SHATTERED BONDS, STOLEN HEARTS

The alley smelled like death and garbage. Perfect. I pressed harder on the wound in my side. Blood, warm and slick, pushed between my fingers. The pain sang white-hot through my ribs, real pain, because I'd made the cuts deep enough to matter. Deep enough that when he found me, he'd have no choice but to act. Three months of planning came down to this: me, bleeding in an alley, waiting for a killer. My wolf whimpered. Shut up, I told her. She'd been doing that a lot lately. Whimpering. Protesting. Like she hadn't been there five years ago when the smoke filled our lungs and the screams split the night. Like she didn't remember our father's hands on our shoulders, his eyes wild with something worse than fear. "Run, Sera. When the fire reaches the cellar door, you run and don't look back." I hadn't run. I'd pressed my face to the crack between the floorboards and watched our world burn. Watched him lead the attack. The sound of footsteps jerked me back. Close. Getting closer. Two minutes early. Shit. I let my legs give out, sliding down the brick wall. Left a good smear of blood behind me, the theatrics mattered. Made myself take shallow, ragged breaths. Let my head loll to the side. The footsteps stopped. Silence. Long enough that sweat started to bead on my forehead, mixing with the grime. Had he seen through it? Was he already walking away? Then: "Holy shit." His voice was deeper than I'd expected. Rough, like whiskey and smoke and things that should come with warnings. I didn't open my eyes. Not yet. "Hey." Closer now. I could smell him pine and something darker, something that made my wolf surge up with sudden, intense interest. "Can you hear me?" Traitor. I forced my eyes open. Let them flutter like I was barely conscious, which, given how much blood I'd actually lost, wasn't entirely performance anymore. The world tilted sideways. Nausea rolled through my stomach. But I could still see him. Kade Blackwood was more beautiful than surveillance photos had suggested. I'd spent months studying those photos. Memorizing the angles of his face, the set of his shoulders, the way he moved through his territory like he owned the very air. But photographs were flat, lifeless things. They didn't capture the presence of him the way he seemed to fill the narrow alley, the intensity in those storm-gray eyes, the scar cutting through his left eyebrow like a knife wound that had never quite healed right. Dangerous. That's what that scar said. I wanted to give him a matching one. "Don't move." He was already shrugging out of his jacket. "You're losing too much blood." The jacket pressed against my side. I gasped, couldn't stop it. The pain was white-hot, real, and consuming. Stars burst behind my eyes. "I know. I'm sorry." His hands, gentle despite their size, adjusted the pressure. "I'm going to pick you up, okay? Need to get you somewhere safe." Safe. The word tasted like ash in my mouth. "Who," I had to force the word out. "Who are you?" "Kade. I'm the alpha here. You're in Crescent Moon territory." His eyes scanned the alley looking for attackers, for threats, for whatever had done this to me. "Can you tell me who hurt you?" I shook my head. Weak. Helpless. Everything I'd taught myself never to be again. "Rogues," I whispered. "They I ran." Not entirely a lie. I had encountered rogues. Had let them chase me to the border, let them think they were hunting me. Right up until I'd made sure they wouldn't kill me before I made it here. The biggest one had nice knives. I was still carrying them. "You're safe now," Kade said, and something in his voice made my chest tight. Something genuine. Something that sounded almost like a promise. "I've got you." Then he lifted me into his arms. The world didn't explode. But it might as well have. The sensation hit like a lightning strike, like touching a live wire, like every nerve ending in my body suddenly remembered it was alive. Through the pain, through the blood loss, through the careful walls I'd built around myself, I felt it. The bond. No. No, no, no, no, no. His eyes went wide. Pupils blown. He felt it too. I could see the recognition dawn across his face, the shock, the impossible realization. "You're" The world went gray at the edges. I tried to hold on, tried to stay conscious, but the blood loss and the adrenaline crash and the sudden overwhelming wrongness of the bond all hit at once. I passed out in the arms of my enemy. Not planned. Definitely not planned. But maybe… maybe the universe had a sense of irony after all. I came back to consciousness in pieces. Soft sheets. The antiseptic smell of medical supplies. A steady beep-beep-beep next to my ear that I slowly recognized as a heart monitor. And underneath it all, thrumming like a second heartbeat: him. The bond. I could feel it now, properly. Not the explosive shock of initial contact, but something subtler. More insidious. It sat under my skin like a fishing hook, not painful exactly, just there. Present. Pulling toward something, someone just outside the door. I kept my eyes closed and did a quick inventory. The wound in my side: stitched and bandaged, tight enough to pull when I breathed. Ribs: wrapped. Left arm: IV line, cool liquid trickling into my vein. Head: fuzzy but clearing. Hands: free. Good. I could work with that. "She's awake." A woman's voice, sharp and clinical. "Heart rate just elevated." Damn it. I gave up the pretense and opened my eyes. The woman standing over me had short red hair, sharp cheekbones, and the expression of someone who'd seen too much to be impressed by anything. Scrubs. Stethoscope. The way she held herself said doctor even without the props. "Welcome back." She didn't smile. "I'm Dr. Chen. You're in the Crescent Moon pack house, medical wing. You've been out for about six hours." Six hours. Long enough for them to stitch me up, pump me full of fluids, and run every test imaginable. Long enough to figure out I wasn't exactly what I appeared to be. Long enough for Kade to start asking questions I wasn't ready to answer. "Where is he?" My voice came out rougher than intended. Raw. Dr. Chen didn't pretend not to know who I meant. "Pacing a hole in the floor outside. Hasn't left since he brought you in." She paused, studying me with dark, knowing eyes. "You want to tell me what really happened to you?"