Claimed By Fire And Crown

Chapter 5

I didn’t stop until the noise from the bar faded behind me.

Even then, I kept walking, my steps steady but quick as I moved farther down the road, past the dim lights and scattered buildings. The ground shifted under my feet from gravel to uneven pavement, cracks catching at the edges of my steps as I forced myself to keep moving forward instead of looking back.

He hadn’t followed.

At least, not in a way I could hear.

That didn’t mean anything.

My fingers curled at my sides as I exhaled slowly, trying to settle the tightness sitting in my chest. The cold air helped, a little, cutting through the lingering warmth that still hadn’t completely faded since I’d been standing in front of him. It didn’t make sense. None of it did.

I’d been around wolves my entire life. I knew what a presence felt like, what it meant when someone was stronger, faster, more dominant. This hadn’t been that.

This had been—

I stopped the thought before it could finish.

It didn’t matter.

Whatever he was, whatever that was inside the bar, it had nothing to do with me. I didn’t belong there. I didn’t belong anywhere near him.

That needed to be enough.

A car passed somewhere behind me, its headlights sweeping briefly across the road before disappearing around the bend. I stepped closer to the edge, my shoulders tightening as the light faded, leaving the stretch ahead darker than before. The buildings thinned the farther I went, the noise of people and music replaced with something quieter, emptier.

Safer.

Or it should have been.

I slowed slightly, my gaze shifting to the side as I took in the narrow alley between two of the buildings. Shadows settled there, deeper than the rest of the street, the kind that made it hard to tell how far back it went. I looked away quickly, my pace picking up again without thinking.

Don’t wander.

Stick to the road.

Another step.

Then—

A sound.

Faint.

Behind me.

My body reacted before I could think about it, my shoulders going still as my foot paused mid-step before setting down more carefully this time. I didn’t turn right away. I listened.

Nothing.

Just the quiet hum of the night, the distant echo of something metallic shifting somewhere far enough away that it shouldn’t matter.

I exhaled slowly, my hand lifting briefly to brush against my arm where his grip had been, like I could still feel the pressure there. My fingers lingered for a second before I dropped my hand again, shaking my head lightly.

You’re imagining things.

I took another step.

The sound came again.

Closer.

Not loud.

Not careless.

Deliberate.

This time, I turned.

Slowly.

The road behind me stretched empty, the faint glow from the buildings I’d left behind casting just enough light to show there was no one standing there. No movement. No shape stepping out from the shadows.

But the feeling was back.

Different this time.

Colder.

My stomach tightened, something instinctive and sharp cutting through the lingering confusion from earlier. This wasn’t the same awareness I’d felt in the bar. This didn’t settle or pull.

This pressed.

Watched.

Hunted.

I took a step back without meaning to, my weight shifting as my eyes moved again, scanning the edges of the street, the spaces between buildings, the shadows that seemed just a little too still.

“You’re not very good at hiding.”

The voice came from my right.

Low. Rough.

Too close.

I turned sharply, my breath catching as a figure stepped out from the alley I’d just passed. He moved like he’d been there the entire time, like he’d just been waiting for me to notice.

Tall. Broad. His shoulders filled the narrow space behind him as he stepped into the dim light, his gaze already fixed on me.

My pulse spiked.

Not the same.

Not even close.

Where the other man’s presence had been controlled, contained—this was something else entirely. It rolled off him without restraint, heavy and sharp, pressing into the air around us in a way that made it hard to breathe.

Wolf.

But wrong.

My fingers curled slightly as I held my ground, even as every instinct I had told me to run.

“I’m not hiding,” I said, my voice steadier than I expected.

His mouth tilted, not quite a smile.

“No?” He took another step forward, his boots scraping lightly against the ground. “Funny. You look like you’re trying very hard not to be found.”

I didn’t answer.

Didn’t give him anything.

His gaze dragged over me slowly, taking in everything—the way I stood, the tension in my shoulders, the way my feet had already angled slightly away from him.

Calculating.

“I was told to expect you tomorrow,” he went on, his tone almost conversational as he stopped a few feet away. “Didn’t think you’d make it this easy.”

Cold slid through me.

Not confusion.

Not doubt.

Recognition.

My throat tightened, but I didn’t let it show. “You’ve got the wrong person.”

He huffed out a quiet laugh, shaking his head slightly as he stepped closer, closing the space I’d tried to keep between us. “No,” he said, his voice dropping, losing whatever ease had been there a second ago. “I don’t.”

I took a step back.

Then another.

He followed.

Not fast.

Not rushed.

Just enough to keep the distance from growing.

My heart was beating too hard now, each step backward pulling me farther into the darker stretch of the road, away from the faint light behind me.

“Stay where you are,” he said.

I didn’t.

I turned.

And ran.