CHAPTER 5

Amara

"Is this really what it’s like?" I asked, and my voice sounded small, even to me. The trees stood so tall they scraped the sky, even the night sky. I’d never seen the sky without roofs or walls cutting it up before.

"What, the outside?" The man, the one who talked a lot, chuckled. "Yeah, sweet pea. This is it. No walls. Just... all of it." He pointed at nothing and everything with his chin. "Name's Zane, by the way. This quiet one is Aldric."

The quiet one, Aldric, just nodded. He sat across the dying fire, staring at the trees. He didn’t smile, not even a little bit. Zane, though, he grinned. His eyes were friendly.

"I'm Amara." I felt a little silly saying my name after being called 'sweet pea' and 'little bird' so many times already through the long walk.

"Amara," Zane repeated, like he was trying it out. He sounded nice when he said it. "Alright, Amara. First night out. You gonna be okay sleeping with all these trees?"

"I don't know," I said honestly. It was weird. The ground was hard. The air smelled funny, all dirt and leaves and something wild.

A shadow moved at the edge of the firelight. It was another man. He was shorter than Zane and Aldric, but wide. He just walked up and sat down, never looking at me directly. He just looked at the fire, then at Zane, then at the fire again. He didn't say anything.

"Oh, right," Zane said, like he just remembered. "Amara, this is Bram. He's one of ours. Doesn't talk much. Usually right, though, about everything important."

Bram grunted. He didn't say anything to prove Zane wrong. Or right. He just reached into his pack and pulled out a piece of dried meat and a flatbread. He held it out to me without a word.

I stared at it. Nobody ever just gave me food without me asking, or at least being told to take it. It was just... given. Like it was normal. I took it slowly. It felt warm in my hand. "Thank you," I mumbled.

He just nodded, still not looking at me. Then he started eating his own food. I liked him right away, even though it felt strange. This small kindness, just a bit of food, sat in my chest. It felt weird.

The fire crackled, spitting tiny sparks into the dark. Zane kept talking a little, trying to get me to talk back. He tried being funny first. "So, how’s your new life as a runaway omega? Any complaints about the service?" He winked, but I just looked at him. What was funny about this?

Then he tried something else. "It's not so bad, is it? Better than being stuck in your pack. Better than… well, you know." He meant Corvus. Or who knows? I just looked at my food.

Aldric, across the fire, had still not looked away from the middle distance. His eyes were fixed on nothing, but I could feel him. I could feel his attention. He wasn't just sitting there. He was listening to everything. Every word. Every silence. He was listening to what wasn’t being said, too. I knew that feeling. I did it all the time.

Bram cleared his throat. He reached into his pack again, but this time he pulled out a rolled piece of parchment. It looked worn. He unrolled it slowly. The fire light danced on the old paper. He didn't look up when he started to read. His voice was flat.

"Public bounty. Lord Corvus and allied packs. For Zane and Aldric. Wanted for kidnapping. Rogue activity. Dangerous. High risk. Significant reward for their capture. Dead or alive. Equal weight."

The fire crackled. Zane made a noise, a short, sharp laugh. "Dead or alive, huh? And 'significant reward'? That amount is personally insulting. I thought I'd be worth at least a small village and a handful of horses. Maybe a new blade." He shook his head, still grinning, but his eyes were hard.

Aldric, though, he just went still. Very, very still. He wasn't looking at the fire anymore. He was thinking. Hard.

I said nothing. I just kept looking at the fire, too. But my own mind was doing math. The bounty went out so fast. Too fast. It was only our first night. How could Corvus have put out a public bounty so quickly for two rogues who kidnapped one omega girl? That didn't make sense.

I said none of this out loud. The fire kept crackling. Zane was still talking, making more jokes about the bounty, but the lightness had gone out of his voice. He was just making noise now.

Aldric’s eyes moved then. From the middle distance where they had been locked all evening, they moved to my face. His gaze landed on me... held just long enough to feel intentional. Then it was gone.

I lay down that night with my back against the rough bark of the nearest tree. The ground was cold. The Moon Goddess watched me from above, big and bright. I kept running the numbers in my head. The bounty. The timing. "For Zane and Aldric." Not just "two unknown rogues." They knew who it was. And they knew so fast. It made my skin prickle, even in the cool night air.

I ran the numbers twice. Same answer. Worse feeling. And I arrived at a conclusion that made my blood go cold, right down to my toes. Corvus didn't put that bounty out because Zane and Aldric took me. That didn’t make sense. Not unless… not unless someone told him.. They had sold out Zane and Aldric, and by extension, me. Which meant Corvus was not behind us. He was ahead of us.