Chapter 4:The Scent Of Him

Bailey's Pov:

The freezing rain turned into a downpour, mixing with the blood trickling into my eyes. Every step away from the pack house felt like my heart was being physically shredded. The rejection mark on my soul burned, a raw, pulsing agony that made me want to curl up in the dirt and never get back up.

I could still hear Hudson’s voice ringing in my ears. I reject you.

"Please, Moon Goddess," I whispered, my voice cracking.

"Just let me die out here. Don't make me feel this."

I stumbled over a thick root and went down hard. My knees hit the jagged rocks, but I didn't even cry out. Compared to the bond snapping, the physical pain was nothing. I crawled toward the shelter of a massive rock overhang, my lungs gasping for air that felt like needles.

The scent hit me then.

It wasn't pine or cedar like the triplets. It was something darker. Something ancient. It smelled like a thunderstorm and expensive tobacco.

I looked up and saw a small, stone cabin tucked into the side of the cliff. It looked abandoned, but the air around it was vibrating with a terrifying energy.

I pushed myself up, shivering so hard my teeth were chattering. I didn't care who was inside. I didn't care if it was a rogue. Anything was better than being hunted by the men who were supposed to love me.

I pushed the door open. It wasn't locked.

The heat. It was stifling. The fireplace was roaring, but the heat wasn't just coming from the flames.

"Get out."

The voice was a low, guttural snarl that vibrated through the floorboards.

I froze. In the shadows near the hearth, a man was slumped in a heavy leather chair. He was massive. Even sitting down, he looked like he could snap me in half with one hand. His shirt was discarded on the floor, and his skin was slick with sweat.

"I... I'm sorry," I stammered, clutching my arms. "I just needed to get out of the rain."

He turned his head slowly. His eyes weren't the amber of a normal wolf. They were a piercing, glowing silver. A Lycan.

"I said get out, little wolf," he growled. He gripped the arms of the chair so hard the wood began to groan. "Before I do something we both regret."

He let out a strangled groan and arched his back. His muscles bunched and shifted, his veins standing out like cords against his tanned skin. He looked like he was in absolute agony.

"You're hurting," I said softly, taking a cautious step forward.

"It's a rut, you fool," he hissed through clenched teeth. "A Lycan rut. Do you even know what that means?"

I swallowed hard. I knew. It was a biological curse for their kind. Every few years, their blood boiled. They became mindless, feral, and driven by a singular, violent need.

"I have medicine in my bag," I offered, my voice shaking. "I'm an Omega. I know how to help with fever."

He let out a dark, mocking laugh that turned into a cough. "Medicine won't fix this. Only one thing fixes this, and you are far too small to handle it."

He tried to stand, but his legs gave out. He crashed to the floor, gasping for air.

I forgot about my own pain for a second. I forgot about Hudson and the rejection. I rushed to his side, kneeling in the dirt.

"Don't touch me," he barked, but he didn't pull away when my cold hand brushed his burning shoulder.

His skin felt like a furnace. He looked up at me, his silver eyes searching my face. He went rigid. He took a long, shaky breath, his nose skimming the side of my neck where the rejection mark was still raw.

"You smell like blood," he muttered, his voice losing some of its edge. "And heartbreak."

"I was rejected," I whispered.

His hand shot out, gripping my waist. His touch was bruising, but it sent a jolt of electricity through me that made my toes curl.

"The fools," he breathed. He leaned in, his forehead resting against mine. "They threw away a diamond because they were too blind to see it."

"You don't even know me."

"I know the scent of a fated mate when she's standing in front of me," he whispered.

My heart stopped. "That's impossible. I just..."

"The bond can reset," he interrupted, his voice thick with desire. "If the soul is broken enough. And right now, little wolf, I am starving."

He pulled me closer, his lips brushing against the pulse point in my neck. The heat from his body was seeping into mine, chasing away the chill of the woods. For the first time in my life, I didn't feel like a servant. I didn't feel like an unwanted stray.

"What's your name?" I asked, my breath hitching as his teeth grazed my skin.

"Hades," he groaned.

He pulled me down onto the furs spread before the fire. The world outside vanished. The pain of the triplets, the cruelty of the pack, the blood on my face—it all burned away in the heat of his touch.

It wasn't gentle. It was desperate. It was two broken souls clinging to each other in the dark.

*****

The sun was barely peeking through the cracks in the wooden shutters when I woke up. The fire had died down to glowing embers.

I was wrapped in a heavy fur cloak, the scent of tobacco and rain clinging to my skin. I felt different. The hollow ache in my chest was gone, replaced by a strange, humming warmth.

I looked beside me. The space was empty.

I sat up, clutching the fur to my chest. "Hades?"

There was no answer.

I stood up, my legs feeling like jelly. I found my torn dress neatly folded on a stool near the door. Next to it was a heavy gold ring set with a black diamond.

I picked it up, my heart racing.

Suddenly, the door to the cabin was kicked open.

I jumped back, expecting to see Hades. But it wasn't the Lycan King.

Hudson stood in the doorway, his face pale and his eyes bloodshot. He looked like he hadn't slept a second. Behind him stood Zayn and Beckett, their expressions unreadable.

