CHAPTER 5

Chapter 5.

Nova’s POV

Cassian doesn’t let me sleep.

Not because he touches me—he doesn’t. Not after the bite. He sits across the room, bare chest, gold eyes lit in the barely lit room like a god chained underground. Watching me. Watching himself unravel, maybe.

The mark on my shoulder burns. I can still feel his teeth there, deep, like he has branded himself into my ribs as much as my mind. The mate bond hums every time my heart beats, a pull tying me to him so tight I feel the echo of his breath before I hear it.

And yet, morning comes.

The desert doesn’t care that my world ended and began last night. It just…carries on.

I don’t know what to feel because it feels like my emotions are everywhere. Scattered across my mind.

And I barely had time to process it.

I just wanted to take pictures of the dessert then call it a day with photography but my car had brought me here. Into the arms of a man that actually howls.

Talk about a horror romance film only in this case, I doubt Cassian feels anything other than responsibility towards me. 

Cassian doesn’t speak when he leads me back up the stairs. He doesn’t explain, doesn’t apologize. He doesn’t have to. The bond tells me everything he won’t.

That he regrets.

That he doesn’t.

That he will kill anyone who tries to take me.

That he would rather tear the bond out of himself than admit it feels like salvation.

I keep my mouth shut. If I open it, the wrong words will spill.

“Get on” He climbs onto his bike,gesturing to me to get on the back.

“Where are we going?”

“You will see”

We don’t make it far.

The ambush comes faster and unpectedly than last night.

One moment it’s just us on the road. The next—bikes.Too many of them with the same patch from last night.. Like they had come to take revenge for their hurt brothers.

Cassian swears, spinning his own bike hard enough that my stomach lurches. “Hold on!”

I don’t have time to protest. My arms lock around him. Headlights blind, exhaust burns my throat, and snarls cut through the roar of engines.

White Fang. Again.

The rival pack closes fast, weaving around us, trying to box us in. I see the flash of blades, the glint of guns, and terror spikes.

They are too many. 

Cassian moves like the bike is part of him, swerving, dodging, slamming one rider with a kick so hard the man skids across the road like he suddenly had no bones. 

Another tries to slash him—Cassian ducks, grabs the arm mid swing, and twists until bone cracks over the roar of the engine.

But there are too many.

We’re cut off, surrounded..

But Cassian doesn’t slow, doesn’t yield. His body tightens beneath me, a storm ready to break.

The first bullet moves past my ear, grazing it.

I scream, ducking against his back. The second  moves past us, the third goes in a rival’s tire. Someone’s shooting wild, not caring who drops.

Cassian jerks the bike off road. And the world buckles, and we are flying across the desert

 inside me is pure adrenaline, raw and blinding. Fear, yes but not for me.

But for the man doing everything to make sure we get out of here alive. 

Where were his men when we needed them.

Damn them and this fucking rival club.

Another rival cuts in front of us, forcing Cassian to brake hard. The bike skids, my teeth slam together, and then hands are tearing me off the seat.

I hit the ground hard. Sand fills my mouth, my lungs.

Cassian yells my name but I am in so much pain to register anything but I could see him fighting four men while trying to get to me.

My heart skips a beat.

When I look up, a man is standing over me. His smile is all teeth and disgusting. His hands had claws as he stared at me with something akin to obsession?

“Beauty,” he purrs. “Let’s see what you’re worth.”

He lunges.

I throw my hands up—useless, instinctive. Except the world explodes behind my eyelids.

Not with sound, but light. Raw, searing light that bursts from my chest, my skin, my veins. Everywhere.

 It slams into him and pushes me back with the force of a truck. He flies backward, crashes against the hood of his brother’s bike, and doesn’t get up.

I don’t either.

Even Cassian stops mid-strike. His head snaps toward me.

My own hands shake in front of me. They glow faintly, The air hums around me, like I have torn open something that was always waiting and suddenly I could feel everything. Every heartbeat, every breath, I could feel them deep in my bones. 

“What—” My voice breaks. “What the hell—”

Another rider charges me. Instinct answers before thought. The hum inside me rises, crests, bursts. Power rips through the air, invisible but brutal, slamming him sideways so hard his body hits gravel with a sound that turns my stomach.

The bond roars in my chest. Not just Cassian’s heartbeat now. Mine. Something else. Something I don’t know.

Cassian is there in an instant, pulling me u. His body shakes with with shock. “Nova.” His voice is a rasp. “You—”

No time. The pack regroups, snarling, circling, cutting him mid sentence.

Cassian shifts. The sound of it heavy. One heartbeat he's a man, the next a silver-eyed wolf, massive and furious.

And me—I don’t run. I don’t hide. I stand back and let Cassian do his thing.

He should have shifted sooner. Would have made things easy with that enormous wolf of his.

The fight is chaotic. Cassian tears through them with teeth and fury. 

Teeth biting into many of them.

When none of them are finally not standing, the highway is littered with bodies, bikes and blood on the road. The survivors flee, again.

Cassian shifts back, chest heaving, blood dripping from his mouth. His gold eyes lock on me, wild, stunned.

“You’re not human,” he says.

The words should hurt. Instead, they land like a truth I have been running from my whole life.

“No,” I whisper. My hands still glow faintly. My mark burns. His pulse thrums in my chest as much as mine. “I don’t think I ever was.”

And for the first time, Cassian looks at me differently.