Chapter 6: Shattered Oaths

The forest swallowed them in darkness, branches clawing at their skin as they ran. Silas shifted back into his human form, blood streaking down his arms, his chest rising and falling with ragged fury. Brian held Nicole close, refusing to slow down until the distant chaos of the camp was nothing but echoes on the wind.

Only then, in a hollow carved by roots and stone, did he finally let her go.

Nicole staggered back, her wrists raw and bleeding from the chains, her breath still trembling. The night pressed in heavy, suffocating. She searched his face, waiting—needing—for him to say something. Anything.

But Brian just stood there, bloodied hands flexing, jaw clenched so tight his teeth might break.

“Brian.” Her voice cracked, but she didn’t let it falter. “What was that?”

Silas glanced between them, his sharp eyes narrowing, but he said nothing. The silence grew heavier.

Nicole’s fists curled. “Don’t you dare stand there and tell me it was nothing. He knew you. He called you—” Her breath hitched. “Son of the Order.”

Brian flinched, just barely, but it was enough.

The sound of her laugh was hollow, broken. “God. And you didn’t even deny it.”

“Nicole—” His voice was rough, scraped raw. “I didn’t have a choice back then.”

Her chest heaved. “Back then? You mean before me? Before all of this? Before you swore to me that you’d never keep secrets again?”

Silas shifted his weight, finally cutting in. “We don’t have time for this. He saved your life. That’s what matters right now.”

Nicole’s glare snapped to him. “Don’t you dare defend him. You knew, didn’t you?”

Silas’s silence was answer enough.

The betrayal stung sharper than the chains had.

“Both of you.” She shook her head, stepping back until her shoulders brushed the rough bark of a tree. “All this time—you’ve let me stand in the dark while they knew exactly who I was married to.”

Brian moved closer, hands raised as if she were something fragile. “I was going to tell you. I swear it. But once you knew… there was no taking it back. And I wanted to give you every moment of peace I could before this—before they came for us.”

Her tears burned hot, but her voice was ice. “You mean before they came for you.”

That one landed. Brian’s shoulders sagged, his gaze falling.

Nicole pressed her palms into her eyes, her whole body shaking. Images of the hooded man, of Brian on his knees, of the way he had almost obeyed—it wouldn’t stop replaying.

When she finally lowered her hands, her voice was steady again, but stripped of warmth. “Tell me the truth, Brian. All of it. Or this ends tonight.”

The forest went deathly still.

Silas shifted uncomfortably, then stepped back, leaving them in the weight of their silence.

Brian lifted his gaze, and for the first time since she’d met him, Nicole saw something in his eyes she had never seen before. Not anger. Not fire. But fear.

He drew a ragged breath.

“The Order…” His voice was barely above a whisper. “It was my family. My blood. And I was meant to be their weapon.”

Nicole’s stomach turned to stone.

Brian’s words seemed to rot the air between them. My family. My blood. Their weapon.

Nicole shook her head slowly, like if she denied it hard enough it would stop being real. “You don’t get to just—say that and stop there. You owe me more than riddles.”

His chest rose, fell. He rubbed his bloodstained palms together, eyes fixed on the ground as if the earth itself might open up and swallow him. “If I tell you everything now, Nicole… you’ll never look at me the same way again.”

Her laugh was sharp, bitter. “You think I’m looking at you the same way now?”

Silas shifted, restless, but kept his distance, watching.

Brian flinched but didn’t back down. He finally met her eyes, and she saw the storm behind them—shame, anger, grief. “The Order raised me. They shaped me. Every scar I have, every instinct you’ve ever seen—it comes from them. I was meant to serve them.”

Nicole’s throat closed, and she whispered, “Then why didn’t you?”

That question seemed to tear something raw inside him. His jaw tightened, his breath catching, but he didn’t answer. Not yet.

Instead, he took a step forward. “Do you remember the first night I told you I wanted more than blood and vengeance?”

Nicole’s chest ached. The memory was burned into her—the night under the stars, his hands trembling when he kissed her like it was both confession and plea.

“That was the first time I’d ever defied them,” Brian admitted softly. “Because for the first time in my life, I wanted something that wasn’t theirs.”

Nicole pressed her lips together until they hurt, unwilling to let her voice shake. “Me.”

His silence was answer enough.

But it wasn’t enough for her heart.

She turned her back on him, staring into the dark stretch of forest. “You still haven’t told me the truth. All of it.”

Brian’s fists curled, nails biting into his palms. “If I keep talking tonight, I won’t be able to stop. And I don’t know if you’re ready to hear what else I’ve done.”

Nicole spun back, eyes blazing with tears she refused to shed. “Then make me ready. Because right now, every second you hold back is another second I wonder if I ever really knew you at all.”

Silas shifted uneasily, muttering under his breath, “We don’t have the luxury of tearing ourselves apart here. They’ll be hunting already—”

Nicole snapped at him, raw and sharp. “Then maybe let them come, Silas. Because at this point, I don’t know which enemy is worse—the ones out there, or the ones in my own house.”

Silas froze, startled by the venom in her tone.

Brian didn’t move. His eyes, shadowed and dark, never left hers. “I’ll tell you. Piece by piece. But when I do… you won’t be able to unknow it. And I’ll lose you.”

Nicole’s lips trembled. “You already might have.”

The silence that followed was unbearable—broken only by the whisper of the trees.

Brian finally turned away, shoulders bowing as though carrying centuries. His voice, when it came, was low. “The Order doesn’t forgive. And they don’t forget. Which means now that they’ve seen you with me… you’re marked, Nicole. They won’t stop until you’re theirs, too. Or dead.”

Nicole’s knees weakened, but she forced herself upright, every inch of her trembling with both terror and fury.