Hudson stepped into the room, his eyes scanning the rumpled furs on the floor. His gaze snapped to mine, and his nostrils flared.

"Who was here, Bailey?" Hudson asked, his voice dangerously low.

"It's none of your business," I said, trying to hide the gold ring in my palm. "You rejected me, remember?"

Hudson walked toward me, his Alpha aura suffocating the small room. He grabbed my hand, forcing my fingers open to reveal the ring.

He froze. His eyes widened in pure horror as he stared at the crest engraved on the gold.

"Where did you get this?" Hudson hissed, his grip tightening until I thought my bones would snap.

"He gave it to me," I spat.

Zayn stepped forward, his face white as a sheet. "Hudson, that's the Royal Lycan seal."

"I know what it is!" Hudson roared. He turned back to me, his eyes burning with a mix of jealousy and terror.

"Do you have any idea what you've done? You didn't just sleep with a stranger, Bailey."

He shoved me toward the door, his voice shaking.

"The King is looking for the woman who stole his seal," Hudson whispered. "And the Elders just called an emergency meeting. They say the Lycan King is coming to Blackwood to execute whoever touched his mark."

My stomach dropped. I looked down at the ring in my hand.

The gold ring felt like a brand against my palm, searing the skin with a heat that didn't belong to this world. I stared at Hudson. The man who had spent a decade breaking my spirit now looked like he was the one being shattered.

"The King doesn't lose things, Bailey," Hudson hissed, his voice cracking with a fear I had never seen in him. "And he certainly doesn't leave his seal with a stray Omega unless he’s marking her for a slow death."

"Maybe he just liked me more than you," I spat.

Zayn stepped into the room, his dark eyes fixed on the rumpled furs. He walked over to the hearth, his nostrils flaring as he caught the scent still hanging in the air. "It’s not just the ring, Hud. The scent... it’s suffocating. It’s him. The Thunder-King."

"Pack your things," Hudson ordered, grabbing my upper arm. His grip was frantic, his fingers digging into my bruises. "We’re going back to the packhouse. We’ll tell the Elders you found the ring in the woods. You never saw him. You never touched him. Do you understand?"

"I'm not going back to be your slave, Hudson. You rejected me!" I twisted in his grip, but he slammed me against the cabin wall.

"You’ll go back because if the Lycan King finds out an Omega from the Blood Moon pack has his seal, he won't just kill you," Hudson growled, his face inches from mine. "He’ll burn this entire territory to the ground. Is that what you want? To be the reason Rhea and the others are slaughtered?"

The mention of Rhea silenced me. I looked at Beckett, who was standing by the window, staring out at the treeline. He looked like he was staring at an approaching storm.

"He’s here," Beckett whispered.

The air in the cabin suddenly turned heavy, like the atmospheric pressure before a lightning strike. The silence that followed was absolute—no birds, no wind, not even the sound of the triplets' breathing.

Then, a low, tectonic rumble vibrated through the floorboards. It wasn't a growl; it was the sound of a fleet of heavy engines idling at the edge of the clearing.

"Out. Now," Hudson commanded, dragging me toward the door.

We stepped onto the porch. The sight that met us was something out of a nightmare. Six matte-black armored cars were parked in a semi-circle around the cabin. Men in tactical gear, their eyes glowing a faint, predatory silver, stood with their hands on their holsters.

At the center of the formation stood a man who made the triplets look like children playing dress-up.

Hades.

He wasn't wearing the furs from last night. He wore a charcoal-grey suit tailored so perfectly it looked like armor. His dark hair was swept back, and the jagged tattoos on his neck were visible above his white collar. He didn't look like a man who had spent the night sweating in a rut. He looked like a god of war deciding which part of the world to conquer first.

His silver eyes locked onto mine. The mate bond, which I thought had been a fever dream, snapped tight around my lungs. My wolf, previously silenced by Hudson’s rejection, let out a submissive howl in the back of my mind.

"Alpha Hudson," Hades said. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried across the clearing with the weight of a death sentence. "I believe you have something that belongs to me."

Hudson bowed his head, his body trembling. "Your Majesty. We found the girl. She was... she was attempting to flee with your property. We were bringing her to you for justice."

I looked at Hudson in disbelief. The coward. He was handing me over as a thief to save his own skin.

Hades didn't look at Hudson. He started walking toward the porch, his strides slow and predatory. The tactical guards moved in sync with him, closing the circle.

He stopped at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at me. "Is that true, little wolf? Did you steal from me?"

I looked at the gold ring in my hand, then at the triplets who had betrayed me, and finally at the Lycan King.

"I didn't steal it," I said, my voice surprisingly steady. "You left it."

A collective gasp went up from the pack members who had followed the triplets into the woods. To speak to the King without bowing was a crime. To contradict him was suicide.

Hades’s lips curled into a slow, dangerous smirk. He mounted the steps, stepping into Hudson’s personal space. Hudson didn't move. He couldn't. The Lycan’s aura had him pinned like an insect.

Hades reached out and took my hand. His touch was electric, sending a wave of warmth through my frozen body. He took the ring from my palm, but he didn't put it in his pocket.

He slid it onto my ring finger.

"I didn't leave it," Hades murmured, his voice dropping to that private, gravelly tone from the cabin. “