Chapter 7

## Chapter 4: Running Back to the Shadows

The concrete walls of the penthouse elevator shaft felt like they were collapsing in on me as the car plunged toward the lobby. I pressed my back against the mirrored glass, my breath coming in short, shallow gasps. My chest ached with a physical, tearing agony.

The fated mate bond wasn't a gift. It was a tether, and right now, Roman was pulling it taut, dragging my soul behind him while he stood in his kitchen with another woman.

The elevator doors chimed and slid open, revealing the polished marble of the luxury lobby. The daytime concierge looked up, his professional smile faltering as he saw me—barefoot, my midnight-black silk dress wrinkled, my dark hair a wild, tangled mess around my face.

"Miss Vance? Are you alright? Do you need me to call a car?" he asked, stepping out from behind the desk.

"No," I choked out, my voice cracking. "No, thank you."

I pushed through the heavy glass revolving doors, stepping straight onto the cold, damp pavement of the Chicago street. The morning air was biting, a harsh reality check against my bare skin. Passersby stared at me, humans in tailored business suits giving the disheveled girl in the formal dress a wide berth. I didn't care. I couldn't care.

I pulled out my phone, my fingers shaking so violently I nearly dropped it on the concrete. I opened a ride-share app, typed in the only destination that felt safe, and waited under the awning of a neighboring building, shivering as the wind whipped off the lake.

When the car arrived, I scrambled into the backseat, curling my bare feet beneath the hem of Roman’s dress. I stared out the window as the city skyline slowly bled into the sprawling, dense forests of northern Illinois—the edge of the Greyson pack territory.

By the time the driver pulled up to the long, winding gravel driveway of my mother’s house, the sun was high in the sky. The house was a beautiful, rustic craftsman style, nestled deeply within the ancient pine trees that bordered the pack lands. It was far enough from the main packhouse to offer privacy, but close enough to hear the distant, comforting howls of our kind at night.

I paid the driver, stepped out onto the gravel, and didn't stop running until I burst through the front door.

"Mom?" I cried out, the dam finally breaking.

The clatter of a ceramic mug hitting the kitchen counter echoed from the back of the house. A second later, my mother hurried into the foyer. She took one look at my face, her striking blue-green eyes widening with instant, maternal panic, and closed the distance between us in a heartbeat.

"Allie? Oh my god, sweetheart, what happened?" she breathed, wrapping her warm arms around my trembling shoulders.

I collapsed against her, my face burying into her neck as sob after sob ripped through my body. "It hurts, Mom. It hurts so bad."

"What hurts? Are you rejected? Allie, talk to me."

"Roman," I whimpered, the name tasting like ash on my tongue. "He's my mate. The bond snapped at midnight."

My mother went entirely rigid, her breath catching. "Roman? The Alpha heir? Allie, that’s—"

"He was with someone else," I choked out, pulling back just enough to look at her, my vision blurred with tears. "The exact second the bond snapped, he was making out with another girl in a VIP room. And this morning... she was in his kitchen. Her name is Vanessa. His parents want him to marry her to combine the packs. He didn't even tell her about me, Mom. He hid me in his room."

A dark, dangerous flash of protective maternal anger crossed my mother’s features. She rubbed my arms, her touch grounding me against the terrifying pull of the bond that was still pulsing inside my chest, demanding I return to my Alpha.

"You're safe here," she whispered fiercely, kissing the top of my head. "He might be the Alpha heir, but he does not get to break my daughter. Go upstairs. Wash the city off you. I’ll handle the rest."

Three hours later, I was sitting on the window seat of my childhood bedroom, wrapped in a massive, oversized flannel shirt and sweatpants. My skin was scrubbed raw, but the phantom feeling of Roman’s large hands on my waist still lingered, a phantom heat I couldn't wash away.

The platinum wolf bracelet sat on my nightstand. I had tried to take it off, but every time my fingers touched the clasp, a deep, agonizing ache radiated through my heart, as if my inner wolf was begging me not to sever the final connection to her mate. She was curled in a tight, miserable ball in the back of my mind, weeping for the cedarwood and winter air scent she had been denied.

Suddenly, a violent tremor shook the very air of the house.

The windowpane rattled against its frame. Deep within the woods, a thunderous, terrifying roar echoed through the trees, a sound so laced with raw, unadulterated Alpha dominance that my inner wolf instantly lifted her head, letting out a low whine.