Because the truth wasn’t just about Brian anymore.

It was about her.

Nicole couldn’t breathe. His words echoed, circling, drilling deeper until her chest ached like something was clawing its way out.

Marked. Mine. Or dead.

Her body wanted to recoil, to scream at him, but her pride rooted her in place. She bit down on her trembling lip until she tasted copper, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing her break.

“You should’ve told me,” she whispered, voice cutting through the night like a blade. “You should’ve told me before you touched me, before you—” Her throat closed. She couldn’t finish the thought, not without unraveling completely.

Brian stepped forward, but she jerked back so violently Silas’s hand twitched toward his knife, instincts firing.

“Don’t,” Nicole spat. “Don’t come near me right now.”

Brian froze, his face carved with pain. “I didn’t want this for you. Any of it.”

Her laugh cracked, half-mad. “But you gave it to me anyway. And now you stand there saying it like I should forgive you because it was love?”

His jaw flexed, muscles ticking as if he were restraining himself from breaking. “Because it was love, Nicole. It still is.”

Nicole shook her head, tears finally stinging her eyes, refusing to fall. “Don’t you dare use that word. Not when you’ve twisted it into a weapon. Not when you knew what you were, what hunted you, and you let me walk blind into it.”

The words spilled faster now, each one hitting him like a strike. “Do you even know what you’ve done? You didn’t just put me in their sights—you’ve painted a target on all of us. My pack. My people. Everyone who ever trusted me.”

Silas’s eyes flicked between them, his mouth a grim line. But for once, he didn’t speak.

Brian’s voice broke low, guttural. “I wanted to tell you. A hundred times. But every time I opened my mouth, I saw the way you looked at me… like I was worth saving. And I couldn’t—” He cut off, shaking his head violently. “I couldn’t bear to lose that.”

Nicole’s lips parted, but no words came. Rage warred with grief, with the sting of betrayal that tasted almost like mourning.

Finally, she whispered, “Then maybe you should’ve thought about losing me before you decided to lie.”

The silence was thick, heavy, suffocating. Even the forest seemed to bow to it.

Nicole took one shuddering breath, her chest burning. Then she turned, back straight, shoulders trembling but unbroken.

“You’ll talk, Brian. You’ll spill every last truth you’ve been hiding. But not tonight. Not until I decide I can stomach the sound of your voice again.”

Brian reached out instinctively, but his hand faltered in the air—hovering, aching, and then curling into a fist. He didn’t touch her. Couldn’t.

Nicole stepped past him, the brush of her shoulder deliberate, like steel dragging across stone. She moved into the darkness of the clearing’s edge, refusing to look back.

Silas exhaled, muttered something sharp under his breath, then followed.

Brian stayed where he was, swallowing silence, his shadow stretched thin by the moonlight.

Silas caught up to her within seconds, his longer stride cutting through the undergrowth until he was level with her. He didn’t speak at first, just kept pace, his eyes sharp and assessing in the low moonlight.

“Careful,” Nicole muttered without slowing. “If you’ve got some lecture lined up, I might tear your throat out.”

A corner of his mouth tugged up—not a smile, more a twitch. “Wasn’t planning on a lecture. More of a warning.”

Nicole snapped her gaze toward him. “A warning? Haven’t I had enough of those for one night?”

Silas’s stare was unflinching, dark as the woods around them. “You think you’re angry now? You haven’t even begun to scratch at what’s buried under that man’s skin.”

Her steps faltered for a fraction of a second before she forced herself forward again. “Then spit it out. What else aren’t you telling me?”

He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he shoved his hands into his jacket pockets, eyes scanning the trees like he was weighing something heavier than words. Finally, he said, “You want the truth drip-fed? Fine. But understand this, Nicole—every time you demand it, it’s going to hurt worse than the last.”

Her pulse spiked, fury and fear twining tight. “So you’re saying you know more. That you’ve been holding back just like him.”

Silas’s jaw tightened. “I’ve been holding back because once you cross that line, there’s no going back. No unhearing. No pretending you’re not already neck-deep in blood that isn’t yours.”

Nicole stopped dead, spinning on him. “Do not stand there and act like you’re doing me a kindness. He lied. You stood by and let him. And now I’m the one standing in the ruins.”

For the first time, Silas’s cool exterior cracked—just slightly, just enough. His eyes softened, and it made Nicole’s stomach twist with unease.

“You’re not in the ruins,” he said, voice low, almost rough. “Not yet. But you will be if you keep clinging to the man who built the fire under your feet.”

The words landed like claws dragging down her spine.

Nicole’s lips parted, but no sound came. Because for one terrible moment, she thought she saw something in Silas’s face—not disdain, not warning, but something dangerously close to pity.

And pity was the one thing she could not bear.

Her fists clenched. “Stay out of my head, Silas. Out of my choices. You don’t get to pick who I hold on to.”

Silas gave a long, heavy exhale, as if he’d expected that. “Then you’d better start choosing fast. Because the storm that man’s dragging behind him?” He tilted his head toward where Brian still lingered in the clearing. “It doesn’t leave survivors.”

Nicole swallowed hard, throat tight. But she turned away before he could see the shimmer in her eyes.

She wouldn’t give him—or Brian—the power of her tears.

Nicole swallowed hard, throat tight. But she turned away before he could see the shimmer in her eyes.

She wouldn’t give him—or Brian—the power of her tears.

Behind her, Silas didn’t follow. He just watched, a shadow carved out of darker shadow, the weight of unspoken truths hanging in the air like smoke.

Nicole walked on, spine straight, rage and hurt burning in equal measure. Each step away from them felt like defiance—and like breaking.

The night around her was silent, but inside, everything was shattering.