8: The King’s Shock: The Bleeding Mate in the Mountains

∆JULIAN’S POV∆

My lungs burned with every single breath I took.

Behind us, loud footsteps slammed against the dirt of the mountain trail, snapping branches, and echoing off the trees. Voices screamed at us in the forest as we kept running for our lives, the shouts were getting closer with every agonizing second.

"Get that damn slave!"

"Don't let that little bastard get away!"

I clamped my jaw shut so hard my teeth ached, tasting the blood in my mouth. I dragged my left leg forward, but it wasn't a leg anymore, it was just a useless, painful weight attached to my hip.

Every time my foot scraped against the ground, the shattered bones in my knee ground together, sending a severe pain straight up my spine. My vision blurred around the edges. Cold sweat poured down my neck, mixing with the mud on my face, but I kept pushing.

I couldn't stop. If I stopped, Theo will be killed. I had promised Aiden I would keep his little brother alive, and I wasn't going to break that promise now or ever.

I looked back fast over my shoulder. Through the branches, I saw them. At least ten pack guards, their eyes gleaming with the thrill of the hunt, closing the distance fast. Less than a hundred meters.

My stomach twisted into a hard, cold knot.

How? I had changed our path twice. I had picked the roughest, most overgrown path, avoiding every single trail the guards usually patrolled. Yet they had found us as if we had drawn them a line straight to our backs. I had been an idiot to think my cleverness was enough to outrun a pack of trained hunters.

My shattered knee buckled completely, sending me crashing face-first into the muddy ground.

I gasped for air, pushing myself up with trembling arms, but when I looked down, my heart dropped into my throat. Blood was soaking straight through my torn pants, dripping down my calf and leaving a trail across the dry leaves. Every drop of blood I left behind was another marker leading them straight to us.

There was no time left.

Just beyond the thick brush ahead, the mountain disappeared into a sheer cliff. My stomach dropped.

I turned around on the ground, reaching out to grab Theo by the arms. His small frame was shaking violently, his one good eye wide with terror.

"Listen to me," I said. I kept my voice low, forcing my tone to remain steady so he wouldn't hear how terrified I really was.

"When I tell you to go, you run." I pointed toward a dense, shadowy patch of wild bushes to our right. "There's a drop behind those leaves that winds down the side of the ridge. I'm going to draw them away."

Theo's face crumpled, tears spilling over his cheeks as he shook his head. "No! No, Julian! I'm not leaving you! I'm going with you!"

The words hit me like a punch to the chest. Three years ago, standing in a dark alleyway with blood on the floor, Aiden had screamed those exact same words at me before he ran back into the fight and got killed.

"Listen to me!" I barked, my voice cracking with a sudden, desperate edge.

Theo flinched, freezing instantly, his mouth staying half-open in shock.

I swallowed hard, the harsh tone vanishing as I reached up with a blood-stained thumb to gently wipe a tear off his nose. "You have to survive, Theo. Please. Promise me that no matter what you hear behind you, no matter what happens, you will keep moving forward and never look back."

Before he could process my words, I planted both hands flat against his chest and shoved him with every ounce of strength left in my body.

Theo tumbled backward, disappearing out of sight straight into the bushes just as the guards emerged from the tree behind us.

"There he is!" a guard roared, stepping into the clearing.

I forced a bloody, arrogant grin onto my face, hauled myself up against a rough tree trunk, and yelled at the top of my lungs. "Come and get me, you blind idiots!"

Every single guard locked their eyes directly on me.

I turned, dragging my mangled leg through the dirt, scrambling as fast as I could toward the open air of the cliff edge.

At least Theo was hidden. He would live. That was all that mattered.

Whatever happened to me after that... I had already made peace with it.

∆ALPHA KING ADRIC'S POV∆

The royal carriage swayed gently from side to side, the wheels creaking as we moved up the mountain. I leaned my head back against the seat, staring out the window at the endless wall of green trees, my jaw set in a tight line.

'I still think you should have changed your clothes,' Jax grumbled inside my head. His constant complaining was becoming more irritating than the winding mountain road.

I lowered my gaze to my coat, dark, perfectly tailored, and neatly buttoned to the collar. It was simple, comfortable and carried the authority required of a king without being overly loud.

'What is wrong with what I am wearing?' I asked him internally, keeping my posture rigid.

'It's dull! It's stiff!' Jax snapped back, his wolf spirit pacing restlessly within my chest. 'You look like you're going to a funeral, not a banquet!'

I didn't let my expression move an inch. 'Weren't you the one who argued with me for three straight hours about dressing respectably so I don't embarrass the crown?'

'I changed my mind,' Jax declared, completely unbothered by his own hypocrisy. 'If our mate sees you dressed like a grim old judge, he's going to turn around and run the other way!'

'Good,' I replied coldly, crossing my arms over my chest. 'Then he won't want anything to do with me. It will save us both a great deal of trouble, and I can return to the capital and name that blue-eyed noblewoman as Queen before the month ends.'

You are the most stubborn, frustrating man to ever live—

Jax's voice snapped off.

A sudden tension filled the space inside my skull. I felt Jax's wolf form jerk upright in my mind, his ears pinning back, his head whipping toward the forest outside the window. A low, vibrating growl started deep in his chest, so intense it made my own collarbone hum.

MATE!

Jax screamed the word, his consciousness thrashing wildly against my ribs, throwing his full weight against my mental walls.

My breath caught in my throat. My body went completely still.

Then, the mountain breeze swept straight through the slightly open window of the carriage.

It hit me like a wave.

The air filled with the electric scent of bergamot woven through velvety violet, carrying a faint sweetness of wild berries and a sharp trace of spice beneath it all.

My heart started beating so violently that I struggled to catch my breath.

But before I could even process the overwhelming instinct surging through my body, the warmth in the scent vanished, replaced by something else.

The sickening odor of fresh blood.

Jax's excitement instantly curdled into terrifying panic and rage. His claws dug mentally into my chest, his roar shaking my entire mind.

'He's terrified! He's running for his life! No, he's bleeding! Someone is tearing him apart!'

Every trace of amusement vanished from my face.

The King who had spent thirty years mastering his instincts rose to the surface.

My hands clenched around the edge of the seat, my claws threatening to emerge.

Someone had hurt my mate.... Someone had made my mate bleed.

I didn't know who he was yet. I didn't know his name. But whoever had hurt him had just made themselves my enemy.

Suddenly, a raw, agonizing scream ripped through the trees outside, echoing across the mountains and cutting straight through the carriage.

'QUICK!' Jax roared, his voice cracking with desperation. 'OUR MATE IS BLEEDING! GO SAVE OUR MATE RIGHT NOW, OR I WILL TAKE THIS BODY AND KILL EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM MYSELF!'