Orion’s POV:
A strange ache bloomed deep in my chest—dull at first, then sharpening like a needle threading through my ribs. It wasn't physical. It was something else.
Something darker. More primal. It was strange….our a bond…a tether to her, and she was screaming for me through the bond.
I didn’t know why I felt it so suddenly, but the gnawing in my gut refused to be ignored. Her name, though unspoken, echoed like a scream inside my skull.
I ground my teeth, muscles tensing around the gun in my hand. The masked man across from me tilted his head slightly, the black-and-white split of his mask making him look like some twisted jester of death.
My fingers itched. I didn’t wait.
I squeezed the trigger. Aimed low, for his thigh—non-lethal but enough to drop him. The silenced shot sna
