Jake***
The night air is thick with a heavy silence, the kind that makes your chest tighten and your senses sharpen. I can feel it, a change in the atmosphere—something's coming, and I know it’s not good. The tension crackles around us like a storm waiting to break. I can hear it in the distant rustling of leaves, the faint shuffle of footsteps on gravel.
Then, the gunshot rings out.
The sound slices through the quiet like a knife, sharp and jarring, and I see the panic flood Belle’s face in an instant. Her eyes widen, her breath catching in her throat as she freezes, her body locked in place.
“Stay behind me,” I growl, my voice deep and commanding, the words a demand more than a request. The moment the gunshot echoes in the distance, something inside me shifts—something dark, somethin
