6
1375 Words
Raven’s POV
The sirens tear through my skull. Too loud. Too close. My heart slams so hard it hurts. Cole’s hand is still on my waist, solid, warm, wrong. My body hasn’t caught up with my mind yet. My mouth still tastes like him. I hate that part of me. I hate it so much.
“Move,” he says.
I don’t.
Not because I can’t. Because I don’t want to. Because the sound means danger and I don’t trust the man holding me anymore.
“You led them here,” I say.
His head snaps toward me. “What?”
“You brought them,” I snap. “You always know where I am. You show up everywhere. And now they’re here.”
That hurt flashes in his eyes so fast it almost looks real. “You think I’d sell you out?”
I laugh once, sharp and ugly. “You’re Ironfang.”
He swears under his breath. His grip tightens. Not to hurt. To pull. “If we stay here, you die.”
“Better than running with you.”
The sirens get louder. My wolf howls inside me, panic and rage tangling in my bones. My chest burns. My skin feels tight. Trapped.
He doesn’t argue again. He grabs me and I fight him. My fists hit his chest. His shoulder. My own head. I don’t care. I just need space. I just need air. He takes it anyway. Lifts me, throws me over his shoulder like I weigh nothing.
“Let me go!” I scream. I claw at him. I bite. He growls, low and furious, and runs.
Everything blurs. Sound. Motion. My thoughts scramble. I kick and curse and panic until the world jerks to a stop. He sets me down hard.
We’re alone again. For a breath. Just one.
I turn on him like a cornered animal. “You don’t get to touch me.”
His jaw is tight. His eyes are burning. “You don’t get to die.”
The words hit wrong. Too honest. Too close to something I don’t want. I shove him. Hard. He stumbles back a step, surprised.
“Stay away from me.”
He looks like I slapped him again. It cut deeper this time.
The noise fades in the distance. But I know better. They don’t miss trails. They don’t give up.
“My place is gone,” I say.
He stiffens. “What?”
“They wouldn’t come just to scare me. They burn. They erase. Everything I built is gone.”
The words feel hollow when I say them. Like I already knew. Like part of me had been waiting for it.
He takes a breath like he’s about to say my name. The fake one. The lie. I cut him off.
“I don’t need your pity.”
“I’m not pitying you.”
“I don’t need your protection.”
“I’m not offering protection,” he snaps. “I’m offering a way to live.”
I laugh again but this time it shakes. “From you?”
He flinches.
That stays with me. The flinch. The way his eyes drop for one second like I hit something open.
“You think I wanted this?” he says. “You think I asked for the bond?”
“I think you use whatever you can to win.”
Silence stretches until it presses against my ears. My wolf whimpers. She wants him. She aches for him. She doesn’t care about the past. She only cares about now. I hate her for it. I hate myself more.
“They knew my name,” I say quietly.
His head lifts fast. “What did you say?”
“The cartel. One of them said my name when they came in. My real one.”
His face changes. Not shock. No surprise. Something colder. Something sharper. “They’ve been tracking you longer than tonight.”
My stomach sinks. “You swear you didn’t lead them?”
He steps closer. Slow. Careful. Not like before. Like I might break. “If I wanted you dead, you’d already be dead.”
It’s not comfort. It’s true. And that scares me more.
I look at him. Really look. The scar. The eyes. The man who shouldn’t feel like home to any part of me.
“My life is in ashes,” I whisper.
His hand lifts like he doesn’t know what to do with it. It hovers near my arm. Doesn’t touch. “Then stop running alone.”
I pull back. “No.”
“Raven,” he says.
My heart stops.
I stare at him. Cold floods my chest. “What did you just call me?”
He swallows. “Your scent changed when the sirens hit. Fear stripped your lie clean. I didn’t know it before. I know it now.”
My hands shake. My knees go weak. “Say it again.”
“Raven.”
The world tilts. The fake name falls away like dead skin. He knows. He really knows. And I don’t know what that means yet but I know it’s bad.
“How long?” I ask.
“Since you thought you were about to die.”
My laugh comes out broken. “So you only know me when I’m scared.”
“No. I only heard the truth when you broke.”
That hurts more than I expected.
“You can still turn me in,” I say.
“Yes.”
“You can still hand me over and end this.”
“Yes.”
“Why haven’t you?”
His jaw tightens. His voice drops. “Because every time I think of doing it, my wolf tries to tear my own heart out.”
I should run. I should shift. I should disappear like I always do. Instead, I just stand there shaking.
“They burned it all,” I whisper. “Everything I had left.”
“I know.”
“You don’t know,” I snap. “You don’t know what it is to lose a home twice.”
His eyes darken. “You don’t know how many times I’ve lost mine while still living in it.”
We stare at each other. Two enemies. Two liars. Two wolves chained by something neither of us wants.
“You still think I led them,” he says.
“I don’t know what to think.”
“That’s worse.”
“I don’t trust you,” I admit.
“I know.”
“But I don’t trust anyone else either.”
That lands between us like a wound.
“They won’t stop now,” he says. “Not until you’re dead or working for them. That’s how they move. Break or use.”
“Let them come.”
“They will use what you love.”
“I don’t love anything.”
His voice softens in a way that makes me ache. “That’s a lie.”
I hate that he knows that too.
“You walk with me tonight,” he says. “Just tonight. After that, you can disappear again. I won’t stop you.”
“And if I disappear now?”
“You won’t make it far.”
I search his face for the trap. The threat. The angle. I only find fear. Not for himself. For me.
It makes my chest tight. It makes me angry. It makes me afraid of the part of me that wants to believe him.
“Tonight,” I say.
Relief hits his eyes too fast to hide.
“But if you betray me,” I add, “I won’t hesitate. Bond or not.”
His mouth lifts at one corner. A sad little smile. “I wouldn’t expect mercy from you.”
I turn away first. Because if I don’t, I might not be able to walk at all.
Behind me, I feel him move. Close. Not touching. Giving me space and somehow still surrounding me.
My sanctuary is gone. My lie is gone. My enemy knows my name.
And for the first time since this nightmare began, I don’t know who I am running from anymore.
Only that I have started running with him.
- Writer
