“Raphael.”Her voice cracked on my name, hoarse from crying or screaming or both.
I reached for the zip ties with hands that were not entirely human anymore.My claws had extended without conscious thought, curved and sharp and hungry for the blood they had been denied.They sliced through the plastic like butter, severing the bonds that had held her captive.
Her hands fell from behind the chair, and she reached for me.
The moment her fingers touched my face, the bond ignited.
I had sensed her terror and relief bleeding through the connection between us, had used that thread of awareness to confirm she was alive even before I saw her with my own eyes.But this was different.This was her consciousness flooding into mine with nothing held back, every wall demolished, every barrier burned away by the simple fact of contact.
Her fear.Hours of it, building layer upon layer until it had grown into something that would take weeks to fully dissolve.Horror beneath that, fresh and raw, the kind that came from having your world rewritten by someone you thought you knew.And violation, a particular flavor of betrayal that tasted like family secrets and inherited sins.
Her love.Burning beneath the fear like coals that refused to die, warming her from the inside even as she sat bound and helpless in a dead woman’s living room.Love for me.Trust in me.Faith that I would come, that I would find her, that I would tear through whatever stood between us because that was what mates did.Because that was what I had proven I would do, over and over, even when it cost me everything.
Her relief.Crashing through everything else as she touched my face and felt me solid and real beneath her fingers.I came.I found her.She was not alone anymore.
I pulled her against my chest and held her so tight I could feel her heartbeat hammering against my ribs.Her scent surrounded me.Blood from her wrists, fear from her ordeal, the chemical ghost of chloroform still clinging to her hair.But underneath all of that, the essential truth of her.Warm skin and familiar soap and the particular sweetness that had haunted me since the first moment I scented her in that hotel lobby a lifetime ago.
The wolf purred with satisfaction even as the man drowned in guilt.
If I had lost her, the bond would have killed me.I knew that now with a certainty that went beyond logic or reason.Hours of terror, of the connection screaming with her fear, of feeling her pain through the threads that bound us together.If Michael had succeeded, if I had arrived too late, the bond would have snapped and taken my sanity with it.
“I left you.”The words tore out of me, raw and ragged and utterly inadequate.“I answered the summons and I left you.The Pakhan called and I went like an obedient dog, and this happened because I was not here to stop it.”
Her fingers curled into my shirt, holding on like she would never let go.“You came back.”
“I should never have left.”
“Raphael.”She pulled back just enough to look at me, her eyes wet with tears she had not let herself shed while Michael held her captive.“You came back.That is what matters.”
It was not what mattered.It was not enough.I had failed her in the most fundamental way a mate could fail, had left her vulnerable to the predator lurking in plain sight while I submitted to pack discipline like a good little wolf.The half-healed scars on my chest from the Pakhan’s unfinished mark throbbed beneath my shirt, a reminder of what my obedience had cost.What my cowardice had enabled.
But she was alive.She was in my arms.And for this moment, that had to be enough.
“He’s my brother.”Her voice was muffled against my chest, the words vibrating against my ribs.“My father had an affair.Michael is his son.”
Richard’s son.The words landed like a blow.I had tracked Michael here, had followed his scent to this house and known he was the threat.But I had not known why, had not understood the twisted family history that connected them.
“I tracked him here,” I said.“Figured out he was the one behind everything.But I did not know about your father.Not until now.”
She shuddered against me, and I tightened my arms around her.We would have time later to untangle the full horror of what Michael had revealed.The affair.The payoff.The decades of abandonment that had twisted him into the monster he had become.Right now, all that mattered was getting her somewhere safe.Somewhere Michael could not find.Somewhere the Pakhan’s hunters could not reach.
Dmitri cleared his throat from his position by the door.“We need to move.”
He was right.Michael knew we were here, knew we would be focused on Lena’s injuries and each other.If he had any resources beyond his own frenzy, they would be converging on this location within the hour.
And then there was the kill order.
The Pakhan’s price on both our heads, issued when I tore myself free from his punishment and raced to find my mate.Every wolf in the bratva hunting us now.Viktor and Dmitri’s loyalty fracturing.The pack I had served for decades turning against me because I had chosen her over them.Because I had defied Max not once but twice, and there was no forgiveness for that level of rebellion.
We were dead wolves walking.The only question was how long we could stay ahead of the hunters.
“Can you walk?”I asked Lena, though I already knew the answer from the way she trembled against me.
“I think so.”She tried to pull away, to test her legs, but her knees buckled almost immediately.The chloroform was still in her system, weakening her, slowing her reactions.Hours of being bound had left her muscles stiff and uncooperative.
I caught her before she could fall and lifted her into my arms.She weighed nothing at all, or maybe my wolf’s strength was surging in response to the threat still lingering in the air.Either way, carrying her was easier than breathing.
“Dmitri, get the car started.We are leaving.”