Elara’s POVThree days laterI was in the kitchen, chopping vegetables for Leah, Lucan and my meal for tonight, it was a very normal thing, a small respite after Lucan came back beaten and bruised by Kael’s fists and claws.Then everything tilted.Not physically. Not to anyone else.But to me? The floor slipped from under my soul. The bond seemed to tug violently at my hair and scalp and I dropped the knife, shaken.It wasn’t just sitting there like an itch anymore. It was pressing and burning all at once. I felt the thrum of it, not just like pain, but like a distant knock inside my ribcage. A weight on me that got closer with every breath I took.I went still for a long while. “Shit,” I breathed, soft and sharp.Leah turned from the stove with her brow raised. “What?”I opened my mouth and closed it again. “Nothing. I just felt a bit faint.”But it was not nothing. And I knew I’d just lied. Not to protect Leah, but to protect myself from the avalanche I could already feel gathering
Lucan’s POVIt started with the scent that lingered.Just a whisper — it was barely there. I was sure even Kael himself didn’t know, but his wolf definitely noticed.Every fucking time I returned from the border packs, it clung to me like mist. Not Elara’s scent exactly, not her wolf’s direct signature. It was softer and lighter. Just something connected to her, her environment and her safety.Normal wolves couldn’t sense it, but someone she had bonded with before would.I was certain Kael couldn’t name it. But I saw how his jaw tightened when I walked into a room. How his eyes followed me like I was a threat. He didn’t say a word about it. Not once. Not even on the nights where it felt like he was breaking to pieces trying to search for her. But I could feel his wolf stirring beneath his skin, agitated and rabid, like a savage beast trapped in a cage too small.And the problem was, I didn’t regret helping her. Not for a single second.I’d do it again. I would do it again.Because she
Elara’s POVThe steady thumping of the wood being chopped by Mateo lulled me into a calm state a little bit. It had been seven months since I escaped from the Silver moon pack and the pregnancy was making my wolf act up. I’d been having small seizures and heavy migraines, and the one thing that managed to soothe it a little bit was Mateo’s chopping, so I had decided to commit to sitting around in a hammock or chair whenever he began working.The hammock was far more comfortable.I used my leg to swing the hammock, my belly bulging before me so high that I couldn’t see beyond it to know what was coming my way in my current posture, it was a good thing the pack was safe.Settling in had been increasingly easy,vand I felt like a new person , a completely different person from the woman that had escaped her pack with the hope for a new life. I had a family now, a community of people that didn’t care whether the moon goddess favored me or not, people that didn’t care if I had a mate early
Elara’s POVThe safehouse wasn’t a house.Not really.It was a glorified wooden cube in the woods, halfway leaning against a crooked tree, with vines growing so aggressively around the porch posts it looked like the house was being slowly strangled by nature.It was charming, like it came straight out of a fairy tale.But it had a roof, a lock on the door, and food.So, I fell instantly in love with it.Lucan had helped me limp through the last bit of the journey, grumbling the whole time about how I should’ve stayed lying down and I was “bleeding all over the trail like a breadcrumb path for ” but in the end, he still hauled most of my weight when my leg gave out on the stairs. A tall, dark-skinned woman with braids coiled into a crown on her head poked her head in from what I imagined was the kitchen, holding a spatula and a very unimpressed expression.She pointed the spatula at me. “Don’t let him complain at you anymore. What would you like to eat?”I blinked, I didn’t know there
ElaraMy heart dropped.There were two rogues now. One behind us and one ahead.I was boxed in.The mare jerked anxiously beneath me, sensing the encroaching danger. I tugged on the reins to backtrack — maybe if we turned sharply east, we could break into a free space that could help us run away. Maybe I could still outrun them.But it was too late.The rogue from behind had closed the distance with terrifying speed, a blur of muscle and matted fur. The one ahead emerged fully from the trees, a monstrous figure with wild amber eyes and saliva dripping from its bared fangs. They weren’t just patrolling or passing through. They had hunted me.Someone had sent them.For a single, shattering second, I froze. My hand hovered over my belly, protective instinct flaring in my chest like a flame. The mare neighed, panicking now, twisting under me like she was ready to escape. I forced myself to move and jump down from her.“Go!” I hissed at her, slapping her flank hard.She bolted into the woo
ElaraIt had been three days since I left.I hadn’t slept.Not really.The first night I pressed my back against the cold bark of a tree, hand on my belly, and stared into the dark until my eyes burned. Every sound felt like him. Every rustle of leaves, every crack of the twigs, even the restless shifting of the mare. My brain painted Kael’s silhouette behind it all.I didn’t know what I’d do if he found me. I only knew I couldn’t go back. I refused to subject myself and my child to the treatment I had endured.I’d expected the fear that came with running away. What I hadn’t expected though, was the grief.The ache in my chest when I thought of my child growing up without a father… without him… was worse than the burn in my legs, worse than the rawness of my feet from walking without proper boots, and worse than the pangs of early nausea I tried to ignore.Kael would never know the sound of our child’s laugh. He’d never hold him or teach him to shift or lift him onto his shoulders ju