yet — but I wasn't foolish enough to assume that meant anything. Men like Dylan didn't chase. They simply arrived, eventually, wherever you thought you were hidden.

The forest thickened around me, unfamiliar in every direction. I had no plan beyond away, and away was getting harder to find. My body gave out before my will did — I caught a root hidden in the underbrush and went down hard, biting back a cry as twigs tore at my palms.

"Laura." His voice, low, close. Too close. "I know you're out here."

I pressed myself against the nearest tree, willing the bark to swallow me whole.

"I'm not here to hurt you," he said, nearer now. "You're only making this harder on yourself. You're hurt. I can smell it."

I said nothing, though it wouldn't have mattered. A hand closed around my wrist and pulled me upright before I could think of running again, and I found myself staring into his eyes at close range for the second time in a day — and something in me stumbled.

They had the same dark eyes. But not quite. There was a warmth in them I hadn't seen in his house at all, something almost searching, and it unsettled me more than his temper had.

"Running was a bad idea," he said.

"Let go of me."

"If I do, will you run again?"

"Maybe," I snapped, though the fight in it had less conviction than it should have.

Something that wasn't quite a smile touched his mouth. "You don't trust me. Fair. But you're not safe out here alone. Come with me."

"I've seen what you do to people," I said. "I watched you standing over three people begging for their lives last night. I'm not walking back into that."

Confusion flickered across his face, real confusion. "I've never—" He stopped himself, something working behind his eyes.

"You don't know the whole story," he said finally, carefully.

"Whatever you saw, there's more to it than what it looked like."

"There's always an excuse," I said. "You just didn't care enough to make a different choice."

"You think I enjoy any of it?" His voice had an edge now, but underneath it, something almost wounded.

"You slept fine after I escaped."

He let out something between a laugh and a groan, and reached into his pocket instead of answering. "There's a hotel nearby. You need rest, food, somewhere safe. After that, you decide what you want to do."

I studied him, wary. "Why would you do that?"

"Because I'm not who you think I am," he said, and something about the phrasing struck me strangely, though I couldn't place why.

Exhaustion made the decision for me. I followed him to the car, keeping a careful distance, telling myself I was only buying time to think clearly.

The drive was quiet enough that I filled it with the one thing nagging at me. "I'm guessing Ethan told you I ran, or did you figure it out yourself?"

He glanced at me, a half-beat too long before answering. "Ethan? My beta?"

"Yes. Your beta." I frowned. "Who else would I mean?"

"Right," he said. "Yeah. He told me."

Something about the exchange sat wrong, though I couldn't have said what. I let it go.

The hotel was nicer than anywhere I'd ever set foot — the kind of place Viviana used to disappear to for weekends and never once thought to invite me along. He led me up to a suite with wide windows overlooking the tree line, and I hesitated at the threshold.

"Go ahead," he said, quieter now. "You're safe here."

Safe. The word had never meant much to me, and it didn't start meaning anything now. But I was too tired to keep fighting it. I stepped inside.

He pulled a bottle of water from the mini-fridge and held it out. "Drink. You need it."

I took it without opening it. "Why are you being like this?"

His eyes met mine, something raw passing through them before he could bury it. "Because I need you to see me for who I actually am. Not who you've decided I must be."

I looked away first, my chest too tight to hold his gaze. He was nothing like the man in his own hallway last night, and I didn't know what to do with that.

"You should rest," he said. "The bed's yours. I'll take the couch."

"You're staying?"

"You think I'm letting you out of my sight again?"

"Of course," I muttered, and let exhaustion carry me to the bed. The mattress felt like mercy after a night on the forest floor and dirt road. Sleep pulled me under before I could think better of it.

I woke to voices.

Not one voice — two, overlapping, sharp with an argument I couldn't quite make out. I pushed myself upright and padded toward the sound, my pulse climbing before I even reached the doorway.

I stopped dead at the threshold.

Two men stood in the living room. Identical faces. Identical height, though something in the way they carried themselves was different — one coiled tight, one looser, more restless.

"D—Dylan?" I said, staring between them, certain for one disoriented second that exhaustion had cracked something in my mind.

One of them turned. "Ah," he said, and it was the voice from the courtyard, the voice that had made three people beg. "So all that running landed you right back with my brother."

My stomach dropped.

The one I'd spent the night with — the one who'd asked if I was hurt like it was the only question that mattered — stepped forward, his jaw tight.

"I owe you the truth, Laura." He held my gaze, and for the first time, I understood why something about him had always felt a half-degree off from the man in the hallway. "I have a twin. I'm not Dylan. I'm Damon. That's my brother, standing right there."

The room tilted.

"That's not possible," I whispered, my wolf stirring in confused, frantic circles. "I feel the bond. With both of you."