THE QUEEN WHO LOVES HER MATE'S FATHER

8

Running toward the moon was supposed to feel poetic, but tonight, it felt like running towards my death.

I didn’t know when my legs stopped belonging to me and became something else, blades slicing through the night, moving only because terror shoved them forward. I’d been running for 20 hours, and the hours blurred into a single long scream inside my skull.

The first dose of the stimulant had kept me upright, but the second? The second was a miracle I’d swallowed with shaking hands after nearly collapsing face-first into a puddle. I made sure I couldn't survive again before I took it.

I’d rested for a single hour, one miserable hour before forcing myself up again.

And now that miracle was fading.

I had max few minutes left before it wore off completely, and four hours to reach HIS pack. His territory. The land nobody approached unless they were suicidal or stupid.

Or… like me.

Desperate.

Stupidly, painfully desperate.

Pain throbbed under my ribs, pulsing with every breath. Something warm trickled down my thigh. Blood. Again. The kind of blood that made my heart stopped for few seconds, because I knew exactly what it might mean.

Not again. Moon Goddess, not again. Please.

I bit down on a sob and kept running.

The Black Forest spat me out like it was done with me. For the first time in hours, I saw open ground instead of shadows clawing at my vision. I stumbled into the safe zone, gasping, drenched in sweat.

Safe zone. What a lie.

The only reason no rogue dared step here was because even they feared HIM. His aura saturated the air, thick as smoke, heavy enough to press against my bones.

I’d only felt something similar once when Lucien stared at me with that cold, assessing hatred right before…

No.

Not now.

Not when I needed to stay alive.

The long gone so the pain pulsed violently in my veins. My heart sprinted faster than my feet, and my lungs burned like I’d swallowed fire. Every part of me ached. Even my teeth hurt. The edges of my vision moved as if the world couldn’t decide whether to stay real or dissolve into dreams.

And then it started to rain. A cold, punishing downpour.

It slapped against my skin like tiny knives. My wet hair slapped my cheeks, sticking to the blood drying there. Mud sucked at my boots. Every step became a negotiation with the universe.

Three more hours.

Then maybe death.

Or worse capture.

I didn’t know which was worse anymore.

Thunder so loud the ground trembled. I flinched and in that flash of white light, I saw Lucien’s face twisted in fury, lips pulled back in anger.

Another hallucination or was he here?

Sometimes I couldn’t tell them apart.

“Stay with me,” my wolf whimpered weakly inside me. Her voice sounded far away, like it was coming through water.

“I’m trying,” I whispered back, even though my lips barely moved.

I didn’t want to think about the blood again. The miscarriages. Or my ex mate cruel words. The way he shoved me away like I was nothing but an inconvenience wrapped in skin.

But pain… pain has a way of tearing open every locked door in your mind. And tonight, every door was wide open.

Rain began suddenly, cold needles slashing my skin. My body jerked at the first drop. My wolf yelped, thinking it was another blow. But the cold water ran down my burning back, easing the fever for a second, and a small part of me welcomed it.

“Don’t stop,” my wolf urged, voice shaking.

“I won’t,” I breathed.

By the time HIS forbidden territory rose in the distance, vast, oppressive, unmistakable, joy punched through my chest so suddenly I almost sobbed.

Yet I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. I was delirious with exhaustion.

“I made it,” I said. Or maybe I only thought I did.

My feet barely lifted from the ground. My breath whistled in and out. Fever crept through me in waves, twisting my stomach.

Just a little more… I’m almost there… Just… a little…

My wolf panted inside me, fading. “Hurry… please… hurry…”

I didn’t hear them before I saw them.

By now, my feet barely lifted off the ground anymore. Every step sent lightning up my spine. My breath whistled in and out like broken glass scraping my throat. Fever rolled over me in hot, dizzy waves. My vision flickered.

Guards, five… maybe ten? Or more? Their shapes blurred together. Shadows with sharp edges standing in a tight line, silent, watching. The way predators watch a dying animal before deciding if it’s worth the energy.

My knees buckled. I caught myself on trembling arms, blood streaking the mud beneath me.

I didn’t dare look at my legs. I didn’t dare.

I knew they saw me long before I saw them.

They had probably felt my presence before I even entered the territory.

Hell, maybe they heard me crashing through the woods like a dying thing hours ago.

We're they even real or was I hallucinating the figures?

I knew I wasn't when I smelled something nice, warm, and calming.

I almost fell asleep from strong scent.

Vanilla.

Chocolate.

A comforting scent… wrapped around pure danger.

A scent that wrapped around my lungs and held onto my soul.

He was here.

He stood in the center of HIS men like a mountain in human form, broader and taller than any male I had seen in my life.

HIS presence hit me before the sight.

A tidal wave of dominance.

An ancient, crushing power that made my wolf whimper inside me even in her weakened state.

HE was something ancient and dark.

My father-in-law.

The male even Lucien feared.

The one man everyone feared.

The one man who could kill me with a flick of HIS wrist.

Alpha Kalus!

I forced my head up. I had to see HIM.

Through rain and bloody tears, HIS massive silhouette cleared for a second.

He stood like a mountain wearing human skin, broad, taller than any male I’d ever seen, HIS aura darker than the storm behind HIM. Even from a distance, I smelled HIM.

I blinked hard, trying to focus, but the world tilted. HIS face blurred in and out, hard jawline, stern mouth, eyes like winter storms, hair dark and wild. A king carved from danger and wrath.

If I’d been healthy, I might’ve admired HIM. Might’ve wondered why fate twisted things so that I met HIM like this, broken, hunted, dying at HIS feet.

A tiny, hysterical laugh almost bubbled out of me.

Instead, I took one shaking step toward HIM. Then another. My legs wobbled, threatening to fold.

They watched me, HIS men, their silver eyes glowing in the night. They didn’t move to help. They didn’t move at all.

Why would they?

I was nothing to be afraid. I was the prey.

Another pain ripped through my abdomen. I gasped, grabbing my belly, my nails digging into my skin.

Please…

I lifted my hands, blood covered them.

HIS eyes widened, but HIS expression didn’t soften. Or did I imagined that?

Yet I staggered forward until I collapsed to my knees directly before HIM. Tears streamed down my face, mixing with rain, washing lines through the dirt and blood.

A moment of silence folded around us. A moment where the world held its breath.

I should have been terrified. Maybe I was too sick to be.

But mostly, I was relieved.

I made it…

HE could kill me with a flick of HIS wrist.

And I had run straight into HIS land like a hunted animal.

But looking at HIM,at that massive silhouette against the rain,my heart broke with relief.

HE was here.

And despite everything… despite the danger… despite the fear…

I had made it.

My vision wavered. My arms shook violently. Tears ran down my face, mixing with the rain and blood. I lifted my hands, hands stained red, shaking uncontrollably.

“Save me,” I whispered. A plea. A confession. My final thread of hope.

My vision darkened.

Strong arms caught me as I fell forward. HIS hard chest and warm scent. Everything blending into a blur.

For a heartbeat, I felt… safe. Just a heartbeat.

Then darkness swallowed me whole.

But before it did, before the last breath went out of me, HIS voice thundered above me, deep and furious, rolling through the rain like a growl so much that I feared for the person HE was angry with.

“What the f**k is my son’s mate doing on my land?”