Runaway Luna: His Heir, Her Freedom

Chapter3

Five Winters Later

Five years later

Aeryn's POV

The wrench slipped from my grip and clattered against the concrete floor. I cursed under my breath and bent to pick it up, my Iron Rogues vest shifting against my shoulders. Five years, and I still wasn't used to the weight of it. The colors I'd earned. The respect that came with them.

"Mama, you said a bad word."

I looked up to find Nyx standing in the garage doorway, his small hands on his hips. Five years old and already too smart for his own good. He had my dark hair, but Kael's sharp features, a combination that sometimes made my chest ache when I looked at him too long.

"I did," I admitted, standing and wiping grease from my hands. "But you did not hear it, right?"

His grin was pure mischief. "I did not hear anything."

"Anything," I corrected. "You didn't hear anything."

"That's what I said." He bounced into the garage, all energy and chaos like every five-year old. But there was something else there too. Something that made him move too fast, jump too high, break things without meaning to. Wolf blood, calling to be free.

"Where's Uncle Hank?" I asked, deflecting his attention.

"He's outside with Razor. They're talking about the thing." Nyx lowered his voice dramatically on the last word, like it was a secret.

"What thing?"

"The wolf thing. They told me to go inside, but I heard them anyway." He tapped his ear. "I got good hearing."

Too good. Better than any human child should have. I'd noticed it last year when he started hearing conversations from three rooms away. Just like I'd noticed when he'd accidentally bent a metal spoon while eating cereal, or when he'd jumped off the shed roof and landed without a scratch.

The wolf in him was getting stronger. And I had no idea how to handle it.

"Go wash up for dinner," I told him. "We're having pizza tonight."

"The good kind? With the extra cheese?"

"Is there any other kind?"

He whooped and ran off, his footsteps too heavy for someone so small. I watched him go, my heart doing that thing it always did. Pride mixed with terror mixed with love so fierce it hurt.

I cleaned up my tools and headed outside. Hank and Razor stood by the fence, their voices low and serious. They stopped talking when they saw me.

"Don't stop on my account," I said, crossing my arms. "What's this about wolves?"

Hank exchanged a glance with Razor. Over the years, I'd told them pieces of my past. Not everything. Never everything. But enough that they knew I was running from something dangerous, something that wasn't quite human.

They'd figured out the rest on their own. Bikers were good at reading between lines.

"There's a new MC moving into the territory," Hank said carefully. "Call themselves Night Howl."

The name hit me like a punch. I kept my face blank, but my wolf stirred inside me, recognizing the threat.

"And?" I asked.

"And they're not exactly normal," Razor added. He pulled out his phone and showed me a photo. Men on motorcycles, all wearing matching vests with a howling wolf patch. "They showed up in Crescent Falls about six months ago. Started taking over territory. Rough methods. Real rough."

I studied the photo. The men looked hard, dangerous. But it was their eyes that gave them away. That particular intensity that came from having a beast living under your skin.

"You think they're like me," I said quietly.

"We think they're looking for something," Hank said. "Or someone. They've been asking questions. Showing photos around."

My blood went cold. "What kind of photos?"

Hank pulled out a folded paper from his pocket and handed it to me. I unfolded it with shaking hands.

It was my face. Older photo, from before I'd left Grimfang. My hair was longer then, and I was smiling at something off camera. I remembered that day. Kael had taken the photo at a pack gathering.

"Where did you get this?" I asked.

"One of their prospects was flashing it around at a bar in Redwood two nights ago," Razor said. "Asking if anyone had seen you. Said there was money for information."

I crumpled the paper in my fist. Five years. Five years of peace, of building a life, of keeping Nyx safe. And now this.

"They know I'm here," I said.

"They know you're somewhere in the region," Hank corrected. "But this is a big area. Lots of small towns. Lots of places to hide."

"I can't hide forever." I looked back at the house where Nyx was probably destroying the kitchen in his attempt to help set the table. "Not with him. He's getting stronger. Harder to control."

"What exactly is he?" Razor asked. He'd been wanting to ask that question for years. I could tell.

"Something that doesn't belong in the human world," I said. "Something that will get him killed if the wrong people find him."

Hank put a hand on my shoulder. "Then we don't let them find him. You're Iron Rogues now, Aeryn. That means something. We protect our own."

"You don't understand what you're dealing with," I said. "These aren't just bikers. They're predators. Apex predators. They can track by scent, fight with strength no human has. And if they're organized, if they're working together as an MC..." I trailed off, the implications sinking in.

"Then they're more dangerous than any gang we've ever faced," Hank finished. "Yeah, we get it."

"No, you don't." I shook my head. "Back where I came from, we had rules. Territories. Leaders. But we stayed hidden. Stayed in the shadows. If these wolves are riding openly as an MC, taking territory, drawing attention... they're breaking every law our kind ever had."

"Maybe that's the point," Razor said. "Maybe they don't care about the old rules anymore."

He was right. And that made them even more dangerous.

"I need to think," I said, turning back toward the house. "I need to figure out what to do."

"You've got time," Hank called after me. "They're still forty miles north. We'll hear if they start moving this way."

But time was exactly what I didn't have. Not if they were already showing my photo around. Not if they were getting close.

Inside, Nyx had indeed destroyed the kitchen. Pizza sauce somehow decorated the ceiling. He looked up at me with guilty eyes.

"It was an accident," he said quickly.

"I'm sure it was." I grabbed a towel and started wiping down the counter. "Hey, Nyx. Remember the rules?"

He recited them automatically, like we'd practiced a thousand times. "No breaking stuff on purpose. No talking about feeling different. No telling anyone our real last names. No asking about daddy."

Each rule was a brick in the wall I'd built between us and the past. Between Nyx and the world that would claim him if it could.

"Good boy," I kissed the top of his head. "Now go get cleaned up. For real this time."

He ran off again, leaving chaos in his wake. I stood alone in the kitchen, surrounded by pizza sauce and the weight of five years of running.

I'd thought I'd escaped. Thought I'd build something permanent here, something safe. The Iron Rogues had given me colors, respect, a place to belong. I'd learned to fight like a human, to think like a human, to almost be human. But I'd been fooling myself.

The past wasn't done with me. It had just been gathering strength, changing tactics. Learning to hunt in new ways.

I walked to the window and looked out at the darkening street. Somewhere out there, wolves rode on motorcycles instead of running through forests. They wore club colors instead of pack bonds. They hunted on asphalt instead of dirt trails.

And they were coming for me. I touched the Iron Rogues patch on my vest, then looked back toward Nyx's room where I could hear him singing off key while he washed his hands.

"Let them come," I whispered to the gathering darkness. "I'm not the same woman who ran five years ago. I'm not weak. I'm not afraid."

I am a mother now. And I would kill anyone who tried to take my so

n. Even if they rode on two wheels instead of four paws, the hunt was still the same. And this time, I wouldn't be the prey..