2

Blood Bonds and Broken Laws

Rhea's POV

Three days. I'd been running for three days, and they were still coming.

The bike's engine sputtered beneath me, coughing like it was dying. My hands ached from gripping the handlebars so tight, and every muscle in my body screamed for rest. But I couldn't stop. Not when I could still hear the howls in the distance.

They were getting closer.

I twisted the throttle, coaxing more speed from Kael's bike. The highway stretched endlessly ahead, cutting through territory I didn't recognize. I'd crossed at least four pack borders by now, maybe more. Each one had sent fresh waves of nausea through me as my wolf reacted to being so far from home.

Or maybe that was just the pregnancy. My free hand dropped to my stomach for the hundredth time. Still flat. Still hiding the secret that had become both my greatest burden and my only reason to keep going.

A sharp pain lanced through my side, and I gasped. My vision blurred at the edges. When was the last time I'd eaten? Slept? The days had merged into one endless nightmare of riding and hiding and running.

The howls grew louder.

"No, no, no." I pushed the bike harder, but the engine was failing. Black smoke poured from the exhaust now.

Up ahead, I spotted a cluster of buildings. A small town, tucked away from the main roads. Human territory.

I'd never spent much time around humans. Pack law discouraged it. They were weak, fragile things that didn't understand the world they really lived in. But right now, their ignorance might save me.

The bike died completely as I rolled into a gas station parking lot. I barely managed to guide it behind the building before my legs gave out. I collapsed against the wall, my whole body shaking.

My wolf paced frantically inside my head. She wanted to shift, to run on four legs instead of two wheels. But shifting now would be suicide. I was too weak, too unstable. The stress of the past three days had her on edge, flickering between forms without my permission. My hands had sprouted claws twice while riding. My eyes kept flashing gold.

I was losing control.

"Get it together," I whispered to myself. "You have to get it together."

The sound of footsteps made me freeze.

A human woman in a gas station uniform rounded the corner, hauling a bag of trash. She saw me and jumped.

"Oh my God, are you okay?" She dropped the trash bag and hurried over. "You look terrible. Do you need me to call someone?"

I flinched away from her concern. In the pack, showing weakness invited attack. But she just looked worried, no calculation in her eyes. No assessment of my rank or worth.

"I'm fine," I lied.

"You're really not." She crouched down to my level, studying my face. "When's the last time you ate something?"

I couldn't remember. She disappeared back into the gas station and returned with a bottle of water and a sandwich. "Here. On the house. You look like you need it more than my boss needs the three dollars."

I stared at the food, then at her. "Why are you helping me?"

"Because you need help?" She said it like it was obvious. "Look, I don't know what you're running from, but you're not going to make it much further like this. There's a motel two blocks down. Cheap, no questions asked. Get some rest."

She stood and went back to her trash, leaving me with the food and water. I ate mechanically, my mind struggling to process her casual kindness. No dominance games. No power plays. She'd helped me because I needed help, nothing more.

Is this how humans lived? Without the constant weight of hierarchy and submission? My wolf didn't like it. She wanted the familiar structure of pack life, even as she snarled at the memory of Kael's betrayal.

I finished the sandwich and forced myself to stand. The motel the woman mentioned was exactly where she said it would be. I paid cash for a room, keeping my head down and my answers short.

The room was small and dingy, but it had a bed and a lock on the door. I collapsed onto the mattress, fully intending to sleep for five minutes before moving on.

Instead, I woke to darkness and the sound of motorcycles. My eyes snapped open. Through the thin curtains, I saw headlights cutting through the parking lot. Three bikes, circling like sharks.

Ironclaw trackers. I was moving before I fully processed the thought, grabbing my jacket and Kael's bike keys. But when I peeked outside, they were already dismounting, spreading out to check the rooms.

One of them was Marcus, Kael's beta. I'd known him for years. He'd been at my mating ceremony, and had called me Luna with respect in his voice.

Now he was hunting me. I heard him talking to someone, his voice carrying in the quiet night. "The Alpha wants her found. Declared her a traitor for stealing pack property."

"Not a rejected mate?" another voice asked.

"He can't admit he rejected her. Makes him look weak. So she's a thief and a traitor instead." Marcus sounded almost apologetic. "Makes her fair game for any pack that finds her."

My blood ran cold. Kael had made me legally huntable. Any wolf could claim me, hurt me, return me for favor with Ironclaw.

I was prey now.

A flutter in my stomach made me gasp. Not pain this time. Something else. Something that felt almost like movement.

The baby.

My hand pressed against my abdomen, and suddenly everything crystallized. This wasn't about me and Kael anymore. This wasn't about a broken mate bond or stolen bikes or wounded pride.

This was about survival. My survival. My baby's survival.

And I would burn the whole world down before I let them take that from me.

I slipped out the back window as the trackers kicked in the front door. The bike roared to life, and I was gone before they could react, leaving them shouting and scrambling behind me.

But the chase had taken everything I had left. Two hours later, the bike finally died for good on the outskirts of an industrial area. I abandoned it and stumbled forward on foot, my vision swimming.

An abandoned warehouse loomed ahead. I made it inside before my legs gave out completely. The concrete floor was cold against my cheek. My wolf whimpered, exhausted and defeated.

This was it. This was where they'd find me.

Footsteps echoed through the warehouse. Slow. Deliberate. Not the hurried sounds of pack trackers.

I tried to push myself up, but my arms wouldn't cooperate. A figure emerged from the shadows. Tall, broad-shouldered, dressed in riding leathers. Not Ironclaw. The scent was all wrong.

He stopped a few feet away, studying me with eyes that gleamed amber in the darkness.

"You don't belong to wolves anymore," he said, his voice rough and low.

I waited for the killing blow. For him to drag me back to Kael.

Instead, he extended his hand.

"But I can hide you."