He was here.

I scrambled to the window, pressing my face against the glass.

A sleek black sports car had slammed to a halt at the edge of our gravel driveway, the tires kicking up a cloud of dust. The driver’s side door flew open, and Roman stepped out.

He looked entirely unhinged. He hadn't changed out of the grey sweatpants from this morning, his bare chest exposed to the biting woods air, his jaw clenched so hard the muscles in his neck were strained. His dark hair was wild, and even from this distance, I could see the terrifying, midnight-black color of his dilated eyes. He was letting his wolf drive, completely consumed by the primal instinct to hunt down the mate who had run from him.

"Allison!" his voice boomed through the forest, a deafening command that vibrated straight through my bones.

Downstairs, the front door flung open. My mother stepped out onto the porch, her chin lifted high, her own beta-lineage aura flaring to shield her home. "Stand down, Roman! You do not yell like a wild beast on my property!"

"Where is she, Elena?" Roman growled, taking three massive, predatory strides toward the porch. His chest was heaving, a thin sheen of sweat coating his muscular torso despite the cold. "She ran. She left my apartment before I could explain. I need my mate. Let me through."

"You have a lot of nerve coming here after what you did to her," my mother shot back, her voice dripping with ice. "She saw you, Roman. She saw the Cresent pack girl in your kitchen. You are an Alpha heir, but you will not play games with my daughter's soul."

"I am not playing games!" Roman roared, a sound of sheer, desperate agony ripping from his throat. He dropped to his knees in the gravel, his hands clutching his head as his body shuddered. "I’m going crazy, Elena. The bond... she’s blocking me. It feels like my chest is caving in. I would never hurt her. I didn't know Vanessa would be there. I didn't ask for her. Please. Just let me see her."

Watching him collapse into the dirt from my bedroom window made something fracture in my chest. The bond was a two-way street; if I was feeling this suffocating agony, he was feeling the raw, unfiltered rejection of his mate fleeing his territory.

I couldn't stay hidden. The pulling sensation in my heart was too strong, dragging me toward the stairs before I could think logically.

I threw the front door open, stepping out onto the porch past my mother.

"Roman," I called out, my voice trembling but clear.

The moment the sound of my voice hit the air, Roman’s head snapped up. His black eyes locked onto mine, and a violent shudder went through his massive frame. In a single, blur-like motion, he was off his knees and rushing toward the porch.

My mother stepped into his path, but I placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay, Mom. Let me talk to him."

She looked at me, worried, but slowly stepped aside.

Roman stopped at the bottom of the porch steps, looking up at me. Up close, he looked completely destroyed. The arrogant, untouchable NHL star was entirely gone, replaced by a desperate male on the verge of tears.

"Al," he choked out, taking a tentative step up the stairs, his hands extending toward me, trembling. "Al, please. Look at me. Vanessa means nothing. My parents... they set it up. They brought her to the penthouse this morning while I was checking the perimeter for you. I didn't invite her. I told her to leave."

"But you didn't tell her about me, Roman," I whispered, the tears burning my throat. "You didn't tell her the bond snapped. You let her stand there and talk about your marriage contract while I was hiding in your bed."

"Because I was terrified!" he cried out, his voice cracking as he took the final step, closing the distance between us. The overwhelming scent of cedarwood and winter air flooded my senses, making my head spin. He didn't touch me, but he was close enough that I could feel the radiant heat of his body. "If the elders find out you're my mate before I can secure the pack leadership, they will use it against us, Al. They will try to invalidate the bond to force the alliance with the Crescent pack. I was trying to protect you. I need to handle them first."

He took a deep breath, his blue eyes finally bleeding back through the black, filled with a profound, terrifying vulnerability.

"My wolf is calling out for you, Allie," he whispered, his hand hovering just an inch away from my cheek, desperately craving the contact. "He wants to claim you. He wants to make love to you until you forget any other woman ever existed. Please, Al. Come back to the penthouse with me. Don't leave me in the dark."

I looked into his eyes, my heart tearing in two directions. I wanted to believe him. I wanted to throw myself into his arms and let the mating heat consume the pain. But as I looked past his broad shoulders toward the dark forest, the shadow of Vanessa and the heavy weight of his Alpha duties hung over us like a shroud.

We were mates, but the war for our future had just begun